See also: 1985 in literature, other events of 1986, 1987 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New books

• Extinction - Thomas Bernhard
• The Bourne Supremacy - Robert Ludlum
• The Bridge - Iain Banks
• Cadillac Desert - Marc Reisner
• The Fence Post Chronicles - W.P. Kinsella
• The Fisher King - Anthony Powell
• Ghost - Piers Anthony
• The Golden Cup - Belva Plain
• Hollywood Husbands - Jackie Collins
• I'll Take Manhattan - Judith Krantz
• In the Hollow of His Hand - James Purdy
• It - Stephen King
• Kara Kush - Idries Shah
• Kate Vaiden - Reynolds Price
• Last of the Breed - Louis L'Amour
• Leo Africanus - Amin Maalouf
• The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett
• Love You Forever - Robert Munsch
• The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes
• A Matter of Honour - Jeffrey Archer
• The Moronic Inferno and Other Visits to America - Martin Amis
• The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis
• A Perfect Spy - John le Carré
• The Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy
• Red Storm Rising - Tom Clancy
• Sportswriter - Richard Ford
• Wanderlust - Danielle Steel
• Whirlwind - James Clavell
• - Shari Benstock

Births

Deaths

• January 24 - L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction writer, founder of Scientology
• February 11 - Frank Herbert, American science fiction author
• February 26 - Robert Penn Warren, poet, author
• March 4 - Elizabeth Smart, Canadian poet and novelist
• May 15 - Theodore H. White, writer
• June 14 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer
• August 20 - Milton Acorn, Canadian poet, writer, and playwright

Awards

• Booker Prize: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
• See 1986 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Nebula Award: Orson Scott Card, Speaker For the Dead
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Patricia MacLachlan , Sarah, Plain and Tall
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Wole Soyinka
• Prix Goncourt: Michel Host , Valet de nuit
• Prix Médicis French: Pierre Combescot , Les Funérailles de la Sardine
• Prix Médicis International: John Hawkes, Aventures dans le commerce des peaux en Alaska
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Henry Taylor, The Flying Change
• Whitbread Best Book Award : Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World