# 1990 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1990.

## Events

* Tom Flood won the Miles Franklin Award for Oceana Fine

## Major publications
### Novels

* Glenda Adams — Longleg
* Thea Astley — Reaching Tin River
* Sumner Locke Elliott — Fairyland
* Sonya Hartnett — The Glass House
* Susan Johnson – Flying Lessons
* Elizabeth Jolley — Cabin Fever
* Nigel Krauth – JF Was Here
* David Malouf — The Great World
* Colleen McCullough — The First Man in Rome
* Mandy Sayer — Mood Indigo
* Sam Watson – The Kadaitcha Sung
* Morris West — Lazarus

### Crime and mystery

* Jon Cleary — Murder Song
* Kerry Greenwood — Flying Too High
* Alex Juniper — A Very Proper Death
* Finola Moorhead – Still Murder
* Kel Richards — The Case of the Vanishing Corpse

### Science fiction and fantasy

* A. Bertram Chandler — From Sea to Shining Star
* Greg Egan
** "Axiomatic"
** "Learning to Be Me"
** "The Moral Virologist"
* Lucy Sussex — "Red Ochre"
* George Turner — A Pursuit of Miracles: Eight Stories

### Children's and young adult fiction

* Isobelle Carmody — The Farseekers
* Gary Crew — Strange Objects
* Garth Nix — The Ragwitch
* Emily Rodda — Finders Keepers
* Tim Winton — Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo

### Poetry

* Lee Cataldi — Women Who Live on the Ground: Poems, 1978-1988
* Jean Kent — Verandahs
* Jennifer Maiden — The Winter Baby
* Les Murray — Dog Fox Field
* Jan Owen — Fingerprints on Light

### Drama

* Hannie Rayson — Hotel Sorrento
* David Williamson — Siren

### Non-fiction

* Beverley Farmer — A Body of Water
* Gwen Harwood — Blessed City: The Letters of Gwen Harwood to Thomas Riddell, January to September 1943
* Dorothy Hewett — Wild Card

## Awards and honours

* Yasmine Gooneratne AO, for "service to literature and to education"
* Harry Payne Heseltine AO, for "service to education, particularly in the field of Australian literature"
* Rodney Hall (writer) AM, for "service to the arts, particularly in the field of Australian literature"
* Andrew Taylor (poet) AM, for "service to the arts, particularly in the field of Australian literature"
* Elyne Mitchell OAM, for "service to children's literature"

### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | Not awarded |
| Patrick White Award | Robert Gray |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Gwen Harwood | Blessed City | Angus and Robertson |
| ALS Gold Medal | Peter Porter | Possible Worlds | Oxford University Press |
| Colin Roderick Award | Roland Griffiths-Marsh | The Sixpenny Soldier | Angus and Robertson |

### Fiction
#### International

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Best Novel, SE Asia and South Pacific region | Robert Drewe | The Bay of Contented Men | Picador |

#### National

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Peter Carey | Oscar and Lucinda | University of Queensland Press |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Glenda Adams | Longleg | Angus & Robertson |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Gillian Mears | The Mint Law | Allen and Unwin |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Michael Stephens | Sibling Mischief | Allen and Unwin |
| Miles Franklin Award | Tom Flood | Oceana Fine | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Thea Astley | Reaching Tin River | William Heinemann Australia |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Tom Flood | Oceana Fine | Allen & Unwin |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Gwen Harwood | Bone Scan | Angus & Robertson |
| Anne Elder Award | Jean Kent | Vernadahs | Hale & Iremonger |
| Anne Elder Award | Barry Hill | Raft: Poems 1983-1990 | Penguin |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Not awarded | | |
| Mary Gilmore Award | Kristopher Rassemussen | In the Name of the Father | False Frontiers |

### Children and Young Adult

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction | | Diana Kidd | Onion Tears | Collins |

### Drama

| Award | Category | Author | Title |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Drama | Sam Sejavka | The Hive |

### Non-fiction

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | John Bray | Satura | Wakefield Press |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Gwen Harwood | Blessed City | Angus and Robertson |

## Births

A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1990 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.
Unknown date
* Ellen van Neerven, Indigenous Australian writer and poet

## Deaths

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1990 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
* 8 March — Jack Lindsay, novelist, biographer, historian and literary critic (born 1900)
* 15 April — William Hart-Smith, poet (born 1911)
* 21 June — Martin Johnston, poet and novelist (born 1947)
* 30 September — Patrick White, novelist, playwright and short story writer (born 1912)