2023 in Australian literature

This is a list of historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2023.

Events

 * July: Publisher Hachette Australia withdraws from publication the book titled Special Operations Group by Christophe Glasl after Victoria Police expressed concerns about the accuracy of the book
 * December: Yumna Kassab is announced as inaugural Parramatta Laureate of Literature for 2024

Literary fiction

 * Hossein Asgari – Only Sound Remains
 * Tony Birch – Women & Children
 * Jen Craig – Wall
 * Lauren Aimee Curtis – Strangers in the Port
 * Trent Dalton – Lola in the Mirror
 * André Dao – Anam
 * Gregory Day – The Bell of the World
 * Ali Cobby Eckermann – She Is the Earth (verse novel)
 * Kate Grenville – Restless Dolly Maunder
 * John Kinsella – Cellnight: A verse novel
 * Melissa Lucashenko – Edenglassie
 * Kate Morton – Homecoming
 * Angela O'Keeffe – The Sitter
 * Mirandi Riwoe – Sunbirds
 * Sanya Rushdi – Hospital
 * Tracy Sorensen – The Vitals
 * Christos Tsiolkas – The In-Between
 * Pip Williams – The Bookbinder of Jericho
 * Charlotte Wood – Stone Yard Devotional
 * Alexis Wright – Praiseworthy

Children's and Young Adult fiction

 * Dianne Wolfer, Scout and the Rescue Dogs

Short story collections

 * Graeme Simsion – Creative Differences: And Other Stories
 * Laura Jean McKay – Gunflower

Crime and mystery

 * Candice Fox – Fire With Fire
 * Chris Hammer – The Seven
 * Fiona McIntosh – Dead Tide
 * Chris Womersley – Ordinary Gods and Monsters

Science fiction and fantasy

 * Greg Egan – Scale
 * Shelley Parker-Chan – He Who Drowned the World

Poetry

 * Stuart Barnes – Like to the Lark
 * Dan Hogan – Secret Third Thing
 * John Kinsella – Harsh Hakea: Collected Poems Volume Two (2005–2014)
 * David McCooey – The Book of Falling
 * Pi O – The Tour
 * Tais Rose Wae – Riverbed Sky Songs
 * Grace Yee – Chinese Fish

Non-Fiction

 * Chanel Contos – Consent Laid Bare
 * Robyn Davidson – Unfinished Woman
 * Marele Day – Reckless
 * Martin Flanagan – The Empty Honour Board
 * Clementine Ford – I Don't
 * Anna Funder – Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life
 * Michael Gawenda – My Life as a Jew
 * Stan Grant – The Queen is Dead: The Time has Come for a Reckoning
 * Susan Johnson – Aphrodite's Breath
 * Christine Kenneally – Ghosts of the Orphanage


 * Sarah Krasnostein – On Peter Carey
 * David Marr – Killing for Country: A Family Story
 * Ross McMullin – Life So Full of Promise
 * Matt Preston – Big Mouth
 * Margaret Simons – Tanya Plibersek: On Her Own Terms
 * Christine Wallace – Political Lives: Australian Prime Ministers and Their Biographers

Drama

 * Nicholas Brown – Sex Magick

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

Deaths

 * 21 January – Gabrielle Williams, author of young adult fiction (born 1963)
 * 3 February – Portia Robinson, historian (born 1926)
 * 19 April – Lee Harding, novelist (born 1937)
 * 21 April – John Tranter, poet, publisher and editor (born 1943)
 * 22 April – Barry Humphries, comedian, author, actor and satirist (born 1934)
 * 2 May – Gabrielle Carey, novelist (born 1959)
 * 22 May – Andrew Burke, poet (born 1944)
 * 30 June – Ron Pretty, poet (born 1940)
 * 6 August – Elizabeth Webby, scholar of Australian literature (born 1942)
 * 18 November – Nan Witcomb, poet and radio. broadcaster (born 1927/1928)
 * 21 November – Dale Spender, feminist writer (born 1943)
 * 10 December – Michael Blakemore, actor, writer and theatre director (born 1928)
 * 12 December – Shirley Barber, children’s author and illustrator (born 1935 in the Channel Islands)
 * 30 December – John Pilger, journalist and filmmaker (born 1939) (died in the United Kingdom)