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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1999.

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See also: 1998 in literature, other events of 1999, 2000 in literature, list of years in literature.

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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.

New books

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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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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, '
  • Prix Goncourt: Jean Echenoz, '
  • Prix Décembre: Claude Askolovitch, '
  • Prix Médicis French: Michel Del Castillo, '
  • Prix Médicis Non-Fiction: Christian Oster, '
  • Prix Médicis International: Björn Larsson, '

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
  • Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Fritz Stern
  • 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

Notes

References

  • Popular Books of 1999 at Goodreads