1992 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1992.

Events

• July – The Goosebumps series of children's horror fiction, penned by R. L. Stine, is first published in the United States.^[1]
• August – An attempt is made to set fire to the National Library of Abkhazia in Sukhumi during the War in Abkhazia by Georgian forces.
• August 25 – The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina is annihilated during the Siege of Sarajevo by the Army of Republika Srpska.^[2]
• September – Michael Ondaatje's historiographic metafiction The English Patient is published in Canada. It will win The Golden Man Booker in 2018.

New books

Fiction

• Ben Aaronovitch – Transit
• Tariq Ali – Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree
• Paul Auster – Leviathan
• Iain Banks – The Crow Road
• Clive Barker – The Thief of Always
• Julian Barnes – The Porcupine
• Greg Bear – Anvil of Stars
• Thomas Berger – Meeting Evil
• Louis de Bernières – The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman
• James P. Blaylock – Lord Kelvin's Machine
• Pascal Bruckner – The Divine Child
• A. S. Byatt – Morpho Eugenia
• Roger Caron – Dreamcaper
• Andrew Cartmel –
• Patrick Chamoiseau – Texaco
• Paulo Coelho – The Valkyries
• Michael Connelly – The Black Echo
• Hugh Cook
  • The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster
  • The Worshippers and the Way
• Paul Cornell – Love and War
• Bernard Cornwell
  • Sharpe's Devil
  • Scoundrel
• Douglas Coupland – Shampoo Planet
• Mia Couto – Sleepwalking Land (Terra Sonâmbula)
• Robert Crais – Lullaby Town^[3]
• L. Sprague de Camp and Christopher Stasheff – The Enchanter Reborn
• Clarissa Pinkola Estés – Women Who Run with the Wolves
• Elena Ferrante – Troubling Love (L'amore molesto
• Tibor Fischer – Under the Frog
• Leon Forrest – Divine Days
• John Gardner – Death Is Forever
• Neil Gaiman – (graphic novel; volume 4 of The Sandman series)
• Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean – Signal to Noise (graphic novel)
• Cristina García – Dreaming in Cuban
• Mark Gatiss – Nightshade
• Ann Granger – Cold in the Earth
• Alasdair Gray – Poor Things
• John Grisham – The Pelican Brief
• Hella Haasse – Heren van de thee (The Tea Lords)
• Victor Headley – Yardie
• Andrew Hunt –
• Simon Ings – Hot Head
• P. D. James – The Children of Men
• Denis Johnson – Jesus' Son (short story collection)
• John Kessel – Meeting in Infinity
• Stephen King
  • Dolores Claiborne
  • Gerald's Game
• Patrick McCabe – The Butcher Boy
• Cormac McCarthy – All the Pretty Horses (book 1 of The Border Trilogy)
• Val McDermid – Dead Beat
• Ian McEwan – Black Dogs
• Terry McMillan – Waiting to Exhale
• Javier Marías – A Heart So White (Corazón tan blanco)
• Andrés L. Mateo – La Balada de Alfonsina Bairán
• Rohinton Mistry – Tales from Firozsha Baag
• Caitlin Moran – The Chronicles of Narmo
• Toni Morrison – Jazz
• Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient
• Ellis Peters – The Holy Thief
• Marc Platt –
• Terry Pratchett
  • Lords and Ladies
  • Small Gods
• Anne Rice – The Tale of the Body Thief
• Mordecai Richler – Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!
• Jennifer Roberson – Lady of the Forest
• Robert Schneider – Schlafes Bruder
• Patricia Schonstein – A Time of Angels
• W. G. Sebald – The Emigrants (Die Ausgewanderten: Vier lange Erzählungen)^[4]
• Gail Sheehy – Silent Passage
• Sidney Sheldon – The Stars Shine Down
• Michael Slade – Cutthroat
• Danielle Steel
  • Jewels
  • Mixed Blessings
• Neal Stephenson – Snow Crash
• Adam Thorpe – Ulverton
• Sue Townsend – The Queen and I
• Rose Tremain – Sacred Country
• Barry Unsworth – Sacred Hunger
• John Updike – Memories of the Ford Administration
• Gore Vidal –
• Vernor Vinge – A Fire Upon the Deep
• Robert James Waller – The Bridges of Madison County
• Connie Willis – Doomsday Book
• Timothy Zahn – Dark Force Rising
• Roger Zelazny and Thomas Thurston Thomas – Flare
• Juan Eduardo Zúñiga
  • El último día del mundo (The last day of the world)
  • Misterios de las noches y los días (Mysteries of the nights and days; short stories)

Children and young people

• Pamela Allen – Belinda
• Chris Van Allsburg – The Widow's Broom
• Gillian Cross – The Great Elephant Chase
• Garry Disher – The Bamboo Flute
• Anne Fine – Flour Babies
• Jamila Gavin – The Wheel of Surya (first in the Surya trilogy)
• Rumer Godden
  • Great Grandfather's House
  • Listen to the Nightingale
• Virginia Hamilton (with Jerry Pinkney) – Drylongso
• William Mayne – Low Tide
• Gerald McDermott –
• Hilary McKay – The Exiles
• Michael Morpurgo – Waiting for Anya
• Barry Moser – Polly Vaughn: A Traditional British Ballad
• Jim Murphy – The Long Road to Gettysburg
• Barbara Park – Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus (first in the Junie B. Jones series)
• Marcus Pfister – The Rainbow Fish (Der Regenbogenfisch)
• Gloria Jean Pinkney (with Jerry Pinkney) – Back Home
• Marjorie W. Sharmat (with Marc Simont) – Nate the Great and the Stolen Base
• Ulf Stark – Can You Whistle, Johanna? (Kan du vissla Johanna?)^[5]
• Christopher Tolkien (with J. R. R. Tolkien and Alan Lee) – Sauron Defeated
• Judith Vigna – Black Like Kyra, White Like Me
• Martin Waddell  - Owl Babies
• Nancy Willard (with Barry Moser) – Beauty and the Beast
• Douglas Wood – Old Turtle
• Susan Meddaugh – Martha Speaks

Drama

• Herb Gardner – Conversations with My Father
• Peter Handke – Die Stunde, da wir nichts voneinander wußten (The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other)
• David Mamet – Oleanna
• Louis Nowra – Così
• Zlatko Topčić – Musa And The Goat (radio version)
• Michael Wall – Women Laughing
• Peter Whelan – The School of Night

Poetry

See main article: 1992 in poetry.

• Ben Okri – An African Elegy

Non-fiction

• Nelson Algren (died 1981) – America Eats (travel book, written 1930s)
• Karen Armstrong –
• Bill Bryson –
• Linda Colley –
• Esther Delisle – The Traitor and the Jew (Le Traître et le Juif: Lionel Groulx, le Devoir et le délire du nationalisme d'extrême droite dans la province de Québec, 1929–1939)
• Daniel Dennett – Consciousness Explained
• Joan Didion – After Henry
• Eamon Duffy – The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400 to c. 1580
• Gerina Dunwich – Secrets of Love Magick
• Christiane Éluère –
• John Gray – Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
• Elizabeth Hay – The Only Snow in Havana^[6]
• Nick Hornby – Fever Pitch
• Charles Jennings – Up North
• Neil Lyndon – No More Sex War: The Failures of Feminism^[7]
• Andrew Morton – Diana: Her True Story
• Mark E. Neely Jr. –
• Liza Potvin – White Lies (for My Mother)^[8]
• Léon Werth (died 1955) – 33 Jours (written 1940)
• Michael Jackson – Dancing the Dream

Anthologies

• Margaret Busby (ed.) –

Births

• March 4 – Gaurav Sharma, Indian author
• April 14 – Naoise Dolan, Irish novelist
• August 12 – Naoki Higashida, Japanese autistic author
• September 18 – Jidanun Lueangpiansamut, Thai writer
• October 5 – Rupi Kaur, Indian-born Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author
• October 30 – Édouard Louis, French writer
• November 11 – Aya Mansour, Iraqi poet, writer, and journalist

Deaths

• January 4 – Alejandro Carrión, Ecuadorian poet and journalist (born 1915)
• January 9 – Bill Naughton, Irish-born English playwright and novelist (born 1910)
• January 4 – John Sparrow, English literary scholar (born 1906)
• January 14 – Irakli Abashidze, Georgian poet, literary scholar and politician (born 1909)^[9]
• January 28 – Dora Birtles, Australian novelist, poet and children's writer (born 1903)
• February 10 – Alex Haley, African-American writer (born 1921)
• February 16
  • Angela Carter, English novelist (lung cancer, born 1940)^[10]
  • George MacBeth, Scottish poet and novelist (motor neurone disease, born 1932)
• April 4 – Vintilă Horia, Romanian writer (born 1915)^[11]
• April 6 – Isaac Asimov, American science fiction author (born 1920)^[12]
• April 21 – Väinö Linna, Finnish novelist (born 1920)^[13]
• April 28 – Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck), American novelist (born 1918)
• May 22 – Elizabeth David, English cookery writer (born 1913)
• July 6 – Mary Q. Steele, American novelist (born 1922)
• July 22 – Reginald Bretnor, American science fiction writer (born 1911)
• July 23 – Robert Liddell, English biographer, novelist and poet (born 1908)
• August 4 – Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese mystery writer and journalist (born 1909)^[14]
• August 29 – Mary Norton, English children's writer (born 1903)
• September 5 – Fritz Leiber, American writer of fantasy and science fiction (born 1910)
• November 7 – Richard Yates, American novelist and short-story writer (emphysema, born 1926)^[15]
• November 17 – Audre Lorde, American poet, writer and feminist (born 1934)
• December 22 – Ted Willis, English TV dramatist (born 1914)
• December 25 – Monica Dickens, English novelist (born 1915)
• December 27 – Kay Boyle, American writer, educator and activist (born 1902)

Awards

• Nobel Prize in Literature

Derek Walcott

• Camões Prize

Vergílio Ferreira

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award

Fotini Epanomitis, The Mule's Foal

• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry

Robert Harris, Jane, Interlinear and Other Poems

• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry

Elizabeth Riddell, Selected Poems

• Mary Gilmore Prize

Alison Croggon, This is the Stone

• Miles Franklin Award

Tim Winton, Cloudstreet

Canada

• See 1992 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction

Marie Wadden, Nitassinan: The Innu Struggle to Reclaim Their Homeland ^[16]

France

• Prix Goncourt

Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco

• Prix Décembre

Henri Thomas, La Chasse au trésor and Roger Grenier, Regardez la neige qui tombe

• Prix Médicis French: Michel Rio, Tlacuilo
• Prix Médicis International: Louis Begley, Une éducation polonaise

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize

Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger

• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Anne Fine, Flour Babies
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Rose Tremain, Sacred Country
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe
• Cholmondeley Award

Allen Curnow, Donald Davie, Carol Ann Duffy, Roger Woddis

• Eric Gregory Award

Jill Dawson, Hugh Dunkerley, Christopher Greenhalgh, Marita Maddah, Stuart Paterson, Stuart Pickford

• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

Kathleen Raine

• Whitbread Best Book Award

Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing!

• The Sunday Express Book of the Year

Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety

• Forward Prizes for Poetry (first awards): Thom Gunn, The Man with Night Sweats (collection); Simon Armitage, Kid (first collection); Jackie Kay, "Black Bottom" (single poem)

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize

Hunt Hawkins, The Domestic Life

• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry

Gwendolyn Brooks

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama

Sam Shepard

• Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry

Louise Glück for Ararat, and Mark Strand for The Continuous Life

• Compton Crook Award

Carol Severance, Reefsong

• Frost Medal

Adrienne Rich / David Ignatow

• National Book Award for Fiction

to All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

• National Book Critics Circle Award

to Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean

• Nebula Award

Connie Willis, Doomsday Book

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Shiloh
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

to Mao II by Don DeLillo

• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres

• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

James Tate, Selected Poems

• Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Robert Schenkkan, The Kentucky Cycle

• Whiting Awards

Fiction: R.S. Jones, J. S. Marcus, Damien Wilkins

Nonfiction: Eva Hoffman, Katha Pollitt (poetry/nonfiction)

Plays: Suzan-Lori Parks, Keith Reddin, José Rivera

Poetry: Roger Fanning, Jane Mead

Elsewhere

• Premio Nadal

Alejandro Gándara, Ciegas esperanzas

Notes and References

1. Book: The New York Times Book Review. April 1994. New York Times Company. 26–27.
2. Web site: The Bosnian Manuscript Ingathering Project: Fighting the Destruction of Memory . 11 November 2013.
3. Book: LeRoy Panek. New Hard-boiled Writers, 1970s–1990s. 2000. Popular Press. 978-0-87972-820-5. 141.
4. Book: Carol Jacobs. Sebald's Vision. 20 October 2015. Columbia University Press. 978-0-231-54010-0. 14.
5. Book: W. Michelle Wang. Daniel K. Jernigan. Neil Murphy. The Routledge Companion to Death and Literature. 7 December 2020. Taylor & Francis. 978-1-00-022074-2. 123.
6. Web site: Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction – Previous Winners – 1993: Elizabeth Hay . . https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20140606164249/https://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=2529&p=11321 . 6 June 2014 . dead .
7. News: 22 years on, I'm republishing my controversial book on the failings of feminism . The Telegraph. London. Neil . Lyndon. 10 November 2014.
8. Web site: White Lies (for My Mother). Goodreads. 20 November 2012.
9. Martin MacCauley (1997), Who's Who in Russia Since 1900, p. 2. Routledge, .
10. Web site: Angela Carter . British Library. 27 March 2019.
11. Web site: Radio Romania International – Vintila Horia y el escándalo del Premio Goncourt. es. 10 June 2022. Radio Romania International.
12. News: Isaac Asimov obituary . Brian. Aldiss. Brian Aldiss. The Guardian. 10 March 2022 . en . 7 April 1992.
13. Web site: Nummi, Jyrki. Linna, Väinö (1920–1992). 100 Faces from Finland – a Biographical Kaleidoscope . the Biographical Centre of the Finnish Literature Society . 2003–2007 . 9 December 2020 .
14. News: Obituary: Seicho Matsumoto. 11 August 1992. James. Kirkup. The Independent. London. 10 June 2022.
15. News: Eric . Pace . Richard Yates, Novelist, 66, Dies; Chronicler of Disappointed Lives . . 9 November 1992 . 31 March 2008.
16. Web site: Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction – Previous winners – 1992: Marie Wadden . Wilfrid Laurier University . 19 November 2012 . https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20140606164255/https://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=2529&p=11322 . 6 June 2014 . dead .