In recent years, the Australian publishing industry seems to have — finally — discovered indigenous Australian writers, with more and more of their work being published. Some writers, including Melissa Lucashenko and Tara June Winch, have even won Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award — Lucashenko for ‘Too Much Lip’, in 2019, and Winch for ‘The Yield’ in 2020.
As part of a Reading First Nations Writers project designed to expand my reading horizons, I plan to read more work, whether novels, short stories, memoirs or poetry, by our First Nations writers during 2022 — and beyond.
In recent years I have read books by indigenous writers, so have collated them here for ease of reference. They have been arranged in alphabetical order by author’s surname. I will continue to update this list as and when new reviews are added to my blog.
Tony Birch
- The White Girl (fiction, 2019)
Ali Cobby Eckerman
- Too Afraid to Cry (memoir, 2012)
Claire G. Coleman
- Terra Nullius (fiction, 2017)
Stan Grant
- Talking to My Country (memoir, 2016)
Anita Heiss
- Am I Black Enough for You? 10 Years On (memoir, 2022)
Julie Janson
- Benevolence (fiction, 2020)
Ambelin & Ezekiel Kwaymullina
- Catching Teller Crow (young adult, 2019)
Melissa Lucashenko
- Too Much Lip (fiction, 2018)
Mudrooroo (aka Colin Johnson)
- Wild Cat Falling (fiction, 1965)
Ngarta & Jukuna
- Two sisters (non-fiction, 2016 – first published 2004)
Kim Scott
- True Country (fiction, 1993)
- Benang (fiction, 1999)
- That Deadman Dance (fiction, 2010)
- Taboo (fiction, 2017)
Alf Taylor
- Cartwarra or what? (poems & short stories, 2022)
Tara June Winch
- Swallow the Air (fiction, 2006)
- The Yield (fiction, 2019)
This page will be updated as and when new books are reviewed. It was last updated on 17 January 2023.
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