Literature and writing | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Literature and writing

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Collection guide
Victorian minor verse Collection

Around 500 titles by minor and obscure British poets of the 19th century, most having been published during the reign of Queen Victoria – some earlier imprints extending back to 1801.

Collection guide
A collage of green and purple plant matter, aluminium and perspex, lit from above by a warm, yellow internal light.

Jeannie Baker, Hidden Forest, Endpapers, 2000, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-971313378

Australian children’s literature

Module

This resource is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: English for Year 4 students. It has been developed to use National Library collection material as the basis for an exploration of children’s literature as part of the literature strand of the English learning area.

Digital Classroom
Katherine Parr’s handwriting and signature in a copy of A Sermon of Saint Chrysostom

Katherine Parr’s handwriting and signature in a copy of A Sermon of Saint Chrysostom (1542). Image by permission of Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe.

Gorgeous books and royal annotations

We stepped into the private libraries of one of history’s most infamous royal couples and discovered how ink, margins, and manuscript flourishes reveal more than meets the eye.

Event
Video
event-image-shakespeare2-2025

A. de Paszthory, Portrait of Nellie Stewart as Rosalind in As You Like It, oil on canvas, 1904, https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn3022148; Broadside advertising George Musgrove’s As You Like It, Princess Theatre, Melbourne, Melbourne: Troedel, 1903, https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn107848

Shakespeare on the move: Gold rush to Great War

We held the third illustrated Shakespeare lecture and discovered the objects and stories that reveal how Shakespeare made landfall in Australia.  

Event
Video
Letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra, 11 June 1799

Letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra, 11 June 1799, nla.obj-229629481

Jane Austen and her legacy – 250 glorious years

Susannah Fullerton OAM, President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia delivered a public lecture marking the 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth.

Event
Video
Book cover for 'The Colt from Old Regret' which features illustrations of a brown horse and a white horse in the Australian bush
The Colt from Old Regret

Dianne Wolfer, illustrated by Erica Wagner

Book
On the left is a smiling woman with brown hair. In the middle is the cover of the book 'A Good Kind of Trouble' by Brooke Blurton and Melanie Saward with a drawing of a teenage girl carrying a football under her arm and a backpack on her back. On the right is a smiling woman with pink hair.
A Good Kind of Trouble with Brooke Blurton and Melanie Saward

Brooke Blurton and Dr Melanie Saward yarned about their new young adult novel, A Good Kind of Trouble, and what it means to write Indigenous-led stories for today’s young people.

Event
Video
A pile of children's books
Creative storytelling

Module

This resource aligns to the Australian Curriculum for Year 3 English - Language, Literature and Literacy.

Digital Classroom
Pile of colourful books of different sizes by authors Kylie Tennant, Doris Pilkington, Christina Stead, Colin Thiele, Norman Lindsay and Gabrielle Wang
Australian authors in the oral history collection

Hear from Colin Thiele, Kylie Tennant, Gabrielle Wang, Doris Pilkington, Norman Lindsay and Christina Stead as they share their thoughts, memories and creative journeys.

Blog
A yellowed typewritten page saying 'Foreword' and some hand written words saying 'or both?' next to fact or fiction.

Joan Lindsay & Andrew Fabinyi, Typescripts, [ca. 1967], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-573778720

Cultural perspectives in literature

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: English for Year 7 students. The module is designed to introduce students to a variety of texts on the theme of cultural perspectives and to enable them to understand how authors, poets and cartoonists reflect their own cultural perspectives through their chosen medium.

Digital Classroom
Cover of book 'Red Dust Running' by Anita Heiss next to a picture of Anita Heiss sitting on concrete steps smiling
Book launch: Red Dust Running with Anita Heiss

Anita Heiss discussed her new book 'Red Dust Running'.

Event
Video
Woman, Dr Christina Thompson, standing in the Special Collections Reading Room, leaning on a table with a large portrait on it and smiling

Dr Christina Thompson with Willaim Hodges, Otoo, King of Otaheite [i.e. Tahiti], 1773, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-134429610

The introduction of writing in Polynesia

Learn about Dr Christina Thompson's experience as a Creative Arts Fellow researching the introduction of writing in Polynesia.

Blog

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