1994 in literature

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. 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 sells a mere 13 copies of Kelman's "Mogadon" the following week.
• 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 in Zakopane. Genetic tests on the remains show they belonged to an unknown woman.
• December 1 – Iceland's National and University Library of Iceland is founded in Reykjavík by merging the former national library, Landsbókasafn Íslands, established in 1818, with the university library of 1940.

• Penguin Books offer Peter James's novel Host on two floppy disks as "the world's first electronic novel".
• The first Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction is awarded.

  New books

Fiction

• Peter Ackroyd – Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem
• Nelson Algren – The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren
• Kevin J. Anderson
• *Champions of the Force
• *Dark Apprentice
• *Jedi Search
• Reed Arvin – The Wind in the Wheat
• Thomas Berger – Robert Crews
• Louis de Bernières – Captain Corelli's Mandolin
• Lily Brett – Just Like That
• George Mackay Brown – Beside the Ocean of Time
• Christopher Bulis – State of Change
• Naomi Campbell – Swan
• James Chapman – Glass
• Tom Clancy – Debt of Honor
• Jonathan Coe – What a Carve Up!
• Michael Connelly – The Concrete Blonde
• Paul Cornell
• *Goth Opera
• *No Future
• Bernard Cornwell – Copperhead
• Douglas Coupland – Life After God
• Michael Crichton – Disclosure
• Terrance Dicks – Blood Harvest
• Stephen R. Donaldson – The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order
• Bret Easton Ellis – The Informers
• Valerio Evangelisti – Nicolas Eymerich, inquisitore
• David Frum – Dead Right
• Stephen Fry – The Hippopotamus
• William Gaddis – A Frolic of His Own
• Neil Gaiman
• *'
• *'
• Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean – Mr. Punch
• John Gardner – SeaFire
• James Finn Garner – Politically Correct Bedtime Stories
• David S. Garnett – Stargonauts
• Mark Gatiss – St Anthony's Fire
• Judith Godrèche – Point de côté
• John Grisham – The Chamber
• Romesh Gunesekera – Reef
• Peter Handke – My Year in the No-Man's-Bay
• Epeli Hau'ofa – Tales of the Tikongs
• Dermot Healy – A Goat's Song
• Joseph Heller – Closing Time
• James Herbert – The Ghosts of Sleath
• Craig Hinton – The Crystal Bucephalus
• Alan Hollinghurst – The Folding Star
• Nancy Huston – La Virevolte
• John Irving – A Son of the Circus
• Alexander Jablokov – The Breath of Suspension
• James Kelman – How late it was, how late
• Stephen King – Insomnia'
• Dean R. Koontz – Dark Rivers of the Heart
• Joe R. Lansdale – Mucho Mojo
• Andy Lane – All-Consuming Fire
• Ursula K. Le Guin – "The Matter of Seggri"
• Madeleine L'Engle – Troubling a Star
• Paul Leonard – Venusian Lullaby
• Jonathan Lethem – Gun, with Occasional Music
• H. P. Lovecraft – Miscellaneous Writings
• Steve Lyons – Conundrum
• F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre – The Woman Between the Worlds
• David A. McIntee – First Frontier
• Javier Marías – Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me
• Simon Messingham – Strange England
• James A. Michener – Recessional
• Rick Moody – The Ice Storm
• Jim Mortimore – Parasite
• Ryū Murakami – Piercing
• Tim O'Brien – In the Lake of the Woods
• Daniel O'Mahony – Falls the Shadow
• V. S. Naipaul – A Way in the World
• John Peel – Evolution
• Ellis Peters – Brother Cadfael's Penance
• Terry Pratchett
• *Interesting Times
• *Soul Music
• Qiu Miaojin – Notes of a Crocodile
• James Redfield – The Celestine Prophecy
• Matthew Reilly – Contest
• Justin Richards – Theatre of War
• Gareth Roberts – Tragedy Day
• Gary Russell – Legacy
• Sidney Sheldon – Nothing Lasts Forever
• Carol Shields – The Stone Diaries
• Michael Slade – Ripper
• S. P. Somtow – Jasmine Nights
• Danielle Steel
• *Accident
• *The Gift
• *Wings
• Botho Strauß – Living Glimmering Lying
• Antonio Tabucchi – Pereira Maintains
• William Trevor – Felicia's Journey
• John Updike – Brazil
• Andrew Vachss – Down in the Zero
• Marlene van Niekerk – Triomf
• Binod Bihari Verma – Balanak Bonihar O Pallavi
• Jill Paton Walsh – Knowledge of Angels
• Tim Winton – The Riders''

  Children and young people

• Pamela Allen – Clippity-Clop
• Chris Van Allsburg – The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
• Nancy Farmer – The Ear, the Eye and the Arm
• Mem Fox – Tough Boris
• Gayle Greeno –Mind-Speakers' Call
• Donald Hall
• *The Farm Summer 1942
• *I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat
• Julius Lester –John Henry
• J. Patrick Lewis – The Christmas of the Reddle Moon
• Sam McBratney – Guess How Much I Love You
• Andre Norton –Catfantastic III
• Glyn Parry –Monster Man
• Gloria Jean Pinkney –The Sunday Outing
• Jennifer Rowe – The Charm Bracelet
• Francesca Simon – Horrid Henry
• Amy Tan – Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat
• Jacqueline Wilson – Freddy's Teddy

  Drama

• Marina Carr – The Mai
• Kevin Elyot – My Night With Reg
• Terry Johnson – Dead Funny
• Arthur Miller – Broken Glass
• Yasmina Reza – Art

  Poetry

• Sophie Cabot Black – The Misunderstanding of Nature

  Non-fiction

• Michael Asher – Thesiger
• Alan Bennett – Writing Home
• John Berendt – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
• Denise Chong – The Concubine's Children
• Antonio Damasio – Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain
• Paul Lawrence Farber – Finding Order in Nature: The Naturalist Tradition from Linnaeus to E. O. Wilson
• Leon Forrest – Relocations of the Spirit: Collected Essays
• V. A. C. Gatrell – The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People 1780–1868
• Martin Gilbert – In Search of Churchill
• Will Hutton – The State We're In
• Richard Leakey – The Origin of Humankind
• Li Zhisui – The Private Life of Chairman Mao
• Steven Pinker – The Language Instinct
• Tricia Rose –
• Richard B. Trask – Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the Assassination of President Kennedy
• Elizabeth Wurtzel – Prozac Nation
• Gabrielle van Zuylen – Tous les jardins du monde

  Births

• April 18 – Alexandra Adornetto, Australian children's novelist

  Deaths

• January 3 – Frank Belknap Long, American horror, fantasy and sci-fi writer
• January 30 – Pierre Boulle, French novelist
• January 31 – Erwin Strittmatter, German writer
• February 6 – Jack Kirby, American comic book cartoonist
• February 11 – Paul Feyerabend, Austrian philosopher of science
• February 26 – J. L. Carr, English novelist
• February 27 – Harold Acton, English writer, scholar and dilettante
• March 9 – Charles Bukowski, German-born American poet and novelist
• March 20 – Lewis Grizzard, American journalist and author
• March 28 – Eugène Ionesco, Romanian playwright
• April 16 – Ralph Ellison, American scholar and writer
• May 24 – John Wain, English novelist, poet and critic
• May 30
• *Juan Carlos Onetti, Uruguayan writer
• *Isobel English, English novelist
• June 7 – Dennis Potter, English TV dramatist
• June 17 – Yuri Nagibin, Soviet screenwriter and novelist
• June 26 – Jahanara Imam, Bangladeshi writer and political activist
• July 5 – Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Malayalam short story writer
• July 30 – Robin Cook, English novelist
• August 7 – Rosa Chacel, Spanish writer
• August 14 – Alice Childress, African American playwright, actress and young-adult novelist
• August 25 – Bidhyanath Pokhrel, Nepali poet
• September 7 – James Clavell, Australian-born American novelist
• November 12 – J. I. M. Stewart, Scottish novelist and critic
• November 15 – Elizabeth George Speare, American children's writer
• November 28 – Ian Serraillier, English novelist and poet
• December 12 – Donna J. Stone, American poet and philanthropist
• December 20 – Eva Alexanderson, Swedish novelist and translator
• December 24 – John Osborne, English dramatist

  Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Kenzaburō Ōe
• Europe Theatre Prize: Heiner Müller
• Camões Prize: Jorge Amado

  Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Darren Williams, Swimming In Silk
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Robert Gray, Certain Things
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Barry Hill, Ghosting William Buckley
• Mary Gilmore Prize: Deborah Staines, Now, Millennium
• Miles Franklin Award: Rodney Hall, The Grisly Wife

  Canada

• Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award
• Edna Staebler Award: Linda Johns, Sharing a Robin's Life,
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: M.G. Vassanji, The Book of Secrets''
• See 1994 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

  France

• Prix Goncourt: Didier Van Cauwelaert, Un Aller simple
• Prix Décembre: Jean Hatzfeld, L'Air de guerre and Éric Holder, La Belle Jardinière
• Prix Médicis French: Yves Berger, Immobile dans le courant du fleuve
• Prix Médicis International: Robert Schneider, Frère Sommeil

  United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: James Kelman, How Late It Was, How Late
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Alan Hollinghurst, The Folding Star
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Doris Lessing, Under My Skin
• Cholmondeley Award: Ruth Fainlight, Gwen Harwood, Elizabeth Jennings, John Mole
• Eric Gregory Award: Julia Copus, Alice Oswald, Steven Blyth, Kate Clanchy, Giles Goodland
• Whitbread Best Book Award: William Trevor, Felicia's Journey

  United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Jan Beatty, Mad River
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Wendell Berry
• Anisfield-Wolf Book Award: Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Latin Deli: Prose and Poetry
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Stewart James, "Vanessa", and Marilyn Hacker, "Cancer Winter"
• Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: A. R. Ammons, Garbage
• Compton Crook Award: Mary Rosenblum, The Drylands
• National Book Award for Fiction: William Gaddis, A Frolic of His Own
• National Book Critics Circle Award: Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries
• Nebula Award: Greg Bear, Moving Mars
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Lois Lowry, The Giver
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Philip Roth, Operation Shylock
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Edward Albee, Three Tall Women
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: E. Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Yusef Komunyakaa, Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems
• Wallace Stevens Award inaugurated with first award this year: W. S. Merwin
• Whiting Awards:

  Elsewhere

• Montana Book Award for Poetry: Bill Manhire, ed., 100 New Zealand Poems
• New Zealand Book Award for Poetry: Andrew Johnston, How to Talk
• Premio Nadal: Rosa Regàs, Azul