1993 in literature

The year 1993 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * Professor Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, becomes the longest running book on the bestseller list of The Sunday Times.
 * November 17 - Annie Proulx wins the National Book Award for her novel The Shipping News.

New books

 * Stephen Ambrose - Band of Brothers
 * Jeffrey Archer - Honour Among Thieves
 * Davis Banks - Iceberg
 * Iain Banks - Complicity
 * Pat Barker - The Eye in the Door
 * Greg Bear - Moving Mars
 * Daniel Blythe - The Dimension Riders
 * Sandra Boynton - Barnyard Dance!
 * Christopher Bulis - Shadowmind
 * Ramsey Campbell - Alone with the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell 1961-1991
 * Tom Clancy - Without Remorse
 * Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist
 * Deborah Joy Corey - Losing Eddie
 * Bernard Cornwell - Rebel
 * Robert Crais - Free Fall
 * Peter Darvill-Evans - Deceit
 * Hollace Davids and Paul Davids - Mission from Mount Yoda
 * Lindsey Davis - Poseidon's Gold
 * L. Sprague de Camp - Rivers of Time
 * Stephen R. Donaldson - The Gap into Power: A Dark and Hungry God Arises
 * Roddy Doyle - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
 * Laura Esquivel - Like Water for Chocolate
 * Richard Paul Evans - The Christmas Box
 * Amanda Filipacchi - Nude Men
 * John Gardner - Never Send Flowers
 * Ernest Gaines - A Lesson Before Dying
 * John Grisham - The Client
 * Stephen King - Nightmares and Dreamscapes
 * Nancy Kress - The Aliens of Earth
 * John le Carré - The Night Manager
 * Lois Lowry - The Giver
 * Robert Ludlum - The Scorpio Illusion
 * Amin Maalouf - Le Rocher de Tanios
 * David A. McIntee - White Darkness
 * Jim Mortimore (and Andy Lane) - Lucifer Rising
 * Blood Heat
 * Patrick O'Brian - Clarissa Oakes
 * Kate Orman - The Left-Handed Hummingbird
 * Neil Penswick - The Pit
 * Terry Pratchett - Men at Arms
 * Anne Rice - Lasher
 * Gareth Roberts - The Highest Science
 * J. Jill Robinson - Lovely In Her Bones
 * Nigel Robinson - Birthright
 * W.G. Sebald - The Emigrants
 * Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy
 * Ahdaf Soueif - In the Eye of the Sun
 * Danielle Steel - Vanished
 * Sue Townsend - Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years
 * Scott Turow - Pleading Guilty
 * Kathy Tyers - The Truce at Bakura
 * Buket Uzuner - The Sound of Fishsteps
 * Andrew Vachss - Shella
 * Robert James Waller - Slow Waltz at Cedar Bend
 * Irvine Welsh - Trainspotting
 * Herman Wouk - The Hope
 * Timothy Zahn - The Last Command
 * Roger Zelazny - A Night in the Lonesome October
 * Jesse Lee Kercheval - The Museum of Happiness

New drama

 * Tom Stoppard - Arcadia

Poetry

 * Leonard Cohen - Stranger Music
 * Paul Durcan - A Snail in My Prime. New and Selected Poems
 * Dejan Stojanović - Krugovanje: 1978–1987 ("Circling: 1978–1987"), first edition, Narodna knjiga, Alfa, Beograd

Non-fiction

 * Martin Amis - Visiting Mrs Nabokov: And Other Excursions
 * Bija Bennett - Breathing into Life: Recovering Wholeness Through Body, Mind, and Breath
 * Richard Dawkins - Viruses of the Mind
 * Shobha De and Khushwant Singh - Uncertain Liaisons
 * Esther Delisle - The Traitor and the Jew: Anti-Semitism and the Delirium of Extremist Right-Wing Nationalism in French Canada from 1929-1939 (Antisémitisme et nationalisme d'extrême-droite dans la province de Québec 1929-1939)
 * John Grey - Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
 * Tamala Krishna Goswami - Aditi commentary Happiness is a Science – Aditi's Vow
 * Miranda Seymour - Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale
 * Walter Stewart - Too Big to Fail
 * Howard Stern - Private Parts

Deaths

 * January 8 - Eleanor Hibbert, better known as Jean Plaidy and Victoria Holt
 * January 22 - Kōbō Abe, novelist and playwright
 * March 9 - C. Northcote Parkinson, historian, codifier of Parkinson's Law
 * April 15 - Leslie Charteris, creator of "The Saint"
 * April 23 - Bertus Aafjes, Dutch poet
 * June 19 - William Golding, novelist and poet
 * July 10 - Ruth Krauss, children's book author and poet
 * August 28 - E. P. Thompson, political historian
 * September 7 - Eugen Barbu, novelist, playwright and journalist
 * September 16 - Oodgeroo Noonuccal, poet
 * November 25 - Anthony Burgess, novelist
 * December 4 - Margaret Landon, author of Anna and the King of Siam
 * December 28 - William L. Shirer, historian

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Toni Morrison

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Helen Demidenko, The Hand That Signed The Paper
 * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Les Murray, Translations from the Natural World
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Les Murray, Translations from the Natural World
 * Mary Gilmore Prize: Jill Jones - The Mask and Jagged Star

Canada

 * See 1993 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

 * Prix Goncourt: Amin Maalouf, Le Rocher de Tanios
 * Prix Décembre: René de Obaldia. Exobiographie
 * Prix Médicis French: Emmanuèle Bernheim, Sa femme
 * Prix Médicis International: Paul Auster, Leviathan

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Robert Swindells, Stone Cold
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Richard Holmes, Dr Johnson and Mr Savage
 * Cholmondeley Award: Patricia Beer, George Mackay Brown, P. J. Kavanagh, Michael Longley
 * Whitbread Book Award: Joan Brady, Theory of War
 * The Sunday Express Book of the Year: William Boyd, The Blue Afternoon

United States

 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Natasha Saj, Red Under the Skin
 * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: George Starbuck
 * American Academy of Arts and Letters gold Medal for Belles Lettres, Elizabeth Hardwick
 * Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Stephen Yenser, "Blue Guide"
 * Compton Crook Award: Holly Lisle, Fire in the Mist
 * Frost Medal: William Stafford
 * Nebula Award: Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Cynthia Rylant, Missing May
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Tony Kushner, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Robert Olen Butler, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Louise Gluck, The Wild Iris

Elsewhere

 * Premio Nadal: Rafael Argullol Murgadas, La razón del mal