Our Top 50 countdown continues with more incredible Australian authors making our Australia’s Favourite Author poll, so here are numbers 30 to 21!

This has been a huge month for Aussie authors and for you our voters! This month we asked you to nominate your favourite Australian authors and we had over 1000 authors nominated – incredible! Next came the voting rounds over three weeks in the Heats and Finals. We’ve collated all your votes and are ready to announce your Top 50 Favourite Australian Authors for 2018.

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 who have been voted into the Top 50! Scroll down and you’ll see amazing Aussie authors like Kate Morton, Judy Nunn and Jane Harper.

This week we’ll be counting down your Favourite Australian Authors, all leading up to the big reveal on Thursday, where we’ll be announcing your Top 10 and… your #1 Favourite Australian Author!

Check out the authors ranked 50-41 here.

Check out the authors ranked 40-31 here.

Check out the authors ranked 20-11 here.

So without further ado, meet the authors ranked 30-21:

Australia’s Favourite Australian Authors: 30-21

30. Magda Szubanski

So many Australians first fell in love with Magda Szubanski through her iconic role on hit-show Kath & Kim with her loveable character Sharon Strzelecki, not to mention her film roles in Babe and Babe: Pig in the City. 

Magda has since become one of the most prominent faces for Australia’s Marriage Equality campaign and has twice been polled as Australia’s most recognised and trusted personality.

Magda’s memoir Reckoning is a heartbreaking, joyous, traumatic, intimate and revelatory work.

29. Kate Morton

Kate Morton’s love of books began very early. Her favourites were those by Enid Blyton. It was a love deeply felt, for it is still mysteries and secrets that dance around the edges of Kate’s mind, keeping her awake deep into the night, turning or typing pages.

Kate’s first book, The House at Riverton (The Shifting Fog), was a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2007 and a New York Times bestseller in 2008. The Shifting Fog won General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2007 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA), and The House at Riverton was nominated for Most Popular Book at the British Book Awards in 2008.

Her second book, The Forgotten Garden, was a #1 bestseller in Australia and Spain, and a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2008. It won General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2009 Australian Book Industry Awards and was a New York Times bestseller in 2009. 

Kate has many other bestsellers, including The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper and The Lake House. Her books are published in 39 countries and in 32 languages. She currently lives in London with her family and continues to write the sorts of books she can disappear inside. Visit Kate’s Booktopia author page.

28. Richard Flanagan

Richard Flanagan was born in Longford, Tasmania, in 1961. His novels, Death Of A River Guide, The Sound Of One Hand Clapping, Gould’s Book Of Fish, The Unknown Terrorist, Wanting and The Narrow Road to the Deep North have received numerous honours and are published in twenty-six countries. 

He directed a feature film version of The Sound Of One Hand Clapping in 1998. A collection of his essays is published as And What Do You Do, Mr Gable? The Narrow Road to the Deep North won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Richard’s most recent book is First Person. Visit Richard’s Booktopia author page.

27. Helen Garner

Helen Garner’s first novel, Monkey Grip, was published in 1977, and immediately established her as an original voice on the Australian literary scene.

Throughout her career, Garner has written both fiction and non-fiction. She attracted controversy with her book The First Stone about a sexual harassment scandal in a university college. She has also written for film and theatre, and has consistently won awards for her work.

Her most recent book is A Writing Life. Visit Helen’s Booktopia author page.

26. Morris Gleitzman

Morris Gleitzman grew up in England and came to Australia when he was sixteen. He was a frozen-chicken thawer, sugar-mill rolling-stock unhooker, 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 for his Once, Now, Then, After novels.

Visit Morris’ Booktopia author page.

25. 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 decided in the 90s to turn her hand to prose.

Her first three novels, The Glitter Game, Centre Stage and Araluen, set respectively in the worlds of television, theatre and film, became instant bestsellers, and the rest is history, quite literally in fact. 

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.

Judy’s latest novel is called Sanctuary. Visit Judy’s Booktopia author page.

24. Jane Harper

Jane Harper was born in Manchester in the UK, and moved to Australia with her family at age eight. She has worked for the Hull Daily Mail, the Geelong Advertiser and the Herald Sun.

In 2014, Jane submitted a short story which was one of 12 chosen for the Big Issue’s annual Fiction Edition.

That inspired her to pursue creative writing more seriously, and that year she applied for the Curtis Brown Creative online 12-week novel writing course. She was accepted with a submission for the book that would become her bestselling novel The Dry. Her latest book is called Force of Nature and we sat down to chat with Jane about this in our podcast.

Visit Jane’s Booktopia author page.

23. Colleen McCullough

Colleen McCullough was born in western New South Wales in 1937. A neuroscientist by training, she worked in various Sydney and English hospitals before settling into ten years of research and teaching in the Department of Neurology at the Yale Medical School in the USA. 

In 1974 her first novel, Tim, was published in New York, followed by the bestselling The Thorn Birds in 1977 and a string of successful novels, including the acclaimed Masters of Rome series. 

Colleen McCullough died January, 2015. Visit Colleen’s Booktopia author page.

22. Emily Rodda

Emily Rodda is one of Australia’s most successful, popular and versatile writers, who has won the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award for a record five times. 

A former editor of The Women’s Weekly, Emily is also the best-selling author of adult mysteries under her own name of Jennifer Rowe. Her children’s books, for a range of ages and genres, exhibit a mastery of plot and character. 

Of Emily’s many books, including her Deltora Quest series, her Rowan of Rin was the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the year for Younger Readers in 1994. Rowan and the Keeper of the Crystal was short-listed for the 1997 Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers. 

Visit Emily’s 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. Fiona’s work is ever-popular, including The Chocolate Tin, The Perfumer’s Secret, The Tailor’s Girl, Tapestry, and Royal Exile, book 1 in her Valisar Trilogy Series.

Listen to Fiona chat to us about her most recent novel, The Tea Gardens, on the Booktopia podcast here.

Visit Fiona’s Booktopia author page.

Check out the authors ranked 50-41 here.

Check out the authors ranked 40-31 here.

Check out the authors ranked 20-11 here.

Return later today for the next round of results: Australia’s Favourite Australian Authors (20-11)

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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.

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