This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1991.

Events

• David Malouf won the Miles Franklin Award for The Great World

Major publications

Novels

• Peter Carey — The Tax Inspector
• Brian Castro — Double-Wolf
• Bryce Courtenay — Tandia
• Robert Drewe — Our Sunshine
• Rodney Hall — The Second Bridegroom
• Colleen McCullough — The Grass Crown
• Morris West — The Ringmaster
• Tim Winton — Cloudstreet

Short story anthologies

• Suzanne Edgar — Counting Backwards and Other Stories
• Jackie French — Rain Stones (for children)

Children's and young adult fiction

• Anna Fienberg — The Magnificent Nose and Other Marvels
• Robin Klein — Came Back to Show You I Could Fly
• John Marsden — Letters from the Inside
• Margaret Barbalet — The Wolf

Poetry

• Alison Croggon — This is the stone
• A. D. Hope — Orpheus
• Jean Kent — Practising Breathing
• John Tranter — The Floor of Heaven

Drama

• Michael Gow — Furious

Non-fiction

• Bruce Bennett — Spirit in exile, Peter Porter and his poetry
• Barry Hill — Sitting In
• Julie Lewis — Olga Masters, a lot of living
• David Marr — Patrick White: A Life

Awards and honours

• Robert Hughes AO, for "service to art and to the promotion of Australian culture"^[1]
• Bruce Beaver AM, for "service to literature, particularly in the field of poetry"^[2]
• David Rowbotham AM, for "service to literature"^[3]
• Patricia Scott AM, for "service to children's literature"^[4]

Lifetime achievement

Literary

Fiction

International

National

Poetry

Deaths

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1991 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.

• 21 February — Dorothy Auchterlonie Green, academic, literary critic and poet (born 1915)^[17]
• 30 March — Joan Colebrook, journalist and writer (born 1910)^[18]
• 3 April — Coral Lansbury, writer and academic (born 1929)
• 7 April — Bob Brissenden, poet, novelist, critic and academic (born 1928)^[19]
• 2 May — Ronald McKie, novelist (born 1909)^[20]
• 23 May — Manning Clark, historian (born 1915)^[21]
• 24 June — Sumner Locke Elliott, novelist and playwright (born 1917)^[22]
• 17 November — Pixie O'Harris, children's book author and illustrator (born 1903)^[23]
• 1 December — Barbara Hanrahan, novelist and artist (born 1939)^[24]