2008 in literature

Events

January 1 – In the UK's 2008 New Year Honours List, Hanif Kureishi (CBE), Jenny Uglow (OBE), Peter Vansittart (OBE) and Debjani Chatterjee (MBE) are all rewarded for "services to literature."

May 7–11 – First Palestine Festival of Literature.

June 15 – Gore Vidal, asked in a New York Times interview how he felt about the death of his great rival William F. Buckley, Jr., replies: "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred."

July – Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is the winner of a poll to select the "Best of the Booker".

First Twitter novels appear.

Fiction

David Turashvili – Flight from the USSR

Aravind Adiga – The White Tiger and Between the Assassinations (November 1)

Uwem Akpan – Say You’re One of Them

Paul Auster – Man in the Dark

Henry Bauchau – Le Boulevard périphérique

John Berger – From A to X

Charles Bock – Beautiful Children (January 22)

Roberto Bolaño – 2666: A Novel (November 11)

Christopher Buckley – Supreme Courtship (September 3)

Alastair Campbell – All in the Mind (October 30)

Martín Caparrós – A quien corresponda

Eleanor Catton – The Rehearsal

Wendy Coakley-Thompson – Triptych (December 18)

Robert Crais – Chasing Darkness

Klaus Ebner – Hominid (October 1)

Ralph Ellison (posthumous, edited by John F. Callahan) – Three Days Before the Shooting...

Mathias Énard – Zone (August 15)

Sebastian Faulks – Devil May Care (James Bond continuation novel)

Keith Gessen – All the Sad Young Literary Men (April 10)

Shanta Gokhale – Tyā varshī (Crowfall)

Juan Goytisolo – Exiled from Almost Everywhere

Lauren Groff – The Monsters of Templeton (February 5)

Peter Handke – The Moravian Night (January 12, Germany)

Johan Harstad – DARLAH

Zoë Heller – The Believers (September 24)

Aleksandar Hemon – The Lazarus Project (May 1)

Samantha Hunt – The Invention of Everything Else (February 7)

Siri Hustvedt – The Sorrows of an American (April 1)

Karl Iagnemma – The Expeditions (January 15)

Robert Juan-Cantavella – El Dorado

Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs (posthumous) – And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (November 1; written 1945)

Christian Kracht – Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten (September)

László Krasznahorkai – Seiobo There Below

Jhumpa Lahiri – Unaccustomed Earth (April 1)

Kelly Link – Pretty Monsters (October 2)

David Lodge – Deaf Sentence (May 1)

James McBride – Song Yet Sung (February 5)

Joe McGinniss Jr. – The Delivery Man (January 15)

Lydia Millet – How the Dead Dream (January 25)

Toni Morrison – A Mercy (November 11)

Nunoe Mura – GeGeGe no Nyōbō (ゲゲゲの女房)

Joyce Carol Oates – My Sister, My Love (June 24)

Chuck Palahniuk – Snuff (May 20)

Arturo Perez-Reverte – The Painter of Battles (January 8)

Jodi Picoult – Change of Heart (March 4)

José Luis Rodríguez Pittí – Sueños urbanos

Richard Price – Lush Life (March 4)

Ruth Rendell – Portobello (November 20)

Nina Revoyr – The Age of Dreaming

Nathaniel Rich – The Mayor's Tongue (April 8)

Marilynne Robinson – Home (September 2)

Charlotte Roche – Feuchtgebiete (February 25)

Philip Roth – Indignation (September 16)

Salman Rushdie – The Enchantress of Florence (June 3)

Will Self – The Butt

Curtis Sittenfeld – American Wife (September 2)

Sjón – Rökkurbýsnir (Icelandic title) From the Mouth of the Whale (October 23)

Tom Rob Smith – Child 44

John Updike – The Widows of Eastwick (October 28)

Tobias Wolff – Our Story Begins (March 25)

Children and young people

David Almond

The Savage

Jackdaw Summer

Frank Cottrell-Boyce – Desirable

Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (July 15)

Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games (September 14)

John Fardell – Manfred the Baddie

Mem Fox - Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes

John Green – Paper Towns (October 16)

Brian Greene – Icarus At The Edge Of Time

Charlie Higson – Young Bond: By Royal Command (September 3)

Minoru Kawakami and Satoyasu – Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere

D. J. MacHale – Raven Rise (May 20)

Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock (June 1)

Garth Nix – Superior Saturday (May 5)

Christopher Paolini – Brisingr (September 20)

Rick Riordan – The Maze of Bones

Angie Sage – Queste (April 8)

Michael Salzhauer – My Beautiful Mommy

Drama

Salvatore Antonio – In Gabriel's Kitchen

Howard Brenton – Never So Good

Mary Higgins Clark – Where Are You Now?

Nicholas de Jongh – Plague Over England

Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels – The Broken Circle Breakdown featuring the cover-ups of Alabama

Ella Hickson – Eight

Sam Holcroft – Cockroach

Elaine Murphy – Little Gem

Lynn Nottage – Ruined

Tyler Perry – The Marriage Counselor

Taavi Vartia – Kaikkien aikojen Pertsa ja Kilu

Horror

Stephen King – Duma Key (January 22)

Matthew J. Costello – Doom 3: Worlds on Fire (February 26)

Stephenie Meyer – Breaking Dawn (August 2)

Science fiction and fantasy

Douglas Preston – Blasphemy (January 8)

Jim Butcher – Small Favor (April 1) (Harry Dresden #10)

Cornelia Funke – Inkdeath (October 7)

Patricia A. McKillip – The Bell at Sealey Head (September 2)

Matthew Stover – Caine Black Knife (October 14)

Brent Weeks – The Way of Shadows

Non-fiction

The Academi – Encyclopaedia of Wales / Gwyddoniadur Cymru (January)

Julie Andrews – Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (April 1)

Kwame Anthony Appiah – Experiments in Ethics

Dan Ariely – Predictably Irrational (February 19)

Margaret Atwood – Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (October 1)

Mary Beard - Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town

Dionne Brand – A Kind of Perfect Speech (Ralph Gustafson Lecture)

Augusten Burroughs – A Wolf at the Table (April 29)

Michael Chabon – Maps and Legends (May 1)

Sloane Crosley – I Was Told There'd Be Cake (April 1)

John Duignan – The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology (October 7)

Eminem – The Way I Am (October 21)

Richard Florida – Who's Your City? (March)

Raymond Geuss – Philosophy and Real Politics

Philip Hoare – Leviathan, or The Whale (September 16)

Haruki Murakami (trans. Philip Gabriel) – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (July 29)

Shuja Nawaz - Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within

Frances Osborne – The Bolter: Idina Sackville – the woman who scandalised 1920s society and became White Mischief's infamous seductress

David Sedaris – When You Are Engulfed in Flames (June 3)

Kate Summerscale – The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, or The Murder at Road Hill House (April)

Ronnie Thompson (pseudonym) – Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer (January 24)

Bjørn Christian Tørrissen – One for the Road (January 31; translation of I pose og sekk!, 2005)

Barbara Walters – Audition: A Memoir (May 6)

Russell Wangersky – Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself

Meralda Warren and others – Mi Base side orn Pitcairn ("My Favourite Place on Pitcairn", first book published in Pitkern creole)

Dagmar S. Wodko, Britta Irslinger and Carolin Schneider, ed. – Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon

Deaths

January 2 – George MacDonald Fraser, Scottish novelist and screenplay writer (born 1925)

January 3 – Henri Chopin, French poet (born 1922)

January 11 – Nancy Phelan, Australian writer (born 1913)

January 13 – Patricia Verdugo, Chilean journalist and writer (born 1947)

January 16 – Hone Tuwhare, New Zealand poet (born 1922)

January 17 – Edward D. Hoch, American detective fiction writer (born 1930)

January 26

John Ardagh, Nyasaland-born English journalist and writer (born 1928)

Abraham Brumberg, American writer and editor (born 1926)

January 29 – Margaret Truman, American crime novelist and singer (born 1924)

January 30 – Miles Kington, Northern Irish-born English journalist and writer (born 1941)

February 4 – Rose Hacker, English writer and journalist (born 1906)

February 7 – Richard Altick, American literary historian (born 1915)

February 8 – Phyllis A. Whitney, Japan-born American mystery writer (born 1903)

February 10 – Steve Gerber, American comic book writer (born 1947)

February 18 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French novelist (born 1922)

February 21

Archie Hind, Scottish novelist (born 1928)

Robin Moore, American novelist and memoirist (born 1925)

February 22 – Stephen Marlowe, American science fiction and crime writer (born 1928)

February 28 – Julian Rathbone, English novelist (born 1935)

February 29 – Val Plumwood (Val Routley), Australian philosopher (born 1939)

March 16 – Jonathan Williams, American poet (born 1929)

March 19

Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer and futurologist (born 1917)

Hugo Claus, Belgian writer in Flemish and English (born 1929)

March 23 – E. A. Markham, Montserrat poet, writer and activist (born 1939)

April 3 – Andrew Crozier, English poet and scholar (born 1943)

April 7 – Ludu Daw Amar, Burmese writer and journalist (born 1915)

April 13 – Robert Greacen, Irish poet (born 1920)

April 17

Aimé Césaire, Martinique poet and writer in French (born 1913)

Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Russian writer and editor (born 1929)

April 18

Michael de Larrabeiti, English young-adult novelist and travel writer (born 1934)

William W. Warner, American biologist and Pulitzer Prize writer (born 1920)

May 1 – Elaine Dundy, American novelist, biographer and playwright (born 1921)

May 9 – Nuala O'Faolain, Irish critic and writer (born 1940)

May 11 – Jeff Torrington, Scottish novelist (born 1935)

May 12 – Oakley Hall, American novelist (born 1920)

May 14 – Roy Heath, Guyanese novelist (born 1926)

May 19 – Vijay Tendulkar, Indian playwright (born 1928)

May 23 – Alan Brien, English journalist and novelist (born 1925)

May 28 – Elinor Lyon, English children's writer (born 1921)

June 2 – Ferenc Fejtő, Hungarian-born French historian and journalist (born 1909)

June 4 – Matthew Bruccoli, American biographer and scholar (born 1931)

June 5 – Angus Calder, British writer and scholar (born 1942)

June 8 – Peter Rühmkorf, German poet and writer (born 1929)

June 9 – Algis Budrys (John A. Sentry), American science fiction writer of Lithuanian origin (born 1931)

June 10

Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyz writer in Kyrgyz and Russian (born 1928)

Eliot Asinof, American novelist and baseball writer (born 1919)

June 16 – Mario Rigoni Stern, Italian novelist (born 1921)

June 18 – Tasha Tudor, American children's writer and illustrator (born 1915)

June 22 – Albert Cossery, Egyptian-born French novelist (born 1913)

June 24 – Ruth Cardoso, Brazilian anthropologist and writer (born 1930)

June 25 – Lyall Watson, South African scientist and new age writer (born 1939)

June 27 – Lenka Reinerová, Czech writer in German (born 1916)

July 1

Clay Felker, American magazine editor and journalist (born 1925)

Robert Harling, English typographer and novelist (born 1910)

July 2 – Simone Ortega, Spanish cookery writer (born 1919)

July 4

Thomas M. Disch, American science fiction author and poet. (born 1940)

Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch novelist and writer in Dutch and English (born 1931)

July 20 – Roger Wolcott Hall, American memoirist and novelist (born 1919)

July 27 – Bob Crampsey, Scottish writer (born 1930)

July 30 – Peter Coke, English playwright (born 1913)

August 3 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Nobel laureate (born 1918)

August 7 – Simon Gray, English playwright and memoirist (born 1936)

August 9 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (born 1942)

August 11 – George Furth, American playwright (born 1932)

August 17 – Dave Freeman, American writer and advertising executive (born 1961)

August 23 – John Russell, English art critic (born 1919)

August 25 – Ahmed Faraz (Syed Akhmad Shah), Pakistani poet in Urdu (born 1931)

August 31 – Ken Campbell, English novelist and playwright (born 1941)

September 5 – Robert Giroux, American editor and publisher (born 1914)

September 7 – Gregory Mcdonald, American mystery writer (born 1937)

September 12 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist (born 1962)

September 17 – James Crumley, American crime writer (born 1939)

September 20 – Duncan Glen, Scottish poet, critic and literary historian (born 1933)

September 23 – William Woodruff, English historian and autobiographer (born 1916)

September 29 – Hayden Carruth, American poet and literary critic (born 1921)

October 4 – Peter Vansittart, English novelist and historical writer (born 1920)

October 14 – Barrington J. Bayley, English science fiction writer (born 1937)

October 26 – Tony Hillerman, American mystery writer (born 1925)

October 27 – Es'kia Mphahlele, South African writer in English (born 1919)

October 29 – William Wharton (Albert William Du Aime), American novelist (born 1925)

October 31 – Studs Terkel, American historian and broadcaster (born 1912)

November 4 – Michael Crichton, American writer and scholar (born 1942)

November 13 – Jules Archer, American historian and author (born 1915)

November 14 – Kristin Hunter, American author and academic (born 1931)

December 1 – Dorothy Sterling, American non-fiction writer for children and historian (born 1913)

December 15 – Anne-Catharina Vestly, Norwegian children's book author (born 1920)

December 24 – Harold Pinter, English playwright and screenwriter (born 1930).

December 31 – Donald E. Westlake, American novelist (born 1933)

Awards and honors

Camões Prize: João Ubaldo Ribeiro

Europe Theatre Prize: Patrice Chéreau

IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Rawi Hage, De Niro's Game

Nobel Prize in Literature: J. M. G. Le Clézio

Australia

Miles Franklin Award: Steven Carroll, The Time We Have Taken

Canada

Canada Reads: Paul Quarrington, King Leary

Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Main award, Zoe Whittall; honours of distinction, Brian Francis, John Miller.

Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Bruce Serafin, Stardust

Governor General's Awards: Multiple categories; see 2008 Governor General's Awards.

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction: Taras Grescoe, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Miriam Toews, The Flying Troutmans

Scotiabank Giller Prize: Joseph Boyden, Through Black Spruce

Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award: Michael Winter

United Kingdom

Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year: The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais, Philip M. Parker

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Philip Reeve, Here Lies Arthur

Man Booker Prize: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction: to The Road Home by Rose Tremain

United States

Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2008 Lambda Literary Awards.

National Book Award for Fiction: to Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen

National Book Critics Circle Award: to 2666 by Roberto Bolaño

Newbery Medal for children's literature: Laura Amy Schlitz, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Kate Christensen, The Great Man

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Junot Diaz, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Whiting Awards:

Fiction: Mischa Berlinski, Laleh Khadivi, Manuel Muñoz, Benjamin Percy, Lysley TenorioNonfiction: Donovan HohnPlays: Dael OrlandersmithPoetry: Rick Hilles, Douglas Kearney, Julie Sheehan