See also: 1984 in literature, other events of 1985, 1986 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New books

• The Accidental Tourist - Anne Tyler
• The Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome - Wayne Kritsberg
• At the Going Down of the Sun - Elizabeth Darrell
• Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
• Blood Music - Greg Bear
• The Cider House Rules - John Irving
• Contact - Carl Sagan
• The Damnation Game - Clive Barker
• Elvis and Me - Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
• Eon - Greg Bear
• The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
• If Tomorrow Comes - Sidney Sheldon
• Lake Wobegon Days - Garrison Keillor
• Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis
• Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
• The Mammoth Hunters - Jean M. Auel
• The Nuclear Age - Tim O'Brien
• Rebuilding Coventry - Sue Townsend
• Robots and Empire - Isaac Asimov
• The Secret Life of Saeed - Imil Habibi
• Secrets - Danielle Steel
• Skeleton Crew - Stephen King
• Texas - James A. Michener
• Walking on Glass - Iain Banks

Births

Deaths

• July 16 - Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel laureate
• August 30 - Taylor Caldwell
• December 7 - Robert Graves

Awards

• Booker Prize: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
• See 1985 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Nebula Award: Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Claude Simon
• Prix Goncourt: Yann Queffelec, Les Noces barbares
• Prix Médicis French: Michel Braudeau , Naissance d'une passion
• Prix Médicis International: Joseph Heller, God Knows
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: James Lapine for book; Stephen Sondheim for music and lyrics, Sunday in the Park With George
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Alison Lurie - Foreign Affairs
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carolyn Kizer : Yin
• Whitbread Best Book Award : Douglas Dunn, Elegies