2019 in Australian literature
This is a list of historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2019.
Major publications
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
- 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.
Lifetime achievement
Literary
Fiction
National
Children and Young Adult
National
Crime and Mystery
National
Science fiction
Poetry
Drama
Non-Fiction
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)
See also
- 2019 in Australia
- 2019 in literature
- 2019 in poetry
- List of years in Australian literature
- List of years in literature
- List of Australian literary awards