2004 in literature

Events

January – Poet Jang Jin-sung, in trouble with the North Korean authorities, defects to South Korea.

February 16 – Edwin Morgan becomes Scotland's first ever official national poet, The Scots Makar, appointed by the Scottish Parliament.

May 23 – Seattle Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, is opened to the public.

June 1 – Sasebo slashing: Controversy briefly surrounds Koushun Takami's Battle Royale, when an 11-year-old fan of the story murders her classmate, 12-year-old Satomi Mitarai, in a way that mimics a scene from the story, in Sasebo, Nagasaki.

October 14 – Edinburgh becomes UNESCO's first City of Literature.

October 31 – Publication in Paris by Denoël of Irène Némirovsky's Suite française, two novellas (Tempête en juin and Dolce) written and set in 1940–41 from a sequence left unfinished on the author's death in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.

December 18 – The première of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's play Behzti ("Dishonour") at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre (England) is cancelled as a result of violent protests by members of the local Sikh community.

date unknown

Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation.

The typeface Calibri, designed by Luc(as) de Groot, is introduced.

Fiction

Cecelia Ahern – PS, I Love You

C.C. Allentini – Dead of Winter

Germano Almeida – O mar na Lajinha

John Ames – Wake Up Sir!

R. Scott Bakker – The Darkness That Comes Before

Blue Balliett – Chasing Vermeer

Iain M. Banks – The Algebraist

Steven Barnes – The Cestus Deception

Mary Bartek – Funerals and Fly Fishing

Alistair Beaton – A Planet for the President

Thomas Berger – Adventures of the Artificial Woman

Louis de Bernières – Birds Without Wings

Roberto Bolaño (d. 2003) – 2666

T. C. Boyle – The Inner Circle

Gennifer Choldenko – Al Capone Does My Shirts

Stephen Clarke – A Year in the Merde

Susanna Clarke – Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Wendy Coakley-Thompson – Back to Life

Allison Hedge Coke – Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer

Suzanne Collins – Gregor the Overlander

J. J. Connelly – Layer Cake

Afua Cooper – The Hanging of Angelique

Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Escape

The Last Kingdom

Douglas Coupland – Eleanor Rigby

Stevie Davies – Kith & Kin

L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg – Sagas of Conan

Michel Déon – Your Father's Room

Cory Doctorow – Eastern Standard Tribe

Ben Elton – Past Mortem

Gustav Ernst – Grado. Süße Nacht

Giorgio Faletti – Niente di vero tranne gli occhi

Karen Joy Fowler – The Jane Austen Book Club

Ge Fei (格非) – 人面桃花 (Renmian Taohua, Peach Blossom Beauty)

Robert Goddard – Play to the End

Adrien Goetz – La Dormeuse de Naples

Helon Habila – Waiting for an Angel

Elisabeth Harvor, All Times Have Been Modern (Canada)

Michael Helm – In the Place of Last Things

Carl Hiaasen – Skinny Dip

Alan Hollinghurst – The Line of Beauty

Jiang Rong – Wolf Totem

Cynthia Kadohata – Kira-Kira

Mitsuyo Kakuta (角田 光代) – Woman on the Other Shore

Peg Kehret – Escaping the Giant Wave

Thomas Keneally – The Tyrant's Novel

Stephen King

The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah

The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

John Kiriamiti – My Life in Prison

Karl Ove Knausgård – A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven

László Krasznahorkai – Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens

David Leavitt – The Body of Jonah Boyd

Tanith Lee – Piratica

David Lodge – Author, Author

Henning Mankell – Depths

David Michaels – Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

David Mitchell – Cloud Atlas

Aka Morchiladze – Santa Esperanza

Bharati Mukherjee – The Tree Bride

Alice Munro – Runaway

Garth Nix – Grim Tuesday

Cees Nooteboom – Lost Paradise

Daniel Olivas – Devil Talk: Stories

Linda Sue Park – When My Name Was Keoko

Jodi Picoult – My Sister's Keeper

Terry Pratchett

A Hat Full of Sky

Going Postal

Michael Reaves and Steve Perry – MedStar I: Battle Surgeons and MedStar II: Jedi Healer

Marilynne Robinson – Gilead

Philip Roth – The Plot Against America

Edward Rutherfurd – Dublin: Foundation

Nick Sagan – Edenborn

David Sherman and Dan Cragg – Jedi Trial

Kyle Smith – Love Monkey

David Southwell – Conspiracy Files

Muriel Spark – The Finishing School

Olen Steinhauer – The Confession

Neal Stephenson

The Confusion (Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle)

The System of the World (Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle)

Sean Stewart – Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

Thomas Sullivan – Dust of Eden

Michel Thaler – Le Train de Nulle Part

Colm Tóibín – The Master

Karen Traviss – Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact

Jonathan Trigell – Boy A

Andrew Vachss – Down Here

Vivian Vande Velde – Heir Apparent

Bob Weltlich – Crooked Zebra

A. N. Wilson – My Name Is Legion

Michael Winter – The Big Why

Carlos Ruiz Zafon – The Shadow of the Wind

Juli Zeh – Gaming Instinct

Florian Zeller – La Fascination du pire (The Fascination of Evil)

Children and young people

David Almond - Kate, the Cat and the Moon

John Fardell – The Seven Professors of the Far North

Mem Fox - Where Is the Green Sheep?

Virginia Hamilton (with Barry Moser) - Wee Winnie Witch's Skinny: An Original African American Scare Tale

Robert Muchamore – The Recruit (first in the CHERUB series)

Jenny Nimmo - Charlie Bone and the Blue Boa

Lemony Snicket – The Grim Grotto

Dugald Steer (with Nghiem Ta, etc.) - Egyptology: Search for the Tomb of Osiris

Drama

Alan Bennett – The History Boys

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti – Behzti

Neil Brand – Stan (radio)

Bryony Lavery – Frozen

Brent Hartinger – Geography Club

Louis Nowra – The Woman with Dog's Eyes

John Patrick Shanley – Doubt

Florian Zeller – L'Autre (The Other)

Poetry

Seamus Heaney – Beacons of Bealtaine

Non-fiction

Thomas P.M. Barnett – The Pentagon's New Map

Ingmar and Ingrid Bergman and Maria von Rosen – Tre dagböcker ("Three diaries")

T. Mike Childs – The Rocklopedia Fakebandica

Richard A. Clarke – Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror

Jonathan Coe – Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson

Anne Coleman – I'll Tell You a Secret

Flora Fraser – Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III

Leonie Frieda – Catherine de' Medici

Sheila Hancock – The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw

Allison Hedge Coke – Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer

Pedro Lemebel – Adiós mariquita linda

Predrag Miletić – Biciklom do Hilandara

Lawrence Lessig – Free Culture

Roger Lowenstein – Origins of the Crash

Farah Pahlavi – An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah

Chuck Palahniuk – Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories

Michael Palin – Himalaya

Sethy Regenvanu – Laef blong mi (From village to nation: an autobiography)

Anita Roddick – Take it Personally: How globalization affects you and powerful ways to challenge it

Miranda Seymour – The Bugatti Queen: In Search of a Motor-Racing Legend

Owen Sheers – The Dust Diaries

Ben Stein – Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, The Truth, and What to Do About It

Jon Stewart and writers of The Daily Show – America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction

Milt Thomas – Cave of a Thousand Tales

J. Maarten Troost – The Sex Lives of Cannibals

Mario Vargas Llosa – The Temptation of the Impossible

Francis Wheen – How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World (also Idiot Proof: A Short History of Modern Delusions)

United Kingdom Government – Delivering Security in a Changing World

Deaths

January 3 – Lillian Beckwith, English novelist (born 1916)

January 4

John Toland, American author and historian (born 1912)

Joan Aiken, English novelist and children's writer (born 1924)

Jeff Nuttall, English poet, artist and activist (born 1933)

January 10

Alexandra Ripley, American novelist (born 1934)

(or January 11) Spalding Gray, American writer and actor (born 1942)

January 13 – Zeno Vendler, American philosopher and linguist (born 1921)

January 14 – Jack Cady, American fantasy and horror novelist (born 1932)

January 15

Olivia Goldsmith, American novelist (complications from cosmetic surgery, born 1949)

Alex Barris, Canadian actor and writer (born 1922)

January 29

M. M. Kaye, Indian-born English novelist (born 1908)

Janet Frame, New Zealand novelist, poet and short story writer (born 1924)

February 2 – Alan Bullock, English historian (born 1914)

February 4 – Hilda Hilst, Brazilian poet, playwright and novelist (born 1930)

February 5 – Frances Partridge, English diarist (born 1900)

February 7 – Norman Thelwell, English cartoonist (born 1923)

February 17 – Bruce Beaver, Australian poet and novelist (born 1928)

February 27 – Paul Sweezy, American economist and editor (born 1910)

February 28 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian (born 1914)

February 29 – Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (born 1915)

March 9 – Albert Mol, Dutch author, actor and dancer (born 1917)

March 27 – Robert Merle, French novelist (born 1908)

March 29 – Peter Ustinov, English actor, dramatist and memoirist (born 1921)

March 30

Dr Michael King OBE, New Zealand historian, author and biographer (born 1945)

Alistair Cooke, English-born American journalist and broadcaster (born 1908)

April 19

Norris McWhirter, English writer and activist (born 1925)

John Maynard Smith, English evolutionary biologist and writer (born 1920)

April 25 – Thom Gunn, English poet (born 1929)

April 26 – Hubert Selby, Jr., American author (born 1928)

May 2 – Paul Guimard, French writer (born 1921)

May 12 – Syd Hoff, American author and illustrator (born 1912)

July 1 – Peter Barnes, English playwright (born 1931)

July 8 – Paula Danziger, American children's and young adult novelist (born 1945)

August 8 – Farida Diouri, Moroccan novelist (born 1953)

August 12 – Humayun Azad, Bangladeshi author, poet, scholar and linguist (born 1947)

August 14 – Czesław Miłosz, Polish writer and Nobel laureate (born 1911

September 18 – Norman Cantor, Canadian historian (born 1929)

September 24 – Françoise Sagan, French novelist (born 1935)

September 28 – Mulk Raj Anand, Indian novelist in English (born 1905)

October – Natalya Baranskaya, Russian short-story writer (born 1908)

October 8 – Jacques Derida, Algerian-born French literary critic (born 1930)

October 13 – Bernice Rubens, Welsh-born novelist (born 1928)

October 16

Vincent Brome, English biographer and novelist (born 1910)

Harold Perkin, English social historian (born 1926)

October 20 – Anthony Hecht, American poet (born 1923)

November 9 – Stieg Larsson, Swedish journalist and crime novelist (heart attack, born 1954)

November 24 – Arthur Hailey, Canadian novelist (born 1920)

December 2 – Mona Van Duyn, American poet (born 1921)

December 8 – Jackson Mac Low, American poet (born 1922)

December 12 – Phaswane Mpe, South African novelist (born 1970)

December 18 – Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (born 1926)

December 28 – Susan Sontag, American novelist (born 1933)

Awards

Nobel Prize for Literature: Elfriede Jelinek

Camões Prize: Agustina Bessa-Luís

Australia

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Julienne van Loon, Road Story

Victorian Premier's Literary Award C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Judith Beveridge, Wolf Notes

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Pam Brown, Dear Deliria: New & Selected Poems

Mary Gilmore Prize: David McCooey, Blister Pack; Michael Brennan, Imageless World

Miles Franklin Award: Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire

Victorian Premier's Literary Award Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction: Annamarie Jagose, Slow Water

Canada

Giller Prize: Alice Munro, Runaway

Governor General's Awards: See 2004 Governor General's Awards

Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Simpson, Loop and August Kleinzahler, The Strange Hours Travelers Keep

Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Andrea Curtis, Into the Blue

United Kingdom

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions

Cholmondeley Award: John Agard, Ruth Padel Lawrence Sail, Eva Salzman

Eric Gregory Award: Nick Laird, Elizabeth Manuel, Abi Curtis, Sophie Levy, Saradha Soobrayen

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Jonathan Bate, John Clare: A Biography

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: David Peace, GB84

Man Booker Prize: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty

Orange Prize for Fiction: Andrea Levy, Small Island

Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Hugo Williams

Whitbread Best Book Award: Andrea Levy, Small Island

United States

Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Henry Taylor

Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Aaron Smith, Blue on Blue Ground

Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Jeremy Glazier, "Conversations with the Sidereal Messenger"

Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: B.H. Fairchild, Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest

Brittingham Prize in Poetry: John Brehm, Sea of Faith

Compton Crook Award: E. E. Knight, Way of the Wolf

Frost Medal: Richard Howard

Hugo Award for Best Novel: Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls

Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2004 Lambda Literary Awards.

National Book Award for Fiction: to The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck

National Book Critics Circle Award: to Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to The Early Stories: 1953–1975 by John Updike

Wallace Stevens Award: Mark Strand

Whiting Awards:

Fiction: Daniel Alarcon, Kirsten Bakis, Victor LaValle Nonfiction: Allison Glock, John Jeremiah Sullivan Plays: Elana Greenfield, Tracey Scott Wilson Poetry: Catherine Barnett, Dan Chiasson, A. Van Jordan

Elsewhere

Premio Nadal: Antonio Soler, El camino de los ingleses