2007 in literature

Events

January 1 – Post- och Inrikes Tidningar (Sweden), the world's oldest surviving newspaper (beginning in 1645 as Ordinari Post Tijdender), begins to be published online only.

March 5 – A car bomb explodes on Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, the historic center of bookselling in the city.

April 26 – Polly Stenham's play That Face, written when the author was 19, premières at the Royal Court Theatre in London.

July 21 – The final book in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is released and sells over 11 million copies in the first 24 hours, becoming the fastest selling book in history.

November 19 – First Kindle e-book reader released.

December 11 – Terry Pratchett informs fans on-line that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.

Fiction

Gilbert Adair – A Mysterious Affair of Style

Louis Begley – Matters of Honor

Alan Bennett – The Uncommon Reader

Bob Burg and John D. Mann – The Go-Giver

Michael Chabon – The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Stewe Claeson – Tiro

Brock Clarke – An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England

Bernard Cornwell – Sword Song

Jim Crace – The Pesthouse

Robert Crais – The Watchman

Don DeLillo – Falling Man

Junot Díaz – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Joshua Ferris – Then We Came to the End

Ge Fei (格非) – 山河入梦 (Shanhe Rumeng)

Helon Habila – Measuring Time

Mohsin Hamid – The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Don Hannah – Ragged Islands

Elizabeth Hay – Late Nights on Air

Khaled Hosseini – A Thousand Splendid Suns

Hiromi Itō (伊藤 比呂美) – The Thorn-Puller: New Tales of the Sugamo Jizō (とげ抜き 新巣鴨地蔵縁起, Toge-nuki: Shin Sugamo Jizō engi)

Denis Johnson – Tree of Smoke

Panos Karnezis – The Birthday Party

Andrus Kivirähk – Mees, kes teadis ussisõnu ("The Man Who Spoke Snakish")

Jesse Lee Kercheval – The Alice Stories

Min Jin Lee – Free Food for Millionaires

Ian McEwan – On Chesil Beach

Michael Ondaatje – Divisadero

Roma Tearne – Mosquito

Graham Swift – Tomorrow

M. G. Vassanji – The Assassin's Song

David Wong – John Dies at the End

Kirby Wright – Moloka'i Nui Ahina, Summers on the Lonely Isle

Corrina Wycoff – O Street

Juli Zeh – Dark Matter

Children and young people

David Almond - My Dad's a Birdman

Sherman Alexie – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Libba Bray – The Sweet Far Thing

Suzanne Collins – Gregor and the Code of Claw (fifth and final book in the Underland Chronicles)

Charlie Higson

Double or Die (third book in the Young Bond series)

Hurricane Gold (fourth book in the Young Bond series)

Nick Hornby – Slam

D. J. MacHale – The Pilgrims of Rayne

Richelle Mead – Vampire Academy (first in the eponymous series of six books for reluctant readers)

Stephenie Meyer – Eclipse

China Miéville – Un Lun Dun

Robert Muchamore

The Fall (seventh book in the CHERUB series)

Mad Dogs (eighth book in the CHERUB series)

Jenny Nimmo - Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf

Garth Nix – Lady Friday (fifth book in the Keys to the Kingdom series)

Iona Opie - Mother Goose's Little Treasures

Jerry Pinkney (adapted from Brothers Grimm) - Little Red Riding Hood

J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (July 21, final book in the Harry Potter series)

Brian Selznick – The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Hikaru Sugii (杉井 光) – Heaven's Memo Pad

Laura Wiess – Such A Pretty Girl

N. D. Wilson – 100 Cupboards (first book in the 100 Cupboards series)

Science fiction and fantasy

Joe Abercrombie – Before They Are Hanged (March 15, second of The First Law series)

Christopher Barzak – One For Sorrow (August 28)

Jim Butcher – White Night (April 3, Harry Dresden No. 9)

Michael Chabon – The Yiddish Policemen's Union (May 1)

Hal Duncan – Ink (February 2, second in the The Book of All Hours series)

Warren Ellis – Crooked Little Vein (July 24)

Steven Erikson – Reaper's Gale (April 24, seventh in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series)

William Gibson – Spook Country (August 7)

Ed Greenwood – Dark Lord (September, First book in the Falconfar series)

Tanith Lee – Piratica III: The Family Sea (third in The Piratica Series)

Scott Lynch – Red Seas Under Red Skies (July 31, second in the Gentleman Bastard series)

Richard K. Morgan – Th1rte3n (June 26)

Ian McDonald – Brasyl (May 1)

Chuck Palahniuk – Rant: An Oral History of Buster Casey (May 1)

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child – The Wheel of Darkness

Lucius Shepard – Softspoken (April 15)

Jeffrey Thomas – Deadstock (February 27)

Catherynne M. Valente – The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice (October 30, second in the Orphan's Tales series)

Drama

Hassan Abdulrazzak – Baghdad Wedding

Bola Agbaje – Gone Too Far!

Jacob M. Appel – The Mistress of Wholesome

Sebastian Barry – The Pride of Parnell Street

Jon Fosse – I Am the Wind

Melissa James Gibson – Current Nobody

Lee Hall – The Pitmen Painters

David Henry Hwang – Yellow Face

Tracy Letts – August: Osage County

Caleb Lewis – Dogfall

Hannah Moscovitch – East of Berlin

Brendan O'Carroll – For the Love of Mrs. Brown

Aaron Sorkin – The Farnsworth Invention

Polly Stenham – That Face

Poetry

Dejan Stojanović, Ples vremena ("Dance of Time"), Konras, Beograd

Non-fiction

Peter Ackroyd – Thames: Sacred River

Andrea Cagan – Peace Is Possible: The Life and Message of Prem Rawat

Wayne Federman, Marshall Terrill and Jackie Maravich – Maravich: The Definitive Biography of Pistol Pete Maravich

David Halberstam – The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War

Ian Halperin – Hollywood Undercover

Christopher Hitchens – God is not Great

A. J. Jacobs – The Year of Living Biblically

Linda and Terry Jamison – Separated at Earth

Naomi Klein – The Shock Doctrine

Anthony Lewis – Freedom for the Thought That We Hate

David McMillan – Escape

John Matteson – Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father

Daisuke Miyao – Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom

Haruki Murakami – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること, Hashiru Koto ni Tsuite Kataru Toki ni Boku no Kataru Koto)

Bruce Serafin – Stardust

Deaths

January 23 – Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist (born 1932)

January 27 – Herbert Reinecker, German novelist, dramatist and screenwriter (born 1914)

January 30 – Sidney Sheldon, American writer (born 1917)

February 16 – Sheridan Morley, English critic and biographer (born 1941)

March 30 – Michael Dibdin, British crime writer (born 1947)

April 11 – Kurt Vonnegut, American satirical novelist (born 1922)

May 8 – Philip R. Craig, American author and poet (born 1933)

June 3 – Suzanne Robert, French Canadian novelist (born 1948)

June 21 – Douglas Hill, Canadian science fiction author and reviewer (born 1935)

June 27 – Dragutin Tadijanović, Croatian poet (born 1905)

July 31 – Margaret Avison, Canadian poet (born 1918)

September 3 – Mária Szepes, Hungarian novelist and screenwriter (born 1908)

September 6 – Madeleine L'Engle, American novelist (born 1918)

September 16 – Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney, Jr.), American fantasy and historical novelist (born 1948)

November 10 – Norman Mailer, American novelist, journalist and playwright (born 1923)

November 12 – Ira Levin, American novelist, dramatist and songwriter (born 1929)

November 19 – Magda Szabó, Hungarian novelist, dramatist and essayist (born 1917)

November 27 – Jane Rule, Canadian novelist (born 1931)

December 22 – Julien Gracq, French novelist (born 1910)

Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature: Doris Lessing

Europe Theatre Prize: Robert Lepage and Peter Zadek

Camões Prize: António Lobo Antunes

Australia

ALS Gold Medal: Alexis Wright, Carpentaria

Miles Franklin Award: Alexis Wright, Carpentaria

Patrick White Award: David Rowbotham

Canada

Canada Reads: Heather O'Neill, Lullabies for Little Criminals

Le Combat des livres: Denis Thériault, L'Iguane

Scotiabank Giller Prize: Elizabeth Hay, Late Nights on Air

Governor General's Awards: Multiple categories; see 2007 Governor General's Awards

Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Linden MacIntyre, Causeway

Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Michael V. Smith

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction: Anna Porter, Kasztner's Train: The True Story of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero of the Holocaust

United Kingdom

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Meg Rosoff, Just in Case

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Rosalind Belben, Our Horses in Egypt

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Rosemary Hill, God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain

Man Booker Prize: Anne Enright, The Gathering

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction: to Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

United States

Newbery Award for children's literature: Susan Patron, The Higher Power Of Lucky

Compton Crook Award: Naomi Novik, His Majesty's Dragon

Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2007 Lambda Literary Awards.

National Book Award for Fiction: to Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

National Book Critics Circle Award: to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Everyman by Philip Roth

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: to The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Whiting Awards:

Fiction: Ben Fountain, Brad Kessler, Dalia Sofer

Nonfiction: Carlo Rotella, Peter Trachtenberg, Jack Turner

Plays: Sheila Callaghan, Tarell Alvin McCraney

Poetry: Paul Guest, Cate Marvin