1986 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1986.

• Elizabeth Jolley won the 1986 Miles Franklin Award for The Well
• The Melbourne Writers Festival is held for the first time

• Margaret Barbalet — Blood in the Rain^[1]
• Janine Burke — Second Sight
• Elizabeth Jolley — The Well
• Rod Jones — Julia Paradise^[2]
• John Macgregor — Propinquity
• Christina Stead — I'm Dying Laughing: The Humourist
• Alan Wearne — The Nightmarkets
• Morris West — Cassidy
• Tim Winton — That Eye, the Sky
• Patrick White — Memoirs of Many in One

• Peter Corris
  • Deal Me Out^[3]
  • The Greenwich Apartments^[4]
• Tony Kenrick — China White^[5]

• George Turner — "Shut the Door When You Go Out"^[6]
• Cherry Wilder — The Summer's King^[7]

• Janette Turner Hospital — Dislocations^[8]
• Joan London — Sister Ships and Other Stories
• Sally Morgan — "The Letter"^[9]
• Archie Weller — Going Home^[10]
• Tim Winton — "Swimming to Salvation"^[11]

• Graeme Base — Animalia
• Hesba Fay Brinsmead — Someplace Beautiful^[12]
• Victor Kelleher — Taronga
• Doug MacLeod — Sister Madge's Book of Nuns^[13]
• Emily Rodda — Pigs Might Fly^[14]
• Gillian Rubinstein — Space Demons^[15]

• Lily Brett — The Auschwitz Poems^[16]
• Robert Harris — The Cloud Passes Over^[17]
• Philip Hodgins — Blood and Bone^[18]
• Rhyll McMaster — Washing the Money: Poems with photographs^[19]
• Jan Owen — Boy with a Telescope^[20]
• John A. Scott — St. Clair: Three Narratives^[21]

• Michael Gow — Away

• Gillian Bouras — A Foreign Wife^[22]
• Robert Hughes — The Fatal Shore
• Kylie Tennant — The Missing Heir^[23]

• Geoffrey Serle AO, for "service to scholarship and literature, particularly in the field of Australian history"^[24]
• Nicholas Hasluck AM, for "service to literature"^[25]
• Dorothy Hewett AM, for "service to literature"^[26]
• Barbara Jefferis AM, for "service to literature"^[27]
• Grace Perry AM, for "service to Australian literature, particularly as editor of Poetry Australia"^[28]
• Russel Ward AM, for "service to literature, particularly in the field of Australian history"^[29]

A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1986 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.

• 23 August — Jack Heath, writer of fiction for children and adults^[45]

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1986 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.

• 2 March — Margaret Trist, novelist and short story writer (born 1914)^[46]
• 27 September — Olga Masters, writer, journalist, novelist and short story writer (born 1919)^[47]
• 10 November — Laurence Collinson, British and Australian playwright, actor, poet, journalist, and secondary school teacher (born 1925)^[48]

• 1986 in Australia
• 1986 in literature
• 1986 in poetry
• List of years in literature
• List of years in Australian literature