2012 in Australian literature

Events

• Clive James is made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for "services to literature and the media" in the Queen Elizabeth II's New Year Honours List.
• Five literary figures are named in the Australia Day Honours: Paul Brunton, Stuart Macintyre, Roy Masters, Ros Pesman and Carol Woodrow.
• Peter Carey is the recipient of the Bodleian Libraries' 2012 Bodley Medal. The medal is awarded by the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford "to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the worlds in which the Bodleian is active: literature, culture, science, and communication".
• Incoming Premier Campbell Newman cancels the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards.
• In response, a week later, the new Queensland Literary Awards are announced. The awards use a crowd-funding campaign to raise the prize-money for their initial set of awards.
• Sophie Cunningham is appointed as the new head of the Australian Literature Board.
• In the Queen's Birthday Honours, Peter Carey, Barbara Blackman, Rolf Harris, and Liz Jones were appointed Officers of the Order of Australia, Grahame Bond and Peter Steele were appointed Members of the Order of Australia, and Peter Singer was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia.
• Text Publishing launches its Text Classics line, reprinting Australian literary classics.
• Melbourne City Council unveils "Literature Lane", a small laneway off Little LaTrobe Street near the State Library of Victoria, in recognition of Melbourne's status as a UNESCO City of Literature.
• The Grace Leven Prize for Poetry was discontinued.

Major publications

Literary fiction

• Romy Ash – Floundering
• Murray Bail – The Voyage
• Peter Carey – The Chemistry of Tears
• Brian Castro – Street to Street
• Courtney Collins – The Burial
• Michelle de Kretser – Questions of Travel
• Annah Faulkner – The Beloved
• Susan Johnson – My Hundred Lovers
• Toni Jordan – Nine Days
• Tom Keneally – The Daughters of Mars
• Christopher Koch – Lost Voices
• Drusilla Modjeska – The Mountain
• Stephanie Radok – An Opening: twelve love stories about art
• Graeme Simsion – The Rosie Project
• M. L. Stedman – The Light Between Oceans
• Carrie Tiffany – Mateship with Birds
• Patrick White – The Hanging Garden
• Sue Woolfe – ''The Oldest Song in the World''

Children's and Young Adult fiction

• Michael Gerard Bauer – Epic Fail
• Mem Fox
• * Good Night, Sleep Tight
• * Tell Me About Your Day Today
• * Two Little Monkeys
• Jackie French – Pennies for Hitler
• Morris Gleitzman – After
• Sonya Hartnett – Children of the King
• Steven Herrick – Pookie Aleera Is Not My Boyfriend
• Doug MacLeod – The Shiny Guys
• Emily Rodda – The Silver Door
• Carole Wilkinson – ''Blood Brothers''

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• John Birmingham – Stalin's Hammer: Rome
• Trudi Canavan – The Traitor Queen
• Greg Egan – The Eternal Flame
• Will Elliott – Nightfall
• Jennifer Fallon – The Dark Divide
• Ian Irvine – Rebellion
• Margo Lanagan – Sea Hearts
• Jaclyn Moriarty – A Corner of White
• Garth Nix – ''A Confusion of Princes''

Crime and Mystery

• Jessie Cole – Darkness on the Edge of Town
• Peter Corris – Comeback
• Kathryn Fox – Cold Grave
• Kerry Greenwood – Unnatural Habits
• Katherine Howell – Silent Fear
• L. A. Larkin – Thirst
• Gabrielle Lord – Death by Beauty
• Zane Lovitt – The Midnight Promise
• Colleen McCullough – The Prodigal Son
• Geoffrey McGeachin – Blackwattle Creek
• Adrian McKinty – The Cold, Cold Ground
• Tara Moss – Assassin
• Malla Nunn – Silent Valley
• Michael Robotham – ''Say You're Sorry''

Poetry

• Rosemary Dobson – Collected
• Brook Emery — Collusion
• Kate Fagan – First Light
• Robert Gray – Cumulus: Collected Poems
• John Kinsella – Jam Tree Gully: Poems
• Kate Lilley – Ladylike
• Rhyll McMaster – Late Night Shopping
• Jennifer Maiden – Liquid Nitrogen
• Les Murray ed. – The Quadrant Book of Poetry 2001–2010
• John Shaw Neilson – Collected Verse of John Shaw Neilson
• Peter Rose – Crimson Crop
• Randolph Stow – The Land's Meaning: New Selected Poems
• John Tranter ed. – ''The Best Australian Poems 2012''

Biography

• John Bailey – Into the Unknown: The Tormented Life and Expeditions of Ludwig Leichhardt
• Daryl Dellora – Michael Kirby: Law, Love and Life
• Gideon Haigh – On Warne
• Jenny Hocking – Gough Whitlam: His Time: Volume 2
• J. C. Kannemeyer – J. M. Coetzee: A Life in Writing
• Malcolm Knox – Bradman's War: How the 1948 Invincibles Turned the Cricket Pitch into a Battlefield
• Mungo MacCallum – The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers
• David McKnight – Rupert Murdoch: An Investigation of Political Power
• Brenda Niall – ''True North: The Story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack''

Non-fiction

• Kerry Greenwood – ''Tamam Shud: The Somerton Man Mystery''

Drama

• Ian Meadows – Between Two Waves
• Tee O'Neill – ''Barassi''

Awards and honours

Literary

Deaths

• 14 April – Bruce Bennett, literary academic
• 18 June – Don Charlwood, writer
• 24 June – Ralph Elliott, critic and academic
• 27 June –
• * Rosemary Dobson, poet
• * Peter Steele, poet
• 6 August – Robert Hughes, writer and critic
• 20 September – Robert G. Barrett, novelist
• 14 October – Max Fatchen, writer for children
• 22 November – Bryce Courtenay, novelist