This article contains information about the literary events and publications of1989.

• February 14 –AyatollahRuhollah Khomeini,Supreme Leader of Iran (died 3 June 1989), issues afatwa calling for the death of Indian-born British authorSalman Rushdie and his publishers for issuing the novelThe Satanic Verses (1988). On February 24Iran places a US $3 million bounty on Rushdie's head.^[1] 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.^[2]
• March 1 – TheBerne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 comes into effect in theUnited States, making the country a party to theBerne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of1886.
• April 23 – Leading figures of the theatre markWilliam Shakespeare's birthday with a street party to oppose the destruction of the recently discovered archaeological remains of the English RenaissanceRose Theatre andGlobe theatres inLondon.^[3]
• October – TheNational Library of Norway is established, with a new building atMo i Rana.^[4]
• December 29 – PlaywrightVáclav Havel becomesPresident of Czechoslovakia.

• 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 (akaKiller'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
  • (withFletcher 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)
• 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 andLin 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 andCraig 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

• 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 (withChris Van Allsburg) –Swan Lake
• Yoshi Kogo –Big Al
• Norman Maclean (withBarry Moser) –A River Runs Through It
• Bill Martin Jr. (withLois 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 (withLane Smith) –The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!
• R. L. Stine –The New Girl (first in theFear Street series of 55 books)
• Christopher Tolkien (withJ. R. R. Tolkien andAlan Lee) –The Treason of Isengard
• Hélène Desputeaux –Caillou
• Michael Rosen –We're Going on a Bear Hunt

• Herman Brusselmans andTom 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

• Simon Armitage –Zoom!
• Paul Fleischman –Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
• David Lehman –The Best American Poetry 1989

• 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 andWilliam Willimon –Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony
• Rüdiger Imhof –John Banville: A Critical Introduction, the first full-length appraisal of the work of majorturn of the century writerJohn Banville.^[5][6]
• Tim Jeal –Baden-Powell
• Pauline Kael –Hooked
• Bob Kane and Tom Andrae –Batman and Me
• John Keegan –The Face of Battle
• Dale Maharidge andMichael 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 theBible
• 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 andPatrick 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

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

• January 4 –Srikrishna Alanahalli, Indian novelist and poet (born1947)
• January 8 –Bruce Chatwin, English travel writer and novelist (born1940)
• February 3 –John Cassavetes, American actor, director and writer (born1929)
• February 12 –Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author (born1931)
• February 21 –Denys Corley Smith, English author and journalist (born1922)
• March 14 –Edward Abbey, American essayist (born1927)
• March 27 –Malcolm Cowley, American novelist and poet (born1898)
• April 14 –Laurence Meynell (Valerie Baxter, A. Stephen Tring), English novelist and children's writer (born1899)
• April 19 –Daphne du Maurier, English novelist (born1907)
• May 19 –C. L. R. James, Trinidad-born American journalist (born1901)
• May 20 –Erzsébet Galgóczi, Hungarian novelist, playwright and screenwriter (born1930)
• July 31 –Zhou Yang, Chinese literary theorist (born1908)
• August 23 –R. D. Laing, Scottish psychologist and author (born1927)
• August 26 –Irving Stone, American novelist (born1903)
• September 4
  • Georges Simenon, Belgian novelist and crime writer (born1903)
  • SirRonald Syme, New Zealand classicist (born1903)
• September 13 –Acharya Aatreya, Telugu screenwriter (born1921)
• September 15 –Robert Penn Warren, American poet and novelist (born1905)
• September 30
  • Horace Alexander, English current-affairs writer and ornithologist (born1909)
  • Oskar Davičo, Serbian novelist and poet (born1909)
• October 13 –Cesare Zavattini, Italian screenwriter (born1902)
• November 22 –José Guadalupe Cruz, Mexican comics writer (born1917)
• December 5 –George Selden (Terry Andrews), American children's author (gastrointestinal bleeding, born1929)^[7]
• December 19 –Stella Gibbons, English novelist (born1902)
• December 22 –Samuel Beckett, Irish-born playwright, novelist and poet (born1906)
• December 26 –Paul Jennings, English humorist (born1918)

• Nobel Prize for Literature:Camilo José Cela
• Europe Theatre Prize:Peter Brook
• Camões Prize (first award):Miguel Torga

• 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

• See1989 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

• 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

• Booker Prize:Kazuo Ishiguro –The Remains of the Day
• Carnegie Medal forchildren'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

• 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 byMichael Dorris
• National Book Award for Fiction: to Spartina byJohn Casey
• Nebula Award:Elizabeth Ann Scarborough,The Healer's War
• Newbery Medal forchildren's literature:Paul Fleischman,Joyful Noise
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Dusk and Other Stories byJames Salter
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama:Wendy Wasserstein,The Heidi Chronicles
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction:Anne Tyler –Breathing Lessons^[8]
• 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

• Falcon Award (Maltese Falcon Society of Japan):Andrew Vachss forStrega
• TheJapan Fantasy Novel Award is established, withKen'ichi Sakemi winning with his novelKōkyū Shōsetsu.

• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels:Václav Havel

• 1989 in literature
• Years of the 20th century in literature

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