1986 in literature#Awards

• April 29 – A major fire at Los Angeles Public Library caused by arson destroys 400,000 volumes.{{Cite book |last=Orlean |first=Susan |title=The Library Book |date=2018 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4767-4018-8}}
• July 21 – Michael Grade, Controller of BBC1, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.{{cite book|author=Ian Curteis|title=The Falklands Play: A Television Play|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=giJLAAAAMAAJ|year=1987|publisher=Hutchinson|isbn=978-0-09-170611-1|page=31}}
• September 29 – Bloomsbury Publishing is set up in London by Nigel Newton.{{cite book|author=Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain)|title=RSA Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XyzbAAAAMAAJ|year=1988|publisher=Royal Society of Arts|page=163}}
• October 9 – The Phantom of the Opera, having been the longest running Broadway show ever, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
• December 19 – The Soviet dissident author Andrei Sakharov is allowed to return to Moscow after six years' internal exile.

• 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 (Auslöschung)
• 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
• Arthur C. Clarke – The Songs of Distant Earth{{cite book|author=Dominic Head|title=The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rQINrHtwNU0C&pg=PA212|date=26 January 2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-83179-6|pages=212}}
• 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 (also as The Aristocrats)
• Fernando Del Paso – Noticias del Imperio
• Marguerite Duras – Blue Eyes, Black Hair
• James Ellroy – Silent Terror
• Steve Erickson – Rubicon Beach
• Nuruddin Farah – Maps (first part of Blood in the Sun trilogy)
• Richard Ford – The Sportswriter
• Katherine V. Forrest – An Emergence of Green
• John Gardner – Nobody Lives For Ever
• Jacques Godbout – Une Histoire américaine
• Peter Handke – Repetition
• Ernest Hemingway - The Garden of Eden
• Carl Hiaasen – Tourist Season
• Kazuo Ishiguro – An Artist of the Floating World
• Brian Jacques – Redwall
• Stephen King – It
• Judith Krantz – I'll Take Manhattan
• Brigitte Kronauer – Berittener Bogenschütze
• 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
• Gordon Lish – Dear Mr. Capote
• H. P. Lovecraft – Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (corrected edition)
• Robert Ludlum – The Bourne Supremacy
• Amin Maalouf – Leo Africanus
• Allan Massie – Augustus (first in the Roman series)
• Frank Miller – Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (graphic novel)
• Robert Munsch – Love You Forever
• Patrick O'Brian – The Reverse of the Medal
• Ellis Peters
• The Raven in the Foregate{{cite book|title=Studies in Medievalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TyIrAQAAIAAJ|year=1992|publisher=D.S. Brewer|isbn=978-0-85991-348-5|page=289}}
• 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...
• Mercè Rodoreda (died 1983) – La mort i la primavera (Death in Spring)
• José Saramago – The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (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 – Who Killed Palomino Molero? (¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero?)
• Vladimir Voinovich – Moscow 2042{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/02/books/books-of-the-times-590687.html |title=Books of the Times |date=1987-06-02 |work=The New York Times}}
• Roger Zelazny – Blood of Amber

• Janet and Allan Ahlberg – The Jolly Postman
• Chris Van Allsburg – The Stranger
• Tony Bradman – Dilly the Dinosaur (first in the eponymous series of 22 books)
• Steven Brust (with Alan Lee) – Brokedown Palace
• Robert J. Burch – Queenie Peavy
• Joy Cowley
• (with Jan van der Voo) – Turnips For Dinner
• (with Martin Bailey) – The King's Pudding
• Crescent Dragonwagon – Half a Moon and One Whole Star
• Jill Eggleton (with Kelvin Hawley) – Cat and Mouse
• Berniece T. Hiser – The Adventure of Charlie and His Wheat-Straw Hat
• Diana Wynne Jones – Howl's Moving Castle
• Michael de Larrabeiti
• The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis
• The Provençal Tales
• Arnold Lobel – The Random House Book of Mother Goose (in verse)
• 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 books, 35 written by Martin)
• Patricia McKissack – Flossie & the Fox
• Robert Munsch – Love You Forever
• Jill Murphy – Five Minutes' Peace (first in The Large Family series)
• Jenny Nimmo – The Snow Spider (first in The Magician Trilogy)
• Bill Peet – Zella, Zack, and Zodiac
• Claude Ponti – Adele's Album
• Alison Prince – The Type One Super Robot
• Gillian Rubinstein – Space Demons

• Caryl Churchill and David Lan – A Mouthful of Birds{{cite book | last = Gay | first = Jane | title = Languages of theatre shaped by women | publisher = Intellect | location = Bristol, UK Portland, OR | year = 2003 | isbn = 9781871516784 }}
• Nick Darke – The Dead Monkey
• Tomson Highway – The Rez Sisters
• Chinu Modi – Ashwamedh
• Willy Russell – Shirley Valentine{{cite book | last = Erskine | first = Thomas | title = Video versions : film adaptations of plays on video | publisher = Greenwood Press | location = Westport, Conn | year = 2000 | isbn = 9780313301858 | page=312}}
• Arvo Salo – Vallan miehet{{cite book|author=George C. Schoolfield|title=A History of Finland's Literature|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=1998|page=240}}
• Tom Stoppard – Dalliance (based on a work by Arthur Schnitzler)

• Kama Sywor Kamanda – Chants de brumes (Songs of twilight)

• Dave Stieb (with Kevin Boland) - Tomorrow I'll be Perfect
• 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
• Frank Barlow – Thomas Becket
• Marjorie Chibnall – Anglo-Norman England 1066–1166
• Richard Dawkins – The Blind Watchmaker
• Karlheinz Deschner – Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums (Criminal History of Christianity)
• Adrian Edmondson et al. – How to be a Complete Bastard
• Sita Ram Goel – History of Hindu–Christian Encounters, AD 304 to 1996
• Temple Grandin (with Margaret Scariano) – Emergence: Labeled Autistic
• Patience Gray – Honey from a Weed (cookery)
• Robert Irwin – The Middle East in the Middle Ages: The Early Mamlúk Sultanate 1250–1382
• Kumari Jayawardena – Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World
• Mark Mathabane – Kaffir Boy
• Farley Mowat – My Discovery of America
• Harvey Pekar – American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar (graphic autobiography)
• Marc Reisner – Cadillac Desert
• Richard Rhodes – The Making of the Atomic Bomb
• Jonathan Riley-Smith – The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading
• Roger Scruton – Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation
• Art Spiegelman – Maus: A Survivor's Tale (I: My Father Bleeds History) (graphic biography/autobiography)
• Jean Vercoutter – The Search for Ancient Egypt
• Mary Wilson – Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme

• January 24 - Aimee Carter, American young-adult fiction writer
• June 6 - Rachelle Dekker, American science-fiction writer
• July 3 – Chris Bush, English playwright, artistic director and comedian
• unknown dates
• Caroline Bird, English poet and dramatist{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2020-11-02|title=Caroline Bird|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/caroline-bird|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003230531/https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/caroline-bird |archive-date=2018-10-03 |access-date=2020-11-02|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en}}
• Chigozie Obioma, Nigerian novelist

• January 1 – Lord David Cecil, English critic and biographer (born 1902){{cite book|title=The George Eliot, George Henry Lewes Newsletter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_6qaAAAAIAAJ|year=1986|publisher=West Midlands College, English Division|page=4}}
• January 4 – Christopher Isherwood, English-born novelist (born 1904)
• January 7
• P. D. Eastman, American author and illustrator (born 1909)
• Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer (born 1917)
• January 9 – W. S. Graham, Scottish poet (born 1918)
• January 24 – L. Ron Hubbard, American science fiction writer, founder of Scientology (born 1911)
• January 26 – Nicholas Moore, English poet (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 27 – Nancy Brysson Morrison, Scottish novelist (born 1903)
• February 28 – Edith Ditmas, English archivist, historian and writer (born 1896)
• March 4
• Ding Ling, Chinese fiction writer (born 1904)
• 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)
• April 17 – Bessie Head, Botswanan fiction writer (born 1937)
• April 22 – Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian, philosopher and novelist (born 1907)
• May 15 – Theodore H. White, American journalist, historian and novelist (born 1915)
• June 14 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (born 1899)
• July 16 – Stephen Coulter, English writer (born 1914)
• August 1 – Lena Kennedy, English romantic novelist (born 1914)
• August 3 – Beryl Markham, English-born Kenyan aviator and author (born 1902)
• August 18 – Vivian Stuart, English novelist (born 1914)
• August 20 – Milton Acorn, Canadian poet, writer and playwright (born 1923)
• September 11 – Noel Streatfeild, English novelist and children's writer (born 1895){{cite book|author1=Patricia Burgess|author2=Trish Burgess|title=Annual Obituary, 1986|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oZPZBuqy_SYC|date=1 August 1989|publisher=St James Press|isbn=978-1-55862-013-1|page=556}}
• October 28 – John Braine, English novelist (born 1922)
• December 17 – J. F. Hendry, Scottish poet (born 1912)
• December 19 – V. C. Andrews, American novelist (born 1923)
• December 28 – John D. MacDonald, American novelist and short story writer (born 1916)

==Awards==

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Wole Soyinka

• 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

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

• 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

• Booker Prize: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Berlie Doherty, Granny Was a Buffer Girl
• Cholmondeley Award: Lawrence Durrell, James Fenton, Selima Hill
• Eric Gregory Award: Mick North, Lachlan Mackinnon, Oliver Reynolds, Stephen Romer
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Jenny Joseph, Persephone
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: D. Felicitas Corrigan, Helen Waddell
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Norman MacCaig
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Robley Wilson, Kingdoms of the Ordinary
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Sidney Kingsley
• Frost Medal: Allen Ginsberg / Richard Eberhart
• Nebula Award: Orson Scott Card, Speaker For the Dead
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain and Tall
• Prometheus Award: Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminatus! Trilogy
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Henry Taylor, The Flying Change
• Whiting Awards: Fiction: Kent Haruf, Denis Johnson, Padgett Powell, Mona Simpson; Poetry: John Ash, Hayden Carruth, Frank Stewart, Ruth Stone; Nonfiction: Darryl Pinckney (nonfiction/fiction); Plays: August Wilson

• Premio Nadal: Manuel Vicent, Balada de Caín

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Portal|1980s|Literature}}

{{Year in literature article categories}}