1989 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1989.

• Peter Carey won the Miles Franklin Award for Oscar and Lucinda

• Jessica Anderson — Taking Shelter

• Mena Calthorpe — The Plain of Ala

• Bryce Courtenay — The Power of One

• Tom Flood — Oceana Fine

• Peter Goldsworthy — Maestro

• Elizabeth Jolley — My Father's Moon

• Tom Keneally — Towards Asmara

• Alex Miller — The Tivington Nott

• Amy Witting — I for Isobel

• Liam Davison — The Shipwreck Party

• Brian Matthews — Quickening and Other Stories

• Kerry Greenwood — Cocaine Blues, the first in the Phryne Fisher series.

• Jennifer Rowe — Murder by the Book

• Judith Clarke — The Boy on the Lake : Stories

• Greg Egan – "The Cutie"

• Rosaleen Love — The Total Devotion Machine and Other Stories

• Graeme Base — The Eleventh Hour

• Morris Gleitzman — Two Weeks with the Queen

• Robert Adamson — The Clean Dark

• Dorothy Hewett — A Tremendous World in Her Head: Selected Poems

• Dorothy Porter — Driving Too Fast

• Peter Porter — Possible Worlds

• Peter Skrzynecki — "Night Swim"

• Nick Enright — Daylight Saving

• Jenny Kemp — Call of the Wild

• Peta Murray

  • Spitting Chips
  • Wallflowering

• David Williamson — Top Silk

• Jill Ker Conway — The Road from Coorain

• Adam Shoemaker — Black Words, White Page: Aboriginal Literature 1929-1988

• Elisabeth Wynhausen — Manly Girls

• Mary Durack AC, for "service to the community and literature"

• Les Murray (poet) AO, for "service to Australian literature"

• Thomas Shapcott AO, for "service to Australian literature and to arts administration"

• Gwen Harwood AO, for "service to literature, particularly as a poet and librettist"

• Max Harris (poet) AO, for "service to literature"

• Clement Semmler AM, for "service to Australian literature"

• John Morrison (writer) AM, for "service to literature"

A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1989 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.

• 2 June — Will Kostakis, author and journalist

Unknown date

• Robbie Arnott, author

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1989 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.

• 3 June – Connie Christie, children's writer/illustrator, photographer and commercial artist (born 1908 in England)

• 16 August – Donald Friend, artist and diarist (born 1914)

• 1989 in Australia

• 1989 in literature

• 1989 in poetry

• List of years in literature

• List of years in Australian literature