1982 in Australian literature

• Thomas Keneally won the 1982 Booker–McConnell Prize for Schindler's Ark, the first Australian to win the award.^[1]
• Rodney Hall (writer) won the 1982 Miles Franklin Award for Just Relations

• Thea Astley — An Item from the Late News
• Jean Bedford — Sister Kate^[2]
• Rodney Hall — Just Relations
• Thomas Keneally — Schindler's Ark
• David Malouf
  • Child's Play^[3]
  • Fly Away Peter
• Gerald Murnane — The Plains
• Tim Winton — An Open Swimmer

• Peter Corris — The Marvellous Boy

• Glenda Adams — Games of the Strong^[4]
• Damien Broderick — The Judas Mandala^[5]
• Terry Dowling — "The Man Who Walks Away Behind the Eyes"^[6]

• Beverley Farmer — "Snake"^[7]

• Joan Lindsay — Syd Sixpence
• Jan Ormerod — Moonlight^[8]
• Nadia Wheatley — Five Times Dizzy

• Les Murray
  • Equanimities^[9]
  • The Vernacular Republic: Poems 1961–1981^[10]
• Vivian Smith – Tide Country
• John Tranter — Selected Poems^[11]
• Fay Zwicky – Kaddish and Other Poems

• Jack Davis — The Dreamers
• Louis Nowra — Spellbound^[12]
• David Williamson — The Perfectionist

• Blanche d'Alpuget — Robert J. Hawke: A Biography^[13]
• Edmund Campion — Rockchoppers: Growing up Catholic in Australia^[14]
• Nancy Keesing — Lily on the Dustbin: Slang of Australian Women and Families^[15]
• Geoffrey Serle — John Monash^[16]

• Donald Horne^[17]

• R. D. Fitzgerald^[18]
• Hal Porter^[19]

Award	Author
Christopher Brennan Award[20]	Vincent Buckley
Patrick White Award[21]	Bruce Beaver

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
The Age Book of the Year Award[22]	David Malouf	Fly Away Peter	Chatto & Windus
ALS Gold Medal[23]	No award
Colin Roderick Award[24]	Geoffrey Serle	John Monash : A Biography	Melbourne University Press
NSW Premier's Special Award[25]	Christina Stead

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Booker Prize[26]	Thomas Keneally	Schindler's Ark	Hodder and Stoughton

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
The Age Book of the Year Award[22]	David Malouf	Fly Away Peter	Chatto & Windus
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award[27]	Brian Castro	Birds of Passage	Allen and Unwin
	Nigel Krauth	Matilda, My Darling	Allen and Unwin
Miles Franklin Award[28]	Rodney Hall	Just Relations	Penguin Books
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[29]	Peter Carey	Bliss	University of Queensland Press
Western Australian Premier's Book Awards[30]	Archie Weller	Day of the Dog	Allen & Unwin

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Children's Book of the Year Award[31]	Older Readers	Colin Thiele	The Valley Between	Opal Books
Picture Book	Jan Ormerod	Sunshine	Penguin Books
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[29]	Children's Book Award	Nan Hunt and Craig Smith	Whistle Up the Chimney	William Collins

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Australian SF Achievement Award[32]	Best Australian Science Fiction	David Lake	The Man Who Loved Morlocks	Hyland House

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Anne Elder Award[33]	Kate Llewellyn	Trader Kate and the Elephants	Friendly Street Poets
	Peter Goldsworthy	Readings from Ecclesiastes	Angus & Robertson
Grace Leven Prize for Poetry[34]	Vivian Smith	Tide Country	Angus & Robertson
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[29]	Fay Zwicky	Kaddish and Other Poems	University of Queensland Press

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
The Age Book of the Year Award[22]	Geoffrey Serle	John Monash: A Biography	Melbourne University Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[29]	Richard Haese	Rebels and Precursors: The Revolutionary Years of Australian Art	Allen Lane

A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1982 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.

• 1 January — Craig Silvey, novelist, author of Jasper Jones^[35]
• 22 November — Alasdair Duncan, author and journalist^[36]
• 22 December — Sarah Holland-Batt, contemporary Australian poet, critic and academic^[37]

Unknown date

• Kate Gordon, author of young adult fiction^[38]