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
Non-fiction
Births
Deaths
- February 8 - Iris Murdoch, writer, aged 79
- February 22 - William Bronk, poet, aged 80 (or 81?)
- February 24 - Andre Dubus, writer
- March 4 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer, aged 77
- 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
- December 8 - Rupert Hart-Davis, editor, publisher
- December 12 - Joseph Heller, American novelist (Catch-22), aged 76
Awards
Australia
Canada
France
United Kingdom
- Booker Prize: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
- 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
Elsewhere
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