1990 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1990.

Events

 * Tom Flood won the Miles Franklin Award for Oceana Fine

Novels

 * Glenda Adams — Longleg
 * Thea Astley — Reaching Tin River
 * 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
 * Kerry Greenwood — Flying Too High
 * Alex Juniper — A Very Proper Death
 * 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"
 * "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"

Births
A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1990 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.

Unknown date
 * Ellen van Neerven, Indigenous Australian writer and poet

Deaths
A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1990 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
 * 8 March — Jack Lindsay, novelist, biographer, historian and literary critic (born 1900)
 * 15 April — William Hart-Smith, poet (born 1911)
 * 21 June — Martin Johnston, poet and novelist (born 1947)
 * 30 September — Patrick White, novelist, playwright and short story writer (born 1912)