The year 1999 in literature involved some significant literary events and new books.
Contents[]
Events[edit][]
- May 1 - Andrew Motion is appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for 10 years.
- June 19 - Stephen King is hit by a Dodge van while taking a walk. He spends the next three weeks hospitalized and does not continue with his next book, On Writing, until July.
New books[]
- Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban J.K. Rowling
- Can you keep a secret? Sophie Kinsella
- The Bad Beginning Lemony Snicket
New drama[edit][]
Poetry[edit][]
Main article: 1999 in poetry*Dejan Stojanović - Sunce sebe gleda ("The Sun Watches Itself")[1]
Non-fiction[edit][]
- 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
- 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[edit][]
Deaths[edit][]
- February 8 - Iris Murdoch, British novelist and philosopher, aged 79
- February 20 - Sarah Kane, playwright, aged 28 (suicide by hanging)[3]
- February 22 - William Bronk, poet, winner of the 1982 National Book Award, aged 81
- February 24 - Andre Dubus, short story writer, essayist and autobiographer, aged 62[4]
- March 4 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer, aged 77
- March 5 - John Figueroa, Jamaican poet, aged 78
- March 8 - Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine author, aged 84
- March 13 Garson Kanin, American playwright and screenwriter, aged 86
- March 28 - Jim Turner, editor, aged 54
- April 13 - Knut Hauge, Norwegian novelist, dramatist and children's writer, aged 87
- 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)
- September 22 – Marion Zimmer Bradley, writer, aged 69
- October 3 - Heinz G. Konsalik, writer, aged 78
- October 19 - Nathalie Sarraute, Russian-born Francophone lawyer and writer, aged 99
- November 11 - Jacobo Timerman, Argentine journalist and publisher, aged 76
- November 18 - Paul Bowles, novelist, aged 88
- December 2 - Matt Cohen, Canadian novelist
- December 8 - Rupert Hart-Davis, editor and publisher, aged 92
- December 12 - Joseph Heller, American novelist (Catch-22), aged 76
Awards[edit][]
Australia[edit][]
- 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[edit][]
- 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[edit][]
- 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[edit][]
- 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[edit][]
- 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[edit][]
- 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