ABSTRACT
While the effects of globalization and digitization on the Australian literary field have been significant, the field has also demonstrated a high level of stability and continuity. This chapter offers parallel chronologies of developments since Creative Nation (1994) in national policy, publishing, digital technologies, bookselling, literary agenting and writers festivals to trace the impact in these domains of transnationalism, digitization and, to a lesser extent, commercialization. In evidence is a (not always oppositional) interplay of cultural and economic imperatives; a shift from subsidy to investment; and new models of self-publishing and reader engagement forcing renovated approaches from publishers and booksellers. But there is also evidence of remarkable resilience, even renewal: of the printed book, independent bookstores, the market for Australian books and literary festivals. The Australian literary field will continue to be defined as a medium-sized industry within a larger transnational space and by the dynamics of disruption within institutional resilience. In Australia today, literature is being woven into broader discourses of creativity, digital innovation, civic value and international promotion, and the Australian book trade is increasingly understood to operate within and alongside an arts ecology.
