This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1959.
Books
Nancy Cato – Time, Flow Softly
Jon Cleary
Back of Sunset
Strike Me Lucky with Joy Cleary
Eleanor Dark – Lantana Lane
David Forrest – The Last Blue Sea
Xavier Herbert – Seven Emus
Dorothy Hewett – Bobbin Up : A Novel
Barbara Jefferis – Half Angel
Eric Lambert – Glory Thrown In
Leonard Mann – Andrea Caslin
D'Arcy Niland
The Big Smoke
Gold in the Streets
Vance Palmer – The Big Fellow
George Turner – Young Man of Talent
Arthur Upfield
Bony and the Black Virgin (aka The Tom Branch) Journey to the Hangman Morris West – The Devil's Advocate
Short stories
Ethel Anderson – Little Ghosts
David Campbell – Flame and Shadow : Selected Stories
A. Bertram Chandler
"Chance Encounter" "The Man Who Couldn't Stop" David Forrest – "That Barambah Mob" Hal Porter "Country Town" "Fiend and Friend" Katharine Susannah Prichard – N'goola and Other Stories Judith Wright — "In the Park"
Children's and Young Adult fiction
Eleanor Spence – The Summer in Between
Kylie Tennant – All the Proud Tribesmen
Norman Barnett Tindale and H. A. Lindsay – Rangatira
Poetry
John Blight – "A Sailor's Grave" David Campbell – "We Took the Storms to Bed" Bruce Dawe – "The City : Midnight" Rosemary Dobson "Captain Svenson" "The Edge" Geoffrey Dutton – "January" R. D. Fitzgerald – "Quayside Meditation" William Hart-Smith – Poems of Discovery Gwen Harwood – "Prize-Giving" Charles Higham – The Earthbound and Other Poems A. D. Hope – "Agony Column" Lionel Lindsay – Discobolus and Other Verse Nan McDonald – The Lighthouse and Other Poems David Martin – "Gordon Childe" Ian Mudie – The Blue Crane Elizabeth Riddell "After Lunik Two" "Suburban Song" Douglas Stewart – "Leopard-Skin" Chris Wallace-Crabbe – The Music of Division Francis Webb – "Art"
Biography
Charmian Clift – Peel Me a Lotus
Mary Durack – Kings in Grass Castles
Errol Flynn – My Wicked, Wicked Ways
Ion Idriess – The Tin Scratchers
Peter Ryan – Fear Drive My Feet
Children's and Young Adult non-fiction
Dale Collins – Anzac Adventure
Awards and honours
Literary
Children and Young Adult
Poetry
Births
A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1959 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.
10 January – Gabrielle Carey, writer (died 2023) 28 January – Philip Hodgins, poet (died 1995) 18 May – Sophie Masson, novelist 27 June – Stephen Dedman, writer 13 October – Doug MacLeod, children's writer, poet, screenwriter and playwright (died 2021) 25 November – Merlinda Bobis, writer and academic
Unknown date
Jennifer Fallon, novelist
Andy Kissane, poet
Mike Ladd, 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 1959 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
15 July – Vance Palmer, novelist (born 1885) 14 October – Errol Flynn, author and actor (born 1909)