1981 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1981.

Events

 * Peter Carey won the 1981 Miles Franklin Award for Bliss

Literary novels

 * Peter Carey — Bliss
 * Blanche d'Alpuget — Turtle Beach
 * David Foster — Moonlite
 * Miles Franklin — On Dearborn Street
 * David Ireland — City of Women
 * Elizabeth Jolley — The Newspaper of Claremont Street
 * Colleen McCullough — An Indecent Obsession
 * Morris West — The Clowns of God

Crime and mystery

 * Marshall Browne — Dragon Strike
 * Peter Corris — White Meat

Science fiction and fantasy

 * John Brosnan — Skyship
 * David Lake — The Man Who Loved Morlocks
 * Keith Taylor — Bard
 * George Turner — Vaneglory

Children's and young adult fiction

 * Jan Ormerod — Sunshine
 * Ruth Park — The Muddle-Headed Wombat is Very Bad
 * Eleanor Spence – The Seventh Pebble
 * Colin Thiele — The Valley Between

Poetry

 * Alan Gould — Astral Sea
 * Gwen Harwood — The Lion's Bride
 * Geoffrey Lehmann — Nero's Poems: Translations of the Public and Private Poems of the Emperor Nero

Drama

 * Louis Nowra
 * Inside The Island
 * The Precious Woman

Non-fiction

 * Albert Facey — A Fortunate Life
 * Henry Reynolds — The Other Side of the Frontier
 * Eric Charles Rolls — A Million Wild Acres
 * Gavin Souter — A Company of Heralds
 * Patrick White — Flaws in the Glass

Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)

 * A. D. Hope

Member of the Order of Australia (AM)

 * Dymphna Cusack
 * Beatrice Deloitte Davis
 * David Ireland
 * Jack Lindsay
 * Alan Marshall
 * Stephen Murray-Smith
 * Leslie Rees
 * Ivan Southall
 * Joan Woodberry

Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)

 * Walter W. Stone

Births
A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1981 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.


 * 7 April — Lili Wilkinson, author of young adult fiction

Unknown date
 * Alice Pung, novelist and memoir writer, editor and lawyer

Deaths
A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1981 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
 * 14 January — John O'Grady, writer, best known as Nino Culotta, author of They're a Weird Mob (born 1907)
 * 29 March — Clive Sansom, poet and playwright (born 1910)
 * 19 April — Louis Kaye, novelist and short story writer (born 1901)
 * 29 April — Leonard Mann, poet and novelist (born 1895)
 * 29 August — Wal Stone, book publisher, collector and supporter of Australian literature (born 1910)
 * 19 October — Dymphna Cusack, novelist and playwright (born 1902)

Unknown date
 * Edith Mary England, novelist and poet (born 1899)
 * Ada Verdun Howell, author and poet (born 1902)