1989 in Australian literature

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

• Jessica Anderson — Taking Shelter
• Mena Calthorpe — The Plain of Ala^[1]
• 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^[2]

• Liam Davison — The Shipwreck Party^[3]
• Brian Matthews — Quickening and Other Stories^[4]

• Kerry Greenwood — Cocaine Blues, the first in the Phryne Fisher series.
• Jennifer Rowe — Murder by the Book^[5]

• Judith Clarke — The Boy on the Lake : Stories^[6]
• Greg Egan – "The Cutie"
• Rosaleen Love — The Total Devotion Machine and Other Stories^[7]

• Graeme Base — The Eleventh Hour
• Morris Gleitzman — Two Weeks with the Queen^[8]

• Robert Adamson — The Clean Dark
• Dorothy Hewett — A Tremendous World in Her Head: Selected Poems
• Dorothy Porter — Driving Too Fast^[9]
• Peter Porter — Possible Worlds
• Peter Skrzynecki — "Night Swim"^[10]

• Nick Enright — Daylight Saving
• Jenny Kemp — Call of the Wild^[11]
• Peta Murray
  • Spitting Chips^[12]
  • Wallflowering^[13]
• David Williamson — Top Silk^[14]

• Jill Ker Conway — The Road from Coorain
• Adam Shoemaker — Black Words, White Page: Aboriginal Literature 1929-1988^[15]
• Elisabeth Wynhausen — Manly Girls^[16]

• Mary Durack AC, for "service to the community and literature"^[17]
• Les Murray (poet) AO, for "service to Australian literature"^[18]
• Thomas Shapcott AO, for "service to Australian literature and to arts administration"^[19]
• Gwen Harwood AO, for "service to literature, particularly as a poet and librettist"^[20]
• Max Harris (poet) AO, for "service to literature"^[21]
• Clement Semmler AM, for "service to Australian literature"^[22]
• John Morrison (writer) AM, for "service to literature"^[23]

Award	Author
Christopher Brennan Award[24]	Chris Wallace-Crabbe
Patrick White Award[25]	Thea Astley

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
The Age Book of the Year Award[26]	Marsden Hordern	Mariners are Warned!: John Lort Stokes and HMS Beagle in Australia 1837-1843	Melbourne University Press
ALS Gold Medal[27]	Frank Moorhouse	Forty-Seventeen	Viking Books
Colin Roderick Award[28]	Chris Symons	John Bishop : A Life for Music

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Commonwealth Writers' Prize[29]	Best First Novel, SE Asia and South Pacific region	Gillian Mears	Ride a Cock Horse	Pascoe Publishing

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature[30]	Not awarded
The Age Book of the Year Award[26]	Elizabeth Jolley	My Father's Moon	Viking
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award[31]	Mandy Sayer	Mood Indigo	Allen and Unwin
Miles Franklin Award[32]	Peter Carey	Oscar and Lucinda	University of Queensland Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[33]	Helen Hodgman	Broken Words	Penguin Books Australia
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[34]	Rodney Hall	Captivity Captive	Farrar Straus and Giroux
Western Australian Premier's Book Awards[35]	Marion Campbell	Not Being Miriam	Fremantle Arts Centre Press

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature[30]	Children's	Not awarded
Children's Book of the Year Award	Older Readers[36]	Gillian Rubinstein	Beyond the Labyrinth	Hyland House
	Picture Book	Graeme Base[37]	The Eleventh Hour	Viking Kestrel
Allan Baillie & Jane Tanner[38]		Drac and the Gremlin	Viking Kestrel
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[33]	Young People's Literature	Mary Pershall	You Take the High Road	Penguin
Victorian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction[34]		Caroline MacDonald	The Lake at the End of the World	Hodder & Stoughton

Award	Category	Author	Title	Publisher
Australian SF Achievement Award[39]	Best Australian Long Fiction	Damien Broderick	Striped Holes	Avon
	Best Australian Short Fiction	Lucy Sussex	"My Lady Tongue"	Matilda at the Speed of Light

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature[30]	Not awarded
Anne Elder Award[40]	Mark Miller	Conversing with Stones	Five Islands Press
Grace Leven Prize for Poetry[41]	Dorothy Hewett	A Tremendous World in Her Head	Dangaroo Press
Mary Gilmore Award[42]	Alex Skovron	The Rearrangement	Melbourne University Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[33]	John Tranter	Under Berlin	University of Queensland Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[34]	Gwen Harwood	Bone Scan	Angus and Robertson

Award	Category	Author	Title
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[33]	FilmScript	Not awarded
	Radio Script	Alana Valentine	The Story of Anger Lee Bredenza
	Television Script	Bob Ellis and Stephen Ramsay	The True Believers
	Play	Stephen Sewell	Hate
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[34]	Drama	Daniel Keene	Silent Partner

Award	Author	Title	Publisher
Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature[30]	Not awarded
The Age Book of the Year Award[26]	Marsden C. Hordern	Mariners are Warned!: John Lort Stokes and HMS Beagle in Australia 1837-1843	Melbourne University Press
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards[33]	Maslyn Williams	His Mother's Country	Melbourne University Press
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards[34]	Oskar Spate	Paradise Found and Lost	ANU Press

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^[43]

Unknown date

• Robbie Arnott, author^[44]