News

10 Australian literary scandals

The Australian book world has long been enlivened with scams and misdemeanours.

5 May 2025 11:36

Thuy On

A stylised image of Pinocchio, his nose extended as he lies.

Writing and Publishing

Elastic truth-telling in Australian literary history is far from rare. Image: Shutterstock.

In light of the recent food fight between Nagi Maehashi and Brooke Bellamy over plagiarism allegations, ArtsHub has rustled up this piece – originally published three years ago on 28 June 2022 – as a reminder how common scandals are in the literary world. Remember the saga with John Hughes?

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Thuy On

Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian. She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025). Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy