🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Helen Garner
Helen Garner is a bestselling and award-winning Australian journalist, screenwriter, short story writer, and novelist. The author was born in 1942 in Geelong, Australia, and has been actively writing since 1977. This was the year that she published the short novel “Monkey Grip” which presented some great lyricism and grit that would become her trademark. It was a very bold start given her history working as a teacher which had ended in controversy. In the early 1970s, Helen Garner would get into some hot water after she frankly answered some questions about sexuality asked by her students. She would then lose her job and decide to become a writer, even though she has often said that she never made some deliberate shift in her identity even as a writer.
All Book Series by Helen Garner
The Mushroom Tapes
Latest in the series · book 12 of 12 · published 2025 Co-authored · Chloe Hooper,Sarah Krasnostein
Stories: The Collected Short Fiction
Latest in the series · book 4 of 4 · published 2017
Cypherpunk Revolutionary: On Julian Assange
Latest in the series · book 5 of 5 · published 2015 Anthology · Robert Manne
Women of Letters: Reviving The Lost Art of Correspondence
Book 4 of 9 · published 2011
The Best Australian Essays 2017
Latest in the series · book 9 of 9 · published 2017
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Helen Garner?
Helen Garner is a bestselling and award-winning Australian journalist, screenwriter, short story writer, and novelist. The author was born in 1942 in Geelong, Australia, and has been actively writing since 1977. This was the year that she published the short novel “Monkey Grip” which presented some great lyricism and grit that would become her trademark.
Which Helen Garner series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Short Blacks series, the earliest of Helen Garner's multi-book series: it opens with Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice (2001) and runs to 5 books across 2001–2015, ending with Cypherpunk Revolutionary: On Julian Assange (2015).
How many books has Helen Garner written?
Helen Garner has 36 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1977 and 2025. 5 of them belong to 1 named series — the largest being the Short Blacks series with 5 books — and 31 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Helen Garner's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Helen Garner's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Short Blacks (2001–2015, 5 books).
How are Helen Garner's books organised into series?
This guide splits Helen Garner's 36 books into 1 named series and 31 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Short Blacks (5 books, 2001–2015).