1986 in literature

See also: 1985 in literature, other events of 1986, 1987 in literature, list of years in literature.

Awards

• Booker Prize: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
• See 1986 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Nebula Award: Orson Scott Card, Speaker For the Dead
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain and Tall
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Wole Soyinka
• 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
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Henry Taylor, The Flying Change
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World