2016 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2016.

Literary fiction

 * Melissa Ashley – The Birdman's Wife
 * Georgia Blain – Between a Wolf and a Dog
 * Hannah Kent – The Good People
 * Ryan O'Neill – Their Brilliant Careers
 * Heather Rose – The Museum of Modern Love
 * Philip Salom – Waiting
 * Dominic Smith – The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
 * Josephine Wilson – Extinctions

Children's and young adult fiction

 * Trace Balla – Rockhopping
 * Maxine Beneba Clarke – The Patchwork Bike
 * Georgia Blain – Special
 * Andy Griffiths – The Tree House Fun Book and The 78-Storey Treehouse
 * Zana Fraillon – The Bone Sparrow
 * Tania McCartney – Smile/Cry: A Beginner's Book of Feelings
 * Shivaun Plozza – Frankie
 * Richard Roxburgh – Artie and the Grime Wave
 * Shaun Tan – Tales from Outer Suburbia
 * Claire Zorn – One Would Think the Deep

Crime

 * Peter Corris – That Empty Feeling
 * Candice Fox and James Patterson – Never Never
 * Jane Harper – The Dry
 * Emily Maguire – An Isolated Incident
 * Barry Maitland – Slaughter Park
 * Adrian McKinty – Rain Dogs
 * David Whish-Wilson – Old Scores

Science fiction and fantasy

 * Alison Croggon – The Bone Queen
 * Juliet Marillier – Den of Wolves
 * Anthony O'Neill – The Dark Side
 * C. S. Pacat – Kings Rising
 * Lian Hearn – Emperor of the Eight Islands
 * Angela Slatter – Vigil

Poetry

 * Peter Boyle – Ghostspeaking
 * Maxine Beneba Clarke – Carrying the World
 * John Kinsella – Drowning in Wheat
 * Berndt Sellheim – Awake at the Wheel
 * Susan Varga – Rupture: Poems 2012–2015

Drama

 * Leah Purcell – The Drover's Wife

Biographies

 * Deng Thiak Adut with Ben McKelvey – Songs of a War Boy: My Story
 * Julia Baird – Victoria: The Queen
 * Jimmy Barnes –Working Class Boy
 * Mark Colvin – Light and Shadow: Memoirs of a Spy's Son
 * Suzanne Falkiner – Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow
 * Stan Grant – Talking to My Country
 * Cory Taylor – Dying: A Memoir

Non-fiction

 * Richard Fidler – Ghost Empire
 * Peter FitzSimons – Victory at Villers-Bretonneux: Why a French town will never forget the Anzacs
 * Clementine Ford – Fight Like A Girl
 * Helen Garner – Everywhere I Look
 * David Hunt – True Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia Volume 2
 * Lynne Kelly – The Memory Code
 * Tara Moss – Speaking Out: A 21st Century Handbook For Women and Girls

Awards and honours
Note: these awards were presented in the year in question.

Deaths

 * 31 January – David Lake, science fiction novelist (born 1929 in India)
 * 3 February – Dimitris Tsaloumas, poet (born 1921 in Greece)
 * 19 February – Kim Gamble, illustrator of children's books (born 1952)
 * 3 April – Bob Ellis, writer, journalist, filmmaker, and political commentator (born 1942)
 * 20 April – Dame Leonie Judith Kramer, author, editor and academic (born 1924)
 * 16 May – Gillian Mears, short story writer and novelist (born 1964)
 * 5 July – Cory Taylor, writer (born 1955)
 * 15 July – Billy Marshall Stoneking, poet, playwright, filmmaker and teacher (born 1947 in Orlando, Florida)
 * 4 September – Richard Neville, writer and social commentator (born 1941)
 * 8 September – Inga Clendinnen, author and historian (born 1934)
 * 3 October – Narelle Oliver, award-winning children's author-illustrator, artist and print maker (born 1960)
 * 19 November – Margaret Paice, children's writer and illustrator (born 1920)
 * 9 December – Georgia Blain, novelist, journalist and biographer (born 1964)
 * 12 December –
 * Anne Deveson, writer, broadcaster, filmmaker and social commentator (born 1930 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
 * Shirley Hazzard, novelist, short story writer, and essayist (died in Manhattan, New York)(born 1931)