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.

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