2000 in literature

Events

February – El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore takes over the Teatro Gran Splendid in Buenos Aires.

February 13 – Final original Peanuts comic strip is published.

March 14 – Stephen King's novella Riding the Bullet is published in e-book format only, the world's first mass-market electronic book.

September 26 – English writer and politician Jeffrey Archer is charged with perjury and opens in the title role of his courtroom drama The Accused.

December 15 – In the landmark censorship case of Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada (Minister of Justice), the Supreme Court of Canada rules that Canada Customs does not have the authority to make its own judgments about the permissibility of material being shipped to retailers but is permitted to confiscate only material that has specifically been ruled by the courts to constitute an offence under the Canadian Criminal Code.

Fiction

Reed Arvin – The Will

Margaret Atwood – The Blind Assassin

Louis Auchincloss – Her Infinite Variety

Trezza Azzopardi – The Hiding Place

Iain M. Banks – Look to Windward

Russell Banks – The Angel on the Roof

Matt Beaumont – e

Raymond Benson – Doubleshot

Ben Bova – Jupiter

T. C. Boyle – A Friend of the Earth

Dan Brown – Angels & Demons

Jim Butcher – Storm Front

Peter Carey – True History of the Kelly Gang

Michael Chabon – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel

Tom Clancy – The Bear And The Dragon

Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark – Deck The Halls

Miriam Cooke – Hayati, My Life

Bernard Cornwell – Harlequin (also The Archer's Tale)

Patricia Cornwell – The Last Precinct

Mark Z. Danielewski – House of Leaves

August Derleth – The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus Edition

Ken Follett – Code to Zero

Jon Fosse – Morning and Evening

David S. Garnett – Bikini Planet

Amitav Ghosh – The Glass Palace

Myla Goldberg – Bee Season

Linda Grant – When I Lived in Modern Times

John Grisham – The Brethren

Mohsin Hamid – Moth Smoke

Joanne Harris – Blackberry Wine

Elisabeth Harvor – Excessive Joy Injures the Heart

Joseph Heller – Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man

Kazuo Ishiguro – When We Were Orphans

Elfriede Jelinek – Greed

Robert Jordan – Winter's Heart

Barbara Kingsolver – Prodigal Summer

Sophie Kinsella – The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic

Andrus Kivirähk – Rehepapp ehk November ("Old Barny or November")

Joe R. Lansdale

The Bottoms

The Big Blow

Mario Vargas Llosa – The Feast of the Goat (La fiesta del chivo)

Robert Ludlum – The Prometheus Deception

Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

The Indwelling

The Mark

Barry N. Malzberg – In the Stone House

Colleen McCullough – Morgan's Run

Alistair MacLeod – Island

Patrick Maher – Candid Confessions

Juliet Marillier – Son of the Shadows

George R. R. Martin – A Storm of Swords

Zakes Mda – The Heart of Redness

Joyce Carol Oates – Blonde

Kenzaburō Ōe (大江 健三郎) – The Changeling (取り替え子 (チェンジリング, Torikae ko [Chenjiringu])

Daniel Olivas – The Courtship of María Rivera Peña

Robert B. Parker – Hugger Mugger

James Patterson – Roses are Red

Rosamunde Pilcher – Winter Solstice

Giuseppe Pontiggia – Nati due volte (Born Twice)

Terry Pratchett – The Truth

Mario Puzo – Omertà

Jean Raspail – Le Roi au-delà de la mer

Kathy Reichs – Deadly Decisions

Philip Roth – The Human Stain

Peter Ruber editor – Arkham's Masters of Horror

Jean-Jacques Schuhl – Ingrid Caven

Christina Schwarz – Drowning Ruth

Helen Simpson – Hey Yeah Right Get A Life

Michael Slade – Hangman

Gillian Slovo – Red Dust

Zadie Smith – White Teeth

Muriel Spark – Aiding and Abetting

Michael Stackpole

Dark Tide: Onslaught

Dark Tide: Ruin

Domenico Starnone – Via Gemito

Danielle Steel

The House On Hope Street

Journey

Kathy Tyers – Balance Point

Andrew Vachss – Dead and Gone

David Whiteland – Book of Pages

Children and young people

David Almond - Counting Stars

Deborah Ellis – The Breadwinner (also Parvana, first in the Breadwinner series of four books)

Jamila Gavin – Coram Boy

Jim Murphy - BLIZZARD! The Storm That Changed America.

Beverley Naidoo – The Other Side of Truth

Philip Pullman – The Amber Spyglass

J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Jacqueline Wilson – Vicky Angel

Drama

David Auburn – Proof

Timothy Findley – Elizabeth Rex

Tanika Gupta – The Waiting Room

Dusty Hughes – Helpless

Joe Penhall – Blue/Orange

Poetry

Anne Carson – Men in the Off Hours

Paul Celan – Glottal Stop: 101 Poems by Paul Celan (translated by Heather McHugh and Nikolai Popov)

Fanny Howe – Fanny Howe: Selected Poems

Pierre Labrie – À tout hasard

Grazyna Miller – Sull'onda del respiro (On the Wave of Breath)

Owen Sheers – The Blue Book

Dejan Stojanović

Znak i njegova deca (The Sign and Its Children)

Oblik (The Shape)

Tvoritelj (The Creator)

Krugovanje (Circling), 3rd ed.

Non-fiction

Peter Ackroyd – London: A Biography

Martin Amis – Experience

Mark Buchanan – Ubiquity: The Science of History

Michael Burleigh – The Third Reich: A New History

Gerina Dunwich – Your Magickal Cat: Feline Magick, Lore, and Worship

Dave Eggers – A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Charles Foster – Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood

Taras Grescoe – Sacré Blues

Will Hutton – The World We're In

Lawrence Lessig – Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

Roger Lowenstein – When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

Sidney Poitier – The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

Paul H. Ray – The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World

Diane Stanley - Michelangelo

Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee – Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe

Michael White – Leonardo: the First Scientist

Bruce Wilkinson – The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life

The Beatles Anthology

Deaths

January 2 – Patrick O'Brian (Richard Patrick Russ), English historical novelist (born 1914)

January 26

Kathleen Hale, English children's author and illustrator (born 1898)

A. E. van Vogt, Canadian American science fiction author (born 1912)

January 31 – Gil Kane, Latvian American comic book writer (born 1926)

February 12 – Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist (born 1922)

March 28 – Anthony Powell, English novelist (born 1905)

April 13 – Giorgio Bassani, Italian writer (born 1916)

April 15 – Edward Gorey, American illustrator and writer (born 1925)

April 28 – Penelope Fitzgerald, English novelist, poet and biographer (born 1916)

May 21 – Dame Barbara Cartland, English novelist and playwright (born 1901)

August 3 – Michael Meyer, English translator and biographer (born 1921)

August 25 – Carl Barks, American illustrator (born 1901)

September 3 – Jack Simmons, English historian (born 1915)

September 7 – Sir Malcolm Bradbury, English novelist and critic (born 1932)

September 14 – Hwang Sun-won, Korean fiction writer (born 1915)

October 8 – Charlotte Lamb (Sheila Holland, Sheila Coates, etc.), English romantic novelist (born 1937)

October 30 – Steve Allen, American writer, television presenter and songwriter (born 1921)

November 2 – Robert Cormier, American young adult fiction writer (born 1925)

November 6 – L. Sprague de Camp, American sci-fi, fantasy and science writer (born 1907)

Awards

Nobel Prize for Literature: Gao Xingjian

Camões Prize: Autran Dourado

Australia

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Stephen Gray, The Artist is a Thief

C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: John Millett, Iceman

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Jennifer Maiden, Mines

Mary Gilmore Prize: Lucy Dougan, Memory Shell

Miles Franklin Award: Tie: Thea Astley, Drylands; Kim Scott, Benang

Canada

Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost – tied with: David Adams Richards, Mercy Among the Children

See 2000 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Wayson Choy, Paper Shadows

France

Prix Femina: Camille Laurens, Dans ces bras-là

Prix Goncourt: Jean-Jacques Schuhl, Ingrid Caven

Prix Décembre: Anthony Palou, Camille

Prix Médicis French: Armelle Lebras-Chopard, Le zoo des philosophes

Prix Médicis Non-Fiction: Yann Apperry, Diabolus in musica

Prix Médicis International: Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost

Serbia

Rastko Petrović Award: Dejan Stojanović, Conversations ("Razgovori")

United Kingdom

Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature (first award): Howard Jacobson, The Mighty Walzer

Booker Prize: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Zadie Smith, White Teeth

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Martin Amis, Experience

Cholmondeley Award: Alistair Elliot, Michael Hamburger, Adrian Henri, Carole Satyamurti

Eric Gregory Award: Eleanor Margolies, Antony Rowland, Antony Dunn, Karen Goodwin, Clare Pollard

Orange Prize for Fiction: Linda Grant, When I Lived in Modern Times

Samuel Johnson Prize: David Cairns, Berlioz: Volume 2

Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Edwin Morgan

Whitbread Best Book Award: Matthew Kneale, English Passengers

United States

Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Quan Barry for Asylum

Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, Eleanor Ross Taylor

Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Corey Marks, "Renunciation", and (separately) Christopher Patton, "Broken Ground"

Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, David Ferry for Of No Country I Know: New and Selected Poems and Translations

Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Greg Rappleye, A Path Between Houses

Business Week Best Book of the Year: Roger Lowenstein, When Genius Failed

Compton Crook Award: Stephen L. Burns, Flesh and Silver

Edgar Award: Joe R. Lansdale, The Bottoms

Frost Medal: Anthony Hecht

Hugo Award: Vernor Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky

National Book Award for Fiction: to In America by Susan Sontag

National Book Critics Circle Award: to Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover

Nebula Award: Greg Bear, Darwin's Radio

Newbery Medal for children's literature: Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Waiting by Ha Jin

Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Donald Margulies, Dinner With Friends

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: C.K. Williams, Repair

Wallace Stevens Award: Frank Bidart

Whiting Awards:

Fiction: Robert Cohen, Samantha Gillison, Lily King, John McManus, Colson WhiteheadNonfiction: Andrew X. PhamPlays: Kelly StuartPoetry: Albert Mobilio (poetry/fiction), James Thomas Stevens, Claude Wilkinson

Other

Finlandia Prize: Johanna Sinisalo Not Before Sunset (Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi)

IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Nicola Barker, Wide Open

Premio Nadal: Lorenzo Silva, El alquimista impaciente

Viareggio Prize: Giorgio van Straten, Il mio nome a memoria and Sandro Veronesi, La forza del passato

In literature

Edward Bellamy's novel Looking Backward (1888) is set in this year.