One of Australia’s best-known authors has died
Australia has lost a literary giant, an internationally renowned author and poet along with a strong supporter of Adelaide Writers’ Week, aged 92.
Internationally acclaimed author and poet David Malouf AO has died, aged 92, his publisher Penguin Random House posting an announcement on Thursday.
Malouf wrote across fiction, non-fiction, poetry, libretti and plays, and made a significant and continued impact on Australian literature.
The Brisbane born author won numerous awards, including the Miles Franklin Award, Commonwealth Writers’ prize, the Prix Femina Etranger, IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and Australia-Asia Literary Award.
Malouf died on April 22, 2026, and a memorial service was expected to be held later this year.
The Penguin Random House statement said his work “captures the Australian experience and continues to resonate across generations”.
In a social media post, Penguin said that alongside his achievements as a writer, Malouf was a loyal, loving friend to many and devoted to his family.
“He was a passionate supporter of Opera Australia, Adelaide Writers Week and the Indigenous Literacy Foundation,” it said.
His Australian literary agent, Jane Novak, described Malouf as a “giant in the world of literature, his accolades are varied and numerous”.
“His contribution to Australian culture is immeasurable but I will miss the kind, generous, wonderful man behind the masterpieces. It was my great honour to represent David and this is a great loss.”
Malouf’s prose publisher Meredith Curnow at Penguin Random House also praised the writer saying he was committed to reading and supporting new Australian writers.
“Everyone at Penguin Random Hhouse loved working with David, talking and laughing with him, hearing family stories, discussing the books he had read and the film, music, art and work he admired. He has left behind a body of work that comforts, challenges and entertains.”
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The group published Malouf’s first volume of poetry in 1970 with his poetry publisher Madonna Duffy saying his “poetry remains in print and is still being admired and appreciated by readers everywhere”.
While writer and friend Nicholas Jose told how Malouf believed in readers, saying he was not only a good friend to him but also to many other writers.
“From his enduring evocation of his Brisbane youth in Johnno to his re-imagining of the classical world in An Imaginary Life and Ransom, his writing created new possibilities for Australian literature,” Jose said.
“He is a brilliant essayist, an astute and generous critic, and a poet first and last. He has always been a great advocate for literature and for the power of imagination to change lives. His life and work have changed our lives. His work will go on doing that.”
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