It is with much sadness that ASAL acknowledges the passing of one of Australia’s major writers, David Malouf. Among his many international awards and accolades, David Malouf was the three-time recipient of the ALS Gold Medal – in 2010 for his last novel, Ransom; in 1983...
Elizabeth Morrison, a member of ASAL and great contributor to Australian cultural history, died in her sleep early on Sunday morning, 1 March. Liz became an expert on the journals and newspapers of nineteenth-century Australia, working on new editions of lost novels and writing biographies...
Australian Literature has lost one of its finest and most innovative critics and theorists. In the 1980s and -90s Sneja Gunew’s name became synonymous with the emerging field of migrant, later multicultural writing, and her pioneering work in the promotion, documentation, and analysis of texts...
Vale Alf Taylor It is with great sadness that we inform members of ASAL of the passing of Nyoongah poet and author Alfred (Alf) Taylor. Alf was born in Perth in 1947 and as a young child was taken into New Norcia Mission, 130 kilometres north of...
Vale Elizabeth Webby It is with enormous sadness that ASAL mourns the death of Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Webby, AM. Elizabeth did more to build the discipline of Australian literature than anyone else in the field. As a scholar, mentor, teacher, and advocate she was extraordinary, and...
John Barnes was an enthusiastic and beloved teacher and researcher in Australian Literature. John spent much of his career at La Trobe University in Melbourne, but he also taught at Melbourne University, and the University of Western Australia, where he was an editor of Westerly in the...
Elizabeth McMahonThis is an excerpt from a tribute written for Antigone Kefala on the occasion of the Patrick White Award for her contribution to Australian Literature. The award was made just two week before her death on December 3 2022.The Patrick White Award is given each year...
ASAL notes the passing of scholar and teacher of Australian literature, and President of ASAL from 1987-1988, Brian Matthews. Born in St Kilda in 1936, Matthews went on to teach at Flinders University, University of Exeter, the University of Oregon and several European universities. He...
ASAL mourns the death of writer Frank Moorhouse. Born in Nowra in NSW, Moorhouse went on to a career as a journalist before making a name as a writer. In the 1970s he became known as one of Australia’s foremost experimentalists in fiction, working with...
ASAL mourns the death of Melbourne poet Jordie Albiston. Albiston studied flute at the Victorian College of the Arts before completing a Doctorate in English at La Trobe University. Her first collection, Nervous Arcs (1995), won ASAL’s Mary Gilmore Award for a first collection, was runner-up for...
