1998 in literature
See also: 1997 in literature, other events of 1998, 1999 in literature, list of years in literature.
Contents |
Events
- November 18 - Alice McDermott wins the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy.
- Following the death of Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, there is a gap of several months before a successor is appointed.
New books
- Aaron Allston
- Hanan al-Shaykh - I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops
- Martin Amis - Heavy Water and Other Stories (most stories previously published)
- Reshman Baig - The Memory of Hands
- Iain M. Banks - Inversions
- Julian Barnes - England, England
- Greg Bear
- Dinosaur Summer
- Foundation and Chaos
- Raymond Benson - The Facts of Death
- Driss Chraibi - Muhammad
- Mary Higgins Clark - All Through the Night
- Tom Clancy - Rainbow Six
- Paulo Coelho - Veronika Decides to Die
- Patricia Cornwell - Point of Origin
- Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma
- Ann C. Crispin - Rebel Dawn
- Michael Cunningham - The Hours
- Allan W. Eckert - Return to Hawk's Hill
- Diana Gabaldon - Hellfire
- Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors (most of the contained stories previously published)
- Andrew Greeley - A Midwinter's Tale
- John Grisham - The Street Lawyer
- Ha Jin - Waiting
- Nick Hornby - About a Boy
- John Irving - A Widow for One Year
- K. W. Jeter
- Stephen King - Bag of Bones
- Dean R. Koontz - Seize the Night
- Ian McEwan - Amsterdam
- Roy MacLaren - African Exploits
- Carol Matas - Greater Than Angels
- Toni Morrison - Paradise
- Alice Munro - The Love of a Good Woman
- Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- Tim O'Brien - Tomcat in Love
- Terry Pratchett
- David Adams Richards - The Bay of Love and Sorrows
- J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Michael Slade - Shrink aka Primal Scream
- Michael Stackpole - I, Jedi
- Danielle Steel
- The Klone and I
- The Long Road Home
- Mirror Image
- Thomas Sullivan - The Martyring
- Connie Willis - To Say Nothing of the Dog
- A. N. Wilson - Dream Children
- Tom Wolfe - A Man in Full
- Timothy Zahn - Vision of the Future
New drama
Non-fiction
- Tariq Ali - The Book of Saladin
- Esther Delisle - (Essais sur l'imprégnation fasciste au Québec)
- Gerina Dunwich - Wicca A to Z
- Amanda Foreman -
- John Fowles - Wormholes - Essays and Occasional Writings
- Alan I. Marcus - Building Western Civilization: From the Advent of Writing to the Age of Steam -
- Jules Witcover, David Halberstam -
Births
Deaths
- January 2 - Frank Muir, comedy writer
- January 11 - John Wells, satirical writer
- January 23 - John Forbes, Australian poet
- January 27 - Geoffrey Trease, historical novelist
- February 7 - Lawrence Sanders, author
- February 17 - Ernst Jünger, novelist and war memoirist
- March 15 - Dr Benjamin Spock, childcare expert
- April 11 - Francis Durbridge, playwright
- April 19 - Octavio Paz, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature
- April 27 - Pauline Réage, author
- April 27 - Carlos Castaneda, author
- May 9 - Nat Perrin, comedy writer
- June 10 - Hammond Innes, novelist
- June 11 - Dame Catherine Cookson, bestselling novelist
- July 1 - Martin Seymour-Smith, biographer
- July 5 - Johnny Speight, comedy writer
- July 14 - Miroslav Holub, Czech poet
- July 23 - John Hopkins, film and television writer
- September 28 - Eric Malling, journalist
- October 22 - Eric Ambler, novelist
- October 28 - Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate of Great Britain
- November 8 - Rumer Godden, novelist
- date unknown - Ian Wallace, science fiction author
Awards
Australia
- The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Jennifer Kremmer, Pegasus in the Suburbs
- C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Coral Hull, Broken Land
- Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: No awards were presented this year
- Mary Gilmore Prize: Lucy Dougan, Memory Shell
Canada
- See 1998 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
- Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Alice Munro: The Love of a Good Woman
France
- Prix Décembre: Michel Houellebecq, Les Particules élémentaires
- Prix Goncourt: Paule Constant, Confidence pour confidence
- Prix Médicis French: Le Loup mongol
- Prix Médicis International: The House of Sleep - Jonathan Coe
United Kingdom
- Booker Prize: Ian McEwan - Amsterdam
- Cholmondeley Award: Roger McGough, Robert Minhinnick, Anne Ridler, Ken Smith
- Eric Gregory Award: Mark Goodwin, Joanne Limburg, Patrick McGuinness, Kona Macphee, Esther Morgan, Christiania Whitehead, Frances Williams
- Orange Prize for Fiction: Carol Shields, Larry's Party
- Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Les Murray
- Whitbread Best Book Award: Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters
United States
- Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Shara McCallum, The Water Between Us
- Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: X.J. Kennedy
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Horton Foote
- Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Sherod Santos, "Elegy for My Sister", and (separately) Neil Azevedo, "Caspar Hauser Songs"
- Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Frank Bidart, Desire
- Compton Crook Award: Katie Waitman, The Merro Tree
- Hugo Award for Best Novel: Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace
- Frost Medal: Stanley Kunitz
- Nebula Award: Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Philip Roth, American Pastoral
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Charles Wright, Black Zodiac
- Wallace Stevens Award: A. R. Ammons
Elsewhere
- IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Herta Muller, The Grand of Green Plums
Categories
1998 books