Literature and writing | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Literature and writing

Showing 97 - 107 of 107 results
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
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
interior - stacks legal deposit crime magnifying glass
Arresting scenery: Capturing time and place in crime fiction writing

Explore some of the crime-fiction reads in the collection and how they can help readers learn more about Australian culture, history and place.

Blog
Collection guide
Alston Collection

The Alston Collection is a treasure trove of over 1,800 works on philology and linguistics. From rare books and manuscripts to Robin Alston’s personal drafts and correspondence, this collection is a must for anyone exploring the history of language and early bibliographical studies.

Collection guide
Cover of the book 'A Maker of Books'
A Maker of Books: Alec Bolton and His Brindabella Press

Michael Richards

Book
NLA Publishing 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
Christos Tsiolkas wearing a blue shirt standing in front of the ocean by a rock pool

Image credit: Zoe Ali

2025 Ray Mathew Lecture: Christos Tsiolkas

Award-winning author Christos Tsiolkas delivered the 2025 Ray Mathew Lecture, exploring the idea of 'Fence-sitting', and its place in the modern world.

Video
Text in a retro font reading '1975 Living in the Seventies' on a bright orange background
1975: Living in the Seventies

Look back on life in the 70s including politics, feminism, pop culture, news of the day, and more.

Exhibition
Shelves of books on display in a Library
12 years in: Writing for the Future Library (2014-2114)

Learn about the Future Library (2014-2114) project—a hundred-year literary artwork and one of the most internationally acclaimed long-term cultural projects of our time. Curator and producer Anne Beate Hovind appears in conversation with Kathryn Favelle.

Event
Shelves of books in the National Library's repository are pictured alongside speaker Susannah Fullerton
10 novels that changed the world

Which novels have had a universal impact on our world? Author and leading literary authority Susannah Fullerton delivers this engaging lecture presented by the Friends of the Library.

Event
Red text reading 'Wangka Wakanutja' on a yellow background
Wangka Wakaṉutja: The Story of the Papunya Literature Production Centre

Explore the decades-long, remarkable efforts of the Papunya community to record language and culture and keep it alive. 

Exhibition

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