See also: 1989 in literature, other events of 1990, 1991 in literature, list of years in literature.
Events
- J. K. Rowling gets the idea for Harry Potter while on a train ride from Manchester to London. She says "I was staring out the window, and the idea for Harry just came. He appeared in my mind's eye, very fully formed. The basic idea was for a boy who didn't know what he was." It would be seven more years before the world was introduced to Harry.
New books
Deaths
Awards
- Booker Prize: A. S. Byatt, Possession
- Caldecott Award: Ed Young, Lon Po Po: A Red–Riding Hood Story from China
- See 1990 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
- Hugo Award for Best Novel: Dan Simmons for Hyperion
- National Book Award for Fiction: Charles Johnson for Middle Passage
- Nebula Award: Ursula K. Le Guin, Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Lois Lowry, Number the Stars
- Nobel Prize for Literature: Octavio Paz
- Prix Goncourt: Jean Rouaud, Les Champs d'honneur
- Prix Décembre: François Maspero, Les Passagers du Roissy–Express
- Prix Médicis French: Les Quartiers d'hiver – Jean–Noël Pancrazi
- Prix Médicis International: Amitav Ghosh,, Les feux du Bengale
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: August Wilson, The Piano Lesson
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Oscar Hijuelos for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Charles Simic: The World Doesn't End
- Whitbread Best Book Award: Nicholas Mosley, Hopeful Monsters
