See also: 1967 in literature, other events of 1968, 1969 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Dean R. Koontz's first novel, Star Quest is published.

New books

• Airport - Arthur Hailey
• Armies of the Night - Norman Mailer
• Cancer Ward - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• Cocksure - Mordecai Richler
• Couples - John Updike
• Cousin Kate – Georgette Heyer
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
• The Double Helix - James D. Watson
• - Charles Rembar
• The First Circle - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• I Am Mary Dunne - Brian Moore
• The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories - James Jones
• Lonesome Cities (poetry) - Rod McKuen
• The Military Philosophers - Anthony Powell
• The Money Game - Adam Smith
• Myra Breckinridge - Gore Vidal
• Preserve and Protect - Allen Drury
• The Salzburg Connection - Helen McInnes
• A Small Town in Germany - John le Carré
• Testimony of Two Men - Taylor Caldwell

Births

Deaths

• April 16 - Edna Ferber
• November 25 - Upton Sinclair
• December 5 - Anna Kavan
• December 20 - John Steinbeck

Awards

• See 1968 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Hugo Award: Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light
• Nebula Award: Alexei Panshin, Rite of Passage
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: E. L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Yasunari Kawabata
• Prix Goncourt: Bernard Clavel , Les fruits de l'hiver
• Prix Médicis: Élie Wiesel, Le Mendiant de Jérusalem
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Anthony Hecht, The Hard Hours
• Viareggio Prize: Libero Bigiaretti , La controfigura