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

Events

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

New books

• American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
• As the Crow Flies - Jeffrey Archer
• The Bourne Ultimatum - Robert Ludlum
• 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)
• Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture - Douglas Coupland
• 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
• Mexico - James A. Michener
• Possession: A Romance - A. S. Byatt
• Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett
• Say It With Poison - Ann Granger
• The Secret Pilgrim - John le Carré
• - 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
• Wicca Craft - Gerina Dunwich
• Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett

Births

Deaths

• January 29 - Yasushi Inoue, historian
• February 24 - John Daly, journalist, game show host
• April 29 - Claude Gallimard , French publishing magnate

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