1998 in literature

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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 books

• 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
• 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
• 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

Main article: 1998 in 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