1996 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1996.

Events

 * Christopher Koch won the Miles Franklin Award for Highways to a War
 * David Malouf won the International Dublin Literary Award for Remembering Babylon
 * The Ned Kelly Awards, honouring excellence in Australian crime writing, are presented for the first time

Novels

 * Thea Astley — The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow
 * James Cowan — A Mapmaker's Dream
 * Robert Dessaix — Night Letters: A Journey Through Switzerland and Italy Edited and Annotated by Igor Miazmov
 * Garry Disher — The Sunken Road
 * Robert Drewe — The Drowner
 * David Foster — The Glade Within the Grove
 * Clive James — The Silver Castle
 * David Malouf — The Conversations at Curlow Creek
 * John A. Scott — Before I Wake
 * Janette Turner Hospital — Oyster
 * Morris West — Vanishing Point
 * Sue Woolfe — Leaning Towards Infinity

Short story anthologies

 * Kerryn Goldsworthy — Australian Love Stories (edited)

Science fiction and fantasy

 * Sara Douglass
 * Enchanter
 * StarMan
 * Matthew Reilly — Contest
 * Jane Routley — Mage Heart
 * Dirk Strasser — Equinox
 * Lucy Sussex — The Scarlet Rider
 * Sean Williams — Metal Fatigue

Crime

 * Jon Cleary – Endpeace
 * Peter Doyle – Get Rich Quick
 * Shane Maloney – The Brush-Off
 * Peter Temple – Bad Debts

Children's and young adult fiction

 * Margaret Clark — Fat Chance
 * Sonya Hartnett — Black Foxes
 * Kerry Greenwood — The Broken Wheel
 * John Marsden — Checkers
 * James Moloney — A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove

Poetry

 * Eric Beach — Weeping for Lost Babylon
 * Lisa Bellear — Dreaming in Urban Areas
 * Judith Beveridge — Accidental Grace
 * John Kinsella — The Undertow: New and Selected Poems
 * Anthony Lawrence — The Viewfinder
 * Les Murray — Subhuman Redneck Poems
 * Dorothy Porter — Crete
 * Morgan Yasbincek — Night Reversing

Drama

 * Nick Enright — Blackrock
 * Jenny Kemp — The Black Sequin Dress
 * Debra Oswald — Gary's House
 * David Williamson — Heretic

Non-fiction

 * Bronwyn Donaghy — Anna's Story
 * Doris Pilkington Garimara — Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence
 * Helen Garner — True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction

Awards and honours

 * Mavis Thorpe Clark "for service to the arts as the author of children's literature and as an active member of the writer's organisations in Australia"
 * Susanna de Vries "for service to art as an author and lecturer in Australian and European art history and history"
 * Christobel Mattingley "for service to literature, particularly children's literature, and for community service through her commitment to social and cultural issues"

Deaths
A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1996 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
 * 12 February — Betty Roland, writer of plays, screenplays, novels, children's books and comics (born 1903)
 * 26 March —Godfrey Blunden, journalist and author (died in Paris)(born 1906)
 * 23 April — P. L. Travers, children's writer, best known for the Mary Poppins (book series) (born 1899)
 * 28 April —Mena Calthorpe, writer (born 1905)
 * 27 October — Charlotte Jay, mystery writer and novelist who also wrote under her married name, Geraldine Halls (born 1919)
 * 28 November — Hugh V. Clarke, soldier, public servant and author, specialising in military history (born 1919)
 * 31 December — John Rowland, public servant, diplomat and poet (born 1925)