1992 in literature

• July – The Goosebumps series of children's horror fiction, penned by R. L. Stine, is first published in the United States. • 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. ==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 – ''Cat's Cradle: Warhead'' • 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 (Terra Sonâmbula) • Robert Crais – Lullaby Town • L. Sprague de Camp and Christopher Stasheff – The Enchanter Reborn • Clarissa Pinkola Estés – Women Who Run with the Wolves • Elena Ferrante – Troubling Love (''L'amore molesto'' • Tibor Fischer – Under the Frog • Leon Forrest – Divine Days • John Gardner – Death Is Forever • Neil Gaiman – The Sandman: Season of Mists (graphic novel; volume 4 of The Sandman series) • Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean – Signal to Noise (graphic novel) • 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 (The Tea Lords) • Victor Headley – Yardie • Andrew Hunt – ''Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark'' • Simon Ings – Hot Head • P. D. James – The Children of Men • Denis Johnson – ''Jesus' Son'' (short story collection) • John Kessel – Meeting in Infinity • Stephen King • Dolores Claiborne • ''Gerald's Game'' • Patrick McCabe – The Butcher Boy • Cormac McCarthy – All the Pretty Horses (book 1 of The Border Trilogy) • Val McDermid – Dead Beat • Ian McEwan – Black Dogs • Terry McMillan – Waiting to Exhale • Javier Marías – A Heart So White (Corazón tan blanco) • 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 – ''Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible'' • 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 (Die Ausgewanderten: Vier lange Erzählungen) • 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 • John Updike – Memories of the Ford Administration • Gore Vidal – Live from Golgotha: The Gospel According to 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 (The last day of the world) • Misterios de las noches y los días (Mysteries of the nights and days; short stories) 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 (first in the Surya trilogy) • Rumer Godden • ''Great Grandfather's House'' • Listen to the Nightingale • Virginia Hamilton (with Jerry Pinkney) – Drylongso • Gordon Korman – The Twinkie Squad • William Mayne – Low Tide • Gerald McDermott – Zomo The Rabbit: A Trickster Tale From West Africa • Hilary McKay – The Exiles • Michael Morpurgo – Waiting for Anya • Barry Moser – Polly Vaughn: A Traditional British Ballad • Jim Murphy – The Long Road to Gettysburg • Barbara Park – Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus (first in the Junie B. Jones series) • Marcus Pfister – The Rainbow Fish (Der Regenbogenfisch) • Gloria Jean Pinkney (with Jerry Pinkney) – Back Home • Marjorie W. Sharmat (with Marc Simont) – Nate the Great and the Stolen Base • Ulf Stark – Can You Whistle, Johanna? (Kan du vissla Johanna?) • Christopher Tolkien (with J. R. R. Tolkien and Alan Lee) – Sauron Defeated • Judith Vigna – Black Like Kyra, White Like Me • Martin Waddell – Owl Babies • Nancy Willard (with Barry Moser) – Beauty and the Beast • Douglas Wood – Old Turtle • Susan Meddaugh – Martha Speaks Drama • Herb Gardner – Conversations with My Father • Peter Handke – Die Stunde, da wir nichts voneinander wußten (The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other) • David Mamet – Oleanna • Louis Nowra – Così • Zlatko Topčić – Musa And The Goat (radio version) • Michael Wall – Women Laughing • Peter Whelan – The School of Night 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 • Nick Hornby – Fever Pitch • Charles Jennings – Up North • Neil Lyndon – No More Sex War: The Failures of Feminism • 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) • 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) • 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) • George MacBeth, Scottish poet and novelist (motor neurone disease, born 1932) • April 4 – Vintilă Horia, Romanian writer (born 1915) • April 6 – Isaac Asimov, American science fiction author (born 1920) • April 21 – Väinö Linna, Finnish novelist (born 1920) • 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) • Rosemary Sutcliff, English children's historical novelist (born 1902) • August 4 – Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese mystery writer and journalist (born 1909) • 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) • 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==

• Nobel Prize in 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, Nitassinan: 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 (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 • Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Amos Oz • Premio Nadal: Alejandro Gándara, Ciegas esperanzas ==References==