This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1986.
Events
Elizabeth Jolley won the 1986 Miles Franklin Award for The Well
Major publications
Novels
Margaret Barbalet - Blood in the Rain
Elizabeth Jolley — The Well
Rod Jones — Julia Paradise
John Macgregor — Propinquity
Christina Stead -- I'm Dying Laughing: The Humourist (posthumous) Morris West — Cassidy Tim Winton — That Eye, the Sky Patrick White - Memoirs of Many in One Children's and young adult fiction Graeme Base — Animalia Hesba Fay Brinsmead — Someplace Beautiful Victor Kelleher — Taronga Doug MacLeod — Sister Madge's Book of Nuns Emily Rodda — Pigs Might Fly Poetry Lily Brett — The Auschwitz Poems Robert Harris — A Cloud Passes Over Philip Hodgins — Blood and Bone Rhyll McMaster — Washing the Money: Poems with photographs Jan Owen — Boy with Telescope John A. Scott — St. Clair: Three Narratives Drama Michael Gow — Away Non-fiction Gillian Bouras — A Foreign Wife Robert Hughes — The Fatal Shore Kylie Tennant — The Missing HeirAwards and honours Geoffrey Serle , for "service to scholarship and literature, particularly in the field of Australian history" Nicholas Hasluck , for "service to literature" Dorothy Hewett , for "service to literature" Barbara Jefferis , for "service to literature" Grace Perry , for "service to Australian literature, particularly as editor of Poetry Australia''" Russel Ward , for "service to literature, particularly in the field of Australian history"
Lifetime achievement
Literary awards
Births
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
Deaths
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.
27 September — Olga Masters, writer, journalist, novelist and short story writer (born 1919) 10 November — Laurence Collinson, British and Australian playwright, actor, poet, journalist, and secondary school teacher (born 1925)