1988 in literature

The year 1988 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Fiction

 * Margaret Atwood - Cat's Eye
 * J.G. Ballard - Memories of the Space Age
 * Iain M. Banks - The Player of Games
 * Clive Barker
 * Cabal
 * The Hellbound Heart
 * Dionne Brand - Sans Souci and Other Stories
 * Ray Bradbury - The Toynbee Convector
 * Orson Scott Card - Treason
 * Peter Carey - Oscar and Lucinda
 * Roger Caron - Jojo
 * Michael Chabon - The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
 * Tom Clancy - The Cardinal of the Kremlin
 * Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist
 * Hugh Cook - The Walrus and the Warwolf
 * Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Rifles and Wildtrack
 * Roald Dahl - Matilda
 * Tsitsi Dangarembga - Nervous Conditions
 * L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp - The Stones of Nomuru
 * Allan W. Eckert - The Dark Green Tunnel
 * Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum (Il pendolo di Foucault)
 * John Gardner - Scorpius
 * Alan Hollinghurst - The Swimming Pool Library
 * William Horwood - Duncton Wood
 * Judith Krantz - Til We Meet Again
 * Doris Lessing - The Fifth Child
 * Robert Ludlum - The Icarus Agenda
 * David Markson - Wittgenstein's Mistress
 * James A. Michener - Alaska
 * Robert B. Parker - Crimson Joy
 * Belva Plain - Tapestry
 * Richard Powers - Prisoner's Dilemma
 * Tim Powers - On Stranger Tides
 * Terry Pratchett
 * Sourcery
 * Wyrd Sisters
 * Alina Reyes - The Butcher
 * Salman Rushdie - The Satanic Verses
 * Richard Russo - The Risk Pool
 * R. A. Salvatore - The Crystal Shard - first book of the The Icewind Dale Trilogy
 * Sidney Sheldon - The Sands of Time
 * Clark Ashton Smith - A Rendezvous in Averoigne
 * Danielle Steel - Zoya
 * Thomas Sullivan - The Phases of Harry Moon
 * Nikolai Tolstoy - The Coming of the King
 * Anne Tyler - Breathing Lessons
 * Andrew Vachss - Blue Belle

New drama

 * David Henry Hwang - M. Butterfly
 * Tom Stoppard - Hapgood

Poetry

 * James Merrill - The Inner Room
 * Grazyna Miller - Curriculum

Non-fiction

 * Albert Goldman - The Lives of John Lennon
 * Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time
 * Lou Mollgaard - Kiki: Reine de la Montparnasse
 * Rosalind Miles - The Women's History of the World
 * Alanna Nash - Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch
 * Philip Roth - The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography
 * Miranda Seymour - A Ring of Conspirators: Henry James and his literary circle, 1895-1915
 * Joe Simpson - Touching the Void

Deaths

 * February 3 - Robert Duncan, poet
 * February 28 – Kylie Tennant, Australian novelist, playwright and historian
 * March - Máirtín Ó Direáin, Irish language poet
 * April 12 - Alan Paton, novelist
 * April 21 - I. A. L. Diamond, comedy writer
 * May 8 - Robert A. Heinlein, science fiction author
 * June 10 - Louis L'Amour, western novelist
 * July 12 - Joshua Logan, stage and film writer
 * August 28 - Max Shulman, novelist, short-story writer and dramatist
 * September 28 - Charles Addams, American cartoonist
 * October 1 - Sacheverell Sitwell, art critic, brother of Edith Sitwell and Osbert Sitwell

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Naguib Mahfouz

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Tom Flood, Oceana Fine
 * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Judith Beveridge, The Domesticity of Giraffes
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Judith Beveridge, The Domesticity of Giraffes
 * Mary Gilmore Prize: Judith Beveridge, The Domesticity of Giraffes

Canada

 * See 1988 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

 * Grand Prix de Littérature Policière International: Andrew Vachss, Strega
 * Prix Goncourt: Erik Orsenna, L'Exposition coloniale
 * Prix Médicis French: Christiane Rochefort, La Porte du fond
 * Prix Médicis International: Thomas Bernhard, les Maîtres anciens

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Geraldine McCaughrean, A Pack of Lies
 * Cholmondeley Award: John Heath-Stubbs, Sean O'Brien, John Whitworth
 * Eric Gregory Award: Michael Symmons Roberts, Gwyneth Lewis, Adrian Blackledge, Simon Armitage, Robert Crawford
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Piers Paul Read, A Season in the West
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Brian McGuinness, Wittgenstein, A Life: Young Ludwig (1889-1921)
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Derek Walcott
 * Whitbread Best Book Award: Paul Sayer, The Comforts of Madness
 * The Sunday Express Book of the Year: David Lodge, Nice Work

United States

 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Maxine Scates, Toluca Street
 * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Richard Wilbur
 * Frost Medal: Carolyn Kizer
 * Nebula Award: Lois McMaster Bujold, Falling Free
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Russell Freedman, Lincoln: A Photobiography
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Alfred Uhry, Driving Miss Daisy
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Toni Morrison, Beloved
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: William Meredith: Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems

Spain

 * Premio Nadal: Juan Pedro Aparicio, Retratos de ambigú