Foundation for Australian Literary Studies News & Events

News & Events

2024 Events

Thursday 25 July 2024 | 6:00 pm – 7.30 pm

In the ongoing climate wars, the Great Barrier Reef has become a symbol of everything that we have to lose from global warming. For years, reports of the world-famous coral being irreversibly bleached have fuelled an ideological battle between those fighting to stop the damage and those who insist the danger is overblown.

Paul Hardisty found himself in the middle of this fight during his six years as CEO of the Australian Institute of Marine Science. In this fascinating, candid and urgent book, he dives into the history of the reef and cuts through the rhetoric to chart the circumstances and acceleration of its decline, as well as the determined efforts to save it.

In Hot Water is a crucial look inside the battle to save one of Australia's greatest treasures, describing what must be done to preserve it, and what is at risk if we fail to do so.

Find out more about the event and register your attendance.

Thursday 1 August 2024 | 6:00 pm

The Foundation for Australian Literary Studies is proud to announce that the 2024 Colin Roderick Memorial Lecture will be hosted by award winning author, Mirandi Riwoe.

The lecture Past, Present, Future: Writing Historical Fiction is presented in conversation with Emma Maguire in Townsville and Roger Osborne in Cairns.

Find out more about the event and register your attendance.

Friday 2 August| 6:00 pm

The Foundation for Australian Literary Studies is proud to announce that the 2024 Colin Roderick Memorial Lecture will be hosted by award winning author, Mirandi Riwoe.

The lecture Past, Present, Future: Writing Historical Fiction is presented in conversation with Emma Maguire in Townsville and Roger Osborne in Cairns.

Find out more about the event and register your attendance.

Monday 14 October 2024| 6:00 pm – 7.30 pm

Tim Winton

Tim Winton is the author of 30 books. His work has been widely translated and adapted for film, television, stage and radio. He lives in Western Australia.

Find out more about the event and register your attendance.

Past Events

Thursday 29th February 2024
5.15pm - 7.45pm

The English Teachers Association Queensland (ETAQ) [Townsville Branch] and the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies (FALS) are collaborating to recognise the depth and breadth of local authors who are living and working in Townsville.

Join us to celebrate some of our local authors where we are asking each writer to talk for five minutes about why they write and their latest book or poem.

Find out more about the event and register your attendance.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of AIMS, the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies (FALS) and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) offered six writers the opportunity to participate in a one-week writing residency at the remote tropical science facility in North Queensland. Read more about this event.

News

Australian writers will now be able to vie for a $50,000 literary prize - one of the country’s largest literature awards.

Starting from next year, the winner of the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award, given for the Australian book judged best overall in that year, will now receive $50,000 - up from $30,000 in 2023.

The significant increase was made possible following a generous annual contribution from the trust of the late Margaret Roderick.

Read more.

The shortlist for one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious literary awards has been announced by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies, based at James Cook University.

"We’ve had to hose quite a bit of blood off the walls and consoled ourselves with the fact that this was the biggest, most diverse, and best set of Roderick entries ever.  We simply had more good and very good books this year than any of us can remember" said Emeritus Professor Alan Lawson, Chair of the Judging Panel.  Read more.

15 books have been longlisted for the 2023 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award, including an art book and an encyclopaedic dictionary.

Read more.

The winner of the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award for 2022 has been announced and it is Emily Bitto for her novel Wild Abandon, published by Allen & Unwin.

Read more.

The winner of the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award for 2023 has been announced and it is Sarah Holland-Batt for her novel The Jaguar, published by University of Queensland Press.

Read more.