Association for the Study of Australian Literature
The Association for the Study of Australian Literature is an Australian organisation which promotes the creation and study of Australian literature and literary culture especially through the interaction of Australian writers with teachers and students. It administers several awards, holds a yearly conference, publishes a newsletter and journal, and has sponsored several publications.
Awards
The Australian Literature Society, which had been formed in Melbourne in 1899, merged into ASAL which, since 1982, has administered the ALS Gold Medal. In addition, ASAL administers the following awards:
Walter McRae Russell Award, for the best book of literary scholarship on an Australian subject published in the preceding two calendar years; before 1994, it was awarded to a young or unestablished author for an outstanding work of literary scholarship
the Magarey Medal for biography, a biennial prize for the best published biographical writing by a female author on an Australian subject in the preceding two years
the A.A. Phillips Award, an occasional award for a work or the work of an author which the ASAL executive considers an outstanding contribution to Australian literature or literary studies
History
In May 1978, writer and academic Mary Lord organized the inaugural ASAL conference at Monash University. At this conference, the Association adopted its constitution and appointed A.D. Hope and Judith Wright as patrons.
From October 1978 until October 2000, ASAL published 43 issues of a bulletin, Notes and Furphies. The bulletin was merged with ASAL's publication of conference proceedings to form the Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature. ASAL initiated the ASAL Literary Studies Series of specialist monographs on Australian writing. The following volumes have appeared:
Paul Genoni, Subverting the Empire: Explorers and Exploration in Australian Fiction
Anne Pender, Christina Stead: Satirist
Susan Lever, Real Relations: The Feminist Politics of Form in Australian Fiction
Alison Bartlett, Jamming the Machinery: Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing
Leigh Dale, The English Men: Professing Literature in Australian Universities
