1987 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1987.

Events

January 2 – Golliwogs in Enid Blyton children's books are replaced by the British publisher with gnomes after complaints of a racial offence implication.
April – K. W. Jeter coins the term "Steampunk" in a letter published in Locus: the magazine of the science fiction & fantasy field.
June – Virago Press of London publishes Down the Road, Worlds Away, a collection of short stories ostensibly by Rahila Khan, a young Muslim woman living in England. Three weeks later, Toby Forward, an Anglican clergyman, admits to writing them and the publisher withdraws the book. "He, unlike the editors at Virago, had grown up in precisely the kind of area and social conditions that the book described.... Although the book never claimed to be other than a work of fiction, the publishers destroyed the stock still in the warehouse and recalled all unsold copies from the bookshops, thus turning it into an expensive bibliographical rarity."
July 31 – The United Kingdom Attorney General takes legal proceedings on security grounds against the London paper The Daily Telegraph to prevent it publishing details of the book Spycatcher. On September 23, an Australian court lifts its ban on the book's publication.
August – A new building for the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington opens.
unknown dates
*Tom Wolfe is paid US$5 million for the film rights to his novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, a record fee to an author at this time.
*Ian Rankin's Knots and Crosses, first of the Inspector Rebus detective novels set around Edinburgh, is published in London.

New books

Births

February 11 – Julio Torres, Salvadoran writer, comedian, and actor
February 27 – Alexandra Bracken, American young-adult novelist
April 12 – Ilana Glazer, American comedian, director, producer, writer, and actress
December 15 – Mayra Dias Gomes, Brazilian journalist and columnist
unknown dates
*Mina Adampour, Norwegian journalist, politician and activist of Iranian origin
*Katherine Rundell, English children's writer and academic brought up in Zimbabwe and Belgium

Deaths

January 15 – George Markstein, German-born English journalist and thriller writer
February 2 – Alistair MacLean, Scottish thriller writer
February 4 – Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, Welsh journalist and broadcaster
February 10 – William Rose, American screenwriter
February 22 – Andy Warhol, American artist, director and writer
March 4 – Maria Jolas, American-born French publisher and campaigner
April 4 – C. L. Moore, American science fiction author
April 7 – John Lehmann, English poet, biographer and publisher
April 11
* Erskine Caldwell, American novelist
* Primo Levi, Italian chemist and writer
April 12 – Oliver Stonor, English novelist
April 24 – Josephine Bell, English novelist
May 13 – Richard Ellmann, American-born biographer
May 18 – Heðin Brú, Faroese fiction writer and translator
May 30 – Norman Nicholson, English poet
June 6 – Fulton Mackay, Scottish actor and playwright
June 7 – Humberto Costantini, Argentinian writer
June 22 – John Hewitt, Northern Irish poet
June 29 – C. Hamilton Ellis, English writer
July 26 – Tawfiq al-Hakim, Egyptian novelist and dramatist
August 6 – Peter Whigham, English poet and translator
August 18 – Dambudzo Marechera, Zimbabwean writer
September 1 – Alan Reid, English-born Australian journalist
September 25 – Emlyn Williams, Welsh dramatist
September 30 – Alfred Bester, American science fiction writer
October 3 – Jean Anouilh, French dramatist
October 8 – Roger Lancelyn Green, English biographer and children's author
October 9 – Clare Boothe Luce, American playwright
October 31 – Joseph Campbell, American author and mythology expert
November 29 – Gwendolyn MacEwen, Canadian poet
December 1 – James Baldwin, African American novelist
December 4 – Arnold Lobel, American children's writer and illustrator
December 9 – Diana Forbes-Robertson, English writer and biographer
December 17 – Marguerite Yourcenar, French novelist and essayist

Awards

Nobel Prize for Literature: Joseph Brodsky

Australia

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Jim Sakkas, Ilias
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Lily Brett, The Auschwitz Poems
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Philip Hodgins, Blood and Bone
Mary Gilmore Prize: Jan Owen, Boy with Telescope
Miles Franklin Award: Glenda Adams, ''Dancing on Coral''

Canada

See 1987 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

Prix Goncourt: Tahar ben Jelloun, La Nuit sacrée
Prix Médicis French: Pierre Mertens, Les Éblouissements
Prix Médicis International: Antonio Tabucchi, ''Indian Nocturne''

United Kingdom

Booker Prize: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Susan Price, The Ghost Drum
Cholmondeley Award: Wendy Cope, Matthew Sweeney, George Szirtes
Eric Gregory Award: Peter McDonald, Maura Dooley, Stephen Knight, Steve Anthony, Jill Maughan, Paul Munden
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: George Mackay Brown, The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Ruth Dudley Edwards, Victor Gollancz: A Biography
Whitbread Best Book Award: Christopher Nolan, Under the Eye of the Clock
Sunday Express Book of the Year: Brian Moore, ''The Colour of Blood''

United States

Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: David Rivard, Torque
Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Howard Nemerov
American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Belles Lettres: Jacques Barzun
Frost Medal: Robert Creeley / Sterling Brown
National Book Critics Circle Award: to The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
National Book Award for Fiction: to Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann
Nebula Award: Pat Murphy, The Falling Woman
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Sid Fleischman The Whipping Boy
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Soldiers in Hiding by Richard Wiley
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: August Wilson, Fences
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Peter Taylor, A Summons to Memphis
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Rita Dove, Thomas and Beulah
Whiting Awards:

Elsewhere

Europe Theatre Prize: Ariane Mnouchkine, Théâtre du Soleil
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Hans Jonas
Premio Nadal: Juan José Saer, ''La ocasión''

1987 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards

Australia

Canada

France

United Kingdom

United States

Elsewhere