# 1986 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1986.

## Events

* April 29 – A major fire at Los Angeles Public Library caused by arson destroys 400,000 volumes.
* July 21 – Michael Grade, Controller of BBC1, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.
* September 29 – Bloomsbury Publishing is set up in London by Nigel Newton.
* October 9 – The Phantom of the Opera, having been the longest running Broadway show ever, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
* December 19 – The Soviet dissident author Andrei Sakharov is allowed to return to Moscow after six years' internal exile.

## New books
### Fiction

* Kingsley Amis – The Old Devils
* V. C. Andrews – Garden of Shadows
* Piers Anthony – Ghost
* Jeffrey Archer – A Matter of Honour
* James Axler – Pilgrimage to Hell and Red Holocaust
* Iain Banks – The Bridge
* Thomas Bernhard – Extinction (Auslöschung)
* Azouz Begag – Le Gone du Chaâba
* Anita Brookner – A Misalliance
* Orson Scott Card – Speaker for the Dead
* Ana Castillo – Mixquiahuala Letters
* Tom Clancy – Red Storm Rising
* Arthur C. Clarke – The Songs of Distant Earth
* James Clavell – Whirlwind
* Jackie Collins – Hollywood Husbands
* Pat Conroy – The Prince of Tides
* Hugh Cook – The Wizards and the Warriors
* Bernard Cornwell – Sharpe's Regiment
* Bernard & Judy Cornwell (as Susannah Kells) – Coat of Arms (also as The Aristocrats)
* Fernando Del Paso – Noticias del Imperio
* Marguerite Duras – Blue Eyes, Black Hair
* James Ellroy – Silent Terror
* Steve Erickson – Rubicon Beach
* Nuruddin Farah – Maps (first part of Blood in the Sun trilogy)
* Richard Ford – The Sportswriter
* Katherine V. Forrest – An Emergence of Green
* John Gardner – Nobody Lives For Ever
* Jacques Godbout – Une Histoire américaine
* Peter Handke – Repetition
* Ernest Hemingway - The Garden of Eden
* Carl Hiaasen – Tourist Season
* Kazuo Ishiguro – An Artist of the Floating World
* Brian Jacques – Redwall
* Stephen King – It
* Judith Krantz – I'll Take Manhattan
* Brigitte Kronauer – Berittener Bogenschütze
* Louis L'Amour – Last of the Breed
* Joe R. Lansdale – Dead in the West
* John le Carré – A Perfect Spy
* David Leavitt – The Lost Language of Cranes
* Tanith Lee – Dreams of Dark and Light: The Great Short Fiction of Tanith Lee
* Gordon Lish – Dear Mr. Capote
* H. P. Lovecraft – Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (corrected edition)
* Robert Ludlum – The Bourne Supremacy
* Amin Maalouf – Leo Africanus
* Allan Massie – Augustus (first in the Roman series)
* Frank Miller – Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (graphic novel)
* Robert Munsch – Love You Forever
* Patrick O'Brian – The Reverse of the Medal
* Ellis Peters
** The Raven in the Foregate
** The Rose Rent
* Terry Pratchett – The Light Fantastic
* Reynolds Price – Kate Vaiden
* James Purdy – In the Hollow of His Hand
* Jean Raspail – Who Will Remember the People...
* Mercè Rodoreda (died 1983) – La mort i la primavera (Death in Spring)
* José Saramago – The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis)
* Ken Saro-Wiwa – Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English
* Idries Shah – Kara Kush
* Danielle Steel – Wanderlust
* Peter Taylor – A Summons to Memphis
* James Tiptree, Jr. – Tales of the Quintana Roo
* Mario Vargas Llosa – Who Killed Palomino Molero? (¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero?)
* Vladimir Voinovich – Moscow 2042
* Roger Zelazny – Blood of Amber

### Children and young people

* Janet and Allan Ahlberg – The Jolly Postman
* Chris Van Allsburg – The Stranger
* Tony Bradman – Dilly the Dinosaur (first in the eponymous series of 22 books)
* Steven Brust (with Alan Lee) – Brokedown Palace
* Robert J. Burch – Queenie Peavy
* Joy Cowley
** (with Jan van der Voo) – Turnips For Dinner
** (with Martin Bailey) – The King's Pudding
* Crescent Dragonwagon – Half a Moon and One Whole Star
* Jill Eggleton (with Kelvin Hawley) – Cat and Mouse
* Berniece T. Hiser – The Adventure of Charlie and His Wheat-Straw Hat
* Diana Wynne Jones – Howl's Moving Castle
* Michael de Larrabeiti
** The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis
** The Provençal Tales
* Arnold Lobel – The Random House Book of Mother Goose (in verse)
* Ann M. Martin
** Kristy's Great Idea
** Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls
** The Truth about Stacey (first three in The Baby-Sitters Club series of over 200 books, 35 written by Martin)
* Patricia McKissack – Flossie & the Fox
* Robert Munsch – Love You Forever
* Jill Murphy – Five Minutes' Peace (first in The Large Family series)
* Jenny Nimmo – The Snow Spider (first in The Magician Trilogy)
* Bill Peet – Zella, Zack, and Zodiac
* Claude Ponti – Adele's Album
* Alison Prince – The Type One Super Robot
* Gillian Rubinstein – Space Demons

### Drama

* Caryl Churchill and David Lan – A Mouthful of Birds
* Nick Darke – The Dead Monkey
* Tomson Highway – The Rez Sisters
* Chinu Modi – Ashwamedh
* Willy Russell – Shirley Valentine
* Arvo Salo – Vallan miehet
* Tom Stoppard – Dalliance (based on a work by Arthur Schnitzler)

### Poetry

* Kama Sywor Kamanda – Chants de brumes (Songs of twilight)

### Non-fiction

* Dave Stieb (with Kevin Boland) - Tomorrow I'll be Perfect
* Martin Amis – The Moronic Inferno: And Other Visits to America
* Bernard Bailyn – Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution
* Frank Barlow – Thomas Becket
* Marjorie Chibnall – Anglo-Norman England 1066–1166
* Richard Dawkins – The Blind Watchmaker
* Karlheinz Deschner – Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums (Criminal History of Christianity)
* Adrian Edmondson et al. – How to be a Complete Bastard
* Sita Ram Goel – History of Hindu–Christian Encounters, AD 304 to 1996
* Temple Grandin (with Margaret Scariano) – Emergence: Labeled Autistic
* Patience Gray – Honey from a Weed (cookery)
* Robert Irwin – The Middle East in the Middle Ages: The Early Mamlúk Sultanate 1250–1382
* Kumari Jayawardena – Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World
* Mark Mathabane – Kaffir Boy
* Farley Mowat – My Discovery of America
* Harvey Pekar – American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar (graphic autobiography)
* Marc Reisner – Cadillac Desert
* Richard Rhodes – The Making of the Atomic Bomb
* Jonathan Riley-Smith – The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading
* Roger Scruton – Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation
* Art Spiegelman – Maus: A Survivor's Tale (I: My Father Bleeds History) (graphic biography/autobiography)
* Jean Vercoutter – The Search for Ancient Egypt
* Mary Wilson – Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme

## Births

* January 24 - Aimee Carter, American young-adult fiction writer
* June 6 - Rachelle Dekker, American science-fiction writer
* July 3 – Chris Bush, English playwright, artistic director and comedian
* unknown dates
** Caroline Bird, English poet and dramatist
** Chigozie Obioma, Nigerian novelist

## Deaths

* January 1 – Lord David Cecil, English critic and biographer (born 1902)
* January 4 – Christopher Isherwood, English-born novelist (born 1904)
* January 7
** P. D. Eastman, American author and illustrator (born 1909)
** Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer (born 1917)
* January 9 – W. S. Graham, Scottish poet (born 1918)
* January 24 – L. Ron Hubbard, American science fiction writer, founder of Scientology (born 1911)
* January 26 – Nicholas Moore, English poet (born 1911)
* February 4 – Phyllis Shand Allfrey, Dominican writer (born 1908)
* February 9 – Dora Oake Russell, Newfoundland writer, diarist and journalist (born 1912)
* February 11 – Frank Herbert, American science fiction novelist (born 1920)
* February 27 – Nancy Brysson Morrison, Scottish novelist (born 1903)
* February 28 – Edith Ditmas, English archivist, historian and writer (born 1896)
* March 4
** Ding Ling, Chinese fiction writer (born 1904)
** Elizabeth Smart, Canadian poet and novelist (born 1913)
* March 15 – Pandelis Prevelakis, Greek novelist, poet, dramatist and essayist (born 1909)
* March 18 – Bernard Malamud, American novelist (born 1914)
* April 12 – Valentin Kataev, Russian novelist and dramatist (born 1897)
* April 14
** Simone de Beauvoir, French philosopher and feminist writer (born 1908)
** Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist and political activist (born 1910)
* April 17 – Bessie Head, Botswanan fiction writer (born 1937)
* April 22 – Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian, philosopher and novelist (born 1907)
* May 15 – Theodore H. White, American journalist, historian and novelist (born 1915)
* June 14 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (born 1899)
* July 16 – Stephen Coulter, English writer (born 1914)
* August 1 – Lena Kennedy, English romantic novelist (born 1914)
* August 3 – Beryl Markham, English-born Kenyan aviator and author (born 1902)
* August 18 – Vivian Stuart, English novelist (born 1914)
* August 20 – Milton Acorn, Canadian poet, writer and playwright (born 1923)
* September 11 – Noel Streatfeild, English novelist and children's writer (born 1895)
* October 28 – John Braine, English novelist (born 1922)
* December 17 – J. F. Hendry, Scottish poet (born 1912)
* December 19 – V. C. Andrews, American novelist (born 1923)
* December 28 – John D. MacDonald, American novelist and short story writer (born 1916)

## Awards

* Nobel Prize for Literature: Wole Soyinka

### Australia

* The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Robin Walton, Glace Fruits
* C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Rhyll McMaster, Washing the Money and John A. Scott, St. Clair
* Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Robert Gray Selected Poems 1963–83
* Mary Gilmore Prize: Stephen Williams, A Crowd of Voices
* Miles Franklin Award: Elizabeth Jolley, The Well

### Canada

* See 1986 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

### France

* Prix Goncourt: Michel Host, Valet de nuit
* Prix Médicis French: Pierre Combescot, Les Funérailles de la Sardine
* Prix Médicis International: John Hawkes, Aventures dans le commerce des peaux en Alaska

### United Kingdom

* Booker Prize: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
* Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Berlie Doherty, Granny Was a Buffer Girl
* Cholmondeley Award: Lawrence Durrell, James Fenton, Selima Hill
* Eric Gregory Award: Mick North, Lachlan Mackinnon, Oliver Reynolds, Stephen Romer
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Jenny Joseph, Persephone
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: D. Felicitas Corrigan, Helen Waddell
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Norman MacCaig
* Whitbread Best Book Award: Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World

### United States

* Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Robley Wilson, Kingdoms of the Ordinary
* American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Sidney Kingsley
* Frost Medal: Allen Ginsberg / Richard Eberhart
* Nebula Award: Orson Scott Card, Speaker For the Dead
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain and Tall
* Prometheus Award: Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminatus! Trilogy
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Henry Taylor, The Flying Change
* Whiting Awards: Fiction: Kent Haruf, Denis Johnson, Padgett Powell, Mona Simpson; Poetry: John Ash, Hayden Carruth, Frank Stewart, Ruth Stone; Nonfiction: Darryl Pinckney (nonfiction/fiction); Plays: August Wilson

### Elsewhere

* Premio Nadal: Manuel Vicent, Balada de Caín