1986 in literature

• April 29 – A major fire at Los Angeles Public Library caused by arson destroys 400,000 volumes.[1]
• July 21 – Michael Grade, Controller of BBC1, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.
• September 26 – Bloomsbury Publishing is set up in London by Nigel Newton.
• October 9 – The Phantom of the Opera, having been the longest running Broadway show ever, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
• December 19 – The Soviet dissident author Andrei Sakharov is allowed to return to Moscow after six years' internal exile.

• July 3 – Chris Bush, English playwright, artistic director and comedian

Uncertain dates

• Caroline Bird, English poet and dramatist
• Chigozie Obioma, Nigerian novelist

• January 1 – Lord David Cecil, English critic and biographer (born 1902)
• January 4 – Christopher Isherwood, English-born novelist (born 1904)
• January 7
  • P. D. Eastman, American author and illustrator (born 1909)
  • Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer (born 1917)
• January 24 – L. Ron Hubbard, American science fiction writer, founder of Scientology (born 1911)
• February 4 – Phyllis Shand Allfrey, Dominican writer (born 1908)
• February 9 – Dora Oake Russell, Newfoundland writer, diarist and journalist (born 1912)
• February 11 – Frank Herbert, American science fiction novelist (born 1920)
• February 28 – Edith Ditmas, English archivist, historian and writer (born 1896)
• March 4
  • Ding Ling, Chinese fiction writer (born 1904)
  • Elizabeth Smart, Canadian poet and novelist (born 1913)
• March 15 – Pandelis Prevelakis, Greek novelist, poet, dramatist and essayist (born 1909)
• March 18 – Bernard Malamud, American novelist (born 1914)
• April 12 – Valentin Kataev, Russian novelist and dramatist (born 1897)
• April 14
  • Simone de Beauvoir, French philosopher and feminist writer (born 1908)
  • Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist and political activist (born 1910)
• April 17 – Bessie Head, Botswanan fiction writer (born 1937)
• April 22 – Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian, philosopher and novelist (born 1907)
• May 15 – Theodore H. White, American journalist, historian and novelist (born 1915)
• June 14 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (born 1899)
• August 1 – Lena Kennedy, English romantic novelist (born 1914)
• August 3 – Beryl Markham, English-born Kenyan aviator and author (born 1902)
• August 20 – Milton Acorn, Canadian poet, writer and playwright (born 1923)
• September 11 – Noel Streatfeild, English novelist and children's writer (born 1895)
• December 17 – J. F. Hendry, Scottish poet (born 1912)
• December 19 – V. C. Andrews, American novelist (born 1923)

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Wole Soyinka