This is a list of historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2021.
Major publications
Literary fiction
Michael Mohammed Ahmad, The Other Half of You
Evelyn Araluen, Dropbear
Larissa Behrendt, After Story
Steven Carroll, O
Michelle de Kretser, Scary Monsters
Jennifer Down, Bodies of Light
Nikki Gemmell, The Ripping Tree
Anita Heiss, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams
John Kinsella, Pushing Back
Emily Maguire, Love Objects
Alice Pung, One Hundred Days
Collected essays
Chelsea Watego, Another Day in the Colony
Children's and young adult fiction
Felicity Castagna, Girls in Boys' Cars
Katrina Nannestad, Rabbit, Soldier, Angel Thief
Crime and thrillers
Candice Fox, The Chase
Helen FitzGerald, Ash Mountain
Michael Robotham, When You Are Mine
Poetry
Pam Brown, Stasis Shuffle
Maxine Beneba Clarke, How Decent Folk Behave
Andy Jackson, Human Looking
Maria Takolander, Trigger Warning
Non-fiction
Randa Abdel-Fattah, Coming of Age in the War on Terror
Julia Banks, Power Play: Breaking Through Bias, Barriers and Boys' Clubs
Alison Croggon, Monsters: A reckoning
Mehreen Faruqi, Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud
Ross Garnaut, Reset: Restoring Australia after the Pandemic Recession
Stan Grant, With the Falling of the Dusk
Dale Kent, The Most I Could Be
Scott Ludlam, Full Circle: A search for the world that comes next
Mark McKenna, Return to Uluru
Henry Reynolds, Truth-Telling: History, sovereignty and the Uluru Statement
Jeff Sparrow, Crimes Against Nature: Capitalism and Global Heating
Corey Tutt and Blak Douglas (illustrator), The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia's First Peoples
Awards and honours
Note: these awards were presented in the year in question.
Lifetime achievement
Fiction
National
Children and Young Adult
National
Crime and Mystery
National
Non-Fiction
Poetry
Drama
Deaths
1 May – Kate Jennings, poet and writer (died in the United States) (b. 1948) 25 April – Valerie Parv, romance novelist (b. 1951) 16 May – Vera Deacon, historian (b. 1926) 16 September – Tim Thorne, poet (b. 1944) 22 November – Stuart Macintyre, historian (b. 1947) Doug MacLeod, children's writer, poet, screenwriter and playwright (b. 1959) Babette Smith, historian (b. 1942) 26 November – Desmond O'Grady, journalist and author (died in Rome) (b. 1929) 26 December – Paul B. Kidd, radio broadcaster and true crime writer (b. 1945)