1986 in literature

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 26 – 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
• 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 – Coat of Arms
• Fernando Del Paso – Noticias del Imperio
• Marguerite Duras – Blue Eyes, Black Hair
• James Ellroy – Silent Terror
• Shusaku Endo – Scandal
• Steve Erickson – Rubicon Beach
• Nuruddin Farah – Maps
• 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
• Ivan Klíma – Láska a smetí
• 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 – '
• Gordon Lish – Dear Mr. Capote
• H. P. Lovecraft – Dagon and Other Macabre Tales
• Robert Ludlum – The Bourne Supremacy
• Amin Maalouf – Leo Africanus
• Javier Marías – El hombre sentimental
• Allan Massie – Augustus
• Frank Miller – '
• 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 – La mort i la primavera
• Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio – El testimonio de Yarfoz
• José Saramago – The Year of the Death of 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?
• 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
• Steven Brust - Brokedown Palace
• Robert J. Burch – Queenie Peavy
• Joy Cowley
• * – Turnips For Dinner
• * – The King's Pudding
• Crescent Dragonwagon – Half a Moon and One Whole Star
• Jill Eggleton – Cat and Mouse
• Diana Wynne Jones – Howl's Moving Castle
• Michael de Larrabeiti
• *
• *The Provençal Tales
• Arnold Lobel - The Random House Book of Mother Goose
• Ann M. Martin
• *Kristy's Great Idea
• *Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls
• *The Truth about Stacey
• Patricia McKissack – Flossie & the Fox
• Robert Munsch – Love You Forever
• Jenny Nimmo – The Snow Spider
• Bill Peet – Zella, Zack, and Zodiac
• Alison Prince – The Type One Super Robot
• Gillian Rubinstein – Space Demons
• Claude Ponti – Adele's Album

  Drama

• Caryl Churchill and David Lan – A Mouthful of Birds
• Nick Darke – The Dead Monkey
• Tomson Highway – The Rez Sisters
• Willy Russell – Shirley Valentine

  Poetry

• Kama Sywor Kamanda – Chants de brumes

  Non-fiction

• Martin Amis – '
• Bernard Bailyn – '
• Frank Barlow – Thomas Becket
• Marjorie Chibnall – Anglo-Norman England 1066–1166
• Richard Dawkins – The Blind Watchmaker
• Karlheinz Deschner – Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums
• Adrian Edmondson et al. – How to be a Complete Bastard
• Sita Ram Goel – History of Hindu–Christian Encounters, AD 304 to 1996
• Temple Grandin – Emergence: Labeled Autistic
• Patience Gray – Honey from a Weed
• 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
• 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 – '
• Art Spiegelman – Maus: A Survivor's Tale
• Jean Vercoutter – À la recherche de l'Égypte oubliée
• Mary Wilson – '

  Births

• July 3 – Chris Bush, English playwright, artistic director and comedian

• Caroline Bird, English poet and dramatist
• Chigozie Obioma, Nigerian novelist

  Deaths

• January 1 – Lord David Cecil, English critic and biographer
• January 4 – Christopher Isherwood, English-born novelist
• January 7
• *P. D. Eastman, American author and illustrator
• *Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer
• January 24 – L. Ron Hubbard, American science fiction writer, founder of Scientology
• February 4 – Phyllis Shand Allfrey, Dominican writer
• February 9 – Dora Oake Russell, Newfoundland writer, diarist and journalist
• February 11 – Frank Herbert, American science fiction novelist
• February 28 – Edith Ditmas, English archivist, historian and writer
• March 4
• *Ding Ling, Chinese fiction writer
• *Elizabeth Smart, Canadian poet and novelist
• March 15 – Pandelis Prevelakis, Greek novelist, poet, dramatist and essayist
• March 18 – Bernard Malamud, American novelist
• April 12 – Valentin Kataev, Russian novelist and dramatist
• April 14
• *Simone de Beauvoir, French philosopher and feminist writer
• *Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist and political activist
• April 17 – Bessie Head, Botswanan fiction writer
• April 22 – Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian, philosopher and novelist
• May 15 – Theodore H. White, American journalist, historian and novelist
• June 14 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer
• August 1 – Lena Kennedy, English romantic novelist
• August 3 – Beryl Markham, English-born Kenyan aviator and author
• August 20 – Milton Acorn, Canadian poet, writer and playwright
• September 11 – Noel Streatfeild, English novelist and children's writer
• December 17 – J. F. Hendry, Scottish poet
• December 19 – V. C. Andrews, American novelist

  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 ; Plays: August Wilson

  Elsewhere

• Premio Nadal: Manuel Vicent, Balada de Caín