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

Events

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

New books

• A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley
• American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
• As the Crow Flies - Jeffrey Archer
• 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)
• Tales for an Accelerated Culture - Douglas Coupland
• Gojiro - Mark Jacobson
• 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
• The Man from Barbarossa - John Gardner
• Mao II - Don DeLillo
• Mexico - James A. Michener
• A Romance - A. S. Byatt
• Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett
• Say It With Poison - Ann Granger
• Scarlett - Alexandra Ripley
• The Secret Pilgrim - John le Carré
• SEX - Madonna
• 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
• The Werewolf and the Wormlord - Hugh Cook
• Wicca Craft - Gerina Dunwich
• Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett

New drama

• Ariel Dorfman - Death and the Maiden
• Neil Simon - Lost in Yonkers

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

1991 books

1991 en littérature | 1991 בספרות | Kultur i 1991 | 1991 - literatura | Litteraturåret 1991