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.

Fiction

 * Isabel Allende – Daughter of Fortune (Hija de la fortuna)
 * 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
 * Xurxo Borrazás – O desintegrista
 * 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 (editor) – New Horizons
 * Marc Dugain – La Chambre des Officiers (The Officers' Ward)
 * Frederic S. Durbin – Dragonfly
 * Bret Easton Ellis – Glamorama
 * Per Olov Enquist – The Visit of the Royal Physician (Livläkarens besök)
 * Steve Erickson – The Sea Came in at Midnight
 * Sebastian Faulks – Charlotte Gray
 * Helen Fielding –  The Edge of Reason
 * Amanda Filipacchi – Vapor
 * Anna Gavalda – Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part
 * John Grisham – The Testament
 * Ha Jin (哈金) – 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 (short stories)
 * 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 (graphic novel)
 * 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
 * Michael Slade – Burnt Bones
 * 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 (The Courtesan)
 * Koushun Takami (高見 広春) – Battle Royale
 * Rose Tremain – Music and Silence
 * Miloš Urban – Sedmikostelí (The Seven Churches)
 * 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 (with Axel Scheffler) – 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 (with Loretta Hausman and Barry Moser) – Dogs of Myth: Tales from Around the World
 * Satoshi Kitamura – Me and My Cat?
 * Adeline Yen Mah – Chinese Cinderella (autobiography)
 * Robert L. Millet (with James C. Christensen) – Parables and other Teaching Stories
 * John Nickle – The Ant Bully
 * Andre Norton (with Martin H. Greenberg) – Catfantastic V
 * Iona Opie – Here Comes Mother Goose
 * Jerry Pinkney
 * 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 (Draum om hausten)
 * 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 (The Sun Watches Itself)

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
 * Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke – Paracelsus: Essential Readings.
 * 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 (Air War and Literature, translated as On the Natural History of Destruction)
 * David Southwell – Conspiracy Theories
 * Dejan Stojanović – Razgovori (Conversations)
 * 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 (born 1897)
 * January 16 – Dadie Rylands (George Rylands), English Shakespearean scholar (born 1902)
 * February 8 – Iris Murdoch, Irish-born novelist and philosopher (born 1919)
 * February 20 – Sarah Kane, English playwright (suicide, born 1971)
 * February 22 – William Bronk, American poet (born 1918)
 * February 24 – Andre Dubus, American short story writer, essayist and autobiographer (born 1936)
 * March 4
 * Del Close, American actor, writer, and teacher (born 1934)
 * Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer (born 1921)
 * March 5 – John Figueroa, Jamaican poet (born 1920)
 * March 8 – Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine author (born 1914)
 * March 13
 * Lee Falk, American cartoonist, writer, theater director, and producer (born 1911)
 * Garson Kanin, American playwright and screenwriter (born 1912)
 * March 28 – Jim Turner, American editor (born 1945)
 * April 13 – Knut Hauge, Norwegian novelist, dramatist and children's writer (born 1911)
 * May 8 – Soeman Hs, Indonesian novelist (born 1904)
 * May 10 – Shel Silverstein, American children's poet (born 1930)
 * May 27 – Alice Adams, short story writer and novelist (born 1926)
 * June 14 – J. F. Powers, American writer (born 1917)
 * July 2 – Mario Puzo, American writer (born 1920)
 * July 14 – Maria Banuș, Romanian poet and translator (born 1914)
 * September 25 – Marion Zimmer Bradley, American writer (born 1930)
 * October 3 – Heinz G. Konsalik, German novelist (born 1921)
 * October 19
 * Penelope Mortimer, Welsh-born English novelist and biographer (born 1918)


 * Nathalie Sarraute, Russian-born French writer and lawyer (born 1900)
 * E. J. Scovell, English poet (born 1907)
 * November 11 – Jacobo Timerman, Soviet-born Argentinian journalist and publisher (born 1923)
 * November 18 – Paul Bowles, American novelist (born 1910)
 * December 2 – Matt Cohen, Canadian novelist (born 1942)
 * December 8 – Rupert Hart-Davis, English editor and publisher (born 1907)
 * December 12 – Joseph Heller, American novelist (born 1923)

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Günter Grass
 * Camões Prize: Sophia de Mello Breyner

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 (first award): 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:
 * Fiction: Ehud Havazelet, Ben Marcus, Yxta Maya Murray, ZZ Packer
 * Nonfiction: Gordon Grice, Margaret Talbot
 * Plays: Naomi Iizuka
 * Poetry: Michael Haskell, Terrance Hayes, Martha Zweig

Elsewhere

 * Finlandia Prize: 1999 Kristina Carlson, Maan ääreen
 * 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