2013 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2013.

Events

 * James Ley launches the Sydney Review of Books to provide "an opportunity for Australia's critics to rediscover the art of literary criticism".
 * The longlist for the inaugural Stella Prize is announced.
 * The shortlist of the Miles Franklin Award contains only female writers for the first time.
 * Nicole Bourke, writing under the pseudonym "N. A. Sulway", becomes the first Australian writer to win the James Tiptree, Jr. Award for her novel Rupetta.
 * Aora Children's Literature Research Centre in Sydney closes after 12 years of operation.
 * The Commonwealth Book Prize was discontinuted after 2013.

Literary fiction

 * Debra Adelaide – Letter to George Clooney
 * Steven Carroll – A World of Other People
 * J. M. Coetzee – The Childhood of Jesus
 * Richard Flanagan – The Narrow Road to the Deep North
 * Andrea Goldsmith – The Memory Trap
 * Ashley Hay – The Railwayman's Wife
 * Tom Keneally – Shame and the Captives
 * Hannah Kent – Burial Rites
 * Melissa Lucashenko – Mullumbimby
 * Colleen McCullough – Bittersweet
 * Fiona McFarlane – The Night Guest
 * Alex Miller – Coal Creek
 * Di Morrissey – The Winter Sea
 * Cory Taylor – My Beautiful Enemy
 * Christos Tsiolkas – Barracuda
 * Felicity Volk – Lightning
 * Tim Winton – Eyrie
 * Alexis Wright – The Swan Book
 * Evie Wyld – All The Birds, Singing

Children's and young adult fiction

 * Alyssa Brugman – Alex as Well
 * J. C. Burke – Pretty Girl
 * Felicity Castagna – The Incredible Here and Now
 * Mem Fox – Baby Bedtime
 * Mem Fox – Yoo-hoo, Ladybird!
 * Kerry Greenwood – Evan's Gallipoli: A Gripping Story of Unlikely Friendship and an Incredible Journey behind Enemy Lines
 * Richard Harland – Song of the Slums
 * Karen Healey – When We Wake
 * Melissa Keil – Life in Outer Space
 * Tania McCartney – An Aussie Year: Twelve Months in the Life of Australian Kids
 * James Phelan – 13
 * Fiona Wood – Wildlife

Science fiction and fantasy

 * Max Barry – Lexicon
 * Greg Egan – The Arrows of Time
 * Jennifer Fallon – Reunion
 * Traci Harding – Dreaming of Zhou Gong
 * Simon Haynes – Hal Spacejock: Safe Art
 * Fiona McIntosh – The Scrivener's Tale
 * Juliet Marillier – The Caller
 * N. A. Sulway – Rupetta

Crime and mystery

 * Honey Brown – Dark Horse
 * Peter Corris – The Dunbar Case
 * Garry Disher – Bitter Wash Road
 * Karen Foxlee – The Midnight Dress
 * Poppy Gee – Bay of Fires
 * Katherine Howell – Web of Deceit
 * Stuart Littlemore —Harry Curry: Rats and Mice
 * Adrian McKinty – I Hear the Sirens in the Street
 * Barry Maitland – The Raven's Eye
 * Matthew Reilly – The Tournament
 * Michael Robotham – Watching You
 * Angela Savage – The Dying Beach
 * David Whish-Wilson – Zero at the Bone
 * Chris Womersley – Cairo

Poetry

 * Pamela Brown – Home by Dark
 * Lisa Gorton
 * The Best Australian Poems 2013
 * Hotel Hyperion
 * John Kinsella – The Vision of Error: A Sextet of Activist Poems
 * Kate Middleton – Ephemeral Waters
 * Geoff Page
 * 1953
 * New Selected Poems
 * Dorothy Porter – The Best 100 Poems of Dorothy Porter
 * Chris Wallace-Crabbe – New and Selected Poems

Biography

 * Alison Alexander – The Ambitions of Jane Franklin: Victorian Lady Adventurer
 * Andrew Burell – Twiggy: The High-Stakes Life of Andrew Forest
 * Gabrielle Carey – Moving Among Strangers: Randolph Stow and My Family
 * Matthew Condon – Three Crooked Kings
 * David Day – Flaws in the Ice: In Search of Douglas Mawson
 * Stephen Dando-Collins – Sir Henry Parkes: The Australian Colossus
 * Jesse Fink – The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC
 * Peter FitzSimons – Ned Kelly: The Story of Australia's Most Notorious Legend
 * David Marr – The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell
 * Kristina Olsson – Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir
 * Michael Pembroke – Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy
 * Margaret Simons – Kerry Stokes: Self-Made Man
 * Helen Trinca – Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St. John
 * Clare Wright – The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka

Non-fiction

 * Paul Barry – Breaking News : Sex, Lies & the Murdoch Succession
 * Susanna de Vries – Australian Heroines of World War One: Gallipoli, Lemnos and the Western Front
 * John Safran – Murder in Mississippi: The True Story of How I Met a White Supremacist, Befriended His Black Killer and Wrote this Book

Deaths

 * 23 May – Hazel Hawke, memoirist (born 1929)
 * 16 July – Christopher Koch, novelist (born 1932)
 * 5 September – Elisabeth Wynhausen, Dutch-born journalist and author (born 1946)
 * 11 September – Keith Dunstan, journalist and author (born 1925)
 * 9 October – Mark "Chopper" Read, writer (born 1954)
 * 16 November – Graham Stone, bibliographer (born 1926)