This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1998.
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.
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!
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)
Dejan Stojanović, Krugovanje: 1978–1987 (Circling), 2nd edition
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
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)
Nobel Prize for Literature: José Saramago
Europe Theatre Prize: Luca Ronconi
Camões Prize: Antonio Candido
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
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
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
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
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
Whiting Awards:
Fiction: Michael Byers, Ralph Lombreglia (fiction/nonfiction)
Non-fiction: D. J. Waldie, Anthony Walton
Plays: W. David Hancock
Poetry: Nancy Eimers, Daniel Hall, James Kimbrell, Charles Harper Webb, Greg Williamson
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Herta Muller, The Land of Green Plums
Premio Nadal: Lucía Etxebarria, Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes
1998 in literature Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA