Australian Society of Authors

The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) is an organisation representing Australia's literary creators and is the major advocate for the rights and remuneration of authors in Australia. It was key in the government's adoption of the Public Lending Rights Scheme ratified in 1975.

The society was established in June 1963 by a group of authors led by novelist Dal Stivens, who became the first President.

The poet Jill Hellyer was the first Executive Secretary and received an honorarium of ₤10 a week. Vice presidents were the novelist Morris West and the critic and sometime publisher P.R. ("Inky") Stephensen. The treasurer was bookseller A.W. Sheppard, and printer Walter Stone was the editor of the new society's journal Broadside (which would later becomeAustralian Author). Other authors on the first committee and council included Nancy Cato, Nan Chauncy, C.B. Christesen, Joan Clarke, Dymphna Cusack, Frank Dalby Davison, Mary Durack Miller, John K. Ewers, Sir Keith Hancock, Xavier Herbert, A. D. Hope, Leonard Mann, Alan Marshall, David Martin, T. Inglis Moore, John O'Grady, Roland Robinson, Colin Simpson, Douglas Stewart, Judith Wright, Betty Roland, and Alan Yates.

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