2016 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 2016.

Anniversaries

• January 10 – semicentenary of the publication of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.
• February 1 – 20th anniversary of the publication of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.^[1]
• February 22 – 40th anniversary of the publication of Raymond Carver's Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
• February 28 – centenary of Henry James's death in 1916.
• March 28 – 75th anniversary of the death of Virginia Woolf in 1941.
• April 3 – 25th anniversary of Graham Greene's death in 1991.
• April 12 – centenary of the birth of Beverly Cleary, American children's author
• May 21 – centenary of the birth of Harold Robbins, American novelist, who has been dubbed one of "the world's bestselling authors."^[2]
• May 28 – centenary of the birth of Walker Percy, National Book Award-winning American novelist (The Moviegoer, published 55 years ago in 1961)
• April 21 – bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë's birth in 1816.
• April 22 – 400th anniversary of Cervantes's death.^[3]
• April 23 – 400th anniversary (possibly) of Shakespeare's death.
• April 24 – Centenary of the Easter Rising in Dublin, which inspired W. B. Yeats's poem "Easter, 1916".
• July 1 – centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in which those fighting included Robert Graves, Ford Madox Ford and JRR Tolkien.
• July 14 – centenary of the birth of Natalia Ginzburg, Italian author
• September 13 – centenary of the birth of Roald Dahl, Welsh-born children's author
• September 17 – centenary of the birth of Mary Stewart (Mary Rainbow), English romantic suspense novelist
• September 28 – semicentenary of the death of André Breton, French poet, essayist and theorist; the leading exponent of Surrealism in literature
• October 3 – centenary of the birth of James Herriot (James Alfred Wight), English writer and veterinary surgeon
• October 22 – 90 years ago, Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises is published in a first edition consisting of 5090 copies, selling at $2.00 per copy.
• December 14 – centenary of the birth of Shirley Jackson, American novelist and short story writer
• December 29 – centenary of the publication of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce in book form (in New York).

New books

Dates after each title indicate U.S. publication, unless otherwise indicated:

Fiction

• Margaret Atwood – Hag-Seed (October)
• Sebastian Barry – Days Without End (October)
• Gary Barwin – Yiddish for Pirates
• Mike Binder – Keep Calm (February 2)^[4]
• Pierce Brown – Morning Star (February 9)^[5]
• Emma Donoghue, The Wonder
• Michael Helm – After James
• Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson – Navigators of Dune (September 13)
• Anosh Irani – The Parcel
• Christian Kracht – Die Toten (September 8, Germany)
• Deborah Levy – Hot Milk (March 24)
• Mike McCormack – Solar Bones (May, Republic of Ireland)
• Ian McDonald – Luna: Wolf Moon (September 27)^[6]
• Maggie O'Farrell – This Must Be the Place (May 17, UK)
• Sarah Perry – The Essex Serpent (May 27, UK)
• Kerry Lee Powell – Willem de Kooning's Paintbrush
• Steven Rowley – Lily and the Octopus (June 7)^[7]
• Ali Smith – Autumn (October 20, UK)
• Botho Strauß – Oniritti Höhlenbilder (October 10, Germany)
• David Szalay – All That Man Is (linked short stories) (April 7)
• Yasuko Thanh – Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains
• Rose Tremain – The Gustav Sonata (May 19, UK)
• Madeleine Thien – Do Not Say We Have Nothing
• Katherena Vermette – The Break
• Zoe Whittall – The Best Kind of People
• Corrina Wycoff – Damascus House (May 25)

Children and young people

• Francesca Simon – The Monstrous Child
• Maggie Stiefvater – The Raven King (last book in The Raven Cycle, April 26)
• Jacqueline Wilson – Rent a Bridesmaid (May 5)

Poetry

Drama

Non-fiction

• Keggie Carew – Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory (July 28, UK)
• John Guy – Elizabeth: the forgotten years (May 5, UK)
• Hisham Matar – The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between (June 30, UK)
• Sylvia Patterson – I'm Not with the Band: A Writer's Life Lost in Music (June 16, UK)
• Aaron Swartz – The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz

Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in literature" article:

• January 11 – Gunnel Vallquist, Swedish writer and translator (born 1918)^[8]
• January 18 – Michel Tournier, French writer, 91 (born 1924)
• February 8 – Margaret Forster, English novelist and biographer, 77 (born 1938)
• February 18 – Yūko Tsushima (津島 佑子), Japanese author, 68 (born 1947)^[9]
• February 19
  • Umberto Eco – Italian philosopher and novelist, 84 (born 1932)^[10]
  • Harper Lee – American author, 89 (born 1926)^[11]
• March 4 – Pat Conroy, American novelist, 70 (born 1945)
• March 31 – Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer and the 2002 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 86 (born 1929).
• April 3 – Lars Gustafsson, Swedish writer and scholar, novelist and poet, 79 (born 1936).
• April 6 – E. M. Nathanson, American author of The Dirty Dozen, 87 (born 1928).
• April 12 – Sir Arnold Wesker, English dramatist, 83 (born 1932)
• April 30 – Daniel Berrigan, American Jesuit priest, poet, peace activist and recidivist. Won the 1957 Lamont Prize in Poetry, 94 (born 1921)
• June 6 – Sir Peter Shaffer, English playwright, 90 (born 1926)
• June 25 – Adam Small, 79, South African writer and poet, winner of the Hertzog Prize. (born 1936).^[12]
• June 30 – Sir Geoffrey Hill, English poet, 84 (born 1932)
• July 1 – Yves Bonnefoy, French poet, 93 (born 1923)
• July 2 – Elie Wiesel, American Jewish author and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner (born 1928)^[13]
• July 14 – Péter Esterházy, Hungarian writer, 66 (born 1950).
• July 19 – Carlos Gorostiza, Argentine playwright, theatre director and novelist, 96 (born 1920)
• August 24 – Michel Butor, French essayist, novelist, critic, and a leading figure of 1950s Nouveau Roman group, 89 (born 1926)
• September 4 :
  • Isidore Okpewho, Nigerian novelist and critic, 74 (born 1941)
  • Cyril C. Perera, Sri Lankan author and translator, 93 (born 1923)
• September 16 – Edward Albee, American playwright, 88 (born 1928)
• October 13 – Dario Fo, Italian playwright and the 1997 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 90 (born 1926).
• November 10 – Francisco Nieva, Spanish playwright, novelist and short story writer, 91 (born 1924).
• November 20 – William Trevor, Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer, 88 (born 1928).

Awards

The following list is arranged alphabetically:

• Akutagawa Prize:
• Anisfield-Wolf Book Award: Mary Morris for The Jazz Palace
• Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction: Lisa McInerney, The Glorious Heresies
• Camões Prize:
• Danuta Gleed Literary Award: Heather O'Neill, Daydreams of Angels
• Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Leah Horlick
• Desmond Elliott Prize: Lisa McInerney, The Glorious Heresies
• DSC Prize for South Asian Literature:
• Dylan Thomas Prize: Max Porter, Grief is the Thing with Feathers
• Folio Prize:
• German Book Prize:
• Goldsmiths Prize: Mike McCormack, Solar Bones^[14]
• Gordon Burn Prize: David Szalay, All That Man Is^[15]
• Governor General's Award for English-language fiction: Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing
• Governor General's Award for French-language fiction: Dominique Fortier, Au péril de la mer
• Governor General's Awards, other categories: See 2016 Governor General's Awards.
• Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française:
• International Prize for Arabic Fiction:
• International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award:
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction:
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography:
• Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award:
• Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 28th Lambda Literary Awards.
• Man Booker Prize: Paul Beatty, The Sellout (first American winner)
• Man Booker International Prize: Han Kang, The Vegetarian
• Miguel de Cervantes Prize: Eduardo Mendoza
• Miles Franklin Award:
• National Biography Award:
• National Book Award for Fiction:
• National Book Critics Circle Award:
• Nike Award: Bronka Nowicka, Nakarmić kamień
• Nobel Prize in Literature: Bob Dylan
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: James Hannaham, Delicious Foods
• PEN Center USA 2016 Fiction Award:
• Premio Planeta de Novela:
• Premio Strega:
• Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing:
• Prix Goncourt:
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: to The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: to Ozone Journal by Peter Balakian
• RBC Taylor Prize:
• Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Yasuko Thanh, Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains
• Russian Booker Prize:
• Samuel Johnson Prize:
• Scotiabank Giller Prize: Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing
• Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings:
• Walter Scott Prize: to Tightrope by Simon Mawer
• Whiting Awards:

Fiction:

Nonfiction:

Plays:

Poetry:

• W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction:

Notes

• information on the Literary calendar at Books in 2016: a literary calendar | Books | The Guardian

References