1989 in literature
See also: 1988 in literature, other events of 1989, 1990 in literature, list of years in literature.
Contents |
Events
- February 24 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini places a US$3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.
New books
- Hanan al-Shaykh - Women of Sand and Myrrh (Misk al-ghazal)
- Martin Amis - London Fields
- Piers Anthony - Total Recall
- Clive Barker - The Great and Secret Show
- Larry Bond - Red Phoenix
- Nick Cave - And the Ass Saw the Angel
- Tom Clancy - The Cardinal of the Kremlin
- Mary Higgins Clark - While My Pretty One Sleeps
- Hugh Cook - The Wicked and the Witless
- Bryce Courtenay - The Power of One
- Lindsey Davis - The Silver Pigs
- Katherine Dunn - Geek Love
- Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum
- George Alec Effinger - A Fire in the Sun
- Ben Elton - Stark
- Ken Follett - The Pillars of the Earth
- Frederick Forsyth - The Negotiator
- John Gardner
- John Grisham - A Time to Kill
- John Irving - A Prayer For Owen Meany
- Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day
- John le Carré - The Russia House
- James A. Michener - Six Days in Havana
- Bharati Mukherjee - Jasmine
- Larry Niven - The Legacy of Heorot
- Robert B. Parker - Playmates
- Terry Pratchett
- Paul Quarrington - Whale Music
- Mordecai Richler - Solomon Gursky Was Here
- Salman Rushdie - The Satanic Verses
- Sidney Sheldon - The Sands of Time
- Dan Simmons - Hyperion
- Danielle Steel
- Daddy
- Star
- Alexander Stuart - The War Zone
- Amy Tan - The Joy Luck Club
- Shashi Tharoor - The Great Indian Novel
- Rose Tremain - Restoration
- Tom Wakefield - Lot's Wife
- Alice Walker - The Temple of My Familiar
New drama
- Herman Brusselmans & Tom Lanoye - De Canadese muur
- Jim Cartwright - Two
- Michael Wall - Amongst Barbarians
- Keith Waterhouse - Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell
Poetry
Non-fiction
- Stephen R. Covey - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
- Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon - Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony
- John Keegan - The Face of Battle
- New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
- Gilda Radner - It's Always Something
- Dan Topolski and Patrick Robinson - True Blue: Oxford Boat Race Mutiny
- Jeremy Wilson - Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T.E. Lawrence
Deaths
- January 8 - Bruce Chatwin, travel writer and novelist
- February 3 - John Cassavetes, actor, director, writer
- March 14 - Edward Abbey, essayist
- March 27 - Malcolm Cowley, novelist and poet
- April 19 - Daphne du Maurier, writer
- April 25 - Norma Klein, author
- May 19 - C. L. R. James, journalist
- July 10 - Mel Blanc, voice of Bugs Bunny
- August 23 - R. D. Laing, psychologist and author
- September 4 - Georges Simenon, Maigret author
- September 4 - Sir Ronald Syme, Classicist
- September 15 - Robert Penn Warren, poet
- September 30 - Horace Alexander, pacifist writer, 100
- October 13 - Cesare Zavattini, screenwriter
- December 19 - Stella Gibbons, novelist
- December 26 - Paul Jennings, humorist
- December - George Selden
Awards
Australia
- The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Mandy Sayer, Mood Indigo
- C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Gwen Harwood, Bone Scan
- Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: John Tranter, Under Berlin
- Mary Gilmore Prize: Alex Skovron, The Re-arrangement
Canada
- See 1989 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
France
- Prix Goncourt: Jean Vautrin, Un grand pas vers le Bon Dieu
- Prix Décembre: Guy Dupré, Les Manoeuvres d'automne
- Prix Médicis French: Serge Doubrovsky, Le Livre brisé
- Prix Médicis International: Alvaro Mutis, La Neige de l'amiral
United Kingdom
- Booker Prize: Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day
- Cholmondeley Award: Peter Didsbury, Douglas Dunn, E.J. Scovell
- Eric Gregory Award: Gerard Woodward, David Morley, Katrina Porteous, Paul Henry
- Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Allen Curnow
- Whitbread Best Book Award: Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Early Visions
United States
- Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Nancy Vieira Couto, The Face in the Water
- Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Anthony Hecht
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction, Isaac Beshevis Singer
- Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Jorie Graham, "Spring"
- Compton Crook Award: Elizabeth Moon, Sheepfarmer's Daughter
- Frost Medal: Gwendolyn Brooks
- Nebula Award: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, The Healer's War
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Paul Fleischman, Joyful Noise
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Wendy Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Anne Tyler - Breathing Lessons
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Richard Wilbur: New and Collected Poems
Elsewhere
- The Japan Fantasy Novel Award is established, with Ken'ichi Sakemi winning with his novel Kōkyū Shōsetsu.
Categories
1989 books