1999 in Australian literature

Events

• Murray Bail won the Miles Franklin Award for Eucalyptus
• Jan Fullerton was appointed Director General of the National Library of Australia, being the first woman and first internal appointee

Major publications

Novels

• Thea Astley — Drylands
• Lily Brett — Too Many Men
• Marshall Browne – The Burnt City
• Kate Grenville — The Idea of Perfection
• Dorothy Hewett — Neap Tide
• Julia Leigh — The Hunter
• Michael Meehan — The Salt of Broken Tears
• Bruce Pascoe — Shark
• Dorothy Porter — What a Piece of Work
• Matthew Reilly — Ice Station
• Heather Rose — White Heart
• Kim Scott — Benang
• Amy Witting — ''Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop''

Science fiction and fantasy

• James Bradley — The Deep Field
• Trudi Canavan – "Whispers of the Mist Children"
• Sara Douglass — Crusader
• Kate Forsyth – The Cursed Towers
• Greg Egan
• * "Border Guards"
• * Teranesia
• Ian Irvine — Dark is the Moon
• Juliet Marillier – Daughter of the Forest
• Sean McMullen – Souls in the Great Machine
• George Turner – ''Down There in Darkness''

Crime

• Marshall Browne — The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders
• Garry Disher — The Dragon Man
• Kerry Greenwood – Death Before Wicket
• Gabrielle Lord – Feeding the Demons
• Barry Maitland – The Chalon Heads
• Tara Moss – Fetish
• Chris Nyst — Cop This!
• Peter Temple
• * Black Tide
• * ''Shooting Star''

Children's and young adult fiction

• Helen Barnes — Killing Aurora
• Graeme Base — The Worst Band in the Universe
• Damien Broderick, with Rory Barnes — Stuck in Fast Forward
• Kim Caraher — Goanna Anna
• Nick Earls — 48 Shades of Brown
• Christine Harris — Foreign Devil
• Sonya Hartnett — Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf
• Victor Kelleher — The Ivory Trail
• Dave Luckett — A Dark Victory
• Markus Zusak — ''The Underdog''

Poetry

• Kevin Hart — Wicked Heat
• John Kinsella — Visitants
• Jennifer Maiden — Mines
• Les Murray — ''Conscious and Verbal''

Drama

• Van Badham — ''The Wilderness of Mirrors''

Non-fiction

• Ian McFarlane — Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop
• Drusilla Modjeska — Stravinsky's Lunch
• Les Murray — The Quality of Sprawl: Thoughts about Australia
• Anne Summers — Ducks on the Pond: An Autobiography 1945–1976
• David Walker— ''Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia 1850–1939''

Awards and honours

• Michael Fitzgerald Page "for service to the book publishing industry and to literature as a writer, and through the encouragement and support of upcoming Australian authors"
• Frank John Ford "for service to the development of the performing arts in South Australia as a director, playwright, administrator and educator"
• Kay Saunders "for service to Australian history as a scholar, author and commentator on social issues"
• John Antill Millett "for service to literature as editor of Poetry Australia"

Fiction

International

Poetry

Drama

Deaths

• 15 February — Gordon Neil Stewart, writer
• 1 March — Richard Beynon, playwright, actor and television producer
• 20 April — Ric Throssell, diplomat and author whose writings included novels, plays, film and television scripts and memoirs
• 8 July — Mavis Thorpe Clark, novelist and writer for children
• 12 July — Mungo Ballardie MacCallum, journalist, broadcaster and poet
• 9 October — Morris West, novelist and playwright
• 16 November — Mal Morgan, poet