2019 in Australian literature

Major publications

Literary fiction

• Tony Birch – The White Girl
• David Brooks – The Grass Library
• Steven Carroll – The Year of the Beast
• Melanie Cheng – Room for a Stranger
• Peggy Frew – Islands
• Peter Goldsworthy – Minotaur
• John Hughes – No One
• Anna Krien – Act of Grace
• Melina Marchetta – The Place on Dalhousie
• Andrew McGahan – The Rich Man's House
• Gerald Murnane – A Season on Earth
• Favel Parrett – There Was Still Love
• Heather Rose – Bruny
• Philip Salom – The Returns
• Carrie Tiffany – Exploded View
• Lucy Treloar – Wolfe Island
• Christos Tsiolkas – Damascus
• Tara June Winch – The Yield
• Charlotte Wood – ''The Weekend''

Short stories

• Debra Adelaide – Zebra: And Other Stories
• Yumna Kassab – The House of Youssef
• Josephine Rowe – ''Here Until August''

Children's and young adult fiction

• Alison Evans – Highway Bodies
• Mem Fox – The Tiny Star
• Helena Fox – How It Feels to Float
• Will Kostakis – Monuments
• Tania McCartney – Fauna: Australia's Most Curious Creatures
• Meg McKinlay – Catch a Falling Star
• Bruce Pascoe – Young Dark Emu
• Holden Sheppard – Invisible Boys
• Vikki Wakefield – ''This is How We Change the Ending''

Crime and mystery

• Matthew Condon – The Night Dragon
• Pip Drysdale – The Strangers We Know
• Candice Fox – Gone By Midnight
• Nick Gadd – Death of a Typographer
• Tara Moss – Dead Man Switch
• Michael Robotham – Good Girl, Bad Girl
• Dave Warner – River of Salt
• Christian White – ''The Wife and the Widow''

Science fiction

• John Birmingham – The Cruel Stars
• Claire G. Coleman – The Old Lie
• Greg Egan
• * The Best of Greg Egan
• * Perihelion Summer
• * "The Slipway"
• * "This Is Not the Way Home"
• Jay Kristoff – Darkdawn
• Garth Nix – ''Angel Mage''

Poetry

• Louise Crisp – Yuiquimbiang
• Zenobia Frost – After the Demolition
• Charmaine Papertalk Green – Nganajungu Yagu
• L. K. Holt – Birth Plan
• Gerald Murnane – Green Shadows and Other Poems
• Pi O – ''Heide''

Non-fiction

• Jane Caro – Accidental Feminists
• Maxine Beneba Clarke, with Magan Magan and Ahmed Yussuf – Growing Up African in Australia
• Helen Ennis – Olive Cotton: ''A Life in Photography
• Stan Grant
• * Australia Day
• * On Identity
• Nicholas Hasluck – Beyond the Equator: An Australian Memoir
• Jess Hill – See What You Made Me Do
• Jacqueline Kent – Beyond Words: A Year with Kenneth Cook
• Caro Llewellyn – Diving into Glass
• Emily Maguire – This is What a Feminist Looks Like
• Bianca Nogrady – The Best Australian Science Writing 2019
• Christina Thompson – Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia''

Awards and honours

Literary

Fiction

National

Children and Young Adult

National

Crime and Mystery

National

Science fiction

Poetry

Drama

Non-Fiction

Deaths

• 20 January – Mudrooroo, novelist, poet and playwright
• 1 February – Andrew McGahan, novelist
• 4 March – Les Carlyon, newspaper editor and nonfiction writer
• 13 March – Edmund Capon, art historian
• 15 March – Rudi Krausmann, playwright and poet
• 22 March – Jack Absalom, artist, author and adventurer
• 29 April – Les Murray, poet, anthologist and critic
• 19 May – John Millett, poet, reviewer and poetry editor
• 1 June – Christobel Mattingley, writer for children and young adults
• 13 July – Kerry Reed-Gilbert, poet and author
• 21 July –
• *Laurie Hergenhan, literary scholar
• *Ann Moyal, historian of science
• 10 September – Hal Colebatch, poet and novelist
• 30 October – Beatrice Faust, co-founder of Women's Electoral Lobby, journalist and author
• 24 November – Clive James, poet, novelist and critic