1990 in Australian literature

Events

• Tom Flood won the Miles Franklin Award for ''Oceana Fine''

Major publications

Novels

• Glenda Adams — Longleg
• Thea Astley — Reaching Tin River
• Lily Brett — Things Could Be Worse
• Sumner Locke Elliott — Fairyland
• Sonya Hartnett — The Glass House
• Susan Johnson – Flying Lessons
• Elizabeth Jolley — Cabin Fever
• Nigel Krauth – JF Was Here
• David Malouf — The Great World
• Colleen McCullough — The First Man in Rome
• Mandy Sayer — Mood Indigo
• Sam Watson – The Kadaitcha Sung
• Morris West — ''Lazarus''

Crime and mystery

• Jon Cleary — Murder Song
• Peter Corris — O'Fear
• Kerry Greenwood — Flying Too High
• Alex Juniper — A Very Proper Death
• Jennifer Maiden — Play with Knives
• Finola Moorhead — Still Murder
• Kel Richards — ''The Case of the Vanishing Corpse''

Science fiction and fantasy

• A. Bertram Chandler — From Sea to Shining Star
• Greg Egan
• * "Axiomatic"
• * "Learning to Be Me"
• * "The Moral Virologist"
• Lucy Sussex — "Red Ochre"
• George Turner — ''A Pursuit of Miracles: Eight Stories''

Children's and young adult fiction

• Isobelle Carmody — The Farseekers
• Gary Crew — Strange Objects
• Garth Nix — The Ragwitch
• Emily Rodda — Finders Keepers
• Tim Winton — ''Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo''

Poetry

• Lee Cataldi — Women Who Live on the Ground: Poems, 1978-1988
• Jean Kent — Verandahs
• Jennifer Maiden — The Winter Baby
• Les Murray — Dog Fox Field
• Jan Owen — ''Fingerprints on Light''

Drama

• Hannie Rayson — Hotel Sorrento
• David Williamson — ''Siren''

Non-fiction

• Beverley Farmer — A Body of Water
• Gwen Harwood — Blessed City: The Letters of Gwen Harwood to Thomas Riddell, January to September 1943
• Dorothy Hewett — ''Wild Card''

Awards and honours

• Yasmine Gooneratne, for "service to literature and to education"
• Harry Payne Heseltine, for "service to education, particularly in the field of Australian literature"
• Rodney Hall (writer), for "service to the arts, particularly in the field of Australian literature"
• Andrew Taylor (poet), for "service to the arts, particularly in the field of Australian literature"
• Elyne Mitchell, for "service to children's literature"

Fiction

International

Poetry

Drama

Births

• Ellen van Neerven, Indigenous Australian writer and poet

Deaths

• 8 March — Jack Lindsay, novelist, biographer, historian and literary critic
• 15 April — William Hart-Smith, poet
• 21 June — Martin Johnston, poet and novelist
• 30 September — Patrick White, novelist, playwright and short story writer