Gerald Murnane appointed Officer of the Order of Australia

Gerald Murnane has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to literature as an author and novelist, and to tertiary education.

‘This is an expression…of recognition from the only country I’ve ever known,’ Murnane, now 87, told the Australian. ‘I’m an extraordinarily lucky person. I’ve had, let’s say, 16 books published; I enjoy my life.’

Murnane is a writer of fiction, memoir, essays and poetry. His books, which have been published in many territories worldwide, include Tamarisk Row, The Plains, Inland, Barley Patch, A History of Books, A Million Windows, Border Districts, Invisible Yet Enduring Lilacs, Green Shadows and Other Poems, and Last Letter to a Reader. He is a recipient of an Emeritus Fellowship from the Australia Council, the Patrick White Literary Award, the Melbourne Prize for Literature, the Adelaide Festival Literature Award for Innovation, and various other awards. In 2018, the NYTimes published a feature story with the headline ‘Is the Next Nobel Laureate in Literature Tending Bar in a Dusty Australian Town?’

Last year, Giramondo Publisher Ivor Indyk was recognised on the King’s Birthday Honours List, awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to Australian literature.