Robbie Arnott (born 1989) is an Australian author known for his novels Flames, The Rain Heron and Limberlost, all of which were nominated for prestigious Australian literary awards.

Career

Arnott's early writing appeared in literary publications Island Magazine, Kill Your Darlings and The Lifted Brow. In 2014, Arnott was awarded the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers, and in 2015 won the Tasmanian Young Writer's Fellowship.

Flames, Arnott's first novel, was released by Text Publishing in Australia in 2018. The novel was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2019 and was nominated for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for fiction. Following the release of Flames, Arnott was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist, a title awarded to select Australian authors under the age of 35 at the time their work was published. Flames has been included as a text in Australian VCE (Victorian) school curriculum.

The Rain Heron, Arnott's second novel, was released in 2020, and won The Age Book of the Year Award as well as being shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Critics noted the novel continued Arnott's style of "risk-taking" and "daring" literary fiction, with a positive reception to its environmental messages.

The third novel from Arnott, Limberlost, was released in 2022. It became Arnott's second novel to win The Age Book of the Year Award, was shortlisted for the 2023 Miles Franklin Award, and won the 2023 Voss Literary Prize. It was also longlisted for the 2024 International Dublin Literary Award. Like Arnott's previous novels, Limberlost found critical success both in Australia and internationally, with positive reviews from noted critics and newspapers.

His fourth novel, Dusk, was published in October 2024.

Personal life

Arnott was born in Launceston, and now lives in Hobart. He has one daughter.

Awards

YearWorkAwardCategoryResultRef
2018FlamesQueensland Literary AwardsFictionShortlisted
Readings PrizeNew Australian FictionShortlisted
2019ALS Gold MedalLonglisted
Indie Book AwardsDebut FictionLonglisted
Miles Franklin AwardLonglisted
MUD Literary PrizeShortlisted
NSW Premier's Literary AwardUTS Glenda Adams Award for New WritingShortlisted
Not the Booker PrizeShortlisted
Victorian Premier's Literary AwardsVance Palmer Prize for FictionShortlisted
2020International Dublin Literary AwardLonglisted
Voss Literary PrizeLonglisted
2021The Rain HeronAustralian Book Industry AwardsSmall Publisher Adult BookShortlisted
Miles Franklin AwardShortlisted
Voss Literary PrizeShortlisted
2022Tasmanian Literary AwardsFictionLonglisted
William Saroyan International Prize for WritingFictionShortlisted
2023LimberlostARA Historical Novel PrizeAdultLonglisted
Australian Book Industry AwardsLiterary FictionShortlisted
Dylan Thomas PrizeShortlisted
Indie Book AwardFictionShortlisted
Voss Literary PrizeWon
2024Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian HistoryWon
International Dublin Literary AwardLonglisted
DuskThe Guardian's Top 25 Best Australian Books of 2024Won
2025Australian Book Industry AwardsLiterary FictionWon
ARA Historical Novel PrizeAdult (joint winner)Won

Bibliography

Novels

Novella

Critical studies of Arnott's work

Limberlost

  • Mills, Jennifer (October 2022). "A distant leviathan : Robbie Arnott's realist new novel". Australian Book Review. 447: 38.