ALS Gold Medal

The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal (ALS Gold Medal) is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for “an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year.”^[1] From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the Australian Literature Society, then from 1983 by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, when the two organisations were merged.

Award winners

• 2015: Jennifer Maiden — Drones and Phantoms^[2]
• 2014: Alexis Wright — The Swan Book^[3]
• 2013: Michelle de Kretser — Questions of Travel
• 2012: Gillian Mears – Foal's Bread
• 2011: Kim Scott – That Deadman Dance
• 2010: David Malouf – Ransom
• 2009: Christos Tsiolkas – The Slap
• 2008: Michelle de Kretser – The Lost Dog
• 2007: Alexis Wright – Carpentaria
• 2006: Gregory Day – The Patron Saint of Eels
• 2005: Gail Jones – Sixty Lights
• 2004: Laurie Duggan – Mangroves
• 2003: Kate Jennings – Moral Hazard
• 2002: Richard Flanagan – Gould's Book of Fish
• 2001: Rodney Hall – The Day We Had Hitler Home
• 2000: Drusilla Modjeska – Stravinsky's Lunch.^[4]
• 1999: Murray Bail – Eucalyptus
• 1998: James Cowan – A Mapmaker's Dream
• 1997: Robert Dessaix – Night Letters
• 1996: Amanda Lohrey – Camille's Bread
• 1995: Helen Demidenko – The Hand That Signed the Paper
• 1994: Louis Nowra – Radiance and The Temple
• 1993: Elizabeth Riddell – Selected Poems
• 1992: Rodney Hall – The Second Bridegroom
• 1991: Elizabeth Jolley – Cabin Fever
• 1990: Peter Porter – Possible Worlds
• 1989: Frank Moorhouse – Forty-seventeen
• 1988: Brian Matthews – Louisa
• 1987: Alan Wearne – The Nightmarkets
• 1986: Thea Astley – Beachmasters
• 1985: David Ireland – Archimedes and the Seagle^[5]
• 1984: Les Murray – The People's Other World
• 1983: David Malouf – Child's Play; Fly Away Peter
• 1975–82: No Award
• 1974: David Malouf – Neighbours in a Thicket
• 1973: Francis Webb
• 1972: Alex Buzo – Macquarie (play)
• 1971: Colin Badger
• 1970: Manning Clark
• 1966: A. D. Hope
• 1965: Patrick White – The Burnt Ones^[6]
• 1964: Geoffrey Blainey – The Rush that Never Ended
• 1963: John Morrison – Twenty-Three : Stories^[7]
• 1962: Vincent Buckley – Masters in Israel^[8]
• 1960: William Hart Smith – Poems of Discovery^[9]
• 1959: Randolph Stow – To the Islands^[10]
• 1957: Martin Boyd – A Difficult Young Man^[11]
• 1955: Patrick White – The Tree of Man^[12]
• 1954: Mary Gilmore – Fourteen Men^[13]
• 1952: Tom Hungerford — The Ridge and the River : A Novel^[14]
• 1951: Rex Ingamells — The Great South Land : An Epic Poem^[15]
• 1950: Jon Cleary – Just Let Me Be^[16]
• 1948: Herz Bergner – Between Sky and Sea^[17]
• 1942: Kylie Tennant – The Battlers^[18]
• 1941: Patrick White – Happy Valley^[19]
• 1940: William Baylebridge – This Vital Flesh^[20]
• 1939: Xavier Herbert – Capricornia^[21]
• 1938: R. D. FitzGerald – Moonlight Acre^[22]
• 1937: Seaforth Mackenzie – The Young Desire It^[23]
• 1936: Eleanor Dark – Return to Coolami^[24]
• 1935: Winifred Birkett – Earth's Quality^[25]
• 1934: Eleanor Dark – Prelude to Christopher^[26]
• 1933: G. B. Lancaster (Edith J. Lyttleton) – Pageant^[27]
• 1932: Leonard Mann – Flesh in Armour^[28]
• 1931: Frank Dalby Davison – Man-Shy^[29]
• 1930: Vance Palmer – The Passage^[30]
• 1929: Henry Handel Richardson – Ultima Thule^[31]
• 1928: Martin Mills (Martin Boyd) – The Montforts^[32]

Shortlisted works

2015^[33]

• Joan London, The Golden Age
• Jennifer Maiden, Drones and Phantoms
• David Malouf, Earth Hour
• Favel Parrett, When the Night Comes
• Inga Simpson, Nest

2014^[34]

• Eleanor Limprecht, What Was Left
• Luke Carman, An Elegant Young Man
• Hannah Kent, Burial Rites
• Christos Tsiolkas, Barracuda
• Alex Miller, Coal Creek
• Alexis Wright, The Swan Book

2013^[35]

• Jessie Cole, Darkness on the Edge of Town
• Michelle de Kretser, Questions of Travel
• Robert Drewe, Montebello
• Christopher Koch, Lost Voices
• P. A. O’Reilly, The Fine Colour of Rust

2012

• Steven Amsterdam, What the Family Needed
• Christopher Edwards, People of Earth
• Diane Fahey, The Wing Collection: New & Selected poems
• Gillian Mears, Foal's Bread
• Favel Parrett, Past The Shallows
• Anna Funder, All That I Am
• Gail Jones, Five Bells
• Alex Miller, Autumn Laing
• Elliot Perlman, The Street Sweeper
• Gig Ryan, Gig Ryan: New and Selected Poems
• Jaya Savige, Surface to Air

2011

• Peter Boyle, Apocrypha
• Peter Goldsworthy, Gravel
• Kim Scott, That Deadman Dance
• Kirsten Tranter, The Legacy
• Chris Womersley, Bereft

2010

• Emily Ballou, The Darwin Poems
• Steven Carroll, The Lost Life
• Eva Hornung, Dog Boy
• Cate Kennedy, The World Beneath
• David Malouf, Ransom

2008^[36]

• Michelle de Kretser, The Lost Dog
• J. S. Harry, Not Finding Wittgenstein
• Rhyll McMaster, Feather Man
• David Malouf, Typewriter Music
• Alex Miller, Landscape of Farewell

See also

• Australian literature

References

1. "ALS Gold Medal". Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
2. "Drones and Phantoms by Jennifer Maiden" Readings
3. "The Week in Review" Sydney Review of Books, 11 July 2014
4. Austlit - Stravinky's Lunch by Drusilla Modjeska
5. Austlit - Archimedes and the Seagle by David Ireland
6. Austlit - The Burnt Ones by Patrick White
7. Austlit - Twenty-Three : Stories by John Morrison
8. Austlit - Masters in Israel by Vincent Buckley
9. Austlit - Poems of Discovery by William Hart Smith
10. "Papers of Randolph Stow" National Library of Australia
11. Austlit - A Difficult Young Man by Martin Boyd
12. Austlit - The Tree of Man by Patrick White
13. Australian Classics : 50 Great Writers and Their Celebrated Work by Jane Gleeson-White, p61
14. "Literary Award to T.A.G. Hungerford" The Canberra Times, 11 February 1954, p3
15. "Crouch Prize for Literature to R. Ingamells" The Age, 7 April 1952, p5
16. The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature p129
17. "Melbourne Author Wins Gold Medal" The Argus, 10 December 1948, p10
18. "Literature Prize" The Age, 19 November 1943, p2
19. "Medal for Author of Happy Valley" The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 February 1941, p13
20. "About People" The Age, 19 February 1941, p20
21. "Prize for Best Novel" The Argus, 19 March 1940, p1
22. "Literary Gold Medal : Award to Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald" The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 February 1940, p16
23. "Seaforth Mackenzie Wins 1937 Literature Prize" The Telegraph, 22 November 1938, p8
24. "Return to Coolami : Medal for Best Novel" The Argus, 21 September 1937, p11
25. "Gold Medal – Australian Literary Society" The Canberra Times, 31 October 1936, p2
26. "Best Novel of 1934" The Argus, 22 October 1935, p6
27. "Australian Literature : Society's Annual 'Drama Night'" The Age, 6 October 1934, p21
28. "In and About the City - Literature Award" The Courier-Mail, 10 November 1933, p10
29. "Literature Society's Gold Medal" The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 July 1932, p3
30. "Best Novel of 1930" The Argus, 16 June 1931, p6
31. "Australian Novel" The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 March 1930, p6
32. "Australian Literature Society" The Age, 8 October 1929, p13
33. "ALS Gold Medal 2015 shortlist announced", Books + Publishing, 5 May 2015
34. "ALS Gold Medal 2014 shortlist announced", Books + Publishing, 27 February 2014
35. "2013 ALS Gold Medal Shortlist", ANZ LitLovers, 19 March 2013
36. 2007 Prize winners (sic)

External links

• ALS Gold Medal Award homepage