Literary nonfiction

Monday musings on Australian literature: recent Australian creative nonfiction on my TBR

/ Whispering Gums / 21 Comments

Brona (This Reading Life) recently announced her main reading project for next year, Reading Nonfiction 2026, in which she plans to read 24 nonfiction books from her TBR. She has written a few posts on the project, including on two nonfiction categories on her TBR shelves, Australian Lit Bios and Environment, Climate and Travel. If you are looking for some good Aussie nonfiction – perhaps to get ahead of the game for Nonfiction November 2026 – these posts would be a good place to start.

While I also have nonfiction books on my TBR shelves, including some in the categories above, particularly the Lit Bio one, I thought I would share here some books from another “genre”, that described as creative or narrative or even literary nonfiction. As I have written before, including in my Supporting Genres post back in 2021, it generally refers to nonfiction writing that uses some of the techniques of fiction, particularly, but not only, in terms of narrative style. Wikipedia defines it as “a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives.” This is a good enough description (I’ll use “description” that rather than “definition”) for me to use here.

I do enjoy nonfiction, including history of all sorts but particularly social history, autobiography and biography, travel, science, and more, but the form which this writing takes can make a difference and, being a lover of fiction, creative nonfiction is my preferred form. As is my wont and as I explained in that 2021 post, I define it broadly, so I won’t repeat all that here. Instead, I’ll just list a few that are on my TBR right now that fill the bill. 

Interestingly, several of them come from Upswell Publishing which, as publisher Terri-ann White says on her About page, publishes “books that elude easy categorising and work somewhat against the grain of current trends. They are books that may have trouble finding a home in the contemporary Australian publishing sector.” They are, in fact, the sorts of books that tend to fall into the creative nonfiction basket. Other publishers who publish in this area include Transit Lounge, Text Publishing, and, although small in output, Finlay Lloyd. Interestingly too, these books are often, but certainly not always, written by writers of fiction.

So, here is a somewhat eclectic and random list of recent books from my TBR. I have ascribed some sort of “form” to them, but because, by definition, they are hard to categorise, these descriptors are loose, even those that don’t look like they are:

  • Anne-Marie Condé, The prime minister’s potato and other essays (Upswell, 2025, sociocultural studies)
  • Gregory Day, Words are eagles (Upswell, 2022, landscape writing)
  • Abbas El-Zein, Bullets, paper, rock: A memoir of words and wars (Upswell, 2024, memoir)
  • Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, The mushroom tapes (Text, 2025, true crime)
  • Kim Kelly, Touched (Finlay Lloyd, 2025, memoir, review coming soon)
  • Belinda Probert, Imaginative possession: Learning to live in the Antipodes (Upswell, 2021, memoir/place writing)
  • Susan Varga, Hard joy: Life and writing (Upswell, 2022, memoir)
  • Jessica White, Silence is my habitat (Upswell, 2025, ecobiographical writing)

What do you think about creative (or whatever you prefer to call it) nonfiction?

Monday musings on Australian literature: Supporting genres, 4: Literary nonfiction

/ Whispering Gums / 22 Comments

Continuing my little Monday Musings sub-series on “supporting” genres, I’m turning next to a rather “rubbery” genre, literary nonfiction. It is tricky to define – and partly for that reason, it is not obviously well supported.

Literary nonfiction goes by a few other names including creative nonfiction and narrative nonfiction. This last one provides a bit of a clue to its definition, which is that it generally refers to non-fiction writing that uses some of the techniques of fiction, particularly, but not only, in terms of narrative style. Wikipedia defines it as “a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives.” It quotes Lee Gutkind, who founded Creative Nonfiction magazine:

“Ultimately, the primary goal of the creative nonfiction writer is to communicate information, just like a reporter, but to shape it in a way that reads like fiction.”

In other words, it aims for a prose style that is more entertaining (but not at the expense of fact.) In my review of Anna Funder’s Stasiland, I wrote that she “uses some of the literary techniques – relating to structure, voice and language – more commonly found in fiction to tell her story”.

Well-known Australian writers in this “genre” include Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper, Anna Krien, Anna Funder and Sarah Krasnostein, all of whom I’ve read. It is a grey area, though, and I suspect each of us would draw the line at different places. However, I would include essay collections by Fiona Wright and Maria Tumarkin, and many hybrid memoir/biographies, like Nadia Wheatley’s Her mother’s daughter (my review)? Historians who write for general audiences rather than academia might also be included. I’m thinking here of Clare Wright and Inga Clendinnen, as possibilities. What do you think?

Prizes

For some genres – literary fiction and crime for example – awards/prizes are a major source of support (in terms of money and recognition) but this is less so for literary nonfiction.

Anna Funder's Stasiland bookcover

Back in 2004, Anna Funder’s Stasiland (my review) won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction. Now renamed the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, it is, says Wikipedia, “an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language”. Not surprisingly, winners include works from this literary nonfiction “genre”. Another winner I’ve reviewed here (though it’s not Australian) is Helen Macdonald’s H is for hawk (my review). Australians have not featured highly in this award.

In Australia, several of the state awards include a nonfiction category, and these have been won by literary nonfiction, though they compete with other forms of nonfiction like histories, biographies and other forms of life-writing, essays, and so on.

Major Australian Nonfiction Literary Prizes

None of the awards listed here are specifically for “literary nonfiction” but these are awards which may be won by such books.

Sarah Krasnostein, The trauma cleaner

Also relevant are awards that are not “specifically” nonfiction:

Nadia Wheatley, Her mother's daughter
  • Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award: this award for “excellence in research” and “in writing” has been won by books in this genre, like Helen Garner’s Joe Cinque’s consolation (2005) and Nadia Wheatley’s Her mother’s daughter (2019).
  • Stella Prize: while this multi-genre/multi-form prize has more often been won by fiction, nonfiction – and particularly literary nonfiction – does feature in its long- and shortlists. Rebecca Giggs’ Fathoms, for example, was shortlisted in 2021.

But, is there more?

The issue, though, for writers is what support do they get when they come up with an idea? Are the sorts of fellowships, grants and writer’s residencies that fiction writers can access also around for nonfiction writers? Well, yes, there are, such as:

  • Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund is an unusual award that is open not just to writers but also to “literary sector workers”. It recognises the importance of travel to writing and literary careers. Awardees have included writers researching nonfiction topics – and, despite COVID, it is still being offered, with a round being made in June this year. To give some examples, in 2018, the aformentioned Rebecca Giggs received a grant for expenses related to a writing residency at the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany. And, in November 2019, Tamara Lazaroff received some funds to research her experimental narrative non-fiction memoir Hermit girls on De Witt Island, Tasmania. 
  • Varuna Writers House Residencies are open to “committed writers from all genres”. With around 160 residencies a year, the alumni is extensive, but they include Gail Bell whose The poison principle (on my TBR) won the 2002 NSW Premier’s Prize for Non-Fiction and Patti Miller whose complex memoir, The mind of a thief, was longlisted for the 2013 Stella Prize.

There are more, but these two provide a good start.

Do you read literary nonfiction? If so, would you care to share some favourites?

Previous supporting genre posts: 1. Historical fiction; 2. Short stories; 3. Biography