1991 in literature

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The year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation.
• The body of novelist Alain-Fournier is identified, 77 years after his death in World War I, and is interred at Saint-Remy-la-Calonne.

New prose fiction

• Martin Amis – Time's Arrow: or the Nature of the Offense
• Jeffrey Archer – As the Crow Flies
• Beryl Bainbridge – The Birthday Boys
• Clive Barker – Imajica
• Pat Barker – Regeneration
• Julian Barnes - Talking It Over
• Louis Begley – Wartime Lies
• Louis de Bernières – Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord
• A. S. Byatt – Possession: A Romance
• Agatha Christie – Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories
• Tom Clancy – The Sum of All Fears
• Mary Higgins Clark – Loves Music, Loves to Dance
• Hugh Cook – The Werewolf and the Wormlord
• Paul Cornell – Timewyrm: Revelation
• Bernard Cornwell – Stormchild
• Douglas Coupland – Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
• L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp – The Pixilated Peeress
• Don DeLillo – Mao II
• Terrance Dicks – Timewyrm: Exodus
• Assia Djebar - Far from Medina
• Stephen R. Donaldson – The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story
• Stephen R. Donaldson – The Gap into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge
• Roddy Doyle – The Van
• Bret Easton Ellis – American Psycho
• Stephen Fry – The Liar
• Jostein Gaarder – Sophie's World (Sofies verden)
• John Gardner – The Man from Barbarossa
• David Gates – Jernigan
• Ann Granger – Say It With Poison
• John Grisham – The Firm
• Josephine Hart – Damage
• Elisabeth Harvor, Our Lady of All Distances 11 stories (revision of Women and Children, published in 1973), Canada
• Mark Jacobson – Gojiro
• Stephen King – Needful Things
• John le Carré – The Secret Pilgrim
• Penelope Lively - City of the Mind
• Morgan Llywelyn – Druids
• James A. Michener – Mexico
• Rohinton Mistry – Such a Long Journey
• Timothy Mo – The Redundancy of Courage
• Cees Nooteboom - The Following Story
• John Peel – Timewyrm: Genesys
• Ellis Peters - The Summer of the Danes
• Marge Piercy – He, She and It
• Terry Pratchett – Reaper Man and Witches Abroad
• Alexandra Ripley – Scarlett
• J. Jill Robinson – Saltwater Trees
• Nigel Robinson – Timewyrm: Apocalypse
• Bernice Rubens – A Solitary Grief
• Norman Rush – Mating
• Michael Shaara – For Love of the Game (posthumously published)
• Sidney Sheldon – The Doomsday Conspiracy
• Jane Smiley – A Thousand Acres
• Danielle Steel – Heartbeat
• James B. Stewart – Den of Thieves
• Michael Swanwick – Gravity's Angels
• Antonio Tabucchi - Requiem: A Hallucination
• Amy Tan – The Kitchen God's Wife
• Andrew Vachss – Sacrifice
• Martin Waddell - Farmer Duck
• Bernard Werber – Empire of the Ants (in orig. French Les Fourmis)
• Tim Winton – Cloudstreet
• Helen Zahavi – Dirty Weekend
• Timothy Zahn – Heir to the Empire
• Haifa Zangana – Through the Vast Halls of Memory
• Roger Zelazny – Prince of Chaos
• Avi – Nothing But the Truth
• G. Clifton Wisler – Red Cap (Book)

New drama

• Ariel Dorfman – Death and the Maiden
• Philip Ridley – The Pitchfork Disney
• Neil Simon – Lost in Yonkers

Non-fiction

• Dionne Brand – No Burden to Carry: Narratives of Black Working Women in Ontario
• Henry Steele Commager – Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples
• Dave Foreman – Confessions of an Eco-Warrior
• Jung Chang – Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
• Madonna – Sex
• Robert K. Massie – Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War
• P.J. O'Rourke – Parliament of Whores
• Thomas Pakenham – The Scramble for Africa
• William Pokhlyobkin – A History of Vodka
• John Richardson – A Life of Picasso
• Simon Schama – Dead Certainties
• Marie Wadden – Nitassinan: The Innu Struggle to Reclaim Their Homeland 
• Naomi Wolf – The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women
• Zhang Chengzhi – History of the Soul

Poetry

Main article: 1991 in poetry

Births

Rachel McAteer, 9 May 1991

Deaths

• January 22 – Robert Choquette, Canadian novelist and poet
• January 23 – Northrop Frye, literary critic
• January 29 – Yasushi Inoue, historian
• February 24 – John Daly, journalist, game show host
• March – Paul Engle, novelist
• April 3 – Graham Greene
• April 12 – James Schuyler, poet
• April 29 – Claude Gallimard, French publishing magnate
• May 3 – Jerzy Kosinski, Polish-American novelist
• July 24 – Isaac Bashevis Singer
• August 17 – Terence Kilmartin, Irish journalist and translator
• September 24 – Dr. Seuss
• October 11 – Steven Jesse Bernstein, performance poet
• October 12 – Arkady Strugatsky, Russian science fiction writer
• October 27 – George Barker, poet
• November 29 – Frank Yerby, historical novelist
• date unknown – Dante Milano, poet

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Nadine Gordimer

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Andrew McGahan, Praise
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Jennifer Maiden, The Winter Baby
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Jennifer Maiden, The Winter Baby
• Mary Gilmore Prize: Jean Kent – Verandahs

Canada

• See 1991 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• The Edna Staebler Award is established to honour the best literary work of creative non-fiction by a Canadian author who'd published their first or second writing within the preceding year. 
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Susan Mayse, Ginger 
• Arthur Ellis Award for Best True Crime: Susan Mayse, Ginger 

France

• Prix Goncourt: Pierre Combescot, Les Filles du Calvaire
• Prix Décembre: Raphaël Confiant, Eau de café
• Prix Médicis: Pierre Simon, La Dérive des sentiments

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody
• Cholmondeley Award: James Berry, Sujata Bhatt, Michael Hulse, Derek Mahon
• Eric Gregory Award: Roddy Lumsden, Glyn Maxwell, Stephen Smith, Wayne Burrows, Jackie Kay
• Guardian Fiction Award: Alan Judd, The Devil's Own Work
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Iain Sinclair, Downriver
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Judith Wright
• Whitbread Best Book Award: John Richardson, A Life of Picasso
• The Sunday Express Book of the Year: Michael Frayn, A Landing on the Sun

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Julia Kasdorf, Sleeping Preacher
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: John Frederick Nims
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry: Richard Wilbur
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Donald Hall, The Museum of Clear Ideas
• Compton Crook Award: Michael Flynn, In the Country of the Blind
• Frost Medal: Donald Hall
• Nebula Award: Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Jerry Spinelli, Maniac Magee
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Neil Simon, Lost in Yonkers
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: John Updike: Rabbit at Rest
• Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction: Edward O. Wilson: The Ants
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Mona Van Duyn: Near Changes

Elsewhere

• Premio Nadal: Alfredo Conde Cid, Los otros días