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.

Literature

 * 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
 * Julian Barnes - A History of the World in 10½ Chapters
 * Larry Bond – Red Phoenix
 * Anthony Burgess - Any Old Iron
 * 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
 * Robert Crais - Stalking the Angel
 * Lindsey Davis – The Silver Pigs
 * L. Sprague de Camp – The Honorable Barbarian
 * L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt – The Complete Compleat Enchanter
 * E.L. Doctorow - Billy Bathgate
 * 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
 * Charles Gill - The Boozer Challenge
 * 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
 * Stephen King – The Dark Half
 * 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 – Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
 * Hilary Mantel - Fludd
 * 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
 * Alice Walker – The Temple of My Familiar
 * Roger Zelazny - Frost & Fire and Knight of Shadows

Horror fiction

 * John Skipp and Craig Spector - Book of the Dead
 * Joe R. Lansdale - By Bizarre Hands

Children's and young adults' fiction

 * Anne Fine - Bill's New Frock
 * Yoshi Kogo - Big Al

Drama

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

Poetry

 * Simon Armitage - Zoom!
 * Paul Fleischman - Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
 * David Lehman - The Best American Poetry 1989

Non-fiction

 * Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg - Angst und Vorurteil
 * Stephen R. Covey - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
 * Cynthia Enloe - Bananas, Beaches and Bases
 * Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon - Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony
 * Tim Jeal - Baden-Powell
 * Bob Kane and Tom Andrae - Batman and Me
 * John Keegan - The Face of Battle
 * Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson - And Their Children After Them
 * Peter Mayle - A Year in Provence
 * Ann Moir and David Jessel – Brain Sex
 * New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
 * Michael Palin - Around the World in 80 Days
 * Gilda Radner - It's Always Something
 * Dan Topolski and Patrick Robinson - True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny
 * V. Vale and Andrea Juno - Modern Primitives
 * Andy Warhole and Pat Hackett - The Andy Warhol Diaries
 * Jeremy Wilson - Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T.E. Lawrence
 * Bob Wood - Big Ten Country

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
 * August 23 - R.D. Laing, psychologist and author
 * August 26 - Irving Stone, novelist
 * September 4 - Georges Simenon, Maigret author
 * September 4 - Sir Ronald Syme, Classicist
 * September 15 - Robert Penn Warren, poet and novelist
 * September 30 - Horace Alexander, pacifist writer, 100
 * October 13 - Cesare Zavattini, screenwriter
 * December 19 - Stella Gibbons, novelist
 * December 22 - Samuel Beckett, writer
 * 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
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Anne Fine, Goggle-Eyes
 * 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 Bashevis 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, Joyful Noise
 * 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.