1991 in literature

See also: 1990 in literature, other events of 1991, 1992 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation.

New books

• American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
• As the Crow Flies  – Jeffrey Archer
• The Bourne Ultimatum – Robert Ludlum
• Damage – Josephine Hart
• Dead Certainties – Simon Schama
• Den of Thieves – James B. Stewart
• Dirty Weekend – Helen Zahavi
• The Doomsday Conspiracy  – Sidney Sheldon
• Druids – Morgan Llywelyn
• The Firm  – John Grisham
• For Love of the Game – Michael Shaara (posthumous)
• Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture – Douglas Coupland
• He, She and It – Marge Piercy
• Heartbeat – Danielle Steel
• Imajica  – Clive Barker
• Jernigan – David Gates
• The Kitchen God's Wife  – Amy Tan
• A Life of Picasso – John Richardson
• Loves Music, Loves to Dance  – Mary Higgins Clark
• Mexico – James A. Michener
• Possession: A Romance  – A. S. Byatt
• Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett
• Say It With Poison – Ann Granger
• The Secret Pilgrim – John le Carré
• SEX – Madonna
• Star Wars: Heir to the Empire  – Timothy Zahn
• Such a Long Journey – Rohinton Mistry
• The Sum of All Fears  – Tom Clancy
• A Thousand Acres – Jane Smiley
• Through the Vast Halls of Memory – Haifa Zangana
• Time's Arrow, or The Nature of the Offense – Martin Amis
• The Van – Roddy Doyle
• Wicca Craft – Gerina Dunwich
• Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett

Births

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
• 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, science fiction writer
• October 27 – George Barker, poet
• November 29 – Frank Garvin Yerby, historical novelist

Awards

• Booker Prize: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
• See 1991 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Nebula Award: Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Jerry Spinelli, Maniac Magee
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Nadine Gordimer
• Prix Goncourt: Pierre Combescot, Les Filles du Calvaire
• Prix Décembre: Raphaël Confiant, Eau de café
• Prix Médicis: Pierre Simon, La Dérive des sentiments
• 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
• Whitbread Best Book Award: John Richardson, A Life of Picasso