2005 in literature

Events

January 16 – 400th anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes' publication of the first part of Don Quixote in Spain.

February 25 – Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation.

March 26 – Classic British science fiction series Doctor Who returns to television with a script by Russell T Davies, the executive producer.

April 23 – The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec's Grande Bibliothèque is opened.

June 13 – Poet Dannie Abse is injured and his wife Joan is killed in an accident on the M4 in South Wales.

August 15 – An integrated National Library of Norway opens to readers in Oslo for the first time.

Fiction

Tariq Ali – A Sultan in Palermo

Rajaa Alsanea – Girls of Riyadh (بنات الرياض, Banat al-Riyadh)

Avi – Never Mind

Tash Aw – The Harmony Silk Factory

Steve Aylett – Lint

John Banville – The Sea

Sebastian Barry – A Long Long Way

Nelson Bond – Other Worlds Than Ours

Dionne Brand – What We All Long For

Orson Scott Card – Magic Street and Shadow of the Giant

Rita Chowdhury – Deo Langkhui

Wendy Coakley-Thompson – What You Won't Do for Love

Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception

Bernard Cornwell – The Pale Horseman

Colin Cotterill – Thirty-Three Teeth

Robert Crais – The Forgotten Man

Mitch Cullin – A Slight Trick of the Mind

Michael Cunningham – Specimen Days

Rana Dasgupta – Tokyo Cancelled

Lindsey Davis – See Delphi and Die

Abha Dawesar – Babyji

L. Sprague de Camp – Years in the Making: the Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp

Troy Denning

The Joiner King

The Swarm War

'The Unseen Queen

Bret Easton Ellis – Lunar Park

Alicia Erian – Towelhead

Sebastian Faulks – Human Traces

Juan Francisco Ferré – La fiesta del asno

Amanda Filipacchi – Love Creeps

Nicci French – Catch Me When I Fall

Gayleen Froese – Touch

David Gibbins – Atlantis

Kate Grenville – The Secret River (Melbourne, Vic: Text Publishing)

Joanne Harris – Gentlemen & Players

Carl Hiaasen – Flush

Charlie Higson – SilverFin

Peter Hobbs – The Short Day Dying

John Irving – Until I Find You

Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go

Uzodinma Iweala – Beasts of No Nation

Rabee Jaber – بيريتوس: مدينة تحت الأرض (Byretus Madinat Taht al-Ard, Byretus Underground City)

Raymond Khoury – The Last Templar

Stephen King – The Colorado Kid

Dean Koontz – Velocity

Elizabeth Kostova – The Historian

Stieg Larsson – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Marina Lewycka – A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

James Luceno

Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader

Labyrinth of Evil

Mike McCormack – Notes from a Coma

Ian McEwan – Saturday

Kevin MacNeil – The Stornoway Way

Gregory Maguire – Son of a Witch

Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Stephenie Meyer – Twilight

David Michaels – Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda

Robert Muchamore

Maximum Security

The Killing

Péter Nádas – Parallel Stories

Garth Nix – Drowned Wednesday

Chuck Palahniuk – Haunted

Christopher Paolini – Eldest

Robert B. Parker – School Days

Ruth Rendell – End in Tears

Salman Rushdie – Shalimar the Clown

Darren Shan – Lord Loss (first of The Demonata series)

Michael Slade – Swastika

Zadie Smith – On Beauty

Olen Steinhauer – 36 Yalta Boulevard

Matthew Stover – Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Thomas Sullivan – Second Soul

Jean-François Susbielle – La Morsure du dragon

Vikas Swarup – Q & A

Rupert Thomson – Divided Kingdom

Harry Turtledove (editor) – The Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de Camp

Andrew Vachss – Two Trains Running

Catherynne M. Valente – Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams

Michal Viewegh – Lekce tvůrčího psaní

Narayan Wagle – Palpasa Cafe (पल्पसा क्याफे)

David Weber – At All Costs

Samantha Weinberg – The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel

Kirby Wright – Punahou Blues

Markus Zusak – The Book Thief

Children and young people

Judy Allen (with Jonathan Stroud, etc.) – Fantasy Encyclopedia

Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors

Jane O'Connor – Fancy Nancy (first in a series of over 70 books)

Margie Palatini (with Barry Moser) - The Three Silly Billies

Rick Riordan – The Lightning Thief

J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir – Þriðja táknið (Last Rituals)

Lemony Snicket – The Penultimate Peril

Dugald Steer (with Nghiem Ta, etc.) – Wizardology: The Book of the Secrets of Merlin

Scott Westerfeld – Uglies (first in the Uglies series of four books)

Drama

Catherine Filloux – Lemkin's House

debbie tucker green

stoning mary

generations

Oleg Kagan – The Black Hat

Carlos Lacamara – Nowhere on the Border

The Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble – Wounded

Vern Thiessen – Shakespeare's Will

Laura Wade

Colder Than Here

Breathing Corpses

Vincent Woods – A Cry from Heaven

Non-fiction

Francis Chalifour – After

Jung Chang & Jon Halliday – Mao: The Unknown Story

Theodore Dalrymple – Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses

Michel Déon – Horseman, Pass By! (Cavalier, passe ton chemin!)

Jared Diamond – Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Joan Didion – The Year of Magical Thinking

Amir-Abbas Fakhravar – Still, the Scraps of Prison (هنوز هم؛ ورق پاره های زندان)

Robert Fisk – The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East

John Grogan – Marley & Me

Tom Holland – Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

Tony Judt – Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

Lawrence M. Krauss – Hiding in the Mirror

Mark Levin – Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America

Alexander Masters – Stuart: A Life Backwards

Azadeh Moaveni – Lipstick Jihad

Peter C. Newman – The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister

Lisa Randall – Warped Passages

Jean Raspail – En Canot sur les chemins d'eau du Roi

James S. Shapiro – 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare

Masamune Shirow – Ghost in the Shell 2: Man/Machine Interface

Rebecca Solnit – A Field Guide to Getting Lost

David Southwell – Secrets and Lies

James B. Stewart – DisneyWar

Từ điển Bách khoa toàn thư Việt Nam (encyclopedia)

Deaths

January 7 – Pierre Daninos, French novelist (born 1913)

January 14 – Charlotte MacLeod, American mystery writer (born 1922)

January 15

Elizabeth Janeway, American feminist author (born 1913)

Walter Ernsting, German science fiction author (born 1920)

January 19 – K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (suicide, born 1974)

January 20 – Roland Frye, American theologian and critic (born 1921)

January 21

John L. Hess, American journalist and critic (born 1917)

Theun de Vries, Dutch writer and poet (born 1907)

January 24 – Vladimir Savchenko, Ukrainian science fiction writer (born 1933)

January 25 – Max Velthuijs, Dutch writer and illustrator

January 29 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli satirist, dramatist, and screenwriter (born 1924)

February 10 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (born 1915)

February 11 – Jack L. Chalker, American science fiction writer (born 1944)

February 20 – Hunter S. Thompson, American writer, creator of Gonzo journalism (born 1937)

February 21 – Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (born 1929)

February 25 – Phoebe Hesketh, English poet (born 1909)

March 7 – Willis Hall, English playwright (born 1929)

March 8 – Anna Haycraft, English novelist (born 1932)

March 10 – Patience Gray, English cookery and travel writer (born 1917)

March 17 – Andre Norton, American science fiction writer (born 1912)

March 22 – Anthony Creighton, English playwright (born 1922)

March 30 – Robert Creeley, American poet (born 1926)

April 5 – Saul Bellow, Canadian writer (born 1915)

April 7 – Yvonne Vera, Zimbabwean novelist (meningitis, born 1964)

April 26 – Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan novelist (born 1917)

May 7 – Tristan Egolf, American novelist (suicide, born 1971)

June 9 – Hovis Presley, English poet (heart attack, born 1960)

June 14 – Norman Levine, Canadian short story writer (born 1923)

June 16 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican novelist (born 1905)

June 20 – Larry Collins, American novelist (born 1929)

June 22 – William Donaldson, English satirist (born 1935)

June 27 – Shelby Foote, American novelist (born 1916)

June 28 – Philip Hobsbaum, Scottish poet and critic (born 1932)

June 30 – Christopher Fry, English dramatist (born 1907)

July 6

Claude Simon, French Nobel laureate in literature (born 1913)

Evan Hunter, American novelist (born 1926)

July 7 – Gustaf Sobin, American poet (born 1935)

July 17 – Gavin Lambert, English novelist and biographer (born 1924)

July 19 – Edward Bunker, American crime writer (born 1933)

August 9 – Judith Rossner, American novelist (born 1935)

August 16 – William Corlett, English author and playwright (born 1938)

August 21 – Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (born 1036)

August 29 – Sybil Marshall, English novelist (born 1913)

September 3 – R. S. R. Fitter, English nature writer (born 1913)

September 26 – Helen Cresswell, English children's writer (born 1934)

September 27

Mary Lee Settle, American novelist (born 1918)

Ronald Pearsall, English writer (born 1927)

October 2 – August Wilson, American playwright (born 1945)

October 17 – Ba Jin (巴金), Chinese novelist (born 1904)

November 1 – Michael Thwaites, Australian poet (born 1915)

November 2 – Gordon A. Craig, Scottish historian

November 4 – Michael G. Coney, Canadian science-fiction writer (born 1932)

November 5 – John Fowles, English writer (born 1926)

November 26 – Stan Berenstain, American children's writer and illustrator (born 1923)

December 1 – Mary Hayley Bell, dramatist

December 2 – Christine Pullein-Thompson, English novelist (born 1925)

December 9 – Robert Sheckley, American short story writer (born 1928)

December 15 – Julián Marías, Spanish philosopher and author (born 1914)

December 16 – Kenneth Bulmer, English novelist and short story writer (born 1921)

Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature: Harold Pinter

Camões Prize: Lygia Fagundes Telles

Australia

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Andrew T. O'Connor, Tuvalu

C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: M. T. C. Cronin, <More Or Less Than>1–100

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Samuel Wagan Watson, Smoke Encrypted Whispers

Miles Franklin Award: Andrew McGahan, The White Earth

Canada

Governor General's Award for English language fiction: David Gilmour, A Perfect Night to Go to China

Griffin Poetry Prize: Roo Borson, Short Journey Upriver Towards Oishida and Charles Simic, Selected Poems: 1963-2003

Hugo Award for Best Novel: Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Scotiabank Giller Prize: David Bergen, The Time in Between

Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Anne Coleman, I'll Tell You a Secret

United Kingdom

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Mal Peet, Tamar

Cholmondeley Award: Jane Duran, Christopher Logue, M.R. Peacocke, Neil Rollinson

Commonwealth Writers Prize: Andrea Levy, Small Island

Dagger of Daggers: John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)

Eric Gregory Award: Melanie Challenger, Carolyn Jess, Luke Kennard, Jaim Smith

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Sue Prideaux, Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Ian McEwan, Saturday

Man Booker International Prize (first award): Ismail Kadare

Man Booker Prize: John Banville, The Sea

Samuel Johnson Prize: Jonathan Coe, Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of BS Johnson

Orange Prize for Fiction: Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Somerset Maugham Award: Justin Hill, Passing Under Heaven; Maggie O'Farrell, The Distance Between Us

Whitbread Book of the Year Award: Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master: The Conquest of Colour 1909-1954

United States

Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: B.H. Fairchild

Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Rick Hilles, Brother Salvage: Poems

Arthur Rense Prize: Daniel Hoffman

Bollingen Prize for Poetry: Jay Wright

Brittingham Prize in Poetry: Susanna Childress, Jagged with Love

Compton Crook Award: Tamara Siler Jones, Ghosts in the Snow

Frost Medal: Marie Ponsot

Hugo Award: Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2005 Lambda Literary Awards.

National Book Award for Poetry: W.S. Merwin, Migration: New and Selected Poems

National Book Critics Circle Award: to War Trash by Ha Jin

Newbery Medal: Cynthia Kadohata, Kira-Kira

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to The March by E.L. Doctorow

Pulitzer Prize for Drama: John Patrick Shanley, Doubt: A Parable

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Ted Kooser, Delights & Shadows

Wallace Stevens Award: Gerald Stern

Whiting Awards:

Fiction: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Nell Freudenberger, Seth Kantner, John Keene (fiction/poetry)Plays: Rinne GroffPoetry: Thomas Sayers Ellis, Ilya Kaminsky, Dana Levin, Spencer Reece, Tracy K. Smith

Wordcraft Writer of the Year Award for Poetry: Allison Hedge Coke, Off-Season City Pipe

Other

International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Edward P. Jones – The Known World

Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres: Patti Smith