1992 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1992.

Events

 * July – The Goosebumps series of children's horror fiction, penned by R. L. Stine, is first published in the United States.
 * August – An attempt is made to set fire to the National Library of Abkhazia in Sukhumi during the War in Abkhazia by Georgian forces.
 * August 25 – The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina is annihilated during the Siege of Sarajevo by the Army of Republika Srpska.
 * September – Michael Ondaatje's historiographic metafiction The English Patient is published in Canada. It will win The Golden Man Booker in 2018.

Fiction

 * Ben Aaronovitch – Transit
 * Tariq Ali – Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree
 * Paul Auster – Leviathan
 * Iain Banks – The Crow Road
 * Clive Barker – The Thief of Always
 * Julian Barnes – The Porcupine
 * Greg Bear – Anvil of Stars
 * Thomas Berger – Meeting Evil
 * Louis de Bernières – The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman
 * James P. Blaylock – Lord Kelvin's Machine
 * Pascal Bruckner – The Divine Child
 * A. S. Byatt – Morpho Eugenia
 * Roger Caron – Dreamcaper
 * Andrew Cartmel – Cat's Cradle: Warhead
 * Patrick Chamoiseau – Texaco
 * Paulo Coelho – The Valkyries
 * Michael Connelly – The Black Echo
 * Hugh Cook
 * The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster
 * The Worshippers and the Way
 * Paul Cornell – Love and War
 * Bernard Cornwell
 * Sharpe's Devil
 * Scoundrel
 * Douglas Coupland – Shampoo Planet
 * Mia Couto – Sleepwalking Land (Terra Sonâmbula)
 * Robert Crais – Lullaby Town
 * L. Sprague de Camp and Christopher Stasheff – The Enchanter Reborn
 * Clarissa Pinkola Estés – Women Who Run with the Wolves
 * Elena Ferrante – L'amore molesto (Troubling Love)
 * Tibor Fischer – Under the Frog
 * Leon Forrest – Divine Days
 * John Gardner – Death is Forever
 * Neil Gaiman – The Sandman: Season of Mists (graphic novel; volume 4 of The Sandman series)
 * Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean – Signal to Noise (graphic novel)
 * Cristina García – Dreaming in Cuban
 * Mark Gatiss – Nightshade
 * Ann Granger – Cold in the Earth
 * Alasdair Gray – Poor Things
 * John Grisham – The Pelican Brief
 * Hella Haasse – Heren van de thee (The Tea Lords)
 * Victor Headley – Yardie
 * Andrew Hunt – Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark
 * Simon Ings – Hot Head
 * P. D. James – The Children of Men
 * Denis Johnson – Jesus' Son (short story collection)
 * John Kessel – Meeting in Infinity
 * Stephen King
 * Dolores Claiborne
 * Gerald's Game
 * Patrick McCabe – The Butcher Boy
 * Cormac McCarthy – All the Pretty Horses (Book 1 of the Border Trilogy)
 * Val McDermid – Dead Beat
 * Ian McEwan – Black Dogs
 * Terry McMillan – Waiting to Exhale
 * Javier Marías – A Heart So White (Corazón tan blanco)
 * Andrés L. Mateo – La Balada de Alfonsina Bairán
 * Rohinton Mistry – Tales from Firozsha Baag
 * Caitlin Moran – The Chronicles of Narmo
 * Toni Morrison – Jazz
 * Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient
 * Ellis Peters – The Holy Thief
 * Marc Platt – Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
 * Terry Pratchett
 * Lords and Ladies
 * Small Gods
 * Anne Rice – The Tale of the Body Thief
 * Mordecai Richler – Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!
 * Jennifer Roberson – Lady of the Forest
 * Robert Schneider – Schlafes Bruder
 * Patricia Schonstein – A Time of Angels
 * W. G. Sebald – The Emigrants (Die Ausgewanderten: Vier lange Erzählungen)
 * Gail Sheehy – Silent Passage
 * Sidney Sheldon – The Stars Shine Down
 * Michael Slade – Cutthroat
 * Danielle Steel
 * Jewels
 * Mixed Blessings
 * Neal Stephenson – Snow Crash
 * Adam Thorpe – Ulverton
 * Sue Townsend – The Queen and I
 * Rose Tremain – Sacred Country
 * Barry Unsworth – Sacred Hunger
 * John Updike – Memories of the Ford Administration
 * Gore Vidal – Live from Golgotha: The Gospel according to Gore Vidal
 * Vernor Vinge – A Fire Upon the Deep
 * Robert James Waller – The Bridges of Madison County
 * Connie Willis – Doomsday Book
 * Timothy Zahn – Dark Force Rising
 * Roger Zelazny and Thomas Thurston Thomas – Flare
 * Juan Eduardo Zúñiga
 * El último día del mundo (The last day of the world)
 * Misterios de las noches y los días (Mysteries of the nights and days; short stories)

Children and young people

 * Pamela Allen – Belinda
 * Chris Van Allsburg – The Widow's Broom
 * Gillian Cross – The Great Elephant Chase
 * Garry Disher – The Bamboo Flute
 * Anne Fine – Flour Babies
 * Jamila Gavin – The Wheel of Surya (first in the Surya trilogy)
 * Rumer Godden
 * Great Grandfather's House
 * Listen to the Nightingale
 * Virginia Hamilton (with Jerry Pinkney) – Drylongso
 * William Mayne – Low Tide
 * Gerald McDermott – Zomo The Rabbit: A Trickster Tale From West Africa
 * Hilary McKay – The Exiles
 * Michael Morpurgo – Waiting for Anya
 * Barry Moser – Polly Vaughn: A Traditional British Ballad
 * Jim Murphy – The Long Road to Gettysburg
 * Barbara Park – Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus (first in the Junie B. Jones series)
 * Marcus Pfister – Rainbow Fish (Der Regenbogenfisch)
 * Gloria Jean Pinkney (with Jerry Pinkney) – Back Home
 * Marjorie W. Sharmat (with Marc Simont) – Nate the Great and the Stolen Base
 * Ulf Stark – Can You Whistle, Johanna? (Kan du vissla Johanna?)
 * Christopher Tolkien (with J. R. R. Tolkien and Alan Lee) – Sauron Defeated
 * Judith Vigna – Black Like Kyra White Like Me
 * Martin Waddell – Owl Babies
 * Nancy Willard (with Barry Moser) – Beauty and the Beast
 * Douglas Wood – Old Turtle
 * Susan Meddaugh – Martha Speaks

Drama

 * Herb Gardner – Conversations with My Father
 * Peter Handke – Die Stunde, da wir nichts voneinander wußten (The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other)
 * David Mamet – Oleanna
 * Louis Nowra – Così
 * Zlatko Topčić – Musa And The Goat (radio version)
 * Michael Wall – Women Laughing
 * Peter Whelan – The School of Night

Poetry

 * Ben Okri – An African Elegy

Non-fiction

 * Nelson Algren (died 1981) – America Eats (travel book, written 1930s)
 * Karen Armstrong – Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
 * Bill Bryson – Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe
 * Linda Colley – Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837
 * Esther Delisle – The Traitor and the Jew (Le Traître et le Juif: Lionel Groulx, le Devoir et le délire du nationalisme d'extrême droite dans la province de Québec, 1929–1939)
 * Daniel Dennett – Consciousness Explained
 * Eamon Duffy – The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400 to c. 1580
 * Gerina Dunwich – Secrets of Love Magick
 * Christiane Éluère – The Celts: First Masters of Europe
 * John Gray – Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
 * Elizabeth Hay – The Only Snow in Havana
 * Nick Hornby – Fever Pitch
 * Charles Jennings - Up North
 * Neil Lyndon – No More Sex War: The Failures of Feminism
 * Andrew Morton – Diana: Her True Story
 * Mark E. Neely, Jr. – The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties
 * Liza Potvin – White Lies (for my mother)
 * Léon Werth (died 1955) – 33 Jours (written 1940)
 * Michael Jackson – Dancing the Dream

Anthologies

 * Margaret Busby (ed.) – Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present

Births

 * March 4 - Gaurav Sharma, Indian author
 * April 14 - Naoise Dolan, Irish novelist
 * August 12 - Naoki Higashida, Japanese autistic author
 * September 18 - Jidanun Lueangpiansamut, Thai writer
 * October 5 - Rupi Kaur, Indian-born Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author
 * October 30 - Édouard Louis, French writer
 * November 11 - Aya Mansour, Iraqi poet, writer, and journalist

Deaths

 * January 4 – Alejandro Carrión, Ecuadorian poet and journalist (born 1915)
 * January 9 – Bill Naughton, Irish-born English playwright and novelist (born 1910)
 * January 4 – John Sparrow, English literary scholar (born 1906)
 * January 14 – Irakli Abashidze, Georgian poet, literary scholar and politician (born 1909)
 * January 28 – Dora Birtles, Australian novelist, poet and children's writer (born 1903)
 * February 10 – Alex Haley, African-American writer (born 1921)
 * February 16
 * Angela Carter, English novelist (lung cancer, born 1940)
 * George MacBeth, Scottish poet and novelist (motor neurone disease, born 1932)
 * April 4 – Vintilă Horia, Romanian writer (born 1915)
 * April 6 – Isaac Asimov, American science fiction author (born 1920)
 * April 21 – Väinö Linna, Finnish novelist (born 1920)
 * April 28 – Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck), American novelist (born 1918)
 * May 22 – Elizabeth David, English cookery writer (born 1913)
 * July 6 – Mary Q. Steele, American novelist (born 1922)
 * July 22 – Reginald Bretnor, American science fiction writer (born 1911)
 * July 23 – Robert Liddell, English biographer, novelist and poet (born 1908)
 * August 4 – Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese mystery writer and journalist (born 1909)
 * August 29 – Mary Norton, English children's writer (born 1903)
 * September 5 – Fritz Leiber, American writer of fantasy and science fiction (born 1910)
 * November 7 – Richard Yates, American novelist and short-story writer (emphysema, born 1926)
 * November 17 – Audre Lorde, American poet, writer and feminist (born 1934)
 * December 22 – Ted Willis, English TV dramatist (born 1914)
 * December 25 – Monica Dickens, English novelist (born 1915)
 * December 27 – Kay Boyle, American writer, educator and activist (born 1902)

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Derek Walcott
 * Camões Prize: Vergílio Ferreira

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Fotini Epanomitis, The Mule's Foal
 * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Robert Harris, Jane, Interlinear and Other Poems
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Elizabeth Riddell, Selected Poems
 * Mary Gilmore Prize: Alison Croggon, This is the Stone
 * Miles Franklin Award: Tim Winton, Cloudstreet

Canada

 * See 1992 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
 * Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Marie Wadden, Nitassinan: The Innu Struggle to Reclaim Their Homeland

France

 * Prix Goncourt: Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco
 * Prix Décembre: Henri Thomas, La Chasse au trésor and Roger Grenier, Regardez la neige qui tombe
 * Prix Médicis French: Michel Rio, Tlacuilo
 * Prix Médicis International: Louis Begley, Une éducation polonaise

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Anne Fine, Flour Babies
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Rose Tremain, Sacred Country
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe
 * Cholmondeley Award: Allen Curnow, Donald Davie, Carol Ann Duffy, Roger Woddis
 * Eric Gregory Award: Jill Dawson, Hugh Dunkerley, Christopher Greenhalgh, Marita Maddah, Stuart Paterson, Stuart Pickford
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Kathleen Raine
 * Whitbread Best Book Award: Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing!
 * The Sunday Express Book of the Year: Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
 * Forward Prizes for Poetry (first awards): Thom Gunn, The Man with Night Sweats (collection); Simon Armitage, Kid (first collection); Jackie Kay, "Black Bottom" (single poem)

United States

 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Hunt Hawkins, The Domestic Life
 * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks
 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Sam Shepard
 * Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Louise Glück for Ararat, and Mark Strand for The Continuous Life
 * Compton Crook Award: Carol Severance, Reefsong
 * Frost Medal: Adrienne Rich / David Ignatow
 * National Book Award for Fiction: to All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
 * National Book Critics Circle Award: to Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean
 * Nebula Award: Connie Willis, Doomsday Book
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Shiloh
 * PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Mao II by Don DeLillo
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Tate, Selected Poems
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Robert Schenkkan, The Kentucky Cycle
 * Whiting Awards:
 * Fiction: R.S. Jones, J.S. Marcus, Damien Wilkins
 * Nonfiction: Eva Hoffman, Katha Pollitt (poetry/nonfiction)
 * Plays: Suzan-Lori Parks, Keith Reddin, José Rivera
 * Poetry: Roger Fanning, Jane Mead

Elsewhere

 * Premio Nadal: Alejandro Gándara, Ciegas esperanzas