Ten Australian YA authors you need to know
Today is Australia Day, so I thought it was the perfect time to showcase some Australian authors. Although you’ve probably heard of the majority of these authors, you might not necessarily know that they’re from Australia – hopefully you’ll learn something from this post, and maybe discover a new author or two.
Alexandra Adornetto
Alexandra Adornetto – aka Alexandra Grace – was born in Melbourne, but relocated to Hollywood in the hopes that she could combine her career in novel-writing with acting. Adornetto is most well-known for the Halo trilogy, which is about fallen angels and forbidden love.
Alison Goodman
Alison Goodman was also born in Melbourne. She’s best known for writing the Eon duology – all about dragons – and The Dark Days Club trilogy, which follows a group of demon-hunters in the Regency period.
Amie Kaufman
Amie Kaufman was raised between Australia and Ireland, but currently lives in Melbourne. Kaufman’s name is instantly recognisable because of Illuminae, her collaborative project with Jay Kristoff, and the Starbound trilogy which began with These Broken Stars.
C.G. Drews
You might not recognise this name yet, because the author’s debut novel isn’t released until the summer. However, you’ll probably have heard of Paper Fury, who is one of the funniest book bloggers around. C.G. Drews is her real identity! A Thousand Perfect Notes sounds, well, perfect, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
Garth Nix
Garth Nix was born in Melbourne, too. Australia is a big country, but it sure is a small world! Nix is the author of a few bestselling series, namely Abhorsen, The Keys to the Kingdom and The Seventh Tower. I don’t think there’s a person alive who wouldn’t recognise his name, but I have yet to read one of his books (a personal failure which I’m hoping to rectify in 2018).
Jessica Shirvington
Jessica Shirvington is another author who specialised in books featuring fallen angels. Her most well-known book is Embrace, the first installment in The Violet Eden Chapters series, which she finished writing in 2014. Shirvington lives in Sydney.
John Marsden
John Marsden was born in Australia, and has contributed significantly to the country’s education system throughout his life. I didn’t know this until I was researching him for this post, but he actually established his own school just outside of Melbourne, and the place has a four year waiting list because it’s so popular! Marsden is most well-known for his Tomorrow, When the War Began series.
Lucy Christopher
Lucy Christopher was born in Wales and is currently living in England, so ordinarily I might have chosen to exclude her from this list. However, Stolen: A Letter To My Captor – her debut novel – is one of the most powerful novels I’ve ever read, and it’s set in Australia. She spent all of her school years in Australia and attended university down under, so I think she deserves this mention.
Markus Zusak
Although Markus Zusak’s parents are originally from Austria and Germany respectively, Zusak himself was born in Sydney, where he still lives. If you haven’t heard of Zusak, I’ll be surprised: The Book Thief is one of the most popular YA novels of all time (and I still haven’t read it. Whoops…).
Rebecca James
Rebecca James is the only author on this list who lives in Canberra, expanding the amount of Australian locations being featured! I’ve only read one of James’ novels so far – Sweet Damage – and her last novel, Cooper Bartholomew is Dead, was released in 2014. Fingers crossed we’ll get some new material from James sooner rather than later.
I hope you enjoyed this list. Did you know all of these writers were Australian, or were you as surprised as me? Can you think of any Australian authors that I missed? Leave your comments down below!
Alyce
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