1991 in literature

The year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation.
• The body of novelist Alain-Fournier is identified, 77 years after his death in World War I, and is interred at Saint-Remy-la-Calonne.

New books

• Martin Amis - Time's Arrow, or The Nature of the Offense
• Jeffrey Archer - As the Crow Flies
• Beryl Bainbridge - The Birthday Boys
• Clive Barker - Imajica
• Pat Barker - Regeneration
• Louis Begley - Wartime Lies
• Louis de Bernieres - Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord
• A. S. Byatt - Possession: A Romance
• Tom Clancy - The Sum of All Fears
• Mary Higgins Clark - Loves Music, Loves to Dance
• Hugh Cook - The Werewolf and the Wormlord
• Paul Cornell - Timewyrm: Revelation
• Bernard Cornwell - Stormchild
• Douglas Coupland - Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
• L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp - The Pixilated Peeress
• Don DeLillo - Mao II
• Terrance Dicks - Timewyrm: Exodus
• Stephen R. Donaldson - The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story
• Stephen R. Donaldson - The Gap into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge
• Roddy Doyle - The Van
• Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho
• Stephen Fry - The Liar
• Jostein Gaarder - Sophie's World (Sofies verden)
• John Gardner - The Man from Barbarossa
• David Gates - Jernigan
• Ann Granger - Say It With Poison
• John Grisham - The Firm
• Josephine Hart - Damage
• Elisabeth Harvor, Our Lady of All Distances 11 stories (revision of Women and Children, published in 1973), Canada
• Mark Jacobson - Gojiro
• John le Carré - The Secret Pilgrim
• Morgan Llywelyn - Druids
• James A. Michener - Mexico
• Rohinton Mistry - Such a Long Journey
• Timothy Mo - The Redundancy of Courage
• John Peel - Timewyrm: Genesys
• Marge Piercy - He, She and It
• Terry Pratchett - Reaper Man and Witches Abroad
• Alexandra Ripley - Scarlett
• Nigel Robinson - Timewyrm: Apocalypse
• Bernice Rubens - A Solitary Grief
• Michael Shaara - For Love of the Game (posthumously published)
• Sidney Sheldon - The Doomsday Conspiracy
• Jane Smiley - A Thousand Acres
• Danielle Steel - Heartbeat
• James B. Stewart - Den of Thieves
• Michael Swanwick - Gravity's Angels
• Amy Tan - The Kitchen God's Wife
• Andrew Vachss - Sacrifice
• Bernard Werber - Empire of the Ants (in orig. French Les Fourmis)
• Tim Winton - Cloudstreet
• Helen Zahavi - Dirty Weekend
• Timothy Zahn - Heir to the Empire
• Haifa Zangana - Through the Vast Halls of Memory
• Roger Zelazny - Prince of Chaos

New drama

• Ariel Dorfman - Death and the Maiden
• Philip Ridley - The Pitchfork Disney
• Neil Simon - Lost in Yonkers

Non-fiction

• Henry Steele Commager - Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples, arranged for one volume
• Dave Foreman - Confessions of an Eco-Warrior
• Madonna - SEX
• Robert K. Massie - Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War
• Thomas Pakenham - The Scramble for Africa
• John Richardson - A Life of Picasso
• Simon Schama - Dead Certainties
• Naomi Wolf - The Beauty Myth
• Zhang Chengzhi - History of the Soul

Poetry

Births

Rachel McAteer, 9th of May 1991

Deaths

• January 22 - Robert Choquette, Canadian novelist and poet
• January 23 - Northrop Frye, literary critic
• January 29 - Yasushi Inoue, historian
• February 24 - John Daly, journalist, game show host
• March - Paul Engle, novelist
• April 3 - Graham Greene
• April 12 - James Schuyler, poet
• April 29 - Claude Gallimard, French publishing magnate
• July 24 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
• September 24 - Dr. Seuss
• October 11 - Steven Jesse Bernstein, performance poet
• October 12 - Arkady Strugatsky, Russian science fiction writer
• October 27 - George Barker, poet
• November 29 - Frank Yerby, historical novelist
• date unknown - Dante Milano, poet

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Nadine Gordimer

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Andrew McGahan, Praise
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Jennifer Maiden, The Winter Baby
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Jennifer Maiden, The Winter Baby
• Mary Gilmore Prize: Jean Kent - Verandahs

Canada

• See 1991 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

• Prix Goncourt: Pierre Combescot, Les Filles du Calvaire
• Prix Décembre: Raphaël Confiant, Eau de café
• Prix Médicis: Pierre Simon, La Dérive des sentiments

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
• Cholmondeley Award: James Berry, Sujata Bhatt, Michael Hulse, Derek Mahon
• Eric Gregory Award: Roddy Lumsden, Glyn Maxwell, Stephen Smith, Wayne Burrows, Jackie Kay
• Guardian Fiction Award: Alan Judd, The Devil's Own Work
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Iain Sinclair, Downriver
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Judith Wright
• Whitbread Best Book Award: John Richardson, A Life of Picasso
• The Sunday Express Book of the Year: Michael Frayn, A Landing on the Sun

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Julia Kasdorf, Sleeping Preacher
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: John Frederick Nims
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Donald Hall, Museum of Clear Ideas
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, Richard Wilbur
• Compton Crook Award: Michael Flynn, In the country of the Blind
• Frost Medal: Donald Hall
• Nebula Award: Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Jerry Spinelli, Maniac Magee
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Neil Simon, Lost in Yonkers
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: John Updike: Rabbit At Rest
• Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction: Edward O. Wilson: The Ants
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Mona Van Duyn: Near Changes

Elsewhere

• Premio Nadal: Alfredo Conde Cid, Los otros días