See also: 1997 in literature, other events of 1998, 1999 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• November 18 - Alice McDermott wins the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy .
• Following the death of Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, there is a gap of several months before a successor is appointed.

New books

• About a Boy - Nick Hornby
• African Exploits - Roy MacLaren
• All Through the Night - Mary Higgins Clark
• Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
• Bag of Bones - Stephen King
• Bastards - Howard Galganov
• The Bay of Love and Sorrows - David Adams Richards
• The Book of Saladin - Tariq Ali
• Building Western Civilization: From the Advent of Writing to the Age of Steam - Alan I. Marcus
• Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett
• Dinosaur Summer - Greg Bear
• England, England - Julian Barnes
• Foundation and Chaos - Greg Bear
• Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland
• Greater Than Angels - Carol Matas
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling
• Heavy Water and Other Stories - Martin Amis (most stories previously published)
• Hellfire - Diana Gabaldon
• I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops - Hanan al-Shaykh
• Inversions - Iain M. Banks
• The Klone and I - Danielle Steel
• The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett
• The Long Road Home - Danielle Steel
• The Love of a Good Woman - Alice Munro
• Magick Potions - Gerina Dunwich
• A Man in Full - Tom Wolfe
• The Memory of Hands - Reshman Baig
• A Midwinter's Tale - Andrew Greeley
• Mirror Image - Danielle Steel
• Muhammad - Driss Chraibi
• (Essais sur l'imprégnation fasciste au Québec) - Esther Delisle
• Paradise - Toni Morrison
• Point of Origin - Patricia Cornwell
• Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy
• Return to Hawk's Hill - Allan W. Eckert
• Seize the Night - Dean R. Koontz
• The Street Lawyer - John Grisham
• Tomcat in Love - Tim O'Brien
• Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho
• Wicca A to Z - Gerina Dunwich
• A Widow for One Year - John Irving
• Wormholes - Essays and Occasional Writings - John Fowles
• - Jules Witcover , David Halberstam

Births

Deaths

• January 2 - Frank Muir, comedy writer
• January 11 - John Wells, satirical writer
• January 23 - John Forbes, Australian poet
• January 27 - Geoffrey Trease, historical novelist
• February 7 - Lawrence Sanders, author
• February 17 - Ernst Jünger, novelist and war memoirist
• March 15 - Dr Benjamin Spock, childcare expert
• April 11 - Francis Durbridge, playwright
• April 19 - Octavio Paz, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature
• April 27 - Pauline Réage, author
• April 27 - Carlos Castaneda
• May 9 - Nat Perrin, comedy writer
• June 10 - Hammond Innes, novelist
• June 11 - Dame Catherine Cookson, bestselling novelist
• July 1 - Martin Seymour-Smith, biographer
• July 5 - Johnny Speight, comedy writer
• July 14 - Miroslav Holub, Czech poet
• July 23 - John Hopkins, film and television writer
• September 28 - Eric Malling, journalist
• October 22 - Eric Ambler, novelist
• October 28 - Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate
• November 8 - Rumer Godden, novelist
• date unknown - Ian Wallace, science fiction author

Awards

• Booker Prize: Ian McEwan - Amsterdam
• See 1998 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Alice Munro: The Love of a Good Woman
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace
• IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Herta Muller , The Grand of Green Plums
• Nebula Award: Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Keran Hess , Out of the Dust
• Nobel Prize for Literature: José Saramago
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Carol Shields, Larry's Party
• Prix Goncourt: Paule Constant , Confidence pour confidence
• Prix Décembre: Michel Houellebecq, Les Particules élémentaires
• Prix Médicis French: Le Loup mongol
• Prix Médicis International: The House of Sleep - Jonathan Coe
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Philip Roth, American Pastoral
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Charles Wright, Black Zodiac
• Whitbread Best Book Award : Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters