As a UNESCO City of Literature, you would expect Victoria’s largest library to be bursting at the shelves with all things fiction. Well, we are!

The collection focuses on Australian – and especially Victorian – fiction. Our holdings cover all genres and formats, spanning pulp fiction to first editions, floppy discs to diaries and drafts, from the 19th-century gentility of The getting of wisdom to the 1980s grind of Monkey grip.

Under legal deposit legislation, the Library receives a copy of everything published in Victoria – including fiction, which is housed in the La Trobe Collection.

The literary archives of some well-known writers can be found in our manuscripts collection, including the papers of Peter Carey and Sonya Hartnett, and the documents of the Australian Literary Society.

The Moir collection, which is particularly strong in Australian popular fiction of the 19th and early 20th century, sits within Rare Books and comprises over 8000 books and 3200 pamphlets.

You can access the back issues of important Australian literary journals such as Meanjin and Southerly online through our databases.

We also collect novels that have received widespread critical acclaim and literary prizes such as the Miles Franklin Award. Australian works that have been translated into other languages are also well represented.