1998 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1998.

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.^[1]
• 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 designated the following spring.^[2]
  • 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.
• December – The Strand Magazine title is revived in the United States.^[3]

New books

Fiction

• Turki al-Hamad – Adama (first volume in Atyaf al-Aziqah al-Mahjurah (Phantoms of the Deserted Alley) trilogy)
• 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
• 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!
• Anne Carson – Autobiography of Red (verse novel)
• 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)^[4]
• Margaret Peterson Haddix - Among the Hidden
• 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^[5]
• 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
• 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)
• Sigrid Nunez – Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury
• 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^[6]
• Melvin Burgess – Junk
• Denise Fleming – Mama Cat Has Three Kittens
• Gayle Greeno (with Michael Gilbert) – Sunderlies Seeking
• Tanya Huff – Summon the Keeper
• Diana Wynne Jones – Dark Lord of Derkholm^[7]
• Dick King-Smith – The Crowstarver
• Julius Lester – Black Cowboy, Wild Horses: A True Story
• J. Patrick Lewis (with Gary Kelley) – BoshBlobberBosh: Runcible Poems for Edward Lear
• J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets^[8]
• Louis Sachar – Holes^[9]
• 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 (full-length version)
• Marina Carr – By the Bog of Cats
• Michael Frayn – Copenhagen
• David Hare – The Blue Room
• Ted Hughes (translator) – Phèdre
• Elfriede Jelinek – Ein Sportstück (A Sports Piece)
• Bryony Lavery – Frozen
• Terrence McNally – Corpus Christi
• Sol B River
  • The White Witch of Rose Hall
  • River Plays 1 (published)
• Shelagh Stephenson – An Experiment with an Air Pump
• Marius von Mayenburg – Fireface (Feuergesicht)
• Tennessee Williams (died 1983) – Not About Nightingales (first performance; written 1938)

Poetry

Main article: 1998 in poetry

• Seamus Heaney
  • Beowulf (translation)
  • Opened Ground: Poems 1966–1996
• Ted Hughes – Birthday Letters
• Dejan Stojanović – Krugovanje: 1978–1987 (Circling; 2nd edition)^[10]

Non-fiction

• Charlotte Allen – The Human Christ: The Search For The Historical Jesus
• Andrea Ashworth – Once in a House on Fire
• Antony Beevor – Stalingrad
• Harold Bloom – Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
• Bill Bryson – Notes from a Big Country
• Peter Cannon (editor) – 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 – Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell
• Adam Hochschild – King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa
• A. P. J. Abdul Kalam – India 2020
• Ryszard Kapuściński – Heban (Ebony, translated as The Shadow of the Sun)
• B. B. Lal – India 1947–1997: New Light on the Indus Civilization
• Martin Lee and Marcia Miller – The Mega-fun Multiplication Facts Activity Book
• 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 – Cunt: A Declaration of Independence
• V. S. Naipaul – Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples
• Gilles Perrault (ed.) – Le Livre noir du capitalisme (The Black Book of Capitalism)
• John Pilger – Hidden Agendas
• Michael Poole – Romancing Mary Jane^[11]
• Arun Shourie – Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud
• Marilee Strong – A Bright Red Scream
• University of Arizona – Hopi Dictionary: Hopìikwa Lavàytutuveni
• Adam Zagajewski – Another Beauty

Births

• March 7 – Amanda Gorman, American poet and activist
• May 15 – Mohammed El-Kurd, Palestinian writer and poet
• December 16 – Chloe Gong, Chinese-born New Zealand author
• unknown dates
  • K-Ming Chang – Taiwanese-American novelist and poet
  • Moses MacKenzie – British novelist

Deaths

• January 2 – Frank Muir, English comedy writer and broadcaster (born 1920)
• January 11 – John Wells, English satirist (born 1936)
• January 18 – Monica Edwards, English children's novelist (born 1912)
• 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)
• February 27 – Alice Rivaz, Swiss writer (born 1901)
• 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)^[12]
  • Carlos Castaneda, Mexican-born American anthropologist and author (born 1925)
• May 9 – Nat Perrin, American comedy writer (born 1905)
• May 11 — Willy Corsari, Dutch author of detective fiction (born 1897)^[13]
• June 10
  • Joan Adeney Easdale, English poet (born 1913)
  • 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)^[14]
• 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 15 – Iain Crichton Smith, Scottish writer (born 1928)^[15]
• October 22 – Eric Ambler, English spy novelist (born 1909)
• October 28 – Ted Hughes, English poet and Poet Laureate (born 1930)^[16]
• November 3 – Bob Kane (Robert Kahn), American comics artist and writer (born 1915)
• November 8 – Rumer Godden, English novelist (born 1907)^[17]
• November 17 – Alexandru Talex, Romanian journalist, critic and biographer (born 1909)
• 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^[18]

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
• 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

Elsewhere

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