This article contains information about the literary events and publications of1986.

• April 29 – A major fire atLos Angeles Public Library caused byarson destroys 400,000 volumes.^[1]
• July 21 –Michael Grade, Controller ofBBC1, axes plans to televiseIan Curteis'sThe Falklands Play.^[2]
• September 29 –Bloomsbury Publishing is set up in London byNigel Newton.^[3]
• October 9 –The Phantom of the Opera, having been the longest running Broadway show ever, opens atHer Majesty's Theatre in London.
• December 19 – The Soviet dissident authorAndrei Sakharov is allowed to return to Moscow after six years' internal exile.

• Kingsley Amis –The Old Devils
• V. C. Andrews –Garden of Shadows
• Piers Anthony –Ghost
• Jeffrey Archer –A Matter of Honour
• James Axler –Pilgrimage to Hell andRed Holocaust
• Iain Banks –The Bridge
• Thomas Bernhard –Extinction
• Orson Scott Card –Speaker for the Dead
• Tom Clancy –Red Storm Rising
• Arthur C. Clarke –The Songs of Distant Earth^[4]
• James Clavell –Whirlwind
• Jackie Collins –Hollywood Husbands
• Pat Conroy –The Prince of Tides
• Bernard Cornwell –Sharpe's Regiment
• Marguerite Duras –Blue Eyes, Black Hair
• James Ellroy –Silent Terror
• Peter Fox –Downtime
• John Gardner –Nobody Lives For Ever
• Peter Handke –Repetition
• Ernest Hemingway -The Garden of Eden
• Carl Hiaasen –Tourist Season
• Kazuo Ishiguro –An Artist of the Floating World
• Brian Jacques –Redwall
• Stephen King –It
• Judith Krantz –I'll Take Manhattan
• Louis L'Amour –Last of the Breed
• Joe R. Lansdale –Dead in the West
• John le Carré –A Perfect Spy
• David Leavitt –The Lost Language of Cranes
• Tanith Lee –Dreams of Dark and Light: The Great Short Fiction of Tanith Lee
• Gordon Lish –Dear Mr. Capote
• H. P. Lovecraft –Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (corrected edition)
• Robert Ludlum –The Bourne Supremacy
• Amin Maalouf –Leo Africanus
• Allan Massie –Augustus (first in the Roman series)
• Frank Miller –Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (graphic novel)
• Robert Munsch –Love You Forever
• Patrick O'Brian –The Reverse of the Medal
• Ellis Peters
  • The Raven in the Foregate^[5]
  • The Rose Rent^[5]
• Terry Pratchett –The Light Fantastic
• Reynolds Price –Kate Vaiden
• Jean Raspail –Who Will Remember the People...
• Idries Shah –Kara Kush
• Danielle Steel –Wanderlust
• Peter Taylor –A Summons to Memphis
• James Tiptree, Jr. –Tales of the Quintana Roo
• Vladimir Voinovich –Moscow 2042^[6]
• Roger Zelazny –Blood of Amber

• Janet and Allan Ahlberg –The Jolly Postman
• Chris Van Allsburg –The Stranger
• Tony Bradman –Dilly the Dinosaur (first in the eponymous series of 22 books)
• Steven Brust (withAlan Lee) –Brokedown Palace
• Robert J. Burch –Queenie Peavy
• Joy Cowley
  • (with Jan van der Voo) –Turnips For Dinner
  • (with Martin Bailey) –The King's Pudding
• Crescent Dragonwagon –Half a Moon and One Whole Star
• Jill Eggleton (with Kelvin Hawley) –Cat and Mouse
• Berniece T. Hiser –The Adventure of Charlie and His Wheat-Straw Hat
• Diana Wynne Jones –Howl's Moving Castle
• Michael de Larrabeiti
  • The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis
  • The Provençal Tales
• Arnold Lobel –The Random House Book of Mother Goose (in verse)
• Patricia McKissack –Flossie & the Fox
• Robert Munsch –Love You Forever
• Jill Murphy –Five Minutes' Peace (first inThe Large Family series)
• Jenny Nimmo –The Snow Spider (first inThe Magician Trilogy)
• Bill Peet –Zella, Zack, and Zodiac
• Claude Ponti –Adele's Album
• Alison Prince –The Type One Super Robot
• Gillian Rubinstein –Space Demons

• Caryl Churchill andDavid Lan –A Mouthful of Birds^[7]
• Nick Darke –The Dead Monkey
• Tomson Highway –The Rez Sisters
• Chinu Modi –Ashwamedh
• Willy Russell –Shirley Valentine^[8]
• Arvo Salo –Vallan miehet^[9]
• Tom Stoppard –Dalliance (based on a work byArthur Schnitzler)

• Kama Sywor Kamanda –Chants de brumes (Songs of twilight)

• Dave Stieb (with Kevin Boland) -Tomorrow I'll be Perfect
• Martin Amis –The Moronic Inferno: And Other Visits to America
• Bernard Bailyn –Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution
• Frank Barlow –Thomas Becket
• Marjorie Chibnall –Anglo-Norman England 1066–1166
• Richard Dawkins –The Blind Watchmaker
• Karlheinz Deschner –Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums (Criminal History of Christianity)
• Adrian Edmondson et al. –How to be a Complete Bastard
• Sita Ram Goel –History of Hindu–Christian Encounters, AD 304 to 1996
• Temple Grandin (with Margaret Scariano) –Emergence: Labeled Autistic
• Patience Gray –Honey from a Weed (cookery)
• Robert Irwin –The Middle East in the Middle Ages: The Early Mamlúk Sultanate 1250–1382
• Kumari Jayawardena –Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World
• Mark Mathabane –Kaffir Boy
• Farley Mowat –My Discovery of America
• Harvey Pekar –American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar (graphic autobiography)
• Marc Reisner –Cadillac Desert
• Richard Rhodes –The Making of the Atomic Bomb
• Jonathan Riley-Smith –The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading
• Roger Scruton –Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation
• Art Spiegelman –Maus: A Survivor's Tale (I: My Father Bleeds History) (graphic biography/autobiography)
• Jean Vercoutter –The Search for Ancient Egypt
• Mary Wilson –Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme

• January 24 -Aimee Carter, American young-adult fiction writer
• June 6 -Rachelle Dekker, American science-fiction writer
• July 3 –Chris Bush, English playwright, artistic director and comedian
• unknown dates
  • Caroline Bird, English poet and dramatist^[10]
  • Chigozie Obioma, Nigerian novelist

• January 1 –Lord David Cecil, English critic and biographer (born1902)^[11]
• January 4 –Christopher Isherwood, English-born novelist (born1904)
• January 7
  • P. D. Eastman, American author and illustrator (born1909)
  • Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer (born1917)
• January 9 –W. S. Graham, Scottish poet (born1918)
• January 24 –L. Ron Hubbard, American science fiction writer, founder ofScientology (born1911)
• January 26 –Nicholas Moore, English poet (born1911)
• February 4 –Phyllis Shand Allfrey,Dominican writer (born1908)
• February 9 –Dora Oake Russell, Newfoundland writer, diarist and journalist (born1912)
• February 11 –Frank Herbert, American science fiction novelist (born1920)
• February 27 –Nancy Brysson Morrison, Scottish novelist (born1903)
• February 28 –Edith Ditmas, English archivist, historian and writer (born1896)
• March 4
  • Ding Ling, Chinese fiction writer (born1904)
  • Elizabeth Smart, Canadian poet and novelist (born1913)
• March 15 –Pandelis Prevelakis, Greek novelist, poet, dramatist and essayist (born1909)
• March 18 –Bernard Malamud, American novelist (born1914)
• April 12 –Valentin Kataev, Russian novelist and dramatist (born1897)
• April 14
  • Simone de Beauvoir, French philosopher and feminist writer (born1908)
  • Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist and political activist (born1910)
• April 17 –Bessie Head, Botswanan fiction writer (born1937)
• April 22 –Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian, philosopher and novelist (born1907)
• May 15 –Theodore H. White, American journalist, historian and novelist (born1915)
• June 14 –Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (born1899)
• July 16 –Stephen Coulter, English writer (born1914)
• August 1 –Lena Kennedy, English romantic novelist (born1914)
• August 3 –Beryl Markham, English-born Kenyan aviator and author (born1902)
• August 18 –Vivian Stuart, English novelist (born1914)
• August 20 –Milton Acorn, Canadian poet, writer and playwright (born1923)
• September 11 –Noel Streatfeild, English novelist and children's writer (born1895)^[12]
• October 28 –John Braine, English novelist (born1922)
• December 17 –J. F. Hendry, Scottish poet (born1912)
• December 19 –V. C. Andrews, American novelist (born1923)
• December 28 –John D. MacDonald, American novelist and short story writer (born1916)

• Nobel Prize for Literature:Wole Soyinka

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award:Robin Walton,Glace Fruits
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry:Rhyll McMaster,Washing the Money andJohn A. Scott,St. Clair
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry:Robert GraySelected Poems 1963–83
• Mary Gilmore Prize:Stephen Williams,A Crowd of Voices
• Miles Franklin Award:Elizabeth Jolley,The Well

• See1986 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

• Prix Goncourt:Michel Host,Valet de nuit
• Prix Médicis French:Pierre Combescot,Les Funérailles de la Sardine
• Prix Médicis International:John Hawkes,Aventures dans le commerce des peaux en Alaska

• Booker Prize:Kingsley Amis,The Old Devils
• Carnegie Medal forchildren's literature:Berlie Doherty,Granny Was a Buffer Girl
• Cholmondeley Award:Lawrence Durrell,James Fenton,Selima Hill
• Eric Gregory Award:Mick North,Lachlan Mackinnon,Oliver Reynolds,Stephen Romer
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction:Jenny Joseph,Persephone
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography:D. Felicitas Corrigan,Helen Waddell
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry:Norman MacCaig
• Whitbread Best Book Award:Kazuo Ishiguro,An Artist of the Floating World

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize:Robley Wilson,Kingdoms of the Ordinary
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama:Sidney Kingsley
• Frost Medal:Allen Ginsberg /Richard Eberhart
• Nebula Award:Orson Scott Card,Speaker For the Dead
• Newbery Medal forchildren's literature:Patricia MacLachlan,Sarah, Plain and Tall
• Prometheus Award:Robert Shea andRobert Anton Wilson,The Illuminatus! Trilogy
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama:no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction:Larry McMurtry,Lonesome Dove
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry:Henry Taylor,The Flying Change
• Whiting Awards: Fiction:Kent Haruf,Denis Johnson,Padgett Powell,Mona Simpson; Poetry:John Ash,Hayden Carruth,Frank Stewart,Ruth Stone; Nonfiction:Darryl Pinckney (nonfiction/fiction); Plays:August Wilson

• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels:Władysław Bartoszewski
• Premio Nadal:Manuel Vicent,Balada de Caín

• 1986 in literature
• Years of the 20th century in literature

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