Login
Login

1994 in literature

{{Short description|none}}

{{Year nav topic5|1994|literature|poetry}}

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1994.

Events

  • October 11 – The choice of James Kelman's book How Late It Was, How Late as the year's Booker Prize winner proves controversial.{{Cite news |first=Robert |last=Winder |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/highly-literary-and-deeply-vulgar-if-james-kelmans-booker-novel-is-rude-it-is-in-good-company-argues-1442639.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/highly-literary-and-deeply-vulgar-if-james-kelmans-booker-novel-is-rude-it-is-in-good-company-argues-1442639.html |archive-date=2022-05-01 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Highly literary and deeply vulgar: If James Kelman's Booker novel is rude, it is in good company, argues Robert Winder |work=The Independent |location=London |date=13 October 1994 |quote=James Kelman's victory in the Booker Prize on Tuesday night has already provoked a not altogether polite discussion...}}{{cbignore}} One of the judges, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, declares it "a disgrace" and leaves the event, later calling the book "crap"; WHSmith's marketing manager calls the award "an embarrassment to the whole book trade"; Waterstone's in Glasgow (where it is set) sells a mere 13 copies of Kelman's "Mogadon" the following week.{{Cite news |first=Maeve |last=Walsh |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/it-was-five-years-ago-today-how-controversial-it-was-how-controversial-1081947.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/it-was-five-years-ago-today-how-controversial-it-was-how-controversial-1081947.html |archive-date=2022-05-01 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=It was five years ago today: How controversial it was, how controversial |work=The Independent |date=21 March 1999}}{{cbignore}}
  • November 26 – Poland's Ministry of Culture and Art orders the exhumation of the presumed grave of the absurdist painter, playwright and novelist Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (suicide 1939) in Zakopane. Genetic tests on the remains show they belonged to an unknown woman."...Przeprowadzone badania wykazują, że szczątki kostne, przywiezione w 1988 roku ze wsi Jeziory na Ukrainie należą do kobiety w wieku 25–30 lat, o wzroście około 164 cm...." (The tests conducted indicate that the bone remains, brought in 1988 from the village Jeziory in the Ukraine, belong to a woman 25–30 years old and about 164 cm tall....") from the protocol of the commission called by the Ministry of Culture and Art after the exhumation on 26 November 1994 of the presumed grave of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz at Pęksowy Brzyzek cemetery in Zakopane. From:{{Cite web |url=http://marczewski.pl/produ_witkacy_2.php |title=Maciej Pinkwart, "Wygraliśmy" |access-date=2015-01-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100120020913/http://marczewski.pl/produ_witkacy_2.php |archive-date=2010-01-20 }} in: Moje Zakopane, 21 February 2005. (Source: Komunikat Komisji powołanej przez Ministra Kultury i Sztuki do spraw pochówku Stanisława Ignacego Witkiewicza. Prof. dr. hab. Tadeusz Polak). Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  • December 1 – Iceland's National and University Library of Iceland (Landsbókasafn Íslands – Háskólabókasafn) is founded in Reykjavík by merging the former national library, Landsbókasafn Íslands, established in 1818, with the university library of 1940.
  • unknown dates
  • Penguin Books offer Peter James's novel Host on two floppy disks as "the world's first electronic novel".{{Cite web |url=http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10380579.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130206103002/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10380579.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 6, 2013 |title=All Eight Roy Grace Novels by Peter James Now Available in e-Book Format in the United States: Author of "the world's first electronic novel" in 1994 |work=prweb |date=2013-01-31 |access-date=2015-10-31}}
  • The first Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction is awarded.{{cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/scotiabank-giller-prize#:~:text=Past%20juries%20have%20been%20composed,Mordecai%20Richler%2C%20and%20Rohinton%20Mistry|title=Scotiabank Giller Prize|date=July 7, 2015|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=February 13, 2021}}

New books

=Fiction=

=Children and young people=

=Drama=

=Poetry=

{{Main|1994 in poetry}}

=Non-fiction=

Births

Deaths

Awards

=Australia=

=Canada=

=France=

=United Kingdom=

=United States=

:Fiction: Louis Edward, Mary Hood, Randall Kenan (fiction/nonfiction), Kate Wheeler

:Nonfiction: Kennedy Fraser, Wayne Koestenbaum (nonfiction/poetry), Rosemary Mahoney, Claudia Roth Pierpont

:Poetry: Mark Doty, Mary Swander (poetry/nonfiction)

=Elsewhere=

References

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Year in literature article categories}}