1999 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
... 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 ... 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 ... 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 ...
In poetry 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Philosophy Science +...

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 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.
• Persephone Books founded in Bloomsbury, London, by Nicola Beauman to reprint mid-20th century fiction and non-fiction mainly by women.

New books

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
• François Bloemhof – Klipgooi
• Ben Bova – Return to Mars
• Thomas Brussig – Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee
• 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
  • 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
• Helen Fielding – Bridget Jones: 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
• Nancy Huston – The Mark of the Angel
• Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye – Soul Harvest
• K. W. Jeter – Hard Merchandise
• 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
• 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
• Michael Stackpole – Isard's Revenge
• Matthew Stadler – Allan Stein
• Danielle Steel – Irresistible Forces
• Neal Stephenson – Cryptonomicon
• 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

• Elizabeth Arnold – Spin of the Sunwheel
• Susan Cooper – King of Shadows
• Julia Donaldson (with Axel Scheffler) – The Gruffalo
• Adeline Yen Mah – Chinese Cinderella (autobiography)
• John Nickle – The Ant Bully
• Louise Rennison – Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
• J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Lemony Snicket – The Reptile Room
• Jacqueline Wilson – The Illustrated Mum

Drama

• Jon Fosse – Dream of Autumn
• Julia Jordan – St Paul
• David Mamet – Boston Marriage
• Frank McGuinness – Dolly West's Kitchen
• August Wilson – King Hedley II

Poetry

• Dejan Stojanović – Sunce sebe gleda (The Sun Watches Itself)^[1]

Non-fiction

• 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
• 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
• 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")^[2]

Births

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)^[3]
• February 22 – William Bronk, American poet (born 1918)
• February 24 – Andre Dubus, American short story writer, essayist and autobiographer (born 1936)^[4]
• March 4 – 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 – 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)
• June 14 – J. F. Powers, American writer (born 1917)
• July 2 – Mario Puzo, American writer (born 1920)
• September 22 – Marion Zimmer Bradley, American writer (born 1930)
• October 3 – Heinz G. Konsalik, German novelist (born 1921)
• October 19
  • Nathalie Sarraute, Russian-born French writer and lawyer (born 1900)
  • Penelope Mortimer, Welsh-born English novelist and biographer (born 1918)
• 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)
• Unknown date – E. J. Scovell, English poet (born 1907)

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
• 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

Notes

1. Belgrade: Književna reč. Stojanović, Dejan (2009). "Sunce sebe gleda". Open Library. Retrieved 2013-12-20.
2. Belgrade: Književna reč. Stojanović, Dejan (2010). "Razgovori". Open Library. Retrieved 2013-12-20.
3. Hattenstone, Simon. The Guardian (London) 1 July 2000.
4. Dubus, Andre, III. "Andre Dubus III: "What I'm working on now, I can't think about anyone liking"". Beatrice (Interview). Ron Hogan. Retrieved 2009-03-21.