1998 in literature

Events

• March 5 – Tennessee Williams' 1938 play Not About Nightingales receives its stage première in London, in a collaboration between the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and Corin and Vanessa Redgrave's Moving Theatre.
• October
• *The death of the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom Ted Hughes leaves a gap of several months before a successor, Andrew Motion, is found.
• *Kinoko Nasu launches the Kara no Kyōkai series, with five chapters released online.
• November 18 – Alice McDermott wins the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy.
• December – The Strand Magazine title is revived in the United States.

  New books

Fiction

• Tariq Ali – The Book of Saladin
• Aaron Allston
• *Iron Fist
• *Wraith Squadron
• Hanan al-Shaykh – I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops
• Martin Amis – Heavy Water and Other Stories
• Beryl Bainbridge – Master Georgie
• Iain M. Banks – Inversions
• Alessandro Barbero – Romanzo russo. Fiutando i futuri supplizi
• Julian Barnes – England, England
• Greg Bear
• *Dinosaur Summer
• *Foundation and Chaos
• Raymond Benson – The Facts of Death
• Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny – Psychoshop
• Robert Bloch – Flowers from the Moon and Other Lunacies
• Roberto Bolaño – The Savage Detectives
• William Boyd – Armadillo
• Giannina Braschi – Yo-Yo Boing!
• Anne Carson – Autobiography of Red
• Driss Chraïbi – Muhammad
• Mary Higgins Clark – All Through the Night
• Tom Clancy – Rainbow Six
• Paulo Coelho – Veronika Decides to Die
• Michael Connelly – Blood Work
• Bernard Cornwell – Sharpe's Triumph
• Patricia Cornwell – Point of Origin
• Douglas Coupland – Girlfriend in a Coma
• Ann C. Crispin – Rebel Dawn
• Michael Cunningham – The Hours
• Nelson DeMille – Plum Island
• August Derleth
• *The Final Adventures of Solar Pons
• *In Lovecraft's Shadow
• Peter Dickinson – The Kin
• Allan W. Eckert – Return to Hawk's Hill
• Bret Easton Ellis – Glamorama
• Giles Foden – The Last King of Scotland
• Diana Gabaldon – Hellfire
• Neil Gaiman – Smoke and Mirrors
• Andrew Greeley – A Midwinter's Tale
• John Grisham – The Street Lawyer
• Wolf Haas – Komm, süßer Tod
• Margaret Peterson Haddix - Among the Hidden
• Ha Jin – Waiting
• Tomson Highway – Kiss of the Fur Queen
• Nick Hornby – About a Boy
• Michel Houellebecq – Atomised
• Marek S. Huberath – Gniazdo światów
• John Irving – A Widow for One Year
• K. W. Jeter
• *The Mandalorian Armor
• *Slave Ship
• Wayne Johnston – The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
• Stephen King – Bag of Bones
• Barbara Kingsolver – The Poisonwood Bible
• Dean R. Koontz – Seize the Night
• Joe R. Lansdale
• *Rumble Tumble
• *The Boar
• Alain Mabanckou – Bleu-Blanc-Rouge
• Patrick McCabe – Breakfast on Pluto
• Ian McEwan – Amsterdam
• Roy MacLaren – African Exploits
• Steve Martin – Pure Drivel
• Carol Matas – Greater Than Angels
• China Miéville – King Rat
• Toni Morrison – Paradise
• Alice Munro – The Love of a Good Woman
• Haruki Murakami – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
• Cees Nooteboom – All Souls' Day
• Sigrid Nunez – Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury
• Tim O'Brien – Tomcat in Love
• Orhan Pamuk – My Name Is Red
• Tom Perrotta – Election
• Terry Pratchett
• *Carpe Jugulum
• *The Last Continent
• Fahmida Riaz – Godavari
• David Adams Richards – The Bay of Love and Sorrows
• José Luis Rodríguez Pittí – Crónica de invisibles
• Philip Roth – I Married a Communist
• Margit Sandemo – Ensam i världen
• Michael Slade – Shrink
• Alexander McCall Smith – The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
• Michael Stackpole – I, Jedi
• Danielle Steel
• *The Klone and I
• *The Long Road Home
• *Mirror Image
• Thomas Sullivan – The Martyring
• Andrew Vachss – Safe House
• Connie Willis – To Say Nothing of the Dog
• A. N. Wilson – Dream Children
• Tom Wolfe – A Man in Full
• Timothy Zahn – Vision of the Future

  Children and young people

• David Almond – Skellig
• Gayle Greeno - Sunderlies Seeking
• Tanya Huff - Summon the Keeper
• Diana Wynne Jones – Dark Lord of Derkholm
• Dick King-Smith – The Crowstarver
• Julius Lester –
• J. Patrick Lewis – BoshBlobberBosh: Runcible Poems for Edward Lear
• J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Louis Sachar – Holes
• Robert Swindells – Abomination
• Judy Waite – Mouse, Look Out!
• Douglas Wood - Rabbit and the Moon

  Drama

• Edward Albee – The Play About the Baby
• Parv Bancil – Made in England
• Marina Carr – By the Bog of Cats
• Michael Frayn – Copenhagen
• David Hare – The Blue Room
• Ted Hughes – Phèdre
• Elfriede Jelinek – Ein Sportstück
• Sol B River
• *The White Witch of Rose Hall
• *River Plays 1
• Shelagh Stephenson – An Experiment with an Air Pump
• Marius von Mayenburg – Fireface
• Tennessee Williams – Not About Nightingales

  Poetry

• Seamus Heaney
• *Beowulf
• *Opened Ground: Poems 1966–1996
• Ted Hughes – Birthday Letters
• Dejan Stojanović – Krugovanje: 1978–1987

  Non-fiction

• Andrea Ashworth – Once in a House on Fire
• Charlotte Allen – The Human Christ: The Search For The Historical Jesus
• Antony Beevor – Stalingrad
• Bill Bryson – Notes from a Big Country
• Peter Cannon – Lovecraft Remembered
• Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd – Dear Friend and Gardener
• Corinne Debaine-Francfort – La redécouverte de la Chine ancienne
• Amanda Foreman – Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
• John Fowles – Wormholes – Essays and Occasional Writings
• Jonathan Freedland – Bring Home the Revolution
• Sita Ram Goel – Vindicated by Time
• Simon Heffer – '
• A. P. J. Abdul Kalam – India 2020
• Ryszard Kapuściński – Heban
• B. B. Lal – India 1947–1997: New Light on the Indus Civilization
• Eric Liu, The Accidental Asian
• Alan I. Marcus – Building Western Civilization: From the Advent of Writing to the Age of Steam
• Thylias Moss – Tale of a Sky-Blue Dress
• Inga Muscio – '
• V. S. Naipaul –
• Gilles Perrault – Le Livre noir du capitalisme
• John Pilger – Hidden Agendas
• Michael Poole – Romancing Mary Jane
• Arun Shourie – '
• Marilee Strong – A Bright Red Scream
• University of Arizona – '
• Adam Zagajewski – Another Beauty

  Deaths

• January 2 – Frank Muir, English comedy writer and broadcaster
• January 11 – John Wells, English satirist
• January 23 – John Forbes, Australian poet
• January 27 – Geoffrey Trease, English children's historical novelist
• February 7 – Lawrence Sanders, American novelist and short story writer
• February 15 – Martha Gellhorn, American journalist
• February 17 – Ernst Jünger, German novelist and war memoirist
• March 15 – Dr. Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and writer on child care
• April 11 – Francis Durbridge, English playwright
• April 19 – Octavio Paz, Mexican poet and Nobel Prize laureate
• April 27
• *Anne Desclos, French journalist and novelist
• *Carlos Castaneda, Mexican-born American anthropologist and author
• May 9 – Nat Perrin, American comedy writer
• June 10
• *Joan Adeney Easdale, English poet
• *Hammond Innes, English novelist
• June 11 – Dame Catherine Cookson, English novelist
• July 1 – Martin Seymour-Smith, English biographer
• July 5 – Johnny Speight, English comedy writer
• July 9 – Ian Wallace, American science fiction author
• July 14 – Miroslav Holub, Czech poet
• July 23
• *John Hopkins, English film and television writer
• *Manuel Mejía Vallejo, Colombian novelist
• August 16 – Dorothy West, American novelist and short story writer
• August 22 – Grace Paley, American writer
• September 28 – Eric Malling, Canadian journalist
• October 15 – Iain Crichton Smith, Scottish writer
• October 22 – Eric Ambler, English spy novelist
• October 28 – Ted Hughes, English poet and Poet Laureate
• November 3 – Bob Kane, American comics artist and writer
• November 8 – Rumer Godden, English novelist
• December 16 – William Gaddis, American novelist

  Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: José Saramago
• Europe Theatre Prize: Luca Ronconi
• Camões Prize: Antonio Candido

  Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Jennifer Kremmer, Pegasus in the Suburbs
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Coral Hull, Broken Land
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: No awards this year
• Mary Gilmore Prize: Emma Lew, The Wild Reply
• Miles Franklin Award: Peter Carey, Jack Maggs

  Canada

• Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award: Talya Rubin
• See 1998 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists.
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Alice Munro: The Love of a Good Woman
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Charlotte Gray: Mrs. King

  France

• Prix Décembre: Michel Houellebecq, Les Particules élémentaires
• Prix Goncourt: Paule Constant, Confidence pour confidence
• Prix Médicis French: Le Loup mongol
• Prix Médicis International: The House of Sleep – Jonathan Coe

  United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: David Almond, Skellig
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Beryl Bainbridge, Master Georgie
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More
• Cholmondeley Award: Roger McGough, Robert Minhinnick, Anne Ridler, Ken Smith
• Eric Gregory Award: Mark Goodwin, Joanne Limburg, Patrick McGuinness, Kona Macphee, Esther Morgan, Christiania Whitehead, Frances Williams
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Carol Shields, Larry's Party
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Les Murray
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters

  United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Shara McCallum, The Water Between Us
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: X.J. Kennedy
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Horton Foote
• American Book Award Before Columbus Foundation: Angela Davis, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, and Allison Hedge Coke, Dog Road Woman
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Sherod Santos, "Elegy for My Sister", and Neil Azevedo, "Caspar Hauser Songs"
• Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Frank Bidart, Desire
• Compton Crook Award: Katie Waitman, The Merro Tree
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace
• Frost Medal: Stanley Kunitz
• Nebula Award: Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust
• PEN American Center's PEN Open Book Award: Giannina Braschi, Yo-Yo Boing!
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Philip Roth, American Pastoral
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Charles Wright, Black Zodiac
• Wallace Stevens Award: A. R. Ammons
• Whiting Awards:

  Elsewhere

• International Dublin Literary Award: Herta Muller, The Land of Green Plums
• Premio Nadal: Lucía Etxebarria, Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes