1999 in literature

The year 1999 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * June 19 - Stephen King is hit by a Dodge van while taking a walk. He spends the next three weeks hospitalized. He does not continue with his next book, On Writing, until July.

New books

 * Aaron Allston - Solo Command and Starfighters of Adumar
 * Angie Sage Board Books - 8 Books Set  (1999–2002)
 * Laurie Halse Anderson - Speak
 * Max Barry - Syrup
 * Greg Bear - Darwin's Radio
 * Raymond Benson - High Time to Kill and The World Is Not Enough
 * Thomas Berger - The Return of Little Big Man
 * Maeve Binchy - Tara Road
 * Ben Bova - Return to Mars
 * Dionne Brand - At the Full and Change of the Moon
 * Terry Brooks - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * 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 and 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
 * Sebastian Faulks - Charlotte Gray
 * Amanda Filipacchi - Vapor
 * Diana Gabaldon - Through the Stones
 * John Grisham - The Testament
 * Ha Jin - Waiting
 * Joanne Harris - Chocolat
 * Thomas Harris - Hannibal
 * Victor Heck - The Asylum Vol 1 - The Psycho Ward
 * Ernest Hemingway - True at First Light
 * Carl Hiaasen - Sick Puppy
 * Stewart Home - Cunt
 * Michel Houellebecq - Atomised
 * Nancy Huston - The Mark of the Angel
 * Jerry B. Jenkins & Tim LaHaye - Soul Harvest
 * K. W. Jeter - Hard Merchandise
 * Stephen King - The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and Hearts in Atlantis
 * John le Carré - Single & Single
 * Jonathan Lethem - Motherless Brooklyn
 * Frank McCourt -'Tis
 * David Macfarlane - Summer Gone
 * Alistair MacLeod - No Great Mischief
 * Juliet Marillier - Daughter of the Forest
 * Jeffrey Moore - Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain
 * Toni Morrison - Paradise
 * Chuck Palahniuk - Invisible Monsters and Survivor
 * Tony Parsons - Man and Boy
 * Terry Pratchett - The Fifth Elephant
 * Kathy Reichs - Death du Jour
 * Matthew Reilly - Temple
 * J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Louis Sachar - Holes
 * R. A. Salvatore - Vector Prime
 * F. Tupper Saussy - Rulers Of Evil
 * Neal Shusterman - Downsiders
 * Michael Slade - Burnt Bones
 * Lemony Snicket - The Reptile Room
 * Susan Sontag - In America
 * Michael Stackpole - Isard's Revenge
 * Matthew Stadler - Allan Stein
 * Danielle Steel - Irresistible Forces
 * Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon
 * James B. Stewart - Blind Eye
 * Koushun Takami - Battle Royale
 * Andrew Vachss - Choice of Evil
 * Vernor Vinge - A Deepness in the Sky
 * Jeanette Winterson - The World and Other Places
 * Robert Clark Young - One of the Guys
 * Timothy Zahn - The Icarus Hunt
 * Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold - Lord Demon

New drama

 * David Mamet - Boston Marriage
 * Frank McGuinness - Dolly West's Kitchen

Poetry

 * Dejan Stojanović, Sunce sebe gleda (The Sun Watches Itself), Književna reč, Beograd, 1999

Non-fiction

 * The Dalai Lama - Ancient Wisdom, Modern World
 * Wayson Choy - Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood
 * Freeman Dyson - The Sun, the Genome and the Internet
 * Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke - Paracelsus: Essential Readings.
 * 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
 * David Southwell - Conspiracy Theories (book)
 * Dejan Stojanović, Razgovori (Conversations), Književna reč, Beograd, 1999

Deaths

 * February 8 - Iris Murdoch, writer, aged 79
 * February 20 - Sarah Kane, playwright, aged 28
 * February 22 - William Bronk, poet, winner of the 1982 National Book Award aged 81
 * February 24 - Andre Dubus, writer
 * March 4 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer, aged 77
 * March 13 Garson Kanin, American playwright and screenwriter
 * March 28 - Jim Turner, editor, aged 54
 * May 10 - Shel Silverstein, children's poet, aged 68
 * June 14 - J. F. Powers, American writer, aged 81
 * July 2 - Mario Puzo, writer (The Godfather), aged 78
 * July 16 - John F. Kennedy, Jr., publisher, son of John F. Kennedy, aged 38 (airplane crash)
 * October 3 - Heinz G. Konsalik, writer, aged 78
 * October 19 - Nathalie Sarraute, Russian born Francophone lawyer and writer
 * November 11 - Jacobo Timmerman, journalist and publisher
 * November 18 - Paul Bowles, novelist
 * December 8 - Rupert Hart-Davis, editor, publisher
 * December 12 - Joseph Heller, American novelist (Catch-22), aged 76

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Günter Grass

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.

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
 * Nebula Award: Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Louis Sachar, Holes
 * 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

Elsewhere

 * Finlandia Prize: 1999 Kristina Carlson, Maan ääreen
 * Premio Nadal: Gustavo Martín Zarzo, Las historias de Marta y Fernando
 * Viareggio Prize: Ernesto Franco, Vite senza fine
 * IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Andrew Miller, Ingenious Pain