Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Obituaries >

RiP Toni Morrison

7 August 2019
American author Toni Morrison has died, aged 88. US publisher Holt, Rinehart & Winston published Morrison's debut novel The Bluest Eye in 1970. Alfred A Knopf published Morrison's novel Sula...

RiP Margaret Fulton

26 July 2019
Scottish-born Australian cookery author, journalist and commentator Margaret Fulton has died, aged 94. First published by Paul Hamlyn in 1968, The Margaret Fulton Cookbook became an important reference for cooking...

RiP Kerry Reed-Gilbert

17 July 2019
Author, poet and Aboriginal activist Kerry Reed-Gilbert has died, aged 62. Reed-Gilbert was a Wiradjuri elder, poet, writer, activist and artist. She was the author and editor of numerous works...

Vale Christobel Mattingley

13 June 2019
Author Christobel Mattingley has died, aged 87. Allen & Unwin executive publisher, books for children and young adults Erica Wagner says: ‘Her passing is truly the end of an era...

RiP Philip Robinson

13 June 2019
Robinsons Bookshop founder Philip Robinson has died, aged 90. Robinson and his wife Moira opened Robinsons Bookshop in Frankston, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, in 1963. They owned and operated the...

RiP Christobel Mattingley

5 June 2019
Author Christobel Mattingley has died, aged 87. Mattingley wrote over 50 books, 47 of which were for children. After publishing her first book, The Picnic Dog (Hamish Hamilton), in 1970,...

RiP Kunmanara Williams

8 May 2019
Artist, activist and author Kunmanara Williams has died, aged 68. Born in 1952 between Kenmore Park and Pukatja in South Australia, Williams won numerous art prizes and his work has...

RiP Peter Alexander

8 May 2019
Bookseller Peter Alexander has died, aged 61. Allen & Unwin chairman Patrick Gallagher writes: ‘Bookselling colleagues and golfing friends alike are deeply shocked by the sudden death of Peter Alexander...

RiP Les Murray

1 May 2019
Poet Les Murray has died, aged 80. Murray was the author of nearly 30 volumes of poetry—including The Ilex Tree (with Geoffrey Lehmann, ANU Press), Killing the Black Dog, Waiting...

RiP Janet Mackenzie

20 February 2019
Founding member of the Society of Editors Victoria (now Editors Victoria) Janet Mackenzie has died, aged 71. Born in Melbourne in 1947, Mackenzie graduated from the University of Melbourne with...

RiP Andrew McGahan

6 February 2019
Author Andrew McGahan has died, aged 52. Born in the Queensland town of Dalby in 1966, McGahan grew up on the family farm, before moving to Brisbane in the early...

RiP Colin Johnson aka Mudrooroo

6 February 2019
Prolific writer, activist and academic Colin Johnson, also known as Mudrooroo, has died in Brisbane, aged 80. Born in Narrogin, WA, Johnson was one of 12 children and grew up...

RiP Garry Evans

23 January 2019
Harbour Publishing House director Garry Evans has died, aged 50. Evans, along with his wife Michelle, owned and operated Harbour Bookshop in Ulladulla, NSW, and founded the publishing house in...

RiP Barrie Dunstan

23 January 2019
Business and investment journalist Barrie Dunstan has died, aged 80. Starting his journalism career at the Argus in 1955, Dunstan then moved to the Age in 1958 and was promoted to finance...

RiP Melinda Beaumont

16 January 2019
Simon & Schuster Australia national account manager Melinda Beaumont has died, aged 46. The team at Simon & Schuster writes: 'It is with great sadness that we announce the passing...

RiP Harriet McKnight

12 December 2018
Writer and editor Harriet McKnight (1988–2018) has died. She grew up in Bermagui and spent several years studying music and performing around Melbourne before deciding to return to her love...

RiP Judith Rodríguez

5 December 2018
Australian poet Judith Rodríguez has died, aged 82. Rodríguez's first poetry appeared in the 1962 collection Four Poets, under the pseudonym Judith Green, alongside poetry by David Malouf, Rodney Hall and Don...

RiP Sandra Eterović

28 November 2018
Melbourne-based illustrator Sandra Eterović has died. Eterović graduated from the University of Melbourne with Honours in Art History in 1992 and was the recipient of the Dwight Final Examination Prize in...

RiP Stan Lee

14 November 2018
American comic book writer, editor and publisher Stan Lee has died, aged 95. Born Stanley Martin Lieber in New York City in 1922, Lee started working in publishing aged 17,...

RiP Eleanor Witcombe

8 November 2018
Australian screenwriter and playwright Eleanor Witcombe has died, aged 95. Witcombe's most well-known works were the book-to-screen adaptations of My Brilliant Career (Miles Franklin, HarperCollins), The Getting of Wisdom (Henry Handel Richardson, Text)...

RiP Rose Zwi

31 October 2018
Writer Rose Zwi has died in Sydney, aged 90. Zwi was born in Mexico in 1928 to Jewish-Lithuanian parents but grew up in South Africa, where her family migrated when...

RiP Patricia O’Donnell

22 October 2018
Literature patron Patricia O’Donnell has died, aged 72. O’Donnell was a significant patron of the arts in Melbourne, and was a founding donor of the Stella Prize. Originally a teacher...

RiP Mary Midgley 

17 October 2018
UK philosopher and writer Mary Midgley has died, aged 99. Midgley was a prominent moral philosopher, publishing over 15 books on science, ethics, the environment and animal rights. Midgley's first...

RiP David Lovell

3 October 2018
Publisher David Lovell has died, aged 74. Lovell was the founder and publisher of David Lovell Publishing (DLP), which published books based around the Catholic faith. A co-founder of the...

RiP Tony Catt

19 September 2018
Sales representative and agent Tony Catt has died, aged 90. Tony and his wife, Pauline, came to Australia from England as 'ten-pound poms' and settled in Hobart, where Catt worked...

RiP Albert Ullin

19 September 2018
The Little Bookroom founder Albert Ullin has died, aged 88. Born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1930, Ullin moved to Australia in 1939 before the outbreak of World War II. In...

RiP Peter Corris

5 September 2018
Sydney crime author Peter Corris has died, aged 76. Corris was the author of almost 90 books, including more than 40 in the Cliff Hardy series of crime novels. His...

RiP Mirka Mora

29 August 2018
Melbourne-based, French-born artist Mirka Mora has died, aged 90. Mora and her husband, Georges, arrived in Melbourne in 1951 after surviving the Holocaust, and became entrenched in the city's bohemian...

RiP V S Naipaul

15 August 2018
Trinidad-born British writer V S Naipaul has died in London, aged 85. Naipaul was the author of over 30 books, beginning with the novel The Mystic Masseur in 1957. His breakout autobiographical...

RiP Candy Royalle 

27 June 2018
Lebanese-Palestinian Australian poet and activist Candy Royalle has died, aged 37. Royalle was a spoken word artist and performer, and the author of two poetry collections, Heartbeats (self-published) and Love Spectacular...