1986 in literature

	… 1976; 1977; 1978; 1979; 1980; 1981; 1982; ; 1983; 1984; 1985; 1986; 1987; 1988; 1989; ; 1990; 1991; 1992; 1993; 1994; 1995; 1996 …;
	In poetry 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1986.

Events

July 21 – Michael Grade, Controller of BBC1, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.
September 26 – Bloomsbury Publishing is set up in London by Nigel Newton.

New books

Fiction

Kingsley Amis – The Old Devils
V. C. Andrews – Garden of Shadows
Piers Anthony – Ghost
Jeffrey Archer – A Matter of Honour
James Axler – Pilgrimage to Hell and Red Holocaust
Iain Banks – The Bridge
Thomas Bernhard – Extinction
Azouz Begag – Le Gone du Chaâba
Anita Brookner – A Misalliance
Orson Scott Card – Speaker for the Dead
Ana Castillo – Mixquiahuala Letters
Tom Clancy – Red Storm Rising
James Clavell – Whirlwind
Jackie Collins – Hollywood Husbands
Pat Conroy – The Prince of Tides
Hugh Cook – The Wizards and the Warriors
Bernard Cornwell – Sharpe's Regiment
Bernard & Judy Cornwell (as Susannah Kells) – Coat of Arms (aka The Aristocrats)
Fernando Del Paso – Noticias del Imperio
Marguerite Duras – Blue Eyes, Black Hair
James Ellroy – Silent Terror
Shusaku Endo (遠藤周作) – Scandal (スキャンダル)
Nuruddin Farah – Maps (first part of Blood in the Sun trilogy)
Richard Ford – The Sportswriter
John Gardner – Nobody Lives For Ever
Jacques Godbout – Une Histoire américaine
Peter Handke – Repetition
Carl Hiaasen – Tourist Season
Kazuo Ishiguro – An Artist of the Floating World
Brian Jacques – Redwall
Stephen King – It
Judith Krantz – I'll Take Manhattan
Louis L'Amour – Last of the Breed
Joe R. Lansdale – Dead in the West
John le Carré – A Perfect Spy
David Leavitt – The Lost Language of Cranes
Tanith Lee – Dreams of Dark and Light: The Great Short Fiction of Tanith Lee
Deena Linett – The Translator's Wife
Gordon Lish – Dear Mr. Capote
H. P. Lovecraft – Dagon and Other Macabre Tales corrected edition
Robert Ludlum – The Bourne Supremacy
Amin Maalouf – Leo Africanus
Javier Marías – El hombre sentimental ("The Man of Feeling")
Allan Massie – Augustus (1st of Massie's Roman series)
Robert Munsch – Love You Forever
Patrick O'Brian – The Reverse of the Medal
Ellis Peters
- The Raven in the Foregate
- The Rose Rent
Terry Pratchett – The Light Fantastic
Reynolds Price – Kate Vaiden
James Purdy – In the Hollow of His Hand
Jean Raspail – Who Will Remember the People...
José Saramago – O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis
Ken Saro-Wiwa – Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English
Idries Shah – Kara Kush
Danielle Steel – Wanderlust
Peter Taylor – A Summons to Memphis
James Tiptree, Jr. – Tales of the Quintana Roo
Mario Vargas Llosa – ¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero?
Vladimir Voinovich – Moscow 2042^[1]
Roger Zelazny – Blood of Amber

Children and young adults

Robert J. Burch – Queenie Peavy
Diana Wynne Jones – Howl's Moving Castle
Michael de Larrabeiti
- The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis
- The Provençal Tales
Ann M. Martin
- Kristy's Great Idea
- Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls
- The Truth about Stacey (first three in The Baby-Sitters Club series of over 200, 35 written by Martin)
Jenny Nimmo – The Snow Spider (first in The Magician Trilogy)
Gillian Rubinstein – Space Demons

Drama

Caryl Churchill and David Lan – A Mouthful of Birds
Tomson Highway – The Rez Sisters
Willy Russell – Shirley Valentine

Poetry

Kama Sywor Kamanda – Chants de brumes

Non-fiction

Martin Amis – The Moronic Inferno: And Other Visits to America
Bernard Bailyn – Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution
Richard Dawkins – The Blind Watchmaker
Adrian Edmondson et al. – How to be a Complete Bastard
Sita Ram Goel – History of Hindu–Christian Encounters, AD 304 to 1996
Kumari Jayawardena – Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World
Mark Mathabane – Kaffir Boy
Farley Mowat – My Discovery of America
Marc Reisner – Cadillac Desert
Richard Rhodes – The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Mary Wilson – Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme

Births

July 3 – Chris Bush, English playwright, artistic director and comedian
Unknown date
- Caroline Bird, English poet and dramatist
- Chigozie Obioma, Nigerian novelist

Deaths

January 1 – Lord David Cecil, English critic and biographer (born 1902)
January 4 – Christopher Isherwood, English-born novelist (born 1904)
January 7 – Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer (born 1917)
January 24 – L. Ron Hubbard, American science fiction writer, founder of Scientology (born 1911)
February 4 – Phyllis Shand Allfrey, Dominican writer (born 1908)
February 9 – Dora Oake Russell, Newfoundland writer, diarist and journalist (born 1912)
February 11 – Frank Herbert, American science fiction novelist (born 1920)
February 28 – Edith Ditmas, English archivist, historian and writer (born 1896)
March 4 – Elizabeth Smart, Canadian poet and novelist (born 1913)
March 15 – Pandelis Prevelakis, Greek novelist, poet, dramatist and essayist (born 1909)
March 18 – Bernard Malamud, American novelist (born 1914)
April 12 – Valentin Kataev, Russian novelist and dramatist (born 1897)
April 14
- Simone de Beauvoir, French philosopher and feminist writer (born 1908)
- Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist and political activist (born 1910)
May 15 – Theodore H. White, American journalist, historian, and novelist (born 1915)
June 14 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (born 1899)
August 1 – Lena Kennedy, English romantic novelist (born 1914)
August 3 – Beryl Markham, English-born Kenyan aviator and author (born 1902)
August 20 – Milton Acorn, Canadian poet, writer, and playwright (born 1923)
December 17 – J. F. Hendry, Scottish poet (born 1912)
December 19 – V. C. Andrews, American novelist (born 1923)

Awards

Nobel Prize for Literature: Wole Soyinka

Australia

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Robin Walton, Glace Fruits
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Rhyll McMaster, Washing the Money and John A. Scott, St. Clair
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Robert Gray Selected Poems 1963–83
Mary Gilmore Prize: Stephen Williams, A Crowd of Voices
Miles Franklin Award: Elizabeth Jolley, The Well

Canada

See 1986 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

Prix Goncourt: Michel Host, Valet de nuit
Prix Médicis French: Pierre Combescot, Les Funérailles de la Sardine
Prix Médicis International: John Hawkes, Aventures dans le commerce des peaux en Alaska