2019 in Australian literature

This is a list of historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2019.

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 (posthumous)
 * 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

 * 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

 * 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
 * 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
 * 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 (editors) – Growing Up African in Australia
 * 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 (editor) – The Best Australian Science Writing 2019
 * Christina Thompson – Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia

Awards and honours
Note: these awards were presented in the year in question.

Deaths

 * 20 January – Mudrooroo, novelist, poet and playwright (pen name of Colin Thomas Johnson)(born 1938)
 * 1 February – Andrew McGahan, novelist (born 1966)
 * 4 March – Les Carlyon, newspaper editor and nonfiction writer (born 1942)
 * 13 March – Edmund Capon, art historian (died in London)(born 1940 in London)
 * 15 March – Rudi Krausmann, playwright and poet (born 1933 in Austria)
 * 22 March – Jack Absalom, artist, author and adventurer (born 1927)
 * 29 April – Les Murray, poet, anthologist and critic (born 1938)
 * 19 May – John Millett, poet, reviewer and poetry editor (born 1921)
 * 1 June – Christobel Mattingley, writer for children and young adults (born 1931)
 * 13 July – Kerry Reed-Gilbert, poet and author (born 1956)
 * 21 July –
 * Laurie Hergenhan, literary scholar (born 1931)
 * Ann Moyal, historian of science (born 1926)
 * 10 September – Hal Colebatch, poet and novelist (born 1945)
 * 30 October – Beatrice Faust, co-founder of Women's Electoral Lobby, journalist and author (born 1939)
 * 24 November – Clive James, poet, novelist and critic (died in Cambridge, England)(born 1939)