1998 in literature

Updated on Apr 25, 2026

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1998.

Events

March 5 – Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première in London, a collaboration between the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and Corin and Vanessa Redgrave's Moving Theatre.

October

After the death of the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom Ted Hughes, there is a gap of several months before a successor is appointed.

Kinoko Nasu (奈須きのこ) 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.

Fiction

Tariq Ali – The Book of Saladin

Aaron Allston

Iron Fist

Wraith Squadron

Hanan al-Shaykh – I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops (أكنس الشمس عن السطوح)

Martin Amis – Heavy Water and Other Stories (most stories previously published)

Beryl Bainbridge – Master Georgie

Iain M. Banks – Inversions

Alessandro Barbero – Romanzo russo. Fiutando i futuri supplizi (translated 2010 as The Anonymous Novel. Sensing the Future Torments)

Julian Barnes – England, England

Greg Bear

Dinosaur Summer

Foundation and Chaos

Raymond Benson – The Facts of Death

Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny – Psychoshop

Rituparna Bhattacharjee – Bhutia

Robert Bloch – Flowers from the Moon and Other Lunacies

Roberto Bolaño – The Savage Detectives (Los Detectives Salvajes)

William Boyd – Armadillo

Giannina Braschi – Yo-Yo Boing!

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 (mainly reprints)

Andrew Greeley – A Midwinter's Tale

John Grisham – The Street Lawyer

Wolf Haas – Komm, süßer Tod (Come, Sweet Death)

Ha Jin (哈金) – Waiting

Tomson Highway – Kiss of the Fur Queen

Nick Hornby – About a Boy

Michel Houellebecq – Atomised (Les Particules élémentaires)

Marek S. Huberath – Gniazdo światów (Nest of Worlds)

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 (村上春樹) – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (ねじまき鳥クロニクル, Nejimakidori Kuronikuru)

Cees Nooteboom – All Souls' Day (Allerzielen)

Tim O'Brien – Tomcat in Love

Orhan Pamuk – My Name Is Red (Benim Adım Kırmızı)

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 (Alone in the World)

Michael Slade – Shrink (also Primal Scream)

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

Diana Wynne Jones – Dark Lord of Derkholm

Dick King-Smith – The Crowstarver

J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Louis Sachar – Holes

Robert Swindells – Abomination

Judy Waite - Mouse, Look Out!

Drama

Edward Albee – The Play About the Baby

Marina Carr – By the Bog of Cats

Michael Frayn – Copenhagen

David Hare – The Blue Room

Elfriede Jelinek – Ein Sportstück (A Sports Piece)

Marius von Mayenburg – Fireface (Feuergesicht)

Poetry

Dejan Stojanović, Krugovanje: 1978–1987 (Circling), 2nd edition

Non-fiction

Charlotte Allen – The Human Christ: The Search For The Historical Jesus

Antony Beevor – Stalingrad

Bill Bryson – Notes from a Big Country

Peter Cannon (editor) – Lovecraft Remembered

Amanda Foreman – Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

John Fowles – Wormholes – Essays and Occasional Writings

Jonathan Freedland – Bring Home the Revolution

A P J Abdul Kalam – India 2020

Ryszard Kapuściński – Heban ("Ebony", translated as The Shadow of the Sun)

Eric Liu, The Accidental Asian

Alan I. Marcus – Building Western Civilization: From the Advent of Writing to the Age of Steam

Gilles Perrault (ed.) – Le Livre noir du capitalisme

John Pilger – Hidden Agendas

Michael Poole – Romancing Mary Jane

Marilee Strong – A Bright Red Scream

University of Arizona – Hopi Dictionary: Hopìikwa Lavàytutuveni

Adam Zagajewski – Another Beauty

Deaths

January 2 – Frank Muir, English comedy writer and broadcaster (born 1920)

January 11 – John Wells, English satirist (born 1936)

January 23 – John Forbes, Australian poet (heart attack, born 1950)

January 27 – Geoffrey Trease, English children's historical novelist (born 1909)

February 7 – Lawrence Sanders, American novelist and short story writer (born 1920)

February 15 – Martha Gellhorn, American journalist (suicide, born 1908)

February 17 – Ernst Jünger, German novelist and war memoirist (born 1895)

March 15 – Dr. Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and writer on child care (born 1903)

April 11 – Francis Durbridge, English playwright (born 1912)

April 19 – Octavio Paz, Mexican poet and Nobel Prize laureate (born 1914)

April 27

Anne Desclos (Pauline Réage), French journalist and novelist (born 1907)

Carlos Castaneda, Mexican-born American anthropologist and author (born 1925)

May 9 – Nat Perrin, American comedy writer (born 1905)

June 10 – Hammond Innes, English novelist (born 1913)

June 11 – Dame Catherine Cookson, English novelist (born 1906)

July 1 – Martin Seymour-Smith, English biographer (born 1928)

July 5 – Johnny Speight, English comedy writer (born 1920)

July 9 – Ian Wallace (John Wallace Pritchard), American science fiction author (born 1912)

July 14 – Miroslav Holub, Czech poet (born 1923)

July 23

John Hopkins, English film and television writer (born 1931)

Manuel Mejía Vallejo, Colombian novelist (born 1923)

August 16 – Dorothy West, American novelist and short story writer (born 1907)

August 22 – Grace Paley, American writer (born 1922)

September 28 – Eric Malling, Canadian journalist (born 1946)

October 22 – Eric Ambler, English spy novelist (born 1909)

October 28 – Ted Hughes, English poet and Poet Laureate (born 1930)

November 3 – Bob Kane (Robert Kahn), American comics artist and writer (born 1915)

November 8 – Rumer Godden, English novelist (born 1907)

December 16 – William Gaddis, American novelist (born 1922)

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 (separately) Allison Hedge Coke, Dog Road Woman

Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Sherod Santos, "Elegy for My Sister", and (separately) 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