1989 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1989.

Events

 * February 14 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran (died 3 June 1989), issues a fatwa calling for the death of Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie and his publishers for issuing the novel The Satanic Verses (1988). On February 24 Iran places a US $3 million bounty on Rushdie's head. On August 3, 1989, a bomb kills Mustafa Mazeh in London as he attempts to plant it in a hotel, in order to carry out the fatwa.
 * March 1 – The Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 comes into effect in the United States, making the country a party to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886.
 * April 23 – Leading figures of the theatre mark William Shakespeare's birthday with a street party to oppose the destruction of the recently-discovered archaeological remains of the English Renaissance Rose Theatre and Globe theatres in London.
 * October – The National Library of Norway is established, with a new building at Mo i Rana.
 * December 29 – Playwright Václav Havel becomes President of Czechoslovakia.

Fiction

 * Hanan al-Shaykh – Women of Sand and Myrrh (Misk al–ghazal)
 * Martin Amis – London Fields
 * Piers Anthony – Total Recall
 * Iain Banks – Canal Dreams
 * John Banville – The Book of Evidence
 * Clive Barker – The Great and Secret Show
 * Julian Barnes – A History of the World in 10½ Chapters
 * Thomas Berger – Changing the Past
 * Larry Bond – Red Phoenix
 * Larry Brown – Dirty Work
 * Anthony Burgess – Any Old Iron
 * Nick Cave – And the Ass Saw the Angel
 * Tom Clancy – Clear and Present Danger
 * Mary Higgins Clark – While My Pretty One Sleeps
 * Hugh Cook – The Wicked and the Witless
 * Bernard Cornwell
 * Sharpe's Revenge
 * Sea Lord (aka Killer's Wake)
 * Bryce Courtenay – The Power of One
 * Robert Crais – Stalking the Angel
 * Lindsey Davis – The Silver Pigs
 * L. Sprague de Camp
 * The Honorable Barbarian
 * (with Fletcher Pratt) – The Complete Compleat Enchanter
 * E. L. Doctorow – Billy Bathgate
 * Katherine Dunn – Geek Love
 * Umberto Eco – Foucault's Pendulum
 * George Alec Effinger – A Fire in the Sun
 * Mircea Eliade (died 1986) – Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent (Romanul adolescentului miop) (written 1921–1925)
 * Ben Elton – Stark
 * Steve Erickson – Tours of the Black Clock
 * Laura Esquivel – Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate)
 * Ken Follett – The Pillars of the Earth
 * Frederick Forsyth – The Negotiator
 * Jon Fosse – Naustet (Boathouse)
 * Gabriel García Márquez – The General in His Labyrinth (El general en su laberinto)
 * John Gardner
 * Licence to Kill
 * Win, Lose or Die
 * Charles Gill – The Boozer Challenge
 * John Grisham – A Time to Kill
 * A. M. Homes – Jack
 * Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter – The Conan Chronicles
 * John Irving – A Prayer for Owen Meany
 * Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day
 * Fleur Jaeggy – it:I beati anni del castigo (Sweet Days of Discipline)
 * Randall Kenan – A Visitation of Spirits
 * Elias Khoury – رحلة غاندي الصغير (Rihlat Ghandi al-saghir, The Journey of Little Gandhi)
 * Stephen King – The Dark Half
 * László Krasznahorkai – The Melancholy of Resistance (Az ellenállás melankóliája)
 * Joe R. Lansdale
 * Cold in July
 * By Bizarre Hands
 * John le Carré – The Russia House
 * H. P. Lovecraft – The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions (corrected edition)
 * Hilary Mantel – Fludd
 * Javier Marías – Todas las almas (All Souls)
 * James A. Michener – Six Days in Havana
 * Hanna Mina – The End of a Brave Man (Nihayat Rajul Shujaa)
 * Bharati Mukherjee – Jasmine
 * Larry Niven – The Legacy of Heorot
 * Joyce Carol Oates – American Appetites
 * Robert B. Parker – Playmates
 * Ellis Peters
 * The Heretic's Apprentice
 * The Potter's Field
 * Giuseppe Pontiggia – La grande sera
 * Terry Pratchett
 * Guards! Guards!
 * Pyramids
 * Paul Quarrington – Whale Music
 * Mordecai Richler – Solomon Gursky Was Here
 * Giampaolo Rugarli – Il nido di ghiaccio
 * José Saramago – The History of the Siege of Lisbon
 * Sidney Sheldon – The Sands of Time
 * Dan Simmons – Hyperion
 * John Skipp and Craig Spector – Book of the Dead
 * Danielle Steel
 * Daddy
 * Star
 * Bruce Sterling – Crystal Express
 * Alexander Stuart – The War Zone
 * Amy Tan – The Joy Luck Club
 * Shashi Tharoor – The Great Indian Novel
 * Rose Tremain – Restoration
 * Jane Vandenburgh – Failure to Zig-Zag
 * Andrew Vachss – Hard Candy
 * Alice Walker – The Temple of My Familiar
 * Robert McLiam Wilson – Ripley Bogle
 * Roger Zelazny
 * Frost & Fire (short stories and essays)
 * Knight of Shadows
 * Barbara Kingsolver - The Bean Trees

Children and young people

 * Verna Aardema – Rabbit Makes a Monkey of Lion
 * Joyce Barkhouse – Pit Pony
 * Bruce Coville – My Teacher Is an Alien
 * Anne Fine
 * Bill's New Frock
 * Goggle-Eyes
 * Mark Helprin (with Chris Van Allsburg) – Swan Lake
 * Yoshi Kogo – Big Al
 * Norman Maclean (with Barry Moser) – A River Runs Through It
 * Bill Martin Jr. (with Lois Ehlert) – Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
 * David McKee – Elmer
 * Jim Murphy – The Call Of The Wolves
 * Bill Peet – Bill Peet: An Autobiography
 * Robert D. San Souci – The Talking Eggs: A Folktale from the American South
 * Jon Scieszka (with Lane Smith) – The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!
 * R. L. Stine – The New Girl (first in the Fear Street series of 55 books)
 * Christopher Tolkien (with J. R. R. Tolkien and Alan Lee) – The Treason of Isengard
 * Hélène Desputeaux – Caillou
 * Michael Rosen – We're Going on a Bear Hunt

Drama

 * Herman Brusselmans and Tom Lanoye – De Canadese muur (The Canadian Wall)
 * Jim Cartwright – Two
 * Nick Darke – Kissing the Pope (original title: Campesinos)
 * Michael Wall – Amongst Barbarians
 * Keith Waterhouse – Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell

Poetry

 * Simon Armitage – Zoom!
 * Paul Fleischman – Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
 * David Lehman – The Best American Poetry 1989

Non-fiction

 * Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg – Angst und Vorurteil
 * Bill Bryson – The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America
 * Rodney Cotterill – No Ghost in the Machine: Modern Science and the Brain, the Mind, and the Soul
 * Stephen R. Covey – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
 * Bruno Dagens – Angkor: Heart of an Asian Empire
 * William Dalrymple – In Xanadu: A Quest
 * Cynthia Enloe – Bananas, Beaches and Bases
 * Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon – Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony
 * Rüdiger Imhof – John Banville: A Critical Introduction, the first full-length appraisal of the work of major turn of the century writer John Banville.
 * Tim Jeal – Baden-Powell
 * Pauline Kael – Hooked
 * Bob Kane and Tom Andrae – Batman and Me
 * John Keegan – The Face of Battle
 * Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson – And Their Children After Them
 * Peter Mayle – A Year in Provence
 * Claudia Moatti – The Search for Ancient Rome
 * Ann Moir and David Jessel – Brain Sex
 * New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
 * Michael Palin – Around the World in 80 Days
 * Harold Perkin – The Rise of Professional Society. England Since 1880
 * Gilda Radner – It's Always Something
 * Peter Sloterdijk – Infinite Mobilization (Eurotaoismus)
 * Dan Topolski and Patrick Robinson – True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny
 * V. Vale and Andrea Juno – Modern Primitives
 * Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett – The Andy Warhol Diaries
 * Jeremy Wilson – Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T.E. Lawrence
 * Bob Wood – Big Ten Country

Births

 * August 26 - Sara Raasch, American young-adult fiction writer

Deaths

 * January 4 – Srikrishna Alanahalli, Indian novelist and poet (born 1947)
 * January 8 – Bruce Chatwin, English travel writer and novelist (born 1940)
 * February 3 – John Cassavetes, American actor, director and writer (born 1929)
 * February 12 – Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author (born 1931)
 * February 21 – Denys Corley Smith, English author and journalist (born 1922)
 * March 14 – Edward Abbey, American essayist (born 1927)
 * March 27 – Malcolm Cowley, American novelist and poet (born 1898)
 * April 14 – Laurence Meynell (Valerie Baxter, A. Stephen Tring), English novelist and children's writer (born 1899)
 * April 19 – Daphne du Maurier, English novelist (born 1907)
 * May 19 – C. L. R. James, Trinidad-born American journalist (born 1901)
 * May 20 – Erzsébet Galgóczi, Hungarian novelist, playwright and screenwriter (born 1930)
 * July 31 – Zhou Yang, Chinese literary theorist (born 1908)
 * August 23 – R. D. Laing, Scottish psychologist and author (born 1927)
 * August 26 – Irving Stone, American novelist (born 1903)
 * September 4
 * Georges Simenon, Belgian novelist and crime writer (born 1903)
 * Sir Ronald Syme, New Zealand classicist (born 1903)
 * September 13 – Acharya Aatreya, Telugu screenwriter (born 1921)
 * September 15 – Robert Penn Warren, American poet and novelist (born 1905)
 * September 30
 * Horace Alexander, English current-affairs writer and ornithologist (born 1909)
 * Oskar Davičo, Serbian novelist and poet (born 1909)
 * October 13 – Cesare Zavattini, Italian screenwriter (born 1902)
 * November 22 – José Guadalupe Cruz, Mexican comics writer (born 1917)
 * December 5 – George Selden (Terry Andrews), American children's author (gastrointestinal bleeding, born 1929)
 * December 19 – Stella Gibbons, English novelist (born 1902)
 * December 22 – Samuel Beckett, Irish-born playwright, novelist and poet (born 1906)
 * December 26 – Paul Jennings, English humorist (born 1918)

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Camilo José Cela
 * Europe Theatre Prize: Peter Brook
 * Camões Prize (first award): Miguel Torga

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
 * Miles Franklin Award: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda

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 Manœuvres 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
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Anne Fine, Goggle-Eyes
 * Cholmondeley Award: Peter Didsbury, Douglas Dunn, E. J. Scovell
 * Eric Gregory Award: Gerard Woodward, David Morley, Katrina Porteous, Paul Henry
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: James Kelman, A Disaffection
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Ian Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca: A Life
 * Newdigate prize: Jane Griffiths
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Allen Curnow
 * Whitbread Best Book Award: Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Early Visions
 * The Sunday Express Book of the Year: Rose Tremain, Restoration

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 Bashevis Singer
 * Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Jorie Graham, "Spring"
 * Compton Crook Award: Elizabeth Moon, Sheepfarmer's Daughter
 * Frost Medal: Gwendolyn Brooks
 * National Book Critics Circle Award: to The Broken Cord by Michael Dorris
 * National Book Award for Fiction: to Spartina by John Casey
 * Nebula Award: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, The Healer's War
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Paul Fleischman, Joyful Noise
 * PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter
 * 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
 * Whiting Awards:
 * Fiction: Ellen Akins, Marianne Wiggins
 * Nonfiction: Ian Frazier, Natalie Kusz, Lucy Sante, Tobias Wolff (nonfiction/fiction)
 * Plays: Timberlake Wertenbaker
 * Poetry: Russell Edson, Mary Karr, C.D. Wright

Japan

 * Falcon Award (Maltese Falcon Society of Japan): Andrew Vachss for Strega
 * The Japan Fantasy Novel Award is established, with Ken'ichi Sakemi winning with his novel Kōkyū Shōsetsu.