Australian author Steven Carroll talks about his sources of inspiration and lending rights.

Australian author Steven Carroll sits in front of a bookcase.
Image: Supplied. Australian author Steven Carroll.

We sat down with award-winning author Steven Carroll to chat about his literary inspirations and the role of lending rights in supporting Australian authors.

In the video, Carroll reflects on how his upbringing in Glenroy, Melbourne influenced his stories of Australian suburbia. He also discusses the persistence it took to get The Art of the Engine Driver (2001) published.

'All the people I grew up with just sprang up and stepped out of their driveways, onto the street and into my novel'.

'The Engine Driver was very nearly never published because it was rejected by almost every single publisher in Australia who were telling me that "we don't want a novel about the suburbs. No one's going to read it. These are just ordinary people."' 

Carroll is a former author representative on the Public Lending Right Committee, having served from 2018 to 2026, and is a strong supporter of the Lending Rights Schemes. He says the schemes help Australian writers bring stories from across the country into the literary community.

'This scheme was actually set up to look after the very people who, most of their writing lives, are writing against the grain. And [Australia] is a small market.'

Reflecting on his 8 years on the Committee, Carroll said 'I'm very proud of what we've done. Put money in the pockets of writers.'

Carroll's novels include The Art of the Engine Driver (2001), the first novel in his Glenroy series, and A World of Other People (2013) and Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight (2022) from the Eliot Quartet. He won the 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award for The Time We Have Taken (2007).

His latest novel, The Afterlife of Harry Playford (2026), continues the Stephen Minter series that began with Death of a Foreign Gentleman (2024).

About Lending Rights

The Lending Rights Schemes provide payment to Australian book publishers and creators—authors, illustrators, editors and translators—as compensation for the loss of income caused by the free use of their works in Australian public and educational lending libraries.

If you're part of the Australian literary sector, you could be eligible for an annual payment through the Lending Right Schemes. Publishers, authors, illustrators, editors and translators must submit their title claims by 31 March each year.

For more information or to register for the Schemes, visit the Lending Rights page.