This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1986.
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)
Robert J. Burch – Queenie Peavy
Joy Cowley
(with Jan van der Voo) – Turnips For Dinner
(with Martin Bailey) – The King's Pudding
Jill Eggleton
(with Kelvin Hawley) – Cat and Mouse
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
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)
Robert Munsch – Love You Forever
Jenny Nimmo – The Snow Spider (first in The Magician Trilogy)
Bill Peet – Zella, Zack, and Zodiac
Alison Prince – The Type One Super Robot
Gillian Rubinstein – Space Demons
Caryl Churchill and David Lan – A Mouthful of Birds
Tomson Highway – The Rez Sisters
Willy Russell – Shirley Valentine
Kama Sywor Kamanda – Chants de brumes
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
Richard Dawkins – The Blind Watchmaker
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
Kumari Jayawardena – Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World
Mark Mathabane – Kaffir Boy
Farley Mowat – My Discovery of America
Marc Reisner – Cadillac Desert
Richard Rhodes – The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Mary Wilson – Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme
July 3 – Chris Bush, English playwright, artistic director and comedian
Unknown date
Caroline Bird, English poet and dramatist
Chigozie Obioma, Nigerian novelist
January 1 – Lord David Cecil, English critic and biographer (born 1902)
January 4 – Christopher Isherwood, English-born novelist (born 1904)
January 7 – Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer (born 1917)
January 24 – L. Ron Hubbard, American science fiction writer, founder of Scientology (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 28 – Edith Ditmas, English archivist, historian and writer (born 1896)
March 4 – 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)
May 15 – Theodore H. White, American journalist, historian, and novelist (born 1915)
June 14 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (born 1899)
August 1 – Lena Kennedy, English romantic novelist (born 1914)
August 3 – Beryl Markham, English-born Kenyan aviator and author (born 1902)
August 20 – Milton Acorn, Canadian poet, writer, and playwright (born 1923)
September 11 – Noel Streatfeild, English novelist and children's writer (born 1895)
December 17 – J. F. Hendry, Scottish poet (born 1912)
December 19 – V. C. Andrews, American novelist (born 1923)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Wole Soyinka
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
See 1986 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
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
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
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
Premio Nadal: Manuel Vicent, Balada de Caín
1986 in literature Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
