2016 in Australian literature

Events

• The Mona Brand Award is awarded for the first time.

Major publications

Literary fiction

• Melissa Ashley – The Birdman's Wife
• Georgia Blain – Between a Wolf and a Dog
• Don Dennis – The Guns of Muschu
• Hannah Kent – The Good People
• Jennifer Maiden – Play with Knives
• Liane Moriarty – Truly Madly Guilty
• Ryan O'Neill – Their Brilliant Careers
• Heather Rose – The Museum of Modern Love
• Philip Salom – Waiting
• Graeme Simsion – The Best of Adam Sharp
• Dominic Smith – The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
• Josephine Wilson – ''Extinctions''

Children's and young adult fiction

• Trace Balla – Rockhopping
• Maxine Beneba Clarke – The Patchwork Bike
• Georgia Blain – Special
• John Flanagan – The Battle of Hackham Heath
• Andy Griffiths
• * The Tree House Fun Book
• * The 78-Storey Treehouse
• Zana Fraillon – The Bone Sparrow
• Tania McCartney – Smile/Cry: A Beginner's Book of Feelings
• Shivaun Plozza – Frankie
• Richard Roxburgh – Artie and the Grime Wave
• Claire Zorn – ''One Would Think the Deep''

Crime and mystery

• Peter Corris – That Empty Feeling
• Candice Fox and James Patterson – Never Never
• Jane Harper – The Dry
• Emily Maguire – An Isolated Incident
• Barry Maitland – Slaughter Park
• Adrian McKinty – Rain Dogs
• Matthew Reilly – The Four Legendary Kingdoms
• Jock Serong – The Rules of Backyard Cricket
• David Whish-Wilson – Old Scores
• Laura Elizabeth Woollett – ''The Love of a Bad Man''

Science fiction and fantasy

• Alison Croggon – The Bone Queen
• Jay Kristoff – Nevernight
• Juliet Marillier – Den of Wolves
• Anthony O'Neill – The Dark Side
• C. S. Pacat – Kings Rising
• Lian Hearn – Emperor of the Eight Islands
• Angela Slatter – ''Vigil''

Poetry

• Peter Boyle – Ghostspeaking
• Maxine Beneba Clarke – Carrying the World
• Brook Emery — Have Been and Are
• John Kinsella – Drowning in Wheat
• Berndt Sellheim – Awake at the Wheel
• Susan Varga – ''Rupture: Poems 2012–2015''

Drama

• Leah Purcell – The Drover's Wife
• David Morton – ''The Wider Earth''

Biographies

• Deng Thiak Adut with Ben McKelvey – Songs of a War Boy: My Story
• Julia Baird – Victoria: The Queen
• Jimmy Barnes – Working Class Boy
• Mark Colvin – Light and Shadow: Memoirs of a Spy's Son
• Suzanne Falkiner – Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow
• Stan Grant – Talking to My Country
• Cory Taylor – ''Dying: A Memoir''

Non-fiction

• Richard Fidler – Ghost Empire
• Peter FitzSimons – Victory at Villers-Bretonneux: Why a French town will never forget the Anzacs
• Clementine Ford – Fight Like A Girl
• Helen Garner – Everywhere I Look
• David Hunt – True Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia Volume 2
• Lynne Kelly – The Memory Code
• Tara Moss – ''Speaking Out: A 21st Century Handbook For Women and Girls''

Awards and honours

Lifetime achievement

Literary

Fiction

National

Children and young adult

National

Crime and mystery

National

Science fiction

Poetry

Drama

Non-fiction

Deaths

• 31 January – David Lake, science fiction novelist
• 3 February – Dimitris Tsaloumas, poet
• 6 February – John Patterson, screenwriter, lyricist, playwright and children's author
• 19 February – Kim Gamble, illustrator of children's books
• 3 April – Bob Ellis, writer, journalist, filmmaker, and political commentator
• 20 April – Dame Leonie Judith Kramer, author, editor and academic
• 16 May – Gillian Mears, short story writer and novelist
• 5 July – Cory Taylor, writer
• 15 July – Billy Marshall Stoneking, poet, playwright, filmmaker and teacher
• 4 September – Richard Neville, writer and social commentator
• 8 September – Inga Clendinnen, author and historian
• 3 October – Narelle Oliver, award-winning children's author-illustrator, artist and print maker
• 19 November – Margaret Paice, children's writer and illustrator
• 9 December – Georgia Blain, novelist, journalist and biographer
• 12 December –
• * Anne Deveson, writer, broadcaster, filmmaker and social commentator
• * Shirley Hazzard, novelist, short story writer, and essayist