ALS Gold Medal
The ALS Gold Medal is awarded annually for an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year. The Medal was inaugurated by the Australian Literature Society, which was founded in Melbourne in 1899 and incorporated into the Association for the Study of Australian Literature in 1982. The winner receives a gold medal. No nominations are required, though ASAL members are invited to propose potential winners to the judging panel.
2021 Judging Panel Chair:
Brigid Magner (RMIT, Chair): brigid.magner@rmit.
Closing date for submissions: 28 February 2021
ALS Gold Medal Shortlist 2021
Robbie Arnott, The Rain Heron (Text Publishing)
Luke Best, Cadaver Dog (University of Queensland Press)
Laura Jean MacKay, The Animals in That Country (Scribe Publications)
Ronnie scott, The Adversary (Penguin Books)
Nardi Simpson, Song of the Crocodile (Hachette Australia)
Ellen Van Neerven, Throat (University of Queensland Press)
ALS Gold Medal Longlist 2021
The judges for the 2021 ALS Gold Medal, Brigid Magner, Clare Archer-Lean and Jessica White, read 80 titles from 2020 and were astounded by the fecundity and innovation they demonstrated. While the pandemic has been devastating, these works show that it has also been energising for the writing and reading of Australian literature. Reflecting the open-ness of the ALS Gold medal, the longlist includes works of poetry, crime, speculative and young adult fiction by authors ranging from early career to established. Congratulations
Amanda Lohrey, The Labyrinth
Robbie Arnott, The Rain Heron
Laura Jean McKay, The Animals in that Country
Cath Moore, Metal Fish, Falling Snow
Philip Salom, The Fifth Season
S.L. Lim, Revenge: Murder in Three Parts
Ali Whitelock, The Lactic Acid in the Calves of Your Despair
Ronnie Scott, The Adversary
Nardi Simpson, The Song of the Crocodile
Ellen van Neerven, Throat
Luke Best, Cadaver Dog
Andrew Pippos, Lucky’s
ALS Gold Medal Shortlist 2020
- Jordie Albiston, Element (Puncher and Wattman)
- Charmaine Papertalk Green, Nganajungu Yagu (Cordite)
- Favel Parrett, There was still love (Hachette)
- Carrie Tiffany, Exploded View (text)
- Charlotte Wood, The Weekend (Allen & Unwin)
ALS Gold Medal Longlist 2020
- Jordie Albiston, Element (Puncher and Wattman)
- Natalie Harkin, Archival Poetics (Vagabond)
- Yumna Kassab, The House of Youssef (Giramondo)
- Andrew McGahan, The Rich Man’s House (Allen & Unwin)
- Meg Mundell, The Trespassers (UQ Press)
- Charmaine Papertalk Green, Nganajungu Yagu (Cordite)
- Favel Parrett, There was still love (Hachette)
- Marcella Polain, Driving into the Sun (Fremantle)
- Carrie Tiffany, Exploded View (text)
- Christos Tsiolkas, Damascus (Allen & Unwin)
- Tara June Winch, The Yield (Hamish Hamilton)
- Charlotte Wood, The Weekend (Allen & Unwin)
ALS Gold Medal Winner 2019
ALS Gold Medal Shortlist 2019
- Aqua Spinach, Luke Beesley (Giramondo)
- click here for what we do, Pam Brown (Vagabond)
- False Claims of Colonial Thieves, John Kinsella and Charmaine Papertalk-Green
- The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones (Text)
- Pink Mountain on Locust Island by Jamie Marina Lau (Brow)
- Beautiful Revolutionary, Laura Elizabeth Woollett (Scribe)
ALS Gold Medal Longlist 2019
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- Aqua Spinach, Luke Beesley (Giramondo)
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- Beautiful Revolutionary, Laura Elizabeth Woollett (Scribe)
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- Blakwork, Alison Whittaker (Magabala)
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- click here for what we do, Pam Brown (Vagabond)
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- False Claims of Colonial Thieves, Charmaine Papertalk-Green and John Kinsella (Magabala)
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- Flames, Robbie Arnott (Text)
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- Newcastle Sonnets, Keri Glastonbury (Giramondo)
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- Pink Mountain on Locust Island, Jamie Marina Lau (Brow)
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- The Children’s House, Alice Nelson (Vintage)
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- The Death of Noah Glass, Gail Jones (Text)
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- The Everlasting Sunday, Robert Lukins (UQP)
- Zanzibar Light, Philip Mead (Vagabond)
ALS Gold Medal Judging panel for 2019:
More Information:
Previous Winners
2018, Shastra Deo, The Agonist (UQP)
2017, Zoe Morrison, Music and Freedom
2016, Brenda Niall, Mannix
2015, Jennifer Maiden, Drones and Phantoms (Giramondo)
2014 Alexis Wright, The Swan Book (Giramondo)
2013 Michelle De Kretser, Questions of Travel (Allen &Unwin).
2012 Gillian Mears, Foal’s Bread (Allen & Unwin)
2011 Kim Scott, That Deadman Dance (Pan Macmillan)
2010 David Malouf, Ransom (Knopf)
2009Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap (Allen & Unwin)
2008 Michelle de Kretser, The Lost Dog (Allen & Unwin)
2007 Alexis Wright, Carpentaria (Giramondo )
2006 Gregory Day, The Patron Saint of Eels (Picador)
2005 Gail Jones, Sixty Lights (Harvill Press)
2004 Laurie Duggan, Mangroves (UQP)
2003 Kate Jennings, Moral Hazard
2002 Richard Flanagan, Gould’s Book of Fish
2001 Rodney Hall, The Day We Had Hitler Home
2000 Drusilla Modjeska, Stravinsky’s Lunch
1999 Murray Bail, Eucalyptus
1998 James Cowan, A Mapmaker’s Dream
1997 Robert Dessaix, Night Letters
1996 Amanda Lohrey, Camille’s Bread
1995 Helen Demidenko, The Hand That Signed The Paper
1994 Louis Nowra, Radiance and The Temple
1993 Elizabeth Riddell, Selected Poems
1992 Rodney Hall, The Second Bridegroom
1991 Elizabeth Jolley, Cabin Fever
1990 Peter Porter, Possible Worlds
1989 Frank Moorhouse, Forty-seventeen
1988 Brian Matthews, Louisa
1987 Alan Wearne, The Nightmarkets
1986 Thea Astley, Beachmasters
1985 David Ireland, Archimedes and the Seagle
1984 Les Murray, The People’s Other World
1983 David Malouf, Child’s Play; Fly Away Peter
1975-82 No Award (ASAL takes over award in 1983)
1974 David Malouf, Neighbours in a Thicket
1973 Francis Webb
1972 Alexander Buzo
1971 Colin Badger
1970 Manning Clark
1966 A.D. Hope
1965 Patrick White, The Burnt Ones
1964 Geoffrey Blainey, The Rush That Never Ended
1963 John Morrison, Twenty-three stories
1962 Vincent Buckley, Masters in Israel
1960 William Hart Smith, Poems of discovery
1959 Randolph Stow, To the Islands
1957 Martin Boyd, A Difficult Young Man
1955 Patrick White, The Tree of Man
1954 Mary Gilmore, Fourteen Men
1952 Tom Hungerford
1950 Jon Cleary, Just Let Me Be
1948 Herz Bergner, Between Sky and Sea
1942 Kylie Tennant, The Battlers
1941 Patrick White, Happy Valley
1940 William Baylebridge, This Vital Flesh
1939 Xavier Herbert, Capricornia
1938 R.D. FitzGerald, Moonlight Acre
1937 Kenneth ‘Seaforth’ Mackenzie, The Young Desire It
1936 Eleanor Dark, Return to Coolami
1935 Winifred Birkett, Earth’s Quality
1934 Eleanor Dark, Prelude to Christopher
1933 G.B. Lancaster (Edith J. Lyttleton) , Pageant
1932 Leonard Mann, Flesh in Armour
1931 Frank Dalby Davison, Manshy
1930 Vance Palmer, The Passage
1929 Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule
1928 Martin Mills (Martin Boyd) , The Montforts
Donors
We are grateful to the following ALS Gold Medal Donors: Bill Ashcroft, Bernadette Brennan, Judith Brett, Philip Butterss, Julian Croft, Tony Hughes-D’aeth, Kieran Dolin, Paul Eggert, Frances de Groen, Margaret Harris, Nick Hasluck, Harry Heseltine, Helen Hewson, Ivor Indyk, Lynn Jacobs, Gail Jones, Veronica Kelly, Alan Lawson, Susan Lever, Elaine Lindsay, Philip Mead, Barbara Milech, Nicole Moore, Elizabeth Morrison, Heather Neilson, Jill Roe, Brigid Rooney, Paul Sharrad, Susan Sheridan, Tony Simoes da Silva, Yvonne Smith, Andrew Taylor, Helen Tiffin, Shirley Walker, Elizabeth Webby, Jim Wieland, Gerry Wilkes, John McLaren.
