1989 in literature

The year 1989 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

* February 24 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini places a US$3 million bounty for the death of "The Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie.

New books

*Hanan al-Shaykh – "Women of Sand and Myrrh (Misk al–ghazal)"
*Martin Amis – "London Fields"
*Piers Anthony – "Total Recall"
*Clive Barker – "The Great and Secret Show"
*Larry Bond – "Red Phoenix"
*Nick Cave – "And the Ass Saw the Angel"
*Tom Clancy – "Clear And Present Danger"
*Mary Higgins Clark – "While My Pretty One Sleeps"
*Hugh Cook – "The Wicked and the Witless"
*Bernard Cornwell - "Sharpe's Revenge" and "Sea Lord" (aka "Killer's Wake")
*Bryce Courtenay – "The Power of One"
*Lindsey Davis – "The Silver Pigs"
*L. Sprague de Camp – "The Honorable Barbarian"
*L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt – "The Complete Compleat Enchanter"
*Katherine Dunn – "Geek Love"
*Umberto Eco – "Foucault's Pendulum"
*George Alec Effinger – "A Fire in the Sun"
*Ben Elton – "Stark"
*Ken Follett – "The Pillars of the Earth"
*Frederick Forsyth – "The Negotiator"
*Gabriel García Márquez – "The General in His Labyrinth" ("El general en su laberinto")
*John Gardner - "Licence to Kill" and "Win, Lose or Die"
*John Grisham – "A Time to Kill"
*Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter – "The Conan Chronicles"
*John Irving – "A Prayer for Owen Meany"
*Kazuo Ishiguro – "The Remains of the Day"
*John le Carré – "The Russia House"
*H. P. Lovecraft – "The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions" corrected edition
*H. P. Lovecraft and Divers Hands – ""
*James A. Michener – "Six Days in Havana"
*Bharati Mukherjee – "Jasmine"
*Larry Niven – "The Legacy of Heorot"
*Robert B. Parker – "Playmates"
*Giuseppe Pontiggia – "La grande sera"
*Terry Pratchett - "Guards! Guards!" and "Pyramids"
*Paul Quarrington – "Whale Music"
*Mordecai Richler – "Solomon Gursky Was Here"
*José Saramago – "The History of the Siege of Lisbon"
*Sidney Sheldon – "The Sands of Time"
*Dan Simmons – "Hyperion"
*Danielle Steel - "Daddy" and "Star"
*Bruce Sterling – "Crystal Express"
*Alexander Stuart – "The War Zone"
*Amy Tan – "The Joy Luck Club"
*Shashi Tharoor – "The Great Indian Novel"
*Rose Tremain – "Restoration"
*Andrew Vachss – "Hard Candy"
*Tom Wakefield – "Lot's Wife"
*Alice Walker – "The Temple of My Familiar"
*Roger Zelazny - "Frost & Fire" and "Knight of Shadows"

New drama

*Herman Brusselmans & Tom Lanoye - "De Canadese muur"
*Jim Cartwright - "Two"
*Michael Wall - "Amongst Barbarians"
*Keith Waterhouse - "Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell"

Poetry

*Paul Fleischman - ""

Non-fiction

*Stephen R. Covey - "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"
*Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon - "Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony"
*John Keegan - "The Face of Battle"
*Peter Mayle - "A Year in Provence"
*Ann Moir and David Jessel – "Brain Sex"
*"New Revised Standard Version" of the Bible
*Gilda Radner - "It's Always Something"
*Dan Topolski and Patrick Robinson - ""
*Jeremy Wilson - ""

Deaths

* January 8 - Bruce Chatwin, travel writer and novelist
* February 3 - John Cassavetes, actor, director, writer
* March 14 - Edward Abbey, essayist
* March 27 - Malcolm Cowley, novelist and poet
* April 19 - Daphne du Maurier, writer
* April 25 - Norma Klein, author
* May 19 - C. L. R. James, journalist
* July 10 - Mel Blanc, voice of Bugs Bunny
* August 23 - R. D. Laing, psychologist and author
* September 4 - Georges Simenon, "Maigret" author
* September 4 - Sir Ronald Syme, Classicist
* September 15 - Robert Penn Warren, poet
* September 30 - Horace Alexander, pacifist writer, 100
* October 13 - Cesare Zavattini, screenwriter
* December 19 - Stella Gibbons, novelist
* December 26 - Paul Jennings, humorist
* December - George Selden

Awards

* Nobel Prize for Literature: Camilo José Cela

Australia

* The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Mandy Sayer, "Mood Indigo"
* C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Gwen Harwood, "Bone Scan"
* Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: John Tranter, "Under Berlin"
* Mary Gilmore Prize: Alex Skovron, "The Re-arrangement"

Canada

* See 1989 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

* Prix Goncourt: Jean Vautrin, "Un grand pas vers le Bon Dieu"
* Prix Décembre: Guy Dupré, "Les Manoeuvres d'automne"
* Prix Médicis French: Serge Doubrovsky, "Le Livre brisé"
* Prix Médicis International: Alvaro Mutis, "La Neige de l'amiral"

United Kingdom

* Booker Prize: Kazuo Ishiguro - "The Remains of the Day"
* Cholmondeley Award: Peter Didsbury, Douglas Dunn, E.J. Scovell
* Eric Gregory Award: Gerard Woodward, David Morley, Katrina Porteous, Paul Henry
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: James Kelman, "A Disaffection"
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Ian Gibson, "Federico Garcia Lorca: A Life"
*Newdigate prize: Jane Griffiths
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Allen Curnow
* Whitbread Best Book Award: Richard Holmes, "Coleridge: Early Visions"
* The Sunday Express Book of the Year: Rose Tremain, "Restoration"

United States

* Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Nancy Vieira Couto, "The Face in the Water"
* Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Anthony Hecht
* American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction, Isaac Beshevis Singer
* Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Jorie Graham, "Spring"
* Compton Crook Award: Elizabeth Moon, "Sheepfarmer's Daughter"
* Frost Medal: Gwendolyn Brooks
* Nebula Award: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, "The Healer's War"
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Paul Fleischman, ""
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Wendy Wasserstein, "The Heidi Chronicles"
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Anne Tyler - "Breathing Lessons"
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Richard Wilbur: "New and Collected Poems"

Japan

*Falcon Award (Maltese Falcon Society of Japan): Andrew Vachss for "Strega"
* The Japan Fantasy Novel Award is established, with Ken'ichi Sakemi winning with his novel "Kōkyū Shōsetsu".