1994 in literature

• October 11 – The choice of James Kelman's book How Late It Was, How Late as the year's Booker Prize winner proves controversial.[1] Of of the judges, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, declares it "a disgrace" and leaves the event, later calling the book "crap"; WHSmith's marketing manager calls the award "an embarrassment to the whole book trade"; Waterstone's in Glasgow (where it is set) sells a mere 13 copies of Kelman's "Mogadon" the following week.[2]
• November 26 – Poland's Ministry of Culture and Art orders the exhumation of the presumed grave of the absurdist painter, playwright and novelist Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (suicide 1939) in Zakopane. Genetic tests on the remains show they belonged to an unknown woman.[3]
• December 1 – Iceland's National and University Library of Iceland (Landsbókasafn Íslands – Háskólabókasafn) is founded in Reykjavík by merging the former national library, Landsbókasafn Íslands, established in 1818, with the university library of 1940.

Uncertain dates

• Penguin Books offer Peter James's novel Host on two floppy disks as "the world's first electronic novel".[4]
• The first Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction is awarded.

• April 18 – Alexandra Adornetto, Australian children's novelist

• January 3 – Frank Belknap Long, American horror, fantasy and sci-fi writer (born 1901)
• January 30 – Pierre Boulle, French novelist (born 1912)
• January 31 – Erwin Strittmatter, German writer (born 1912)
• February 6 – Jack Kirby, American comic book cartoonist (born 1917)
• February 11 – Paul Feyerabend, Austrian philosopher of science (born 1924)
• February 26 – J. L. Carr, English novelist (born 1912)
• February 27 – Harold Acton, English writer, scholar and dilettante (born 1904)
• March 9 – Charles Bukowski, German-born American poet and novelist (born 1920)
• March 20 – Lewis Grizzard, American journalist and author (born 1946)
• March 28 – Eugène Ionesco, Romanian playwright (born 1909)
• April 16 – Ralph Ellison, American scholar and writer (born 1914)
• May 24 – John Wain, English novelist, poet and critic (born 1925)
• May 30
  • Juan Carlos Onetti, Uruguayan writer (born 1909)
  • Isobel English (June Guesdon Jolliffe), English novelist (born 1920)
• June 7 – Dennis Potter, English TV dramatist (born 1935)
• June 17 – Yuri Nagibin, Soviet screenwriter and novelist (born 1920)
• June 26 – Jahanara Imam, Bangladeshi writer and political activist (born 1929)
• July 5 – Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Malayalam short story writer (born 1908)
• July 30 – Robin Cook (Derek Raymond), English novelist (born 1931)
• August 7 – Rosa Chacel, Spanish writer (born 1898)
• August 14 – Alice Childress, African American playwright, actress and young-adult novelist (born 1916)
• August 25 – Bidhyanath Pokhrel, Nepali poet (born 1918)
• September 7 – James Clavell, Australian-born American novelist (born 1921)
• November 12 – J. I. M. Stewart (Michael Innes), Scottish novelist and critic (born 1906)
• November 15 – Elizabeth George Speare, American children's writer (born 1908)
• November 28 – Ian Serraillier, English novelist and poet (born 1912)
• December 12 – Donna J. Stone, American poet and philanthropist (born 1933)
• December 20 – Eva Alexanderson, Swedish novelist and translator (born 1911)
• December 24 – John Osborne, English dramatist (born 1929)

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Kenzaburō Ōe
• Europe Theatre Prize: Heiner Müller
• Camões Prize: Jorge Amado