Books are a large part of my life. I've got them lining the walls, piled up next to the bed, on tables, chairs and on just about every flat surface, and I still don't know what to say to the people who come to my house and ask, "so, have you read them all?"

If you're an author from the USA (or possibly the UK) writing sf, horror or fantasy then you are well-covered on the Web. If you are Australian and writing what might loosely be termed serious modern fiction then you might as well not exist. Hence, the listing of various authors below. It'll take a while for this list to come together properly so bear with me. But check it out from time to time to see if anything new has cropped up.

As an added note, the names of authors listed here but which do not host a link to other pages are listed with the intention of setting up individual pages for them at some time in the future. I just don't know when.

Australian history is almost always picturesque; indeed, it is also so curious and strange, that it is itself the chiefest novelty the country has to offer and so it pushes the other novelties into second and third place. It does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies; and all of a fresh new sort, no mouldy old stale ones. It is full of surprises and adventures, the incongruities, and contradictions, and incredibilities; but they are all true, they all happened.
Mark Twain, More Tramps Abroad, London, 1897

The following Australian authors have pages dedicated to them, it's just that I don't maintain them:

Goldie Alexander
Peter Corris
Sara Douglass
Hazel Edwards
Greg Egan
Mem Fox
Jackie French
Morris Gleitzman
Simon Haynes
Wendy James
Paul Jennings
Susan Johnson
Nicholas Jose
Sylvia Kelso
Shane Maloney
Peter Nicholson
Emily Rodda
Michael Robotham
David Rowbotham
Anne Summers
Lucy Sussex
Charlotte Wood

While I am not overly keen on the competitive nature of literary prizes, they do provide readers with a reasonable introduction to the literature of the period they aim to represent. I do not imply, by any means, that the winners of the following awards were the "best" of their year in all cases, it's just that I found some wonderful books in these lists that I may never have bothered to read if it hadn't been for the publicity they received in either winning or being shortlisted. And if the awards do nothing else, then they've given me some genuine reading pleasure.

The Booker Prize (or "Man Booker Prize" as it is now more properly known) is one of the the most prestigious literary prizes in the English-speaking world. Entrants for the award must be citizens of the British Commonwealth, Eire, Pakistan or South Africa. The award was first presented in 1969 and is made annually in late October.

I've recently carried out a full revamp of the Booker prize pages which pretty much finishes off all the work I need to do there - just a few missing books to find and include.

• The Booker Prize

On an Australian front the winners of the Miles Franklin award provide quite a good introduction to Australian literature (in the form of novels) over the past 40 years or so, and the Australian/Vogel Award offers glimpses at possible literary futures.

• The Miles Franklin Award
• The Australian/Vogel Award

Another prize that features Australian writers on a regular basis is the Commonwealth Writers Prize. This gives awards to the best novels written in English from various parts of the British Commonwealth. Books are chosen from the following four regions: Africa, The Carribean and Canada, Eurasia, South East Asia and South Pacific. Prizes are awarded for Best Novel and Best First Novel in each of the regions and then an overall winner in each category is chosen from the regional winners. The Prize has been awarded since 1987.

Of course the biggie is the Nobel Prize, and if you're looking for a full listing of the winners point your browser at the Nobel e-Museum page. To date Patrick White (in 1973) is the only Australian to be awarded the prize. Speculation on who might be the second centres mainly on Peter Carey, David Malouf and Les Murray. An article in a recent Melbourne newspaper thought that a thirty year period between Australian prizes seemed appropriate.

The US science fiction fan Laurie Mann maintains the AwardWeb page which now covers all the major Science Fiction, Crime, Children's and Literary awards from around the world.

Over on my literary weblog, Matilda, I publish a poem each Saturday on the themes of books, writing, publishing and book-shops. Here are the first ten of them:

The Poet's Pay by Edward Dyson
Redivivus by C.J Dennis
Omarism by Victor Daley
Those Standard Authors by Edward Dyson
'The Bulletin' Stairs by E.J. Brady
Poets by C.J Dennis
Copy Paper by Edward Dyson
My Typewriter by Edward Dyson
The Censor by C.J Dennis
The Editor's Regrets by Norman Campbell

You can now find a selection of Edward Dyson's poems under the poetry section of the Edward Dyson page. Similarly for
Barcroft Boake,
Christopher Brennan,
Victor Daley,
W.T. Goodge,
Charles Harpur,
Adam Lindsay Gordon,
Henry Kendall,
Harry "Breaker" Morant,
John Shaw Neilson,
John O'Brien,
A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson.

Previous Poems:

Botany Bay by Anonymous
The Road to Gundagai by Anonymous
The Wild Colonial Boy by Anonymous
The Last To Leave by Leon Gellert
The Days When We Went Swimming by Henry Lawson
The Grog-an'-Grumble Steeplechase by Henry Lawson
Middleton's Rouseabout by Henry Lawson
Song of the Old Bullock Driver by Henry Lawson
The Song of Old Joe Swallow by Henry Lawson
The Teams by Henry Lawson
The Trenches by Frederic Manning
The Farmer Remembers the Somme by Vance Palmer
How M'Dougal Topped the Score by Thomas E Spencer

There are a number of Australian books (or books about Australia) that I think require attention but which, for various reasons, don't fit into any of the previously defined categories. So this section is a general grab-bag of those items. They will be a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, and generally by Australian authors (but maybe not). I'd suggest you expect just about anything I think appropriate.

Fiction (Novels):

This section is starting to get a little unwieldy so I need to make a few changes in the months ahead. The first of these will be a re-design of the Miles Franklin Award pages which will remove a lot of the novels from the list below. Details of them will still be available, just in a different location. Until that occurs, however, the list will tend to grow a little longer. Bear with me.

Fiction (Anthologies):

Contemporary Classics 65-95 edited by Don Anderson
Dreaming Down-Under edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb

Drama:

Life after George by Hannie Rayson

Art:

A Small Unsigned Painting by Stephen Scheding

Food:

Stephanie's Journal by Stephanie Alexander
Spice Notes by Ian Hemphill

Histories:

The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes

Poetry:

The Complete Book of Australian Verse by John Clarke
The Penguin Book of Australian Verse edited by Harry Heseltine
All the Room by David Rowbotham

Political Biographies and Commentaries:

As It Happened by John Button
John Curtin: A Life by David Day
The Hawke Memoirs by Bob Hawke
The Hawke Ascendancy by Paul Kelly
Stirring the Possum by James McClelland
The Whitlam Government 1972-1975 by Gough Whitlam

Science:

The Spike by Damien Broderick

Social Commentaries:

A Secret Country by John Pilger

Travel:

The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin

This page, and all contents, are copyright © 1995-2008 by emailing me: perry at middlemiss.org, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The referback image at the bottom of the page is copyright © 1986 by Craig Hilton.

Last modified: March 27, 2008.