Title Fight Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tim Winton

Winton has been named a "Living Treasure" by Australia's National Trust and presented with the prestigious Centenary Medal for his services to the promotion of Australian literature. Coastal Western Australia is Tim Winton's place of residence and it is from here that he draws most of the inspiration behind the vivid landscapes he portrays in his writing. One of the country's most acclaimed writers he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times for his novels "Shallows" (1984), the spectacular "Cloudstreet" (1992), "Dirt Music" (2002) and "Breath" (2009).

Tim is also a keen environmental advocate who won't hesitate to use his books to highlight particular environmental issues.

Answer: Markus Zusak

It took Markus seven years to get his first novel "The Underdog" (1999) published but it took little time for it to gain him recognition and accolades. However, it was "The Book Thief" (2005) that launched him to the top of the "New York Times" and Amazon.com book lists. Aimed primarily at the "Young Adult" audience, his body of work, which also includes "Fighting Ruben Wolfe" (2001), "Getting the Girl" (2001) and "I Am the Messenger" (2002), has seen him recognized in the United States with the Margaret A. Edwards Award in Young Adult Literature.

Answer: Alexis Wright

Alexis Wright is an indigenous Australian from the Waanyi people, who hail from the highlands of the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. A land rights activist she is also a Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Western Sydney. She published her first book, "Plains of Promise", in 1997 and garnered immediate critical attention. "Carpentaria", her second novel, took her two years to conceive and a further six years to write.

It was published in 2006 and earned her the prestigious Miles Franklin Award.

Answer: Jackie French

Jackie is one of Australia's most recognizable authors of children's stories. She has written more than 140 books and collected at least sixty national and international awards. She began writing her first story "Rain Stones" out of necessity - she desperately needed money to maintain the registration of her car.

The manuscript she submitted was described by her editor as one of the worst he'd ever seen in terms of spelling and presentation. What was on the surface though didn't matter, it was what was in the manuscript that did.

In a blink of an eye Jackie found herself in line for the Australian Children's Book Council of Australia award for the Younger Readers Book of the Year and the NSW Premier's Award. Suddenly a new career was born.

Answer: Nick Cave

Cave, born in 1957, is better known for his deeds as a singer/songwriter and musician, however, he is proving to be an author of note as well. "And the Ass Saw the Angel" began life as a screenplay for a film ("Swampland") that did not proceed. Cave stated that he then locked himself away for three years in West Berlin while he worked it into a novel.

It would be published in 1989. It would take twenty years before his second novel "The Death of Bunny Munro" (2009) would be published. Cave has also turned his hand to writing screenplays, including the highly acclaimed "The Proposition" (2005) and "Lawless" (2011).

Answer: Melina Marchetta

"Looking for Alibrandi" (1992) was once christened "the most stolen library book" because it was so popular. In addition, it was also Marchetta's first novel, it was published in eleven languages, its first print-run sold out in two months and it earned its author a swag of literary awards. Marchetta left school at the age of fifteen because she felt that she would not succeed as a student. Employment gave her confidence which, in turn, saw her enrol into university and become a teacher.

She now writes full time and is one of Australia's best known authors of Young-Adult Fiction.

Answer: John Marsden

Born in 1950 Marsden was working as a school teacher at the Geelong Grammar School and became concerned by the lack of interest his students had toward reading. This inspired him to commence writing stories aimed at young teenagers. In the space of three weeks he'd written "So Much to Tell You" which was published in 1987 and garnered immediate attention across the country.

The "Tomorrow" series is, perhaps, his most recognized work internationally. It boasted a storyline that ran for seven books commencing with "Tomorrow, When the War Began" which was published in 1993.

Answer: Dave Warner

Dave Warner's first career was as a rock musician. He and his band, From the Suburbs, had a minor hit in Australia with the song "Suburban Boy" in 1978. He would move to theatre work and script write for television before publishing his first novel "City of Light" in 1995 which would earn him the Western Australian Premier's Book Award the following year.

His eighth work of fiction, a police procedural novel called "Before It Breaks" (2015) earned him strong reviews and won the Ned Kelly Award for the best crime novel in 2016.

Answer: Matthew Reilly

Reilly wrote his first book "Contest" while studying law at the University of New South Wales. After being rejected by every major Australian publisher Reilly arranged to have "Contest" self published in 1996 with the aid of a bank loan. This led to a two book deal with Pan Macmillan.

The first of these was "Ice Station", which introduced one of his regular characters - Scarecrow - and went on to sell over seven million copies internationally. Reilly's books are fast paced action thrillers that leave the reader little time for respite, however, he has also been criticised for stretching credulity and logic.

Answer: Colleen McCullough

Born in 1937 McCullough initially wanted to be a doctor and studied medicine at the University of Sydney. However, an allergy to surgical soap quashed that idea. In 1963 she won a research job at Yale University in the UK and it was during this period that she wrote her first two novels.

The second of those was "The Thorn Birds", which was published in 1977 and would go on to sell in excess of 30 million copies worldwide and inspire a television mini-series that would become one of the most watched around the globe.

This early success would allow her to live her life on her own terms. She moved to the secluded community of Norfolk Island and continued her work from there. She passed away in 2015.