1994 in literature

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

The year 1994 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• The first Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction is awarded.

New books

• Kevin J. Anderson - Champions of the Force, Dark Apprentice and Jedi Search
• Reed Arvin - The Wind in the Wheat
• Greg Bear - Songs of Earth and Power
• Thomas Berger - Robert Crews
• Louis de Bernières - Captain Corelli's Mandolin
• Lily Brett - Just Like That
• George Mackay Brown - Beside the Ocean of Time
• Christopher Bulis - State of Change
• James Chapman - Glass (Pray the Electrons Back to Sand)
• Tom Clancy - The Debt of Honor
• Michael Connelly - The Concrete Blonde
• Paul Cornell - Goth Opera and No Future
• Bernard Cornwell - Copperhead
• Douglas Coupland - Life After God
• Michael Crichton - Disclosure
• Terrance Dicks - Blood Harvest
• Stephen R. Donaldson - The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order
• Bret Easton Ellis - The Informers
• Valerio Evangelisti - Nicolas Eymerich, inquisitore
• David Frum - Dead Right
• John Gardner - SeaFire
• James Finn Garner - Politically Correct Bedtime Stories
• David S. Garnett - Stargonauts
• Mark Gatiss - St Anthony's Fire
• Judith Godrèche - Point de côté
• John Grisham - The Chamber
• Romesh Gunesekera - Reef
• James Herbert - The Ghosts of Sleath
• Craig Hinton - The Crystal Bucephalus
• Alan Hollinghurst - The Folding Star
• Nancy Huston - La Virevolte
• Alexander Jablokov - The Breath of Suspension
• James Kelman - How late it was, how late
• Stephen King - Insomnia'
• Dean R. Koontz - Dark Rivers of the Heart
• Andy Lane - All-Consuming Fire
• Madeleine L'Engle - Troubling a Star
• Paul Leonard - Venusian Lullaby
• Jonathan Lethem - Gun, with Occasional Music
• H. P. Lovecraft - Miscellaneous Writings
• Steve Lyons - Conundrum
• F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre - The Woman Between the Worlds
• David A. McIntee - First Frontier
• Simon Messingham - Strange England
• James A. Michener - Creatures of the Kingdom and Recessional
• Rick Moody - The Ice Storm
• Jim Mortimore - Parasite
• Tim O'Brien - In the Lake of the Woods
• Daniel O'Mahony - Falls the Shadow
• John Peel - Evolution
• Terry Pratchett - Interesting Times and Soul Music
• James Redfield - The Celestine Prophecy
• Matthew Reilly - Contest
• Justin Richards - Theatre of War
• Gareth Roberts - Tragedy Day
• Gary Russell - Legacy
• Sidney Sheldon - Nothing Lasts Forever
• Carol Shields - The Stone Diaries
• Michael Slade - Ripper
• S. P. Somtow - Jasmine Nights
• Danielle Steel - Accident, The Gift and Wings
• William Trevor - Felicia's Journey
• Shiham Turjuman - Daughter of Damascus
• Andrew Vachss - Down in the Zero
• Jill Paton Walsh - Knowledge of Angels
• Binod Bihari Verma - Balanak Bonihar O Pallavi

New drama

• Kevin Elyot - My Night With Reg
• Arthur Miller - Broken Glass

Poetry

• Sophie Cabot Black - The Misunderstanding of Nature

Non-fiction

• Michael Asher - Thesiger
• Dionne Brand, - Bread Out of Stone: Recollections on Sex, Recognitions, Race, Dreaming and Politics and We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women's History
• Leon Forrest - Relocations of the Spirit: Collected Essays
• Martin Gilbert - In Search of Churchill
• Will Hutton - The State We're In
• Richard Leakey - The Origin of Humankind
• Li Zhisui - The Private Life of Chairman Mao

Births

Deaths

• January 30 - Pierre Boulle, author
• February 6 - Jack Kirby, comic book writer
• February 11 - Paul Feyerabend, philosopher of science
• February 26 - J. L. Carr, novelist
• February 27 - Harold Acton, author, the inspiration for Anthony Blanche
• March 9 - Charles Bukowski, poet and novelist
• March 28 - Eugène Ionesco, playwright
• April 16 - Ralph Ellison, scholar, writer
• May 30 – Juan Carlos Onetti, Uruguayan writer
• June 7 - Dennis Potter, controversial TV dramatist
• July 30 - Robin Cook, novelist
• August 7 - Rosa Chacel, controversial Spanish writer
• September 7 - James Clavell, blockbusting novelist
• November 12 - J. I. M. Stewart, novelist and critic
• December 24 - John Osborne, dramatist

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Kenzaburo Oe

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Darren Williams, Swimming In Silk
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Robert Gray, Certain Things
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Barry Hill, Ghosting William Buckley
• Mary Gilmore Prize: Deborah Staines, Now, Millennium

Canada

• Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: M.G. Vassanji, The Book of Secrets
• See 1994 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

• Prix Goncourt: Didier Van Cauwelaert, Un Aller simple
• Prix Décembre: Jean Hatzfeld, L'Air de guerre and Éric Holder, La Belle Jardinière
• Prix Médicis French: Yves Berger, Immobile dans le courant du fleuve
• Prix Médicis International: Robert Schneider, Frère Sommeil

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: James Kelman, How Late It Was, How Late
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Alan Hollinghurst, The Folding Star
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Doris Lessing, Under My Skin
• Cholmondeley Award: Ruth Fainlight, Gwen Harwood, Elizabeth Jennings, John Mole
• Eric Gregory Award: Julia Copus, Alice Oswald, Steven Blyth, Kate Clanchy, Giles Goodland
• Whitbread Best Book Award: William Trevor, Felicia's Journey

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Jan Beatty, Mad River
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Wendell Berry
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Stewart James, "Vanessa", and (separately) Marilyn Hacker, "Cancer Winter"
• Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: A. R. Ammons, Garbage
• Compton Crook Award: Mary Rosenblum, The Drylands
• Nebula Award: Greg Bear, Moving Mars
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Lois Lowry, The Giver
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Edward Albee, Three Tall Women
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: E. Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Yusef Komunyakaa, Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems
• Wallace Stevens Award inaugurated with first award this year: W. S. Merwin

Elsewhere

• Montana Book Award for Poetry: Bill Manhire, ed., 100 New Zealand Poems
• New Zealand Book Award for Poetry: Andrew Johnston, How to Talk
• Premio Nadal: Rosa Regàs, Azul