See also: 1997 in literature, other events of 1998, 1999 in literature, list of years in literature.
Events
New books
Births
Deaths
- January 2 - Frank Muir, comedy writer
- January 11 - John Wells, satirical writer
- January 23 - John Forbes, Australian poet
- January 27 - Geoffrey Trease, historical novelist
- February 7 - Lawrence Sanders, author
- February 17 - Ernst Jünger, novelist and war memoirist
- March 15 - Dr Benjamin Spock, childcare expert
- April 11 - Francis Durbridge, playwright
- April 19 - Octavio Paz, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature
- April 27 - Pauline Réage, author
- April 27 - Carlos Castaneda
- May 9 - Nat Perrin, comedy writer
- June 10 - Hammond Innes, novelist
- June 11 - Dame Catherine Cookson, bestselling novelist
- July 1 - Martin Seymour-Smith, biographer
- July 5 - Johnny Speight, comedy writer
- July 14 - Miroslav Holub, Czech poet
- July 23 - John Hopkins, film and television writer
- September 28 - Eric Malling, journalist
- October 22 - Eric Ambler, novelist
- October 28 - Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate
- November 8 - Rumer Godden, novelist
- date unknown - Ian Wallace, science fiction author
Awards
- Booker Prize: Ian McEwan - Amsterdam
- See 1998 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
- Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Alice Munro: The Love of a Good Woman
- Hugo Award for Best Novel: Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace
- IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Herta Muller, The Grand of Green Plums
- Nebula Award: Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Keran Hess, Out of the Dust
- Nobel Prize for Literature: José Saramago
- Orange Prize for Fiction: Carol Shields, Larry's Party
- Prix Goncourt: Paule Constant, Confidence pour confidence
- Prix Décembre: Michel Houellebecq, Les Particules élémentaires
- Prix Médicis French: Le Loup mongol
- Prix Médicis International: The House of Sleep - Jonathan Coe
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Philip Roth, American Pastoral
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Charles Wright, Black Zodiac
- Whitbread Best Book Award: Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters
