10 Australian literary scandals

The Australian book world has long been enlivened with scams and misdemeanours.

28 Jun 2022 9:30

Thuy On

A stylised image of Pinocchio, his nose extended as he lies.

Writing and Publishing

Elastic truth-telling in Australian literary history is far from rare. Image: Shutterstock.

The multiple plagiarism accusations first unearthed by Guardian Australia that have plagued John Hughes and his latest novel, The Dogs, causing the book to be withdrawn from the longlist of this year’s Miles Franklin awards, have left the literary community agog.

But Hughes’ carelessness with crediting other writers’ words (or his deliberate intertextual referencing) is just the latest of many scandals in the publishing world.

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Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian. Her debut, a collection of poetry called Turbulence, came out in 2020 and was released by University of Western Australia Publishing (UWAP). Her second collection, Decadence, was published in July 2022, also by UWAP. Her third book, Essence, will be published in 2025. Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy