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austlit.bsky.social
AustLit
@austlit.bsky.social
850 followers 160 following 140 posts
AustLit is a bio-bibliographical database of stories by Australians and about Australia.

https://www.austlit.edu.au/
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How AustLit actually works:
October 15, 2025 at 11:29 PM
austlit.bsky.social
Favourite cover of the day: Krystal Sutherland is usually treated well by her cover artists, but wow do we especially love this Spanish edition of The Invocations.
Against a red brocade wallpaper, a young girl with black hair, wearing a dark blazer and light blouse, is staring down at the bottom left hand corner of the book, presenting the viewer with a three-quarter profile. Her face is very pale. Her eyes are red-rimmed and have dark shadows under them. Her lips are slightly parted. Two grey-skinned hands with long fingernails reach over her shoulders in the direction of her gaze: the long, thin fingers are reddish. In the bottom foreground, a single candle burns.
August 13, 2025 at 10:50 PM
austlit.bsky.social
Today's favourite book cover: this absolute stunner from Nicolas Rothwell and Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson.
Just published!
Red-orange cliff-faces rise up on the left and right hand side of the cover, with a red dirt road running between them. The space between the cliffs is filled with black sky and a multitude of stars. At the end of the road, facing the viewer, is a car, with its headlights on high beam.
July 29, 2025 at 9:55 PM
austlit.bsky.social
Coming soon: a *free* two-day in-person symposium on Imaginative Literature for Children and Beyond: Australia, Japan, and the World. Author talks, translation workshops, and more. There are QR codes in the poster below, or check the link to register:
languages-cultures.uq.edu.au/event/11005/...
Poster for the upcoming two-day symposium: includes QR codes for registration (all information in the image, including registration, also available in the link in the text of this post).
July 24, 2025 at 5:18 AM
austlit.bsky.social
New on AustLit: a new BlackWords information trail drawing on the ATSIS Unit at UQ's Music & Language pilot program on the role of music in language reclamation.
Explore at: www.austlit.edu.au/musicandlang...
This trail was developed by AustLit intern Clare Glassock, as were these lovely tiles!
A brown background, with the white text Music & Language. Below, some grey parallel lines split into chaotic harmonics. The bottom line reads 'a new BlackWords information trail. A background image looking across the Snowy Mountains from the Mount Kosciuszko lookout. A series of harmonic lines in brown are at the top and bottom of the page. Below the top set, a headline reads 'ATSIS' Music & Language Pilot Program'. The main text reads, 'The role of music in sustaining our languages and cultural practices is so important. It gives us a sense of connection. Also I think it’s that continuation of oral history that we've always done through dance, song, ceremony, lore.’ (Deline Briscoe) Funded by the Centre for Digital Societies and Cultures at the University of Queensland, this pilot project by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit (ATSIS) undertook 5 case studies with individual Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people to document the ways they are using music to preserve and sustain languages in their professional and personal lives.' Below this, the Blackwords logo of a red figure emerging from a blue wave against a green hill appears, and the text 'AustLit and the BlackWords team have created an information trail inspired by this research.' On a brown background with pale grey harmonic lines, the cover images appear for four books: Music, Dance and the Archive; I Am Me; Words to Sing the World Alive; and Tjitiji Lullaby. The text, curved around the harmonic lines, reads, 'Taking cue from ATSIS' Music and Language Pilot Program, this trail is composed of fiction and non-fiction works on First Nations language and music. Explore now: https://www.austlit.edu.au/musicandlanguage On a grey background with white harmonics lines, the covers of CD releases by Aboriginal bands appear: Warumpi Band's Papunya Sessions 1982, Go Bush!, and Big Name, No Blankets; Yothu Yindi's Freedom and Tribal Voice; Kuckles' Bran Nue Day; and Us Mob and No Fixed Address's Wrong Side of the Road. Text reads 'discover more @ austlit.edu.au'
July 24, 2025 at 12:29 AM
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NAIDOC spotlight: the most recent work added to BlackWords is Mitch Tambo's forthcoming picture book (pub. Sept. 2025), I Am Me, which was indexed yesterday morning.
Cover image of Mitch Tambo's picture book I Am Me, showing Mitch Tambo dancing in the centre of the image, with a young Aboriginal girl dancing on either side of him.
July 8, 2025 at 9:52 PM
austlit.bsky.social
New for NAIDOC Week: a BlackWords information trail exploring strength (and sharing culture), vision (in looking forward), and legacy (when looking back). This trail was compiled by current winter scholar Clare Glassock, who also created these lovely slides.
www.austlit.edu.au/naidoc2025
On a brown background, the cover images for Everywhen: Australia and the Language of Deep History, Ceremony, and This All Come Back Now, as well as the logo for ABC's Little Yarns, and a small screencap from Big J and Little Cuz. The text reads '50 Years of NAIDOC. Strength and sharing culture.' On a green background, the cover images for Edenglassie, Weaving Country, Moonlight and Dust, Our Flag, Our Story, and part of Drop Bear. The text reads, '50 Years of NAIDOC. Vision in Looking Forward'. On a blue blackground, the covers of Yarn Quest, Dirrayawadha, and Words to Sing the World Alive, as well as small images from two theatrical performances, and a banner image of the First Nations Classics from UQP. Text reads, '50 Years of NAIDOC. Legacy when looking back'.
July 8, 2025 at 1:54 AM
austlit.bsky.social
NAIDOC spotlight: young-adult fantasy and speculative fiction from First Nations authors. One of our favourite genres--and one which is incredibly rich and rewarding right now! These are the merest sampling: check BlackWords for more.
Cover of Lystra Rose's novel The Upwelling. Black background with a swirl in different colours of blue, overlaid with white and blue drawings. Cover of Lystra Rose's Washpool. Two young Aboriginal girls, one in profile and one in three-quarter profile, looking out to the right-hand side of the cover, on a pale pink background. The cover for Jasmin McGaughey's Moonlight and Dust. A young Torres Strait Islander girl, who appears to have lightning running under or across her skin, looks directly at the viewer. Behind her is an enormous full moon, with three palm trees silhouetted against it. The cover is in shades of purple. A young Aboriginal girl stares directly at the viewer: her head is lowered so she is looking up from under her eyebrows, and only half her face is visible. At the bottom of the cover are three silhouettes of leaves in brown and white.
July 7, 2025 at 11:20 PM
austlit.bsky.social
It's still Pride Month, so if you've explored all the young-adult fiction we shared last time, why not consider some memoirs or biographies? As always, this is only a small sampling of the rich variety of works available: explore AustLit for more!
Blue background with rainbow glitter at the top and bottom of the page. Twelve book covers in three rows. Top row, left to right: Bastian Fox Phelan's How to be Between, Yves Rees' All About Yves, Kyle Mewburn's Faking It, Cadance Bell's The All of It. Middle row, left to right: Danielle Laidley's Don't Look Away, Kaya Wilson's As Beautiful As Any Other, Tessa Morris-Suzuki's A Secretive Century, McKenzie Wark's Raving. Bottom row, left to right: Nevo Zisin's Finding Nevo, Sarah Krasnostein's The Trauma Cleaner, Eddie Ayres' Danger Music, and the anthology Nothing to Hide.
June 18, 2025 at 10:04 PM
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New from AustLit intern Jemma Cumpstay: a BlackWords trail on First Nations adaptations of the Western canon, from fairytales and Shakespeare to a groundbreaking Bundjalung adaptation of Waiting for Godot.
www.austlit.edu.au/blackwordsad...
A eucalyptus leaf on an orange background. Text reads The Shadow King (2013) King Lear, but in a family torn apart by the warring pressures of land rights and mining royalties. A eucalyptus leaf on an orange background. Text reads Tjindarella (1984) Cinderella, but with a heroine living on a mission, whose Fairy Grandmother is the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. A eucalyptus leaf on an orange background. Text reads Ngundalehla Godotgai (1997) A cross-cultural adaptation (conceptually and liguistically) of Waiting for Godot into the Bundalung dialect Galibal.
June 6, 2025 at 12:57 AM
austlit.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month! This is only a small (very small--and it was a struggle keeping the numbers this low!) of young-adult novels with LGBTQIA+ themes or characters: why not explore further this month? Because representation really does matter.
A pale blue background with a pale watercolour rainbow. On top of the rainbow, a series of book covers in colours ranging from red through yellow, pink, green, purple, orange, and blue.
June 3, 2025 at 11:22 PM
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We are reviewing our policy for indexing gender to be more inclusive of sex & gender diversity. To help, a UQ student is researching how authors want bio-bibliographical data presented. Survey below! Research is confidential & only de-identified findings shared with us.
forms.gle/GTPopqceXxAB...
Blue background with yellow boxes. Top box reads INDEPENDENT RESEARCH INTO GENDER, NAMES, AND PRIVACY Bottom box reads Survey link in our bio. This research is relevant to trans and gender diverse authors, so if that's you, please consider responding. All answers will be de-identified and will not be published or shared directly with AustLit.
May 29, 2025 at 2:12 AM
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This National Reconciliation Week, explore AustLit's freely available BlackWords Calendar of significant events in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history since the point of first contact through invasion, settlement, and colonisation. Includes suggestions for using the Calendar in classrooms.
A moody close-up photograph of a road with two bright yellow lines leading into the distance, and a row of trees on the right-hand side. Text reads: BlackWords Calendar of Events Revised and updated September 2024. A moody close-up photograph of a road with two bright yellow lines leading into the distance, and a row of trees on the right-hand side. Text reads: AustLit maintains this calendar of significant events in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history since the point of first contact through invasion, settlement, and colonisation. This Calendar records many of the significant historical events, achievements, tragedies, key figures of resistance, important moments in storytelling and publishing, and the various impacts of colonisation across this land's modern history. A moody close-up photograph of a road with two bright yellow lines leading into the distance, and a row of trees on the right-hand side. Text reads: 1963 Yirrkala Bark Petitions are draw up. 1937 William Cooper drafts a petition to King George V. 1929 A.M. Fernando begins his protests in London. 1886 William Barak and others sign the Coranderrk Petition. 1824 Wiradjuri War of Resistance leads to a declaration of martial law. 1788 The Union Jack is raised at Sydney Cove. Resistance is immediate. A moody close-up photograph of a road with two bright yellow lines leading into the distance, and a row of trees on the right-hand side. Text reads: Explore this freely available resource at https://www.austlit.edu.au/blackwordscalendar Check out the Teaching with the BlackWords Calendar to incorporate this in your classrooms.
May 26, 2025 at 10:59 PM
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UQP announces a mentorship and residency prize for previously unpublished authors from communities that are under-represented in Australian writing! Opens May 21.
More information below:
www.uqp.com.au/blog/uqp-men...
Black background with white outlines of books, behind a white banner reading UQP Mentorship Prize for Under-represented Writers.
May 13, 2025 at 10:40 PM
austlit.bsky.social
Wondering why you're reading that book right now? Let this contemporary review of Guy Boothby's The Lust of Hate give you the (existential dread) answer.
Text reads: What do you read a novel for, anyhow? That depends! Most of us read to fill up spare time pleasantly. We probably read to "kill time," because we know that time will kill us later. Guy Boothby writes a novel that helps you pleasantly.
May 13, 2025 at 1:15 AM
austlit.bsky.social
Today's favourite book cover is this absolute stunner from Helen Milroy, Cloudmaker.
Cover image shows an ethereal white bird, with delicately detailed wings and webbed feet, flying from the bottom left-hand corner of the book up towards the top right-hand corner.
May 12, 2025 at 12:49 AM
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The AustLit team will be enjoyingsome leave over the coming Easter break, but the database will still be here for all your bibliographical needs. Remember, a book lasts longer than a chocolate egg.
On a purple background, a large Easter egg with white daisies on a green background sits reading a book. The book is pale blue, and the egg holds it in both hands. The egg also has legs in blue trousers, white socks, and black shoes.
April 17, 2025 at 4:12 AM
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And you want to see us do our thing
All you gotta do is plug us into high
(We said high)
High voltage biblio (...graphy)
Cover image for picture book The AC/DC AB/CD: High Voltage Alphabet, with the title in the AC/DC font with the oblique represented as a lightning bolt.
April 14, 2025 at 11:23 PM
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Just a picture of this fun number of work records on AustLit, before we add any more!
Screen cap from the AustLit database, showing the database size at 1,043,043 works.
April 10, 2025 at 4:00 AM
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Announcing a new AustLit research dataset: Australian Fantasy Fiction in Japanese Translation.
This project highlights the history of Australian fantasy fiction in Japanese translation, from Mary Poppins to C.S. Pacat, including the enormous success of Emily Rodda.
www.austlit.edu.au/australianfa...
Text reads: Emily Rodda. Below this, the covers for Japanese adaptations of three of Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest books. Below that, the English and Japanese titles for the series: Deltora Quest / デルトラ・クエスト Text reads: Garth Nix. Below that, the covers for both volumes of the Japanese editions of Lirael. Below, the text of both the English and Japanese titles of the series: The Old Kingdom / 古王国 Text reads: Jessica Townsend. Below that, the covers for the Japanese covers of volumes one and two in the Morrigan Crow series: Nevermoor and Wundersmith. Below that, the series title in both English and Japanese: Nevermoor/ネバームーア Text reads: John Flanagan. Below that, the covers for three of the Japanese translations of Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series. Below that, the title of the series in both English and Japanese: Ranger's Apprentice/アラルエン戦記 Chronicle of the Araluen War
April 7, 2025 at 12:06 AM
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Announcing a new Necessary Conversation: Disabilities and Loneliness. Guest-curated by Ashleigh Lowry, a Masters student at @charlessturtuni.bsky.social, these lists are aimed at children with disabilities, and their parents, who are experiencing social isolation.
www.austlit.edu.au/necessarycon...
Text reads: 'Little Miss Jessica and her new school friends realise that their differences are the exact thing that bring them together.' Cover image of picture book Little Miss Jessica Goes to School, showing a young girl with a blonde ponytail and limb difference. Text reads: 'An own voices picture book from a former Paralympian, which focuses on limb difference and acceptance.' Text reads: 'When Rusty Brown sees Jojo for the first time, all he notices is his wheelchair. Jojo gets teased about it a lot.' Cover image of the children's book Rusty and Jojo, showing two young Aboriginal boys playing together with colouring-in books. Text reads: A book with Aboriginal protagonists that helps start conversations about advocacy and adaptations.' Text reads: 'Peta Lyre is fair from typical [...] but when she follows her therapist's rules for 'normal' behavious, she can almost fit in without attracting attention.' Cover image for young-adult novel Peta Lyre's Rating Normal, showing an adolescent girl ajusting rainbow-coloured snow goggles against a snowy backdrop. Text reads: An own voices young-adult novel from neurodivergent author Anna Whateley. Text reads: These are only a sampling of the works carefully curated for this guide to starting conversations around disbilities and loneliness. Explore further at: https://www.austlit.edu.au/necessaryconversations Picture shows a group of children in silhouette. Text reads: Necessary Conversations: Important works for social learning
April 3, 2025 at 12:04 AM
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Did you know, there are over 60 works in Esperanto on the database, including a translation of Nevil Shute's On the Beach?
#austlitfools #noreally
April 1, 2025 at 4:47 AM
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This morning, AustLit was inscribed on the Australian Register of the UNESCO Memory of the World Registry.
We are proud and delighted to have our unique resource recognised as significant documentary heritage, in recognition of its significance to the nation!
Celebrating AustLit’s inscription on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register. Inscribed 27 March 2025. Below are the AustLit logo and the UNESCO National Committee logo. Text reads: UNESCO maintains the Memory of the World project: ‘The world's documentary heritage belongs to all, should be fully preserved and protected for all and, with due recognition of cultural mores and practicalities, should be permanently accessible to all without hindrance.’ The UNESCO Australian Memory of the World is one of more than 60 MoW programs worldwide, and lists materials including the Mabo case file records, women’s suffrage petitions, and the manuscript of Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country’. AustLit Director Associate Professor Maggie Nolan holds the ceritificate of inscription, next to a pull-up banner reading 'Imagine ... a world without memories'. Text reads: AustLit is proud that our unique resource has been inscribed on this register of vital Australian documentary heritage, in recognition of its significance to the nation.
March 27, 2025 at 1:23 AM
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Also on our list is this beauty from Magabala Books: Zac James' Kangaroo Stew. So textural and so dramatic.
A shed made of rough, mismatched sheets of corrugated iron sits on a sandy desert floor. Above it, the words Kangaroo Stew are spelt out in rusted metal.
March 12, 2025 at 3:54 AM
austlit.bsky.social
Also on our love list today and every day: Wurrtoo: The Wombat Who Fell in Love with the Sky. The colour and the translucency of that light! Incandescent. (Art by Dylan Finney.)
Depicts a wombat wearing shorts and carrying a swag roll (rolled-up blanket) and a hat, waving at the sky. The sky is richly detailed and translucent with light. On either side of the womabat are trees in flower. Behind him is a lake.
March 12, 2025 at 2:38 AM