Vale David Malouf

Author and poet David Malouf has died, aged 92.

Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) writes:

David Malouf wrote across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, libretti and plays and made a significant and continued impact on Australian literature. David won numerous prizes for his work, including the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Australia-Asia Literary Award. He was also an admired teacher and lecturer both in Australia and Europe.

Born and raised in Brisbane, David’s work captures the Australian experience and continues to resonate across generations. Alongside his achievements as a writer, David was a loyal, loving friend to many and devoted to his family. He was a passionate supporter of Opera Australia, Adelaide Writers’ Week and the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

Malouf’s Australian literary agent, Jane Novak, said:

David Malouf was a giant in the world of literature; his accolades are varied and numerous. His contribution to Australian culture is immeasurable, but I will miss the kind, generous, wonderful man behind the masterpieces. It was my great honour to represent David, and this is a great loss.

His prose publisher, Meredith Curnow at PRH, said:

Everyone at PRH loved working with David, talking and laughing with him, hearing family stories, discussing the books he had read and the film, music, art and work he admired. He was committed to reading and supporting new Australian writers. He has left behind a body of work that comforts, challenges and entertains.

His poetry publisher, Madonna Duffy at UQP, said:

Since UQP published David Malouf’s first volume of poetry in 1970, we have enjoyed a continuous and rewarding publishing relationship with him. His poetry remains in print and is still being admired and appreciated by readers everywhere. He was writing poetry and productive to the very end of his life. I personally published his poetry for the past 20 years and will feel his loss greatly.

Writer and friend Nicholas Jose said:

David was a good friend to me, as to so many other writers over many years. David believed in readers. From his enduring evocation of his Brisbane youth in Johnno to his reimagining of the classical world in An Imaginary Life and Ransom, his writing created new possibilities for Australian literature. He is a brilliant essayist, an astute and generous critic, and a poet first and last. He has always been a great advocate for literature and for the power of imagination to change lives. His life and work have changed our lives. His work will go on doing that.

Category: Daily obituary