1999 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1999.
Events
- May 1 – Andrew Motion is appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for ten years.
- June 19 – Stephen King is hit by a van while taking a walk. He is hospitalized for three weeks and only resumes writing his next book, On Writing, in July.
- September 7 – Black Diamond, designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, is inaugurated as an extension to the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen.
- unknown date – Persephone Books is founded in Bloomsbury, London, by Nicola Beauman, to reprint mid-20th century fiction and non-fiction, mainly by women.
New books
Fiction
- Isabel Allende – Daughter of Fortune
- Aaron Allston
- *Solo Command
- *Starfighters of Adumar
- Laurie Halse Anderson – Speak
- Max Barry – Syrup
- Greg Bear – Darwin's Radio
- Raymond Benson
- *High Time to Kill
- *The World Is Not Enough
- Maeve Binchy – Tara Road
- Luther Blissett (pseudonym) – Q
- François Bloemhof – Klipgooi
- Ben Bova – Return to Mars
- Terry Brooks – Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
- Thomas Brussig – Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee
- Bonnie Burnard – A Good House
- Stephen Chbosky – The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- Tracy Chevalier – Girl with a Pearl Earring
- J. M. Coetzee – Disgrace
- Matt Cohen – Elizabeth and After
- Bernard Cornwell
- *Sharpe's Fortress
- *Stonehenge: A Novel of 2000 BC
- Douglas Coupland – Miss Wyoming
- Robert Crais – L.A. Requiem
- Michael Crichton – Timeline
- August Derleth – New Horizons
- Marc Dugain – La Chambre des Officiers
- Frederic S. Durbin – Dragonfly
- Bret Easton Ellis – Glamorama
- Per Olov Enquist – The Visit of the Royal Physician
- Steve Erickson – The Sea Came in at Midnight
- Sebastian Faulks – Charlotte Gray
- Helen Fielding – Bridget Jones: [The Edge of Reason (novel)| The Edge of Reason]
- Amanda Filipacchi – Vapor
- Anna Gavalda – Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part
- John Grisham – The Testament
- Ha Jin – Waiting
- Joanne Harris – Chocolat
- Thomas Harris – Hannibal
- Ernest Hemingway – True at First Light
- Carl Hiaasen – Sick Puppy
- Stewart Home – Cunt
- Michel Houellebecq – Atomised
- Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye – Soul Harvest
- K. W. Jeter – Hard Merchandise
- Lisa Jewell – Ralph's Party
- Stephen King:
- *The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
- *Hearts in Atlantis
- László Krasznahorkai – War and War
- Jhumpa Lahiri – Interpreter of Maladies
- Joe R. Lansdale
- *Veil's Visit: a Taste of Hap and Leonard
- *Freezer Burn
- John le Carré – Single & Single
- Jonathan Lethem – Motherless Brooklyn
- Ray Loriga – Tokio ya no nos quiere
- Frank McCourt -'Tis
- David Macfarlane – Summer Gone
- Alistair MacLeod – No Great Mischief
- Juliet Marillier – Daughter of the Forest
- Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell – From Hell
- Jeffrey Moore – Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain
- Erwin Mortier – Marcel
- Chuck Palahniuk
- *Invisible Monsters
- *Survivor
- Tony Parsons – Man and Boy
- Terry Pratchett – The Fifth Elephant
- Kathy Reichs – Death du Jour
- Matthew Reilly – Temple
- Jennifer Roberson – Lady of Sherwood
- Louis Sachar – Holes
- R. A. Salvatore – Vector Prime
- Margit Sandemo – Skattejakten
- Neal Shusterman – Downsiders
- Susan Sontag – In America
- Ahdaf Soueif – The Map of Love
- Michael Stackpole – Isard's Revenge
- Matthew Stadler – Allan Stein
- Danielle Steel – Irresistible Forces
- Neal Stephenson – Cryptonomicon
- Francine Stock – A Foreign Country
- Peter Straub – Mr. X
- Remy Sylado – Ca Bau Kan
- Koushun Takami – Battle Royale
- Rose Tremain – Music and Silence
- Miloš Urban – Sedmikostelí
- Andrew Vachss – Choice of Evil
- Jane Vandenburgh – The Physics of Sunset
- Vernor Vinge – A Deepness in the Sky
- Jeanette Winterson – The World and Other Places
- Timothy Zahn – The Icarus Hunt
- Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold – ''Lord Demon''
Children and young people
- David Almond – Kit's Wilderness
- Elizabeth Arnold – Spin of the Sunwheel
- Susan Cooper – King of Shadows
- Julia Donaldson – The Gruffalo
- Nick Earls – 48 Shades of Brown
- Mem Fox - Sleepy Bears
- Barbara Diamond Goldin – Journeys With Elijah: Eight Tales of the Prophet
- Gerald Hausman – Dogs of Myth: Tales from Around the World
- Satoshi Kitamura – Me and My Cat?
- Adeline Yen Mah – Chinese Cinderella
- Robert L. Millet – Parables and other Teaching Stories
- John Nickle – The Ant Bully
- Andre Norton – Catfantastic V
- Iona Opie – Here Comes Mother Goose
- Jerry Pinkney
- * The [Little Match Girl (Pinkney book)|The Little Match Girl]
- * The Ugly Duckling
- Louise Rennison – Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
- Faith Ringgold – If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks
- J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Lemony Snicket
- *The Bad Beginning
- *The Reptile Room
- Jacqueline Wilson – The Illustrated Mum
- Simms Taback – ''Joseph Had a Little Overcoat''
Drama
- Jon Fosse – Dream of Autumn
- David Mamet – Boston Marriage
- Frank McGuinness – Dolly West's Kitchen
- Lars Norén – 7:3
- Mark O'Rowe – Howie the Rookie
- Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt – Hôtel des deux mondes
- Zlatko Topčić – Refugees
- August Wilson – ''King Hedley II''
Poetry
- Iona Opie – Here Comes Mother Goose
- Dejan Stojanović – ''Sunce sebe gleda''
Non-fiction
- Thomas Berry – The Great Work: Our Way into the Future
- David Cairns – Berlioz: Volume 2, Servitude and Greatness 1832–1869
- Wayson Choy – Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood
- The Dalai Lama – Ancient Wisdom, Modern World
- Samuel R. Delany – Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
- Laurence des Cars – Les Préraphaélites : Un modernisme à l'anglaise
- Freeman Dyson – The Sun, the Genome and the Internet
- Koenraad Elst – Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate
- John Steele Gordon – The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street as a World Power: 1653–2000
- Brian Greene – The Elegant Universe
- Deborah Harkness – John Dee's Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature
- Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster – The Century
- S.T. Joshi – Sixty Years of Arkham House
- Winona LaDuke – All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life
- Bruce Lincoln – Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship
- Jamie Oliver – The Naked Chef
- W. G. Sebald – Luftkrieg und Literatur
- David Southwell – Conspiracy Theories
- Dejan Stojanović – Razgovori
- Jean-Pierre Vernant – ''L'univers, les dieux, les hommes''
Births
- October 13 – Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Nigerian–British author and columnist
- December 22 – Ameer Idreis, Canadian writer
Deaths
- January 11 – Naomi Mitchison, Scottish novelist and poet
- January 16 – Dadie Rylands, English Shakespearean scholar
- February 8 – Iris Murdoch, Irish-born novelist and philosopher
- February 20 – Sarah Kane, English playwright
- February 22 – William Bronk, American poet
- February 24 – Andre Dubus, American short story writer, essayist and autobiographer
- March 4
- * Del Close, American actor, writer, and teacher
- * Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer
- March 5 – John Figueroa, Jamaican poet
- March 8 – Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine author
- March 13
- * Lee Falk, American cartoonist, writer, theater director, and producer
- * Garson Kanin, American playwright and screenwriter
- March 28 – Jim Turner, American editor
- April 13 – Knut Hauge, Norwegian novelist, dramatist and children's writer
- May 8 – Soeman Hs, Indonesian novelist
- May 10 – Shel Silverstein, American children's poet
- May 27 – Alice Adams, short story writer and novelist
- June 14 – J. F. Powers, American writer
- July 2 – Mario Puzo, American writer
- July 14 – Maria Banuș, Romanian poet and translator
- September 25 – Marion Zimmer Bradley, American writer
- October 3 – Heinz G. Konsalik, German novelist
- October 19
- *Penelope Mortimer, Welsh-born English novelist and biographer
- *Nathalie Sarraute, Russian-born French writer and lawyer
- *E. J. Scovell, English poet
- November 11 – Jacobo Timerman, Soviet-born Argentinian journalist and publisher
- November 18 – Paul Bowles, American novelist
- December 2 – Matt Cohen, Canadian novelist
- December 8 – Rupert Hart-Davis, English editor and publisher
- December 12 – Joseph Heller, American novelist
Awards
Australia
- The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Hsu-Ming Teo, Love and Vertigo
- C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Gig Ryan, Pure and Applied
- Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Lee Cataldi, Race Against Time
- Miles Franklin Award: Murray Bail, ''Eucalyptus''
Canada
- Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Bonnie Burnard, A Good House
- See 1999 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
- Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Michael Poole, ''Romancing Mary Jane''
France
- Prix Femina: Maryline Desbiolles, Anchise
- Prix Goncourt: Jean Echenoz, Je m'en vais
- Prix Décembre: Claude Askolovitch, Voyage au bout de la France: Le Front National tel qu'il est
- Prix Médicis French: Michel Del Castillo, Colette, une certaine France
- Prix Médicis Non-Fiction: Christian Oster, Mon grand appartement
- Prix Médicis International: Bjorn Larsson, ''Le capitaine et les rêves''
United Kingdom
- Booker Prize: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
- Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Aidan Chambers, Postcards from No Man's Land
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Timothy Mo, Renegade, or Halo2
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Kathryn Hughes, George Eliot: The Last Victorian
- Cholmondeley Award: Vicki Feaver, Geoffrey Hill, Elma Mitchell, Sheenagh Pugh
- Eric Gregory Award: Ross Cogan, Matthew Hollis, Helen Ivory, Andrew Pidoux, Owen Sheers, Dan Wyke
- Orange Prize for Fiction: Suzanne Berne, A Crime in the Neighborhood
- Samuel Johnson Prize : Antony Beevor, Stalingrad
- Whitbread Best Book Award: Seamus Heaney, ''Beowulf''
United States
- Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Daisy Fried, She Didn't Mean To Do It
- Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: George Garrett
- Arthur Rense Prize awarded to James McMichael by the American [Academy of Arts and Letters]
- Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: J. D. McClatchy, "Tattoos"
- Compton Crook Award: James Stoddard, The High House
- Frost Medal: Barbara Guest
- Hugo Award for Best Novel: Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog
- National Book Award for Fiction: to Waiting by Ha Jin
- National Book Critics Circle Award: to Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
- Nebula Award: Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Louis Sachar, Holes
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to The Hours by Michael Cunningham
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Margaret Edson, Wit
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Michael Cunningham, The Hours
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Mark Strand, Blizzard of One
- Wallace Stevens Award: Jackson Mac Low
- Whiting Awards:
Elsewhere
- Finlandia Prize: 1999 Kristina Carlson, Maan ääreen
- Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Fritz Stern
- International Dublin Literary Award: Andrew Miller, Ingenious Pain
- Alfaguara Prize: Manuel Vicent, Son de mar
- Premio Nadal: Gustavo Martín Zarzo, Las historias de Marta y Fernando
- Viareggio Prize: Ernesto Franco, ''Vite senza fine''