Robbie Arnott

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.^[1]

Robbie Arnott
Born	1989 (age 35–36) Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Author
Years active	2018–present
Known for	Flames (2018) The Rain Heron (2020) Limberlost (2022)

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.^[2]

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^[3] 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.^[4] Flames has been included as a text in Australian VCE (Victorian) school curriculum.^[5]

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.^[6] Critics noted the novel continued Arnott's style of "risk-taking" and "daring" literary fiction, with a positive reception to its environmental messages.^[7][8]

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,^[9] and won the 2023 Voss Literary Prize.^[10] It was also longlisted for the 2024 International Dublin Literary Award.^[11] Like Arnott's previous novels, Limberlost found critical success both in Australia and internationally, with positive reviews from noted critics and newspapers.^[12][13][14]

His fourth novel, Dusk, was published in October 2024.^[15][16]

Personal life

Arnott was born in Launceston, and now lives in Hobart. He has one daughter.^[17]

Awards

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result	Ref
2018	Flames	Queensland Literary Awards	Fiction	Shortlisted
		Readings Prize	New Australian Fiction	Shortlisted
2019		ALS Gold Medal	—	Longlisted
		Indie Book Awards	Debut Fiction	Longlisted
		Miles Franklin Award	—	Longlisted
		MUD Literary Prize	—	Shortlisted
		NSW Premier's Literary Award	UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing	Shortlisted
		Not the Booker Prize	—	Shortlisted
		Victorian Premier's Literary Awards	Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction	Shortlisted
2020		International Dublin Literary Award	—	Longlisted
		Voss Literary Prize	—	Longlisted
2021	The Rain Heron	Australian Book Industry Awards	Small Publisher Adult Book	Shortlisted
		Miles Franklin Award	—	Shortlisted
		Voss Literary Prize	—	Shortlisted
2022		Tasmanian Literary Awards	Fiction	Longlisted
		William Saroyan International Prize for Writing	Fiction	Shortlisted
2023	Limberlost	ARA Historical Novel Prize	Adult	Longlisted
		Australian Book Industry Awards	Literary Fiction	Shortlisted
		Dylan Thomas Prize	—	Shortlisted
		Indie Book Award	Fiction	Shortlisted
		Voss Literary Prize	—	Won
2024		Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History	—	Won
		International Dublin Literary Award	—	Longlisted
	Dusk	The Guardian's Top 25 Best Australian Books of 2024	—	Won	[18]
2025	Dusk	Australian Book Industry Awards	Literary Fiction	Won	[19]

Bibliography

Novels

• —— (2018). Flames. Text Publishing. ISBN 9781925603521.
• —— (2020). The Rain Heron. Text Publishing. ISBN 9781922268778.
• —— (2022). Limberlost. Text Publishing. ISBN 9781922458766.
• —— (2024). Dusk. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9781761560941.

Novella

• —— (2019). The Hall Chimp. Atlantic Books. ISBN 9781838950545.

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.