1992 in literature

Last updated July 27, 2025

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1992.

Events

July – The Goosebumps series of children's horror fiction, penned by R. L. Stine, is first published in the United States.^[1]
August – An attempt is made to set fire to the National Library of Abkhazia in Sukhumi during the War in Abkhazia by Georgian forces.
August 25 – The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina is annihilated during the Siege of Sarajevo by the Army of Republika Srpska.^[2]
September – Michael Ondaatje's historiographic metafiction The English Patient is published in Canada. It will win The Golden Man Booker in 2018.

New books

Poetry

Ben Okri – An African Elegy

Non-fiction

Nelson Algren (died 1981) – America Eats (travel book, written 1930s)
Karen Armstrong – Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
Bill Bryson – Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe
Linda Colley – Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837
Esther Delisle – The Traitor and the Jew (Le Traître et le Juif: Lionel Groulx, le Devoir et le délire du nationalisme d'extrême droite dans la province de Québec, 1929–1939)
Daniel Dennett – Consciousness Explained
Joan Didion – After Henry
Eamon Duffy – The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400 to c. 1580
Gerina Dunwich – Secrets of Love Magick
Christiane Éluère – The Celts: First Masters of Europe
John Gray – Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
Elizabeth Hay – The Only Snow in Havana ^[6]
Nick Hornby – Fever Pitch
Charles Jennings – Up North
Neil Lyndon – No More Sex War: The Failures of Feminism^[7]
Andrew Morton – Diana: Her True Story
Mark E. Neely Jr. – The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties
Liza Potvin – White Lies (for My Mother) ^[8]
Léon Werth (died 1955) – 33 Jours (written 1940)
Michael Jackson – Dancing the Dream

Anthologies

Margaret Busby (ed.) – Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present

Births

April 14 – Naoise Dolan, Irish novelist
August 12 – Naoki Higashida, Japanese autistic author
September 18 – Jidanun Lueangpiansamut, Thai writer
October 5 – Rupi Kaur, Indian-born Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author
October 30 – Édouard Louis, French writer
November 11 – Aya Mansour, Iraqi poet, writer, and journalist

Deaths

January 4 – Alejandro Carrión, Ecuadorian poet and journalist (born 1915)
January 9 – Bill Naughton, Irish-born English playwright and novelist (born 1910)
January 4 – John Sparrow, English literary scholar (born 1906)
January 14 – Irakli Abashidze, Georgian poet, literary scholar and politician (born 1909)^[9]
January 28 – Dora Birtles, Australian novelist, poet and children's writer (born 1903)
February 10 – Alex Haley, African-American writer (born 1921)
February 16
- Angela Carter, English novelist (lung cancer, born 1940)^[10]
- George MacBeth, Scottish poet and novelist (motor neurone disease, born 1932)
April 4 – Vintilă Horia, Romanian writer (born 1915)^[11]
April 6 – Isaac Asimov, American science fiction author (born 1920)^[12]
April 21 – Väinö Linna, Finnish novelist (born 1920)^[13]
April 28 – Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck), American novelist (born 1918)
May 22 – Elizabeth David, English cookery writer (born 1913)
July 6 – Mary Q. Steele, American novelist (born 1922)
July 22 – Reginald Bretnor, American science fiction writer (born 1911)
July 23 – Robert Liddell, English biographer, novelist and poet (born 1908)
August 4 – Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese mystery writer and journalist (born 1909)^[14]
August 29 – Mary Norton, English children's writer (born 1903)
September 5 – Fritz Leiber, American writer of fantasy and science fiction (born 1910)
November 7 – Richard Yates, American novelist and short-story writer (emphysema, born 1926)^[15]
November 17 – Audre Lorde, American poet, writer and feminist (born 1934)
December 22 – Ted Willis, English TV dramatist (born 1914)
December 25 – Monica Dickens, English novelist (born 1915)
December 27 – Kay Boyle, American writer, educator and activist (born 1902)

Awards

Australia

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Fotini Epanomitis, The Mule's Foal
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Robert Harris, Jane, Interlinear and Other Poems
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Elizabeth Riddell, Selected Poems
Mary Gilmore Prize: Alison Croggon, This is the Stone
Miles Franklin Award: Tim Winton, Cloudstreet

Canada

See 1992 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Marie Wadden, Nitassinan: The Innu Struggle to Reclaim Their Homeland ^[16]

France

Prix Goncourt: Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco
Prix Décembre: Henri Thomas, La Chasse au trésor and Roger Grenier, Regardez la neige qui tombe
Prix Médicis French: Michel Rio, Tlacuilo
Prix Médicis International: Louis Begley, Une éducation polonaise

United Kingdom

Booker Prize: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Anne Fine, Flour Babies
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Rose Tremain, Sacred Country
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe
Cholmondeley Award: Allen Curnow, Donald Davie, Carol Ann Duffy, Roger Woddis
Eric Gregory Award: Jill Dawson, Hugh Dunkerley, Christopher Greenhalgh, Marita Maddah, Stuart Paterson, Stuart Pickford
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Kathleen Raine
Whitbread Best Book Award: Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing!
The Sunday Express Book of the Year: Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
Forward Prizes for Poetry (first awards): Thom Gunn, The Man with Night Sweats (collection); Simon Armitage, Kid (first collection); Jackie Kay, "Black Bottom" (single poem)

United States

Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Hunt Hawkins, The Domestic Life
Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks
American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Sam Shepard
Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Louise Glück for Ararat, and Mark Strand for The Continuous Life
Compton Crook Award: Carol Severance, Reefsong
Frost Medal: Adrienne Rich / David Ignatow
National Book Award for Fiction: to All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
National Book Critics Circle Award: to Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean
Nebula Award: Connie Willis, Doomsday Book
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Shiloh
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Mao II by Don DeLillo
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Tate, Selected Poems
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Robert Schenkkan, The Kentucky Cycle
Whiting Awards:

Fiction: R.S. Jones, J. S. Marcus, Damien Wilkins

Nonfiction: Eva Hoffman, Katha Pollitt (poetry/nonfiction)

Plays: Suzan-Lori Parks, Keith Reddin, José Rivera

Poetry: Roger Fanning, Jane Mead

Elsewhere

Premio Nadal: Alejandro Gándara, Ciegas esperanzas

References

↑ The New York Times Book Review. New York Times Company. April 1994. pp. 26–27.
↑ "The Bosnian Manuscript Ingathering Project: Fighting the Destruction of Memory" . Retrieved 11 November 2013.
↑ LeRoy Panek (2000). New Hard-boiled Writers, 1970s–1990s. Popular Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-87972-820-5.
↑ Carol Jacobs (20 October 2015). Sebald's Vision. Columbia University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-231-54010-0.
↑ W. Michelle Wang; Daniel K. Jernigan; Neil Murphy (7 December 2020). The Routledge Companion to Death and Literature. Taylor & Francis. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-00-022074-2.
↑ "Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction – Previous Winners – 1993: Elizabeth Hay". Wilfrid Laurier University. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014.
↑ Lyndon, Neil (10 November 2014). "22 years on, I'm republishing my controversial book on the failings of feminism". The Telegraph . London.
↑ "White Lies (for My Mother)". Goodreads. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
↑ Martin MacCauley (1997), Who's Who in Russia Since 1900, p. 2. Routledge, ISBN 0-415-13898-1.
↑ "Angela Carter". British Library . Retrieved 27 March 2019.
↑ "Radio Romania International – Vintila Horia y el escándalo del Premio Goncourt". Radio Romania International (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 June 2022.
↑ Aldiss, Brian (7 April 1992). "Isaac Asimov obituary". The Guardian . Retrieved 10 March 2022.
↑ Nummi, Jyrki (2003–2007). "Linna, Väinö (1920–1992)". 100 Faces from Finland – a Biographical Kaleidoscope. the Biographical Centre of the Finnish Literature Society. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
↑ Kirkup, James (11 August 1992). "Obituary: Seicho Matsumoto". The Independent . London. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
↑ Pace, Eric (9 November 1992). "Richard Yates, Novelist, 66, Dies; Chronicler of Disappointed Lives". The New York Times . Retrieved 31 March 2008.
↑ "Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction – Previous winners – 1992: Marie Wadden". Wilfrid Laurier University. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2012.

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[1] The New York Times Book Review. New York Times Company. April 1994. pp. 26–27.

[2] "The Bosnian Manuscript Ingathering Project: Fighting the Destruction of Memory" . Retrieved 11 November 2013.

[3] LeRoy Panek (2000). New Hard-boiled Writers, 1970s–1990s. Popular Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-87972-820-5.

[4] Carol Jacobs (20 October 2015). Sebald's Vision. Columbia University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-231-54010-0.

[5] W. Michelle Wang; Daniel K. Jernigan; Neil Murphy (7 December 2020). The Routledge Companion to Death and Literature. Taylor & Francis. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-00-022074-2.

[6] "Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction – Previous Winners – 1993: Elizabeth Hay". Wilfrid Laurier University. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014.

[7] Lyndon, Neil (10 November 2014). "22 years on, I'm republishing my controversial book on the failings of feminism". The Telegraph . London.

[8] "White Lies (for My Mother)". Goodreads. Retrieved 20 November 2012.

[9] Martin MacCauley (1997), Who's Who in Russia Since 1900, p. 2. Routledge, ISBN 0-415-13898-1.

[10] "Angela Carter". British Library . Retrieved 27 March 2019.

[11] "Radio Romania International – Vintila Horia y el escándalo del Premio Goncourt". Radio Romania International (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 June 2022.

[12] Aldiss, Brian (7 April 1992). "Isaac Asimov obituary". The Guardian . Retrieved 10 March 2022.

[13] Nummi, Jyrki (2003–2007). "Linna, Väinö (1920–1992)". 100 Faces from Finland – a Biographical Kaleidoscope. the Biographical Centre of the Finnish Literature Society. Retrieved 9 December 2020.

[14] Kirkup, James (11 August 1992). "Obituary: Seicho Matsumoto". The Independent . London. Retrieved 10 June 2022.

[15] Pace, Eric (9 November 1992). "Richard Yates, Novelist, 66, Dies; Chronicler of Disappointed Lives". The New York Times . Retrieved 31 March 2008.

[16] "Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction – Previous winners – 1992: Marie Wadden". Wilfrid Laurier University. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2012.

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