1986 in literature

Drama

• Caryl Churchill and David Lan – A Mouthful of Birds
• Nick Darke – The Dead Monkey
• Tomson Highway – The Rez Sisters
• Chinu Modi – Ashwamedh
• Willy Russell – Shirley Valentine
• Arvo Salo – Vallan miehet
• Tom Stoppard – Dalliance (based on a work by Arthur Schnitzler)

Poetry

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

Non-fiction

Births

• 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
• 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
• 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)
• 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

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

United Kingdom

• 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

United States

• 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

Elsewhere

• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Władysław Bartoszewski
• Premio Nadal: Manuel Vicent, Balada de Caín

References