1990 in literature

See also: 1989 in literature, other events of 1990, 1991 in literature, list of years in literature.

Awards

• Booker Prize: A. S. Byatt, Possession
• Caldecott Award: Ed Young, Lon Po Po: A Red–Riding Hood Story from China
• See 1990 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: Dan Simmons for Hyperion
• National Book Award for Fiction: Charles Johnson for Middle Passage
• Nebula Award: Ursula K. Le Guin, Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Lois Lowry, Number the Stars
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Octavio Paz
• Prix Goncourt: Jean Rouaud, Les Champs d'honneur
• Prix Décembre: François Maspero, Les Passagers du Roissy–Express
• Prix Médicis French: Les Quartiers d'hiver – Jean–Noël Pancrazi
• Prix Médicis International: Amitav Ghosh,, Les feux du Bengale
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: August Wilson, The Piano Lesson
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Oscar Hijuelos for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Charles Simic: The World Doesn't End
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Nicholas Mosley, Hopeful Monsters