1992 in literature

Events

• 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.
• September – Michael Ondaatje's historiographic metafiction The English Patient is published in Canada. It will win The Golden Man Booker in 2018.

• The Goosebumps series of children's horror fiction, penned by R. L. Stine, is first published in the United States.

  New books

Fiction

• Ben Aaronovitch – Transit
• Tariq Ali – Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree
• Paul Auster – Leviathan
• Iain Banks – The Crow Road
• Clive Barker – The Thief of Always
• Julian Barnes – The Porcupine
• Greg Bear – Anvil of Stars
• Thomas Berger – Meeting Evil
• Louis de Bernières – The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman
• James P. Blaylock – Lord Kelvin's Machine
• Pascal Bruckner – The Divine Child
• A. S. Byatt – Morpho Eugenia
• Roger Caron – Dreamcaper
• Andrew Cartmel – '
• Patrick Chamoiseau – Texaco
• Paulo Coelho – The Valkyries
• Michael Connelly – The Black Echo
• Hugh Cook
• *The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster
• *The Worshippers and the Way
• Paul Cornell – Love and War
• Bernard Cornwell
• *Sharpe's Devil
• *Scoundrel
• Douglas Coupland – Shampoo Planet
• Mia Couto – Sleepwalking Land
• Robert Crais – Lullaby Town
• L. Sprague de Camp and Christopher Stasheff – The Enchanter Reborn
• Elena Ferrante – L'amore molesto
• Tibor Fischer – Under the Frog
• Leon Forrest – Divine Days
• John Gardner – Death is Forever
• Neil Gaiman – '
• Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean – Signal to Noise
• Cristina García – Dreaming in Cuban
• Mark Gatiss – Nightshade
• Ann Granger – Cold in the Earth
• Alasdair Gray – Poor Things
• John Grisham – The Pelican Brief
• Hella Haasse – Heren van de thee
• Victor Headley – Yardie
• Andrew Hunt – '
• Simon Ings – Hot Head
• P. D. James – The Children of Men
• Denis Johnson – Jesus' Son
• John Kessel – Meeting in Infinity
• Stephen King
• *Dolores Claiborne
• *Gerald's Game
• Patrick McCabe – The Butcher Boy
• Cormac McCarthy – All the Pretty Horses
• Val McDermid – Dead Beat
• Ian McEwan – Black Dogs
• Terry McMillan – Waiting to Exhale
• Javier Marías – A Heart So White
• Andrés L. Mateo – La Balada de Alfonsina Bairán
• Rohinton Mistry – Tales from Firozsha Baag
• Caitlin Moran – The Chronicles of Narmo
• Toni Morrison – Jazz
• Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient
• Ellis Peters – The Holy Thief
• Marc Platt – '
• Terry Pratchett
• *Lords and Ladies
• *Small Gods
• Anne Rice – The Tale of the Body Thief
• Mordecai Richler – Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!
• Jennifer Roberson – Lady of the Forest
• Robert Schneider – Schlafes Bruder
• Patricia Schonstein – A Time of Angels
• W. G. Sebald – The Emigrants
• Gail Sheehy – Silent Passage
• Sidney Sheldon – The Stars Shine Down
• Michael Slade – Cutthroat
• Danielle Steel
• *Jewels
• *Mixed Blessings
• Neal Stephenson – Snow Crash
• Adam Thorpe – Ulverton
• Sue Townsend – The Queen and I
• Rose Tremain – Sacred Country
• Barry Unsworth – Sacred Hunger
• Gore Vidal –
• Vernor Vinge – A Fire Upon the Deep
• Robert James Waller – The Bridges of Madison County
• Connie Willis – Doomsday Book
• Timothy Zahn – Dark Force Rising
• Roger Zelazny and Thomas Thurston Thomas – Flare
• Juan Eduardo Zúñiga
• *El último día del mundo
• *Misterios de las noches y los días

  Children and young people

• Pamela Allen – Belinda
• Chris Van Allsburg – The Widow's Broom
• Gillian Cross – The Great Elephant Chase
• Garry Disher – The Bamboo Flute
• Anne Fine – Flour Babies
• Jamila Gavin – The Wheel of Surya
• Rumer Godden
• *Great Grandfather's House
• *Listen to the Nightingale
• Virginia Hamilton – Drylongso
• William Mayne – Low Tide
• Gerald McDermott –
• Hilary McKay – The Exiles
• Michael Morpurgo – Waiting for Anya
• Barry Moser – Polly Vaughn: A Traditional British Ballad
• Jim Murphy – The Long Road to GETTYSBURG
• Marcus Pfister – Rainbow Fish
• Gloria Jean Pinkney – Back Home
• Marjorie W. Sharmat – Nate the Great and the Stolen Base
• Ulf Stark – Can You Whistle, Johanna?
• Christopher Tolkien – Sauron Defeated
• Judith Vigna – Black Like Kyra White Like Me
• Martin Waddell - Owl Babies
• Nancy Willard – Beauty and the Beast
• Douglas Wood – Old Turtle

  Drama

• Herb Gardner – Conversations with My Father
• Peter Handke – Die Stunde, da wir nichts voneinander wußten
• David Mamet – Oleanna
• Louis Nowra – Così
• Zlatko Topčić – Musa And The Goat
• Michael Wall – Women Laughing
• Peter Whelan – The School of Night

  Poetry

• Ben Okri – An African Elegy

  Non-fiction

• Nelson Algren – America Eats
• Karen Armstrong – '
• Bill Bryson – '
• Margaret Busby – '
• Linda Colley – '
• Esther Delisle – The Traitor and the Jew
• Daniel Dennett – Consciousness Explained
• Eamon Duffy – The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400 to c. 1580
• Gerina Dunwich – Secrets of Love Magick
• Christiane Éluère – L'Europe des Celtes
• John Gray – Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
• Elizabeth Hay – The Only Snow in Havana
• Nick Hornby – Fever Pitch
• Charles Jennings - Up North
• K. S. Lal – The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India
• Neil Lyndon – No More Sex War: The Failures of Feminism
• Jean Marigny – Sang pour sang, le réveil des vampires
• Andrew Morton – Diana: Her True Story
• Mark E. Neely, Jr. –
• Liza Potvin – White Lies
• Léon Werth – 33 Jours

  Births

• May 12 – Kyra Halland, American fantasy novelist

  Deaths

• January 4 – Alejandro Carrión, Ecuadorian poet and journalist
• January 9 – Bill Naughton, Irish-born English playwright and novelist
• January 4 – John Sparrow, English literary scholar
• January 28 – Dora Birtles, Australian novelist, poet and children's writer
• February 10 – Alex Haley, African-American writer
• February 16
• *Angela Carter, English novelist
• *George MacBeth, Scottish poet and novelist
• April 6 – Isaac Asimov, American science fiction author
• April 21 – Väinö Linna, Finnish novelist
• April 28 – Iceberg Slim, American novelist
• May 22 – Elizabeth David, English cookery writer
• July 6 – Mary Q. Steele, American novelist
• July 22 – Reginald Bretnor, American science fiction writer
• July 23 – Robert Liddell, English biographer, novelist and poet
• September 5 – Fritz Leiber, American writer of fantasy and science fiction
• August 29 – Mary Norton, English children's writer
• November 7 – Richard Yates, American novelist and short-story writer
• November 17 – Audre Lorde, American poet, writer and feminist
• December 22 – Ted Willis, English TV dramatist
• December 25 – Monica Dickens, English novelist
• December 27 – Kay Boyle, American writer, educator and activist

  Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Derek Walcott
• Camões Prize: Vergílio Ferreira

  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, : The Innu Struggle to Reclaim Their Homeland

  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 : Thom Gunn, The Man with Night Sweats ; Simon Armitage, Kid ; Jackie Kay, "Black Bottom"

  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:

  Elsewhere

• Premio Nadal: Alejandro Gándara, Ciegas esperanzas