General introduction

The result of an unprecedented collaboration between Sydney's Macquarie University and International PEN Sydney Centre, and funded by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australian Research Council, The Literature of Australia offers readers of all kinds a window into the myriad ways of being Australian. It covers two hundred years of literature in all genres, from the 1700s to the present. With over 500 entries from 307 different authors, it includes writing by Aboriginal authors from the early colonial period to the present, through to work from contemporary authors of international renown, including Shirley Hazzard, Peter Carey, David Malouf, Les Murray, Alexis Wright, and and Kate Grenville.