1998 in literature

The year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première.
 * November 18 - Alice McDermott wins the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy.
 * Following the death of Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, there is a gap of several months before a successor is appointed.

New prose fiction

 * Tariq Ali - The Book of Saladin
 * Aaron Allston
 * Iron Fist
 * Wraith Squadron
 * Hanan al-Shaykh - I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops
 * Martin Amis - Heavy Water and Other Stories (most stories previously published)
 * Beryl Bainbridge - Master Georgie
 * Iain M. Banks - Inversions
 * 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
 * William Boyd - Armadillo
 * Driss Chraibi - 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 (novel)
 * August Derleth
 * The Final Adventures of Solar Pons
 * In Lovecraft's Shadow
 * Peter Dickinson - The Kin
 * Allan W. Eckert - Return to Hawk's Hill
 * Giles Foden - The Last King of Scotland
 * Diana Gabaldon - Hellfire
 * Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors (most of the contained stories previously published)
 * Andrew Greeley - A Midwinter's Tale
 * John Grisham - The Street Lawyer
 * Ha Jin - Waiting
 * Tomson Highway - Kiss of the Fur Queen
 * Nick Hornby - About a Boy
 * 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
 * Dean R. Koontz - Seize the Night
 * Ian McEwan - Amsterdam
 * Roy MacLaren - African Exploits
 * Steve Martin - Pure Drivel
 * Carol Matas - Greater Than Angels
 * Toni Morrison - Paradise
 * Alice Munro - The Love of a Good Woman
 * Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
 * Cees Nooteboom - All Souls' Day
 * Tim O'Brien - Tomcat in Love
 * Orhan Pamuk - My Name Is Red
 * Tom Perrotta - Election
 * Terry Pratchett
 * Carpe Jugulum
 * The Last Continent
 * David Adams Richards - The Bay of Love and Sorrows
 * Philip Roth - I Married a Communist
 * J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Louis Sachar - Holes
 * Michael Slade - Shrink aka Primal Scream
 * 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
 * José Luis Rodríguez Pittí - Crónica de invisibles

New drama

 * Edward Albee - The Play About the Baby
 * Michael Frayn - Copenhagen
 * David Hare - The Blue Room
 * Marius von Mayenburg - Fireface (Feuergesicht)

Poetry

 * Dejan Stojanović, Krugovanje: 1978–1987 (Circling), Second Edition, Narodna knjiga, Alfa, Beograd, 1998

Non-fiction

 * Charlotte Allen - The Human Christ: The Search For The Historical Jesus
 * Harold Bloom - Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
 * Bill Bryson - Notes from a Big Country
 * Peter Cannon (editor) - Lovecraft Remembered
 * Esther Delisle - Myths, Memories & Lies: Quebec's Intelligentsia and the Fascist Temptation, 1939-1960 (Essais sur l'imprégnation fasciste au Québec)
 * Gerina Dunwich - Wicca A to Z
 * Amanda Foreman - Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
 * Jonathan Freedland - Bring Home the Revolution
 * John Fowles - Wormholes - Essays and Occasional Writings
 * Jesse Lee Kercheval, Space
 * Eric Liu, The Accidental Asian
 * Alan I. Marcus - Building Western Civilization: From the Advent of Writing to the Age of Steam -
 * John Pilger - Hidden Agendas
 * Marilee Strong - A Bright Red Scream
 * Jules Witcover, David Halberstam - The Year the Dream Died: Revisiting 1968 in America
 * Adam Zagajewski - Another Beauty

Deaths

 * January 2 - Frank Muir, comedy writer
 * January 11 - John Wells, satirical writer
 * January 23 - John Forbes, Australian poet
 * January 27 - Geoffrey Trease, historical novelist
 * February 7 - Lawrence Sanders, author
 * February 17 - Ernst Jünger, novelist and war memoirist
 * March 15 - Dr Benjamin Spock, childcare expert
 * April 11 - Francis Durbridge, playwright
 * April 19 - Octavio Paz, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature
 * April 27 - Pauline Réage, author
 * April 27 - Carlos Castaneda, author
 * May 9 - Nat Perrin, comedy writer
 * June 10 - Hammond Innes, novelist
 * June 11 - Dame Catherine Cookson, bestselling novelist
 * July 1 - Martin Seymour-Smith, biographer
 * July 5 - Johnny Speight, comedy writer
 * July 9 - Ian Wallace, science fiction author
 * July 14 - Miroslav Holub, Czech poet
 * July 23 - John Hopkins, film and television writer
 * September 28 - Eric Malling, journalist
 * October 22 - Eric Ambler, novelist
 * October 28 - Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate of Great Britain
 * November 3 - Bob Kane, comics artist and writer, creator of Batman
 * November 8 - Rumer Godden, novelist

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: José Saramago

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 were presented this year
 * Mary Gilmore Prize: Emma Lew The Wild Reply

Canada

 * Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award: Talya Rubin
 * See 1998 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
 * Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Alice Munro: The Love of a Good Woman

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
 * 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

Elsewhere

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