Welcome to Day 3 of the Top 50 favourite Australian author announcements!

After an Australia-wide call for nominations, a week of voting in 5 Heats, and a further week of voting in the Finals, we’ve finally collated all your votes and are ready to announce some more of your Favourite Australian Authors for 2017!

We received thousands of votes, so thank you all for taking the time to do so. Your authors thank you, and hopefully they’ll pen another book as a sign of their gratitude.

Today we take a look at your favourite authors, 30-21. Congratulations to all the authors below! Today’s selection includes Booker Prize winner Thomas Keneally,  bestselling Judy Nunn and one of Australia’s most successful contemporary writers, Rachael Johns.

We will keep counting down your Favourite Australian Authors this week, all leading up to the big reveal on Friday, where we’ll be announcing your Top 10 and your Favourite Australian Author!

Australia’s Favourite Australian Authors: 30-21

30. Isobelle Carmody

Isobelle Carmody is one of the world’s most highly acclaimed authors of fantasy and young adult fiction. At fourteen, she began Obernewtyn, the first book in her much-loved Obernewtyn Chronicles.

Her novel The Gathering was joint winner of the 1993 Children’s Literature Peace Prize and the 1994 CBCA Book of the Year Award, and Greylands was joint winner of the 1997 Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction (Young Adult category), and was named a White Raven at the 1998 Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

Isobelle’s work for younger readers includes her two series, The Legend of Little Fur, and The Kingdom of the Lost. Isobelle was voted our Australia’s Favourite Author for 2016.

29. Tony Park

Tony Park was born in 1964 and grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney. He has worked as a newspaper reporter in Australia and England, a government press secretary, a public relations consultant, and freelance writer. His novels have been acclaimed bestsellers since his very first, Far Horizon.

He is also a Major in the Australian Army Reserve and served six months in Afghanistan in 2002 as the public affairs officer for the Australian ground forces. He and his wife, Nicola, divide their time between Sydney and southern Africa where they own a home on the border of the Kruger National Park. Visit Tony’s Booktopia author page.

28. Judy Nunn

Judy Nunn’s career has been long, illustrious and multifaceted. After combining her internationally successful acting career with scriptwriting for television and radio, Judy’s first three novels, The Glitter Game, Centre Stage and Araluen became instant bestsellers.

Her fame as a novelist has spread rapidly throughout Europe where she is published in English, German, French, Dutch, Czech and Spanish. Her subsequent bestsellers, Kal, Beneath The Southern Cross, Territory, Pacific, Heritage, Floodtide, Maralinga and Tiger Men confirm Judy’s position as one of Australia’s leading fiction writers.

We spoke with Judy Nunn about her novel Spirits of the Ghan, which you can listen to here. Visit Judy’s Booktopia author page.

27. Rachael Johns

An English teacher by trade, a supermarket owner by day, a mum 24/7, and a writer by night. In a relatively short space of time, Rachael has shown herself a force to be reckoned with, helping to bolster a new movement in Australian Romance writing.

At 17 she began writing, enlightened by the thought that she could create whatever ending she liked, and almost a decade later, after many, many attempts at writing different types of novels, she joined the Romance Writers of Australia association. Her latest novel is The Art of Keeping Secrets. Visit Rachael’s Booktopia author page.

26. Ruth Park

Born in Auckland, Ruth Park moved to Australia in 1942. Her first novel was The Harp in the South, a graphic story of Irish slum life in Sydney, which has been translated into 37 languages. It remains her most popular novel and has never been out of print.

She wrote over fifty books, and her many awards included the prestigious Miles Franklin Award for Swords and Crowns and Rings; the Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (USA) for Playing Beatie Bow and The Age Book of the Year Award for A Fence Around the Cuckoo. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1987. Ruth Park died in December 2010. Visit Ruth’s Booktopia author page.

25. Monica McInerney 

Monica grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley of South Australia and has been living between Australia and Ireland for twenty years. She and her Irish husband currently live in Dublin.

She was a book publicist for ten years, working in Ireland and Australia and promoting authors such as Roald Dahl and Tim Winton. Monica McInerney is the author of the internationally bestselling novels, A Taste for It, Upside Down Inside Out, Spin the Bottle, The Alphabet Sisters, Family Baggage, Those Faraday Girls and At Home with the Templetons. In 2006 she was the ambassador for the Australian Government initiative Books Alive, with her novella Odd One Out. Visit Monica’s Booktopia author page.

24. Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville was born in Sydney and worked in the film industry after graduating from university. She is now one of Australia’s best-known authors. She has published eight books of fiction and four books about the writing process.

Her best-known works include the international best-seller The Secret River, The Idea of Perfection, The Lieutenant and Lilian’s Story. The Secret River has won many prizes, including the Commonwealth Prize for Literature and the Christina Stead Prize. Several of her novels have been made into major feature films, and all have been translated into European and Asian languages. Her most recent book is called One Life. Visit Kate’s Booktopia author page.

23. Thomas Keneally

Thomas Keneally won the Booker Prize in 1982 with Schindler’s Ark, later made into the Academy Award-winning film Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg. Some of his non-fiction titles include the memoir Searching for Schindler and Three Famines.

His novels The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest and Confederates were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, while Bring Larks and Heroes and Three Cheers For The Paraclete won the Miles Franklin Award.

The People’s Train was long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, South East Asia division. His most recent title is Australians: A Short History.  Visit Thomas’ Booktopia author page.

22. Morris Gleitzman

Morris Gleitzman grew up in England and came to Australia when he was sixteen. He was a frozen-chicken thawer, fashion-industry trainee, student, department-store Santa, TV producer, newspaper columnist and screenwriter. Then he had a wonderful experience: he wrote a novel for young people.

Now he’s one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. His books explore serious and sometimes confronting subjects in humorous and unexpected ways. His titles include Two Weeks With The Queen, Doubting Thomas, Snot Chocolate and the series Once, Then, Now, After and Soon. Morris lives in Sydney and Brisbane, and his books are published in more than twenty countries. Visit Morris’ Booktopia author page.

21. Fiona McIntosh

Fiona McIntosh was born and raised in Sussex in the UK, but also spent early childhood years in West Africa. She left a PR career in London to travel and settled in Australia in 1980.

Fiona is now an internationally bestselling author of novels for adults and children. She co-founded an award-winning travel magazine with her husband, which they ran for fifteen years while raising their twin sons before she became a full-time author. Fiona roams the world researching and drawing inspiration for her novels, and runs a series of highly respected fiction masterclasses.

Some of her titles include The Perfumer’s Secret, Royal Exile and Tapestry. Her most recent novel is The Chocolate Tin. Visit Fiona’s Booktopia author page.

Results continue tomorrow for: Australia’s Favourite Australian Authors (20-11)

1 Comment Share:

About the Contributor

Bronwyn Eley

Before entering the exciting world of books, Bronwyn served in the Royal Australian Air Force, travelled extensively and worked (still does!) as a barista on the weekends. Books are her true passion. Bronwyn's debut fantasy novel Relic is coming out in 2019 with indie publishing house Talem Press. They are to publish her entire trilogy called The Relic Trilogy. In her spare time, Bronwyn writes, reads and enjoys keeping fit (which she undoes by eating loads of chocolate) with Martial Arts and personal training. She can't answer what her favourite book is but she has a soft spot for Peter Pan (J.M Barrie), Outlander (Diana Gabaldon), Stardust (Neil Gaiman), The Illuminae Files (Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman) and Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo). Fantasy, sci-fi and YA make up the majority of her bookshelves.

Follow Bronwyn: Twitter