1995 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1995.

Events

 * Helen Demidenko won the Miles Franklin Award for The Hand That Signed the Paper

Novels

 * Carmel Bird – The White Garden
 * Marshall Browne – The Gilded Cage
 * Bryce Courtenay — The Potato Factory
 * Beverley Farmer — The House in the Light
 * Judith Fox – Bracelet Honeymyrtle
 * Paul Horsfall – The Touchstone
 * Rod Jones — Billy Sunday
 * Christopher Koch — Highways to a War
 * Amanda Lohrey – Camille's Bread
 * Alex Miller — The Sitters
 * Mandy Sayer — The Cross
 * Kathleen Stewart — Spilt Milk

Crime and mystery

 * Jon Cleary – Winter Chill
 * John Dale — Dark Angel
 * Garry Disher – Port Vila Blues
 * Kerry Greenwood – Ruddy Gore
 * Gabrielle Lord – Bones
 * Barry Maitland — The Malcontenta

Science fiction and fantasy

 * David Brooks (author) — The House of Balthus
 * Jack Dann — The Memory Cathedral: A Secret History of Leonardo da Vinci
 * Sara Douglass — Battleaxe
 * Greg Egan
 * Distress
 * "Luminous"
 * "TAP"
 * "Wang's Carpets"
 * Paul Kidd — Mus of Kerbridge
 * Garth Nix — Sabriel
 * Gillian Rubinstein — Galax-Arena
 * Tony Shillitoe — The Last Wizard

Children's and young adult fiction

 * Isobelle Carmody — Ashling
 * Brian Caswell — Deucalion
 * Mem Fox — Wombat Divine
 * Sonya Hartnett — Sleeping Dogs
 * Catherine Jinks — Witch Bank
 * John Marsden — The Third Day, The Frost
 * Garth Nix — Sabriel

Poetry

 * Jordie Albiston — Nervous Arcs
 * Peter Bakowski — In The Human Night
 * Dorothy Hewett — Collected Poems 1940–1995
 * Philip Hodgins — Things Happen

Drama

 * Manny Aston — Fossils
 * Joanna Murray-Smith — Honour
 * Louis Nowra
 * The Incorruptible
 * Miss Bosnia
 * David Williamson — Dead White Males

Non-fiction

 * Timothy Conigrave — Holding the Man
 * Garfield Barwick — A Radical Tory: Garfield Barwick's Reflections and Recollections
 * Helen Garner — The First Stone

Awards and honours

 * Christopher Koch "for service to Australian literature as a novelist"
 * Alexander Stewart Cockburn "for service to journalism and literature"
 * Bryce Courtenay "for service to advertising and marketing to the community and as an author"
 * Mollie Gillen "for service to genealogy and to Australian historical research"
 * Paul Jennings "for service to children's literature"
 * Frances Margaret McGuire "for service to the community and to literature, particularly through the State Library of South Australia"
 * Walter Richard McVitty "for service to the arts, particularly as educator and publisher of children's literature"
 * Maurice Saxby "for service to children's literature"
 * Gavin Souter "for service to Australian historical literature"
 * Donald Wall "for service to the recorded history of World war II, particularly the history of the 8th Division and the fate of prisoners of war at Sandakan, Northern Borneo"
 * Madeleine Ruby Irene Brunato-Arthur "for service to Australian writers, particularly through the Fellowship of Australian Writers in South Australia"

Deaths
A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1995 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.


 * 13 January — Max Harris (poet), poet, critic, columnist, commentator, publisher and bookseller (born 1921)
 * 25 January — Margaret Senior, wildlife and children's illustrator and writer (born 1917 in London)
 * 20 March — Russell Braddon, writer of novels, biographies and TV scripts (born 1921)
 * 12 May — John Blight, poet (born 1913)
 * 26 June — John Jefferson Bray, lawyer, judge, academic, university administrator, Crown officer and published poet, (born 1912)
 * 17 July — Robert Close, novelist (died in Majorca, Spain)(born 1903)
 * 7 August — Harold Stewart, poet and oriental scholar (died in Kyoto, Japan)(born 1916)
 * 14 August — Frances Margaret McGuire, writer, biochemist and philanthropist (born 1900)
 * 18 August — Philip Hodgins, poet (born 1959)
 * 5 December — Gwen Harwood, poet and librettist (born 1920)