This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1996.
July 1 – German orthography reform of 1996 agreed internationally.
July 8 – Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, and 30 other books, are removed from an English reading list in Lindale, Texas, because they "conflicted with the values of the community".
July 11 – At the request of Nelson Mandela, Benjamin Zephaniah hosts the president's Two Nations Concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.
October 3 – First performance of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues.
Unknown dates
In the UK, the first Orange Prize for Fiction for female novelists goes to Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter.
Peter O'Donnell publishes Cobra Trap, his final volume featuring Modesty Blaise. The first appeared in 1965.
Margaret Mitchell's lost first novella, Lost Laysen, is published 80 years after it was written.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Romance Writings, including her novel Princess Docile, are first published 234 years after her death.
Stephen Ambrose – Undaunted Courage
Anonymous (Joe Klein) – Primary Colors: a novel of politics
Jeffrey Archer – The Fourth Estate
Margaret Atwood – Alias Grace
Beryl Bainbridge – Every Man for Himself
David Baldacci – Absolute Power
Iain M. Banks – Excession
Thomas Berger – Suspects
Harold Bloom – Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection
Dionne Brand – In Another Place, Not Here
Brett Butler – Knee Deep in Paradise
Ann Chamberlin – Sofia; The Sultan's Daughter
Tom Clancy – Executive Orders
Mary Higgins Clark – Moonlight Becomes You
Joseph Connolly – This Is It
Bernard Cornwell – The Bloody Ground and Enemy of God
Douglas Coupland – Polaroids from the Dead
Amanda Craig – A Vicious Circle
Robert Crais – Sunset Express
John Darnton – Neanderthal
Donald Davidson – The Big Ballad Jamboree
Fabrizio De André – Un destino ridicolo
Seamus Deane – Reading in the Dark
Michel Déon – The Great and the Good (La Cour des grands)
Stephen R. Donaldson – The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die
Ben Elton – Popcorn
Helen Fielding – Bridget Jones' Diary
Jon Fosse – Melancholy II (Melancholia II)
Mavis Gallant – Selected Stories
John Gardner – Cold
Richard Garfinkle – Celestial Matters
Alex Garland – The Beach
William Golding – The Double Tongue
John Grisham – The Runaway Jury and Hackers (short stories)
James L. Halperin – The Truth Machine
Colin Harrison – Manhattan Nocturne
Elisabeth Harvor – Let Me Be the One (short stories)
Nancy Huston – The Goldberg Variations
Tama Janowitz – By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee
Matt Jones – Bad Therapy
Stephen King – Desperation, The Green Mile and The Regulators
Dean R. Koontz – Intensity
Michael P. Kube-McDowell – Before the Storm, Shield of Lies and Tyrant's Test
Caroline Lamarche – Le Jour du chien ("The Day of the Dog")
Hugh Laurie – The Gun Seller
John le Carré – The Tailor of Panama
Paul Leonard – Speed of Flight
Steve Lyons – Killing Ground
George R. R. Martin – A Game of Thrones
David A. McIntee – The Shadow of Weng-Chiang
Terry McMillan – How Stella Got Her Groove Back
Javier Marías – When I Was Mortal (Cuando fui mortal, short stories)
Vladimir Megre – Anastasiya
Lawrence Miles – Christmas on a Rational Planet
Rohinton Mistry – A Fine Balance
Shani Mootoo – Cereus Blooms at Night
Joyce Carol Oates – We Were the Mulvaneys
Daniel O'Mahony – The Man in the Velvet Mask
Kate Orman – Return of the Living Dad and Sleepy
Chuck Palahniuk – Fight Club
Lance Parkin – Cold Fusion and Just War
Marc Platt – Downtime
Terry Pratchett – Feet of Clay and Hogfather
Qiu Miaojin (posthumous) – Last Words from Montmartre
James Redfield – The Tenth Insight
Justin Richards – The Sands of Time
Gareth Roberts – The English Way of Death and The Plotters
Mary Rosenblum – Synthesis & Other Virtual Realities
Kristine Kathryn Rusch – The New Rebellion
Gary Russell – The Scales of Injustice
Al-Tayyib Salih – Bandarshah
Jeff Shaara – Gods and Generals
Michael Slade – Zombie and Evil Eye
Michael Stackpole – The Krytos Trap, Rogue Squadron and Wedge's Gamble
Dave Stone – Death and Diplomacy
Graham Swift – Last Orders
Guy Vanderhaeghe – The Englishman's Boy
David Foster Wallace – Infinite Jest
Children and young people
Anne Fine – The Tulip Touch
Rumer Godden
The Little Chair
Premlata and the Festival of Lights
Cockcrow to Starlight: A Day Full of Poetry (anthology)
Mark Helprin (with Chris Van Allsburg) - A City in Winter
E. T. A. Hoffmann (with Roberto Innocenti) - The Nutcracker
Michael Morpurgo – The Butterfly Lion
Jim Murphy - A YOUNG PATRIOT: The American Revolution as Experienced by One Boy
Iona Opie - My Very First Mother Goose
Philip Pullman – The Subtle Knife (second in the His Dark Materials trilogy)
Diane Stanley - Leonardo da Vinci
Various Authors (with Willi Glasauer) - Hitos y Mitos de la Literatura Fantástica|The Milestones and the Stories of Greatest Fantasy Literature
Jeff Baron – Visiting Mr. Green
Nick Enright – Blackrock
Eve Ensler – The Vagina Monologues
Pam Gems – Stanley
Ayub Khan-Din – East is East
Martin McDonagh – The Beauty Queen of Leenane
Mark Ravenhill – Shopping and Fucking
Wallace Shawn – The Designated Mourner
Joshua Sobol – Alma
Botho Strauß – Ithaka
Enda Walsh – Disco Pigs
John Berendt – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
David Chalmers – The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory
Norman Davies – Europe: A History
Richard Dawkins – Climbing Mount Improbable
Alan Downs – Corporate Executions: the Ugly Truth about Downsizing – How Corporate Greed is Shattering Lives, Companies, and Communities
Daniel Goleman – Emotional Intelligence
Samuel P. Huntington – The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Richard Mabey – Flora Britannica
Howard Marks – Mr Nice
Gabriel García Márquez – News of a Kidnapping (Noticia de un secuestro)
Anne Mullens – Timely Death
January 5 – Lincoln Kirstein, American writer and impresario (born 1907)
January 16 – Kaye Webb, English publisher and journalist (born 1914)
January 21 – Efua Sutherland, Ghanaian dramatist, poet and children's author (born 1924)
January 27 – Barbara Skelton, English fiction writer, memoirist and literary figure (born 1916)
January 28
Jerry Siegel, American cartoonist (born 1914)
Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (myocardial infarction, born 1940)
February 11
Bob Shaw, Northern Irish science fiction writer (born 1931)
Amelia Rosselli, Italian poet (born 1930)
February 18 – Cathal Ó Sándair, Irish-language novelist (born 1922)
March 3 – Marguerite Duras, French dramatist and film director (born 1914)
March 15 – Wolfgang Koeppen, German novelist (born 1906)
March 18 – Odysseas Elytis, Greek writer and Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)
March 22 – Ian Stephens, Canadian poet (year of birth not known)
March 29 – Frank Daniel, Czech-born screenwriter, director, producer and teacher (born 1926)
March 31 – Dario Bellezza, Italian poet and dramatist (HIV, born 1944)
April 16 – Leila Mackinlay, British romantic novelist (born 1910)
April 20 – Christopher Robin Milne, English writer and bookseller (born 1920)
April 22 – Erma Bombeck, American humorist and writer (born 1927)
April 23 – P. L. Travers, Australian-born children's writer (born 1899)
May 8 – Larry Levis, American poet, author, and critic (b. 1946)
May 24 – Joseph Mitchell, American journalist (born 1908)
May 26
Ovidiu Papadima, Romanian critic and essayist (born 1909)
Margaret Douglas-Home, English writer and musician (born 1906)
May 31 – Timothy Leary, American writer (born 1920)
June 2 – Leon Garfield, English children's author (born 1921)
June 14 – Gesualdo Bufalino, Italian novelist (born 1920)
June 15 – Fitzroy Maclean, Scottish political writer, autobiographer and diplomat (born 1911)
June 26 – Veronica Guerin, Irish crime reporter (murdered, born 1958)
July 10 – Eno Raud, Estonian children's author (born 1928)
July 22 – Jessica Mitford, Anglo-American author, journalist and campaigner (born 1917)
September 29 – Shusaku Endo (遠藤 周作), Japanese novelist (born 1923)
October 16 – Eric Malpass, English novelist (born 1910)
October 24 – Sorley Maclean, Gaelic poet (born 1911)
December 9 – Diana Morgan, Welsh playwright and screenwriter (born 1908)
December 12 – Vance Packard, American journalist and social critic (born 1914)
December 16 – Quentin Bell, English biographer and art historian (born 1910)
December 20 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist and writer (born 1934)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Wislawa Szymborska
Camões Prize: Eduardo Lourenço
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Bernard Cohen, The Blindman's Hat
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Peter Bakowski, In the Human Night
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Eric Beach, Weeping for Lost Babylon
Mary Gilmore Prize: Jordie Albiston, Nervous Arcs
Miles Franklin Award: Christopher Koch, Highways to a War
Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award
Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Margaret Atwood: – Alias Grace
See 1996 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: George G. Blackburn, The Guns of Normandy
Prix Goncourt: Pascale Roze, Le Chasseur Zéro
Prix Décembre: Régis Debray, Loués soient nos seigneurs: une éducation politique
Prix Médicis French: Orlanda – Jacqueline Harpman and L'Organisation – Jean Rolin
Prix Médicis International: Himmelfarb – Michael Kruger, Germany and Sonietchka – Ludmila Oulitskaïa, Russia
Booker Prize: Graham Swift, Last Orders
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Melvin Burgess, Junk
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Graham Swift, Last Orders, and Alice Thompson, Justine
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life
Cholmondeley Award: Elizabeth Bartlett, Dorothy Nimmo, Peter Scupham, Iain Crichton Smith
Eric Gregory Award: Sue Butler, Cathy Cullis, Jane Griffiths, Jane Holland, Chris Jones, Sinéad Morrissey, Kate Thomas
Orange Prize for Fiction: Helen Dunmore, A Spell of Winter
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Peter Redgrove
Whitbread Best Book Award: Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Helen Conkling, Red Peony Night
Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: John Voiklis, "The Princeling's Apology", and (separately) Sarah Arvio, "Visits from the Seventh"
Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Kenneth Koch, One Train
Compton Crook Award: Daniel Graham Jr., The Gatekeepers
Hugo Award: Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
National Book Award: Andrea Barrett, Ship Fever and Other Stories
National Book Critics Circle Award: for Fiction Gina Berriault, Women in Their Beds
National Book Critics Circle Award: for Poetry William Matthews, Time and Money
National Book Critics Circle Award: for General nonfiction Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action
National Book Critics Circle Award: for Biography Robert Polito, Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson
Nebula Award: Nicola Griffith, Slow River
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Karen Cushman, The Midwife's Apprentice
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Richard Ford, Independence Day
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Jonathan Larson, Rent
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Richard Ford – Independence Day
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Jorie Graham: The Dream of the Unified Field
Wallace Stevens Award: Adrienne Rich
Whiting Awards:
Fiction: Anderson Ferrell, Cristina García, Molly Gloss, Brian Kiteley, Chris Offutt (fiction/nonfiction), Judy Troy, A.J. Verdelle
Nonfiction: Patricia Storace (nonfiction/poetry)
Poetry: Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Elizabeth Spires
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: David Malouf, Remembering Babylon
Premio Nadal: Pedro Maestre, Matando dinosaurios con tirachinas
1996 in literature Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA