In recent years, the Australian publishing industry seems to have — finally — discovered Australian First Nations 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 Australian 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)
Debra Dank
- We Come with This Place (memoir, 2022)
Stan Grant
- Talking to My Country (memoir, 2016)
Anita Heiss
- Am I Black Enough for You? 10 Years On (memoir, 2022)
Jackie Huggins and Ngaire Jarro
- Jack of Hearts QX11594 (biography, 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 16 March 2023.
Since June 2019, content on this site has been produced on the lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation, whom I acknowledge as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live and work. I pay my respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.
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