1989 in literature

• February 14 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran (died 3 June 1989), issues a fatwa calling for the death of Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie and his publishers for issuing the novel The Satanic Verses (1988). On February 24 Iran places a US $3 million bounty on Rushdie's head. On August 3, 1989, a bomb kills Mustafa Mazeh in London as he attempts to plant it in a hotel, in order to carry out the fatwa. • March 1 – The Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 comes into effect in the United States, making the country a party to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886. • April 23 – Leading figures of the theatre mark William Shakespeare's birthday with a street party to oppose the destruction of the recently discovered archaeological remains of the English Renaissance Rose Theatre and Globe theatres in London. • October – The National Library of Norway is established, with a new building at Mo i Rana. • December 29 – Playwright Václav Havel becomes President of Czechoslovakia. ==New books==

Fiction • Hanan al-Shaykh – Women of Sand and Myrrh (Misk al–ghazal) • Martin Amis – London Fields • Piers Anthony – Total Recall • Iain Banks – Canal Dreams • John Banville – The Book of Evidence • Clive Barker – The Great and Secret Show • Julian Barnes – A History of the World in 10½ Chapters • Thomas Berger – Changing the Past • Larry Bond – Red Phoenix • Larry Brown – Dirty Work • Anthony Burgess – Any Old Iron • Nick Cave – And the Ass Saw the Angel • Tom Clancy – Clear and Present Danger • Mary Higgins Clark – While My Pretty One Sleeps • Hugh Cook – The Wicked and the Witless • Bernard Cornwell • ''Sharpe's Revenge'' • Sea Lord (aka ''Killer's Wake'') • Bryce Courtenay – The Power of One • Robert Crais – Stalking the Angel • Lindsey Davis – The Silver Pigs • L. Sprague de Camp • The Honorable Barbarian • (with Fletcher Pratt) – The Complete Compleat Enchanter • E. L. Doctorow – Billy Bathgate • Katherine Dunn – Geek Love • Umberto Eco – ''Foucault's Pendulum'' • George Alec Effinger – A Fire in the Sun • Mircea Eliade (died 1986) – Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent (Romanul adolescentului miop) (written 1921–1925) • Ben Elton – Stark • Steve Erickson – Tours of the Black Clock • Laura Esquivel – Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate) • Robert Fisher - The Knight in Rusty Armor • Ken Follett – The Pillars of the Earth • Frederick Forsyth – The Negotiator • Jon Fosse – Naustet (Boathouse) • Gabriel García Márquez – The General in His Labyrinth (El general en su laberinto) • John Gardner • Licence to Kill • Win, Lose or Die • Charles Gill – The Boozer Challenge • John Grisham – A Time to Kill • A. M. Homes – Jack • Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter – The Conan Chronicles • John Irving – A Prayer for Owen Meany • Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day • Fleur Jaeggy – :it:I beati anni del castigo (Sweet Days of Discipline) • Randall Kenan – A Visitation of Spirits • Elias Khoury – رحلة غاندي الصغير (Rihlat Ghandi al-saghir, The Journey of Little Gandhi) • Stephen King – The Dark Half • László Krasznahorkai – The Melancholy of Resistance (Az ellenállás melankóliája) • Joe R. Lansdale • Cold in July • By Bizarre Hands • John le Carré – The Russia House • H. P. Lovecraft – The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions (corrected edition) • Hilary Mantel – Fludd • Javier Marías – Todas las almas (All Souls) • James A. Michener – Six Days in Havana • Hanna Mina – The End of a Brave Man (Nihayat Rajul Shujaa) • Bharati Mukherjee – Jasmine • Larry Niven – The Legacy of Heorot • Joyce Carol Oates – American Appetites • Robert B. Parker – Playmates • Ellis Peters • ''The Heretic's Apprentice'' • ''The Potter's Field'' • Giuseppe Pontiggia – La grande sera • Terry Pratchett • Guards! Guards! • Pyramids • Paul Quarrington – Whale Music • Mordecai Richler – Solomon Gursky Was Here • Giampaolo Rugarli – Il nido di ghiaccio • José Saramago – The History of the Siege of Lisbon • Sidney Sheldon – The Sands of Time • Dan Simmons – Hyperion • John Skipp and Craig Spector – Book of the Dead • Danielle Steel • Daddy • Star • Bruce Sterling – Crystal Express • Alexander Stuart – The War Zone • Amy Tan – The Joy Luck Club • Shashi Tharoor – The Great Indian Novel • Rose Tremain – Restoration • Jane Vandenburgh – Failure to Zig-Zag • Andrew Vachss – Hard Candy • Alice Walker – The Temple of My Familiar • Robert McLiam Wilson – Ripley Bogle • Roger Zelazny • Frost & Fire (short stories and essays) • Knight of Shadows • Barbara Kingsolver - The Bean Trees Children and young people • Verna Aardema – Rabbit Makes a Monkey of Lion • Joyce Barkhouse – Pit Pony • Bruce Coville – My Teacher Is an Alien • Anne Fine • ''Bill's New Frock'' • Goggle-Eyes • Mark Helprin (with Chris Van Allsburg) – Swan Lake • Yoshi Kogo – Big Al • Norman Maclean (with Barry Moser) – A River Runs Through It • Bill Martin Jr. (with Lois Ehlert) – Chicka Chicka Boom Boom • David McKee – Elmer • Jim Murphy – The Call Of The Wolves • Bill Peet – Bill Peet: An Autobiography • Robert D. San Souci – The Talking Eggs: A Folktale from the American South • Jon Scieszka (with Lane Smith) – The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! • R. L. Stine – The New Girl (first in the Fear Street series of 55 books) • Christopher Tolkien (with J. R. R. Tolkien and Alan Lee) – The Treason of Isengard • Hélène Desputeaux – Caillou • Michael Rosen – ''We're Going on a Bear Hunt'' Drama • Herman Brusselmans and Tom Lanoye – De Canadese muur (The Canadian Wall) • Jim Cartwright – Two • Nick Darke – Kissing the Pope (original title: Campesinos) • Michael Wall – Amongst Barbarians • Keith Waterhouse – Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell Poetry • Simon Armitage – Zoom! • Paul Fleischman – Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices • David Lehman – The Best American Poetry 1989 Non-fiction • Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg – Angst und Vorurteil • Bill Bryson – The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America • Rodney Cotterill – No Ghost in the Machine: Modern Science and the Brain, the Mind, and the Soul • Stephen R. Covey – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People • Bruno Dagens – Angkor: Heart of an Asian Empire • William Dalrymple – In Xanadu: A Quest • Cynthia Enloe – Bananas, Beaches and Bases • Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon – Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony • Rüdiger Imhof – John Banville: A Critical Introduction, the first full-length appraisal of the work of major turn of the century writer John Banville. • Tim Jeal – Baden-Powell • Pauline Kael – Hooked • Bob Kane and Tom Andrae – Batman and Me • John Keegan – The Face of Battle • Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson – And Their Children After Them • Peter Mayle – A Year in Provence • Claudia Moatti – The Search for Ancient Rome • Ann Moir and David Jessel – Brain Sex • New Revised Standard Version of the Bible • Michael Palin – Around the World in 80 Days • Harold Perkin – The Rise of Professional Society. England Since 1880 • Gilda Radner – ''It's Always Something'' • Peter Sloterdijk – Infinite Mobilization (Eurotaoismus) • Dan Topolski and Patrick Robinson – True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny • V. Vale and Andrea Juno – Modern Primitives • Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett – The Andy Warhol Diaries • Jeremy Wilson – Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T. E. Lawrence • Bob Wood – Big Ten Country ==Births==

• August 26 - Sara Raasch, American young-adult fiction writer ==Deaths==

• January 4 – Srikrishna Alanahalli, Indian novelist and poet (born 1947) • January 8 – Bruce Chatwin, English travel writer and novelist (born 1940) • February 3 – John Cassavetes, American actor, director and writer (born 1929) • February 12 – Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author (born 1931) • February 21 – Denys Corley Smith, English author and journalist (born 1922) • March 14 – Edward Abbey, American essayist (born 1927) • March 27 – Malcolm Cowley, American novelist and poet (born 1898) • April 14 – Laurence Meynell (Valerie Baxter, A. Stephen Tring), English novelist and children's writer (born 1899) • April 19 – Daphne du Maurier, English novelist (born 1907) • May 19 – C. L. R. James, Trinidad-born American journalist (born 1901) • May 20 – Erzsébet Galgóczi, Hungarian novelist, playwright and screenwriter (born 1930) • July 31 – Zhou Yang, Chinese literary theorist (born 1908) • August 23 – R. D. Laing, Scottish psychologist and author (born 1927) • August 26 – Irving Stone, American novelist (born 1903) • September 4 • Georges Simenon, Belgian novelist and crime writer (born 1903) • Sir Ronald Syme, New Zealand classicist (born 1903) • September 13 – Acharya Aatreya, Telugu screenwriter (born 1921) • September 15 – Robert Penn Warren, American poet and novelist (born 1905) • September 30 • Horace Alexander, English current-affairs writer and ornithologist (born 1909) • Oskar Davičo, Serbian novelist and poet (born 1909) • October 13 – Cesare Zavattini, Italian screenwriter (born 1902) • November 22 – José Guadalupe Cruz, Mexican comics writer (born 1917) • December 5 – George Selden (Terry Andrews), American children's author (gastrointestinal bleeding, born 1929) • December 19 – Stella Gibbons, English novelist (born 1902) • December 22 – Samuel Beckett, Irish-born playwright, novelist and poet (born 1906) • December 26 – Paul Jennings, English humorist (born 1918) ==Awards==

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Camilo José Cela • Europe Theatre Prize: Peter Brook • Camões Prize (first award): Miguel Torga Australia • The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Mandy Sayer, Mood Indigo • C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Gwen Harwood, Bone Scan • Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: John Tranter, Under Berlin • Mary Gilmore Prize: Alex Skovron, The Re-arrangement • Miles Franklin Award: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda Canada • See 1989 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. France • Prix Goncourt: Jean Vautrin, Un grand Pas vers le Bon Dieu • Prix Décembre: Guy Dupré, ''Les Manœuvres d'automne'' • Prix Médicis French: Serge Doubrovsky, Le Livre brisé • Prix Médicis International: Alvaro Mutis, ''La Neige de l'amiral'' United Kingdom • Booker Prize: Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day • Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Anne Fine, Goggle-Eyes • Cholmondeley Award: Peter Didsbury, Douglas Dunn, E. J. Scovell • Eric Gregory Award: Gerard Woodward, David Morley, Katrina Porteous, Paul Henry • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: James Kelman, A Disaffection • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Ian Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca: A Life • Newdigate prize: Jane Griffiths • Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Allen Curnow • Whitbread Best Book Award: Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Early Visions • The Sunday Express Book of the Year: Rose Tremain, Restoration United States • Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Nancy Vieira Couto, The Face in the Water • Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Anthony Hecht • American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction, Isaac Bashevis Singer • Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Jorie Graham, "Spring" • Compton Crook Award: Elizabeth Moon, ''Sheepfarmer's Daughter'' • Frost Medal: Gwendolyn Brooks • National Book Critics Circle Award: to The Broken Cord by Michael Dorris • National Book Award for Fiction: to Spartina by John Casey • Nebula Award: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, ''The Healer's War'' • Newbery Medal for children's literature: Paul Fleischman, Joyful Noise • PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter • Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Wendy Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles • Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Anne Tyler – Breathing Lessons • Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Richard Wilbur: New and Collected Poems • Whiting Awards: :Fiction: Ellen Akins, Marianne Wiggins :Nonfiction: Ian Frazier, Natalie Kusz, Lucy Sante, Tobias Wolff (nonfiction/fiction) :Plays: Timberlake Wertenbaker :Poetry: Russell Edson, Mary Karr, C.D. Wright Japan • Falcon Award (Maltese Falcon Society of Japan): Andrew Vachss for Strega • The Japan Fantasy Novel Award is established, with Ken'ichi Sakemi winning with his novel Kōkyū Shōsetsu. Elsewhere • Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Václav Havel ==References==