2015 in literature

Events

January 21 – BBC launches a six-part dramatization of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

March 8 – BBC launches new adaptation of Winston Graham's Poldark series.

March 19 – Kim Thúy's novel Ru wins 2015 edition of Canada Reads.

July 7 – Jeff Lindsay releases final novel in "Dexter" series, writing off Dexter Morgan two years after final episode in the TV adaptation.

c. October 14 – Start of Causeway Bay Books disappearances: Five staff of the political bookseller Causeway Bay Books in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, go missing, apparently detained by mainland Chinese authorities.

November 10 – Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, acquires its twelve millionth book, a unique copy of Shelley's subversive Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things by a "Gentleman of the University of Oxford", published in 1811.

English author Iain Pears' novel Arcadia is accompanied as an electronic book by an interactive app allowing readers to switch between multiple narratives.

Anniversaries

January 4 – 50th anniversary of the death of Anglo-American poet T. S. Eliot.

April 23 – centenary of the death of English poet Rupert Brooke, on active service.

June – centenary of the publication of T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".

June 10 – centenary of Saul Bellow's birth.

June 13 – 150th anniversary of W. B. Yeats, who was born on this date in 1865.

September 26 – 75th anniversary of his death of Walter Benjamin

October – centenary of the publication of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung).

November 26 – 150th anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

October 21 – 75th anniversary of the publication of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.

December 21 – 75th anniversary of the death of American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald.

December 23 – bicentenary of the publication of Jane Austen's Emma.

New books

Dates after each title indicate U.S. publication, unless otherwise indicated:

Fiction

André Alexis – Fifteen Dogs

Isabel Allende – El amante japonés ("The Japanese Lover")

Claudia Amengual – Cartagena (April 28)

Margaret Atwood – The Heart Goes Last

Paul Beatty – The Sellout (March 3)

Pierce Brown – Golden Son (January 6)

Graeme Macrae Burnet – His Bloody Project (November 6, UK)

Raymond Carver – Beginners (September 15)

Jonathan Franzen – Purity (September 1)

Sarah Hall – The Wolf Border (UK)

Paula Hawkins – The Girl on the Train (January 13)

Lawrence Hill – The Illegal

John Irving – Avenue of Mysteries (November 3)

Kazuo Ishiguro – The Buried Giant (March 3)

Miranda July – The First Bad Man (January 13)

Stephen King

Finders Keepers (June 2)

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (November 3)

Harper Lee – Go Set a Watchman (July 14)

Michael Livingston – The Shards of Heaven (November 24)

Tom McCarthy – Satin Island (UK)

Ian McDonald – Luna: New Moon September 17

Toni Morrison – God Help the Child (April 21)

Ottessa Moshfegh – Eileen (August)

Haruki Murakami (村上 春樹) – Wind/Pinball: Two Novels (August 4)

Viet Thanh Nguyen – The Sympathizer

Chigozie Obioma – The Fishermen

Orhan Pamuk – A Strangeness in My Mind (October 20)

Sunjeev Sahota – The Year of the Runaways (UK June)

John Scalzi – The End of All Things (August 11)

Roger Scruton – The Disappeared (March 5)

Joss Sheldon – Occupied (October 20, UK)

Neal Stephenson – Seveneves (May 19)

Anne Tyler – A Spool of Blue Thread

Guy Vanderhaeghe – Daddy Lenin and Other Stories

Hanya Yanagihara – A Little Life

Children and young people

Frances Hardinge – The Lie Tree (UK May 7)

Carol Morley – 7 Miles Out

Barry Moser - We Were Brothers

Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes (August 18)

The Sword of Summer (October 6)

Drama

David Hare – The Moderate Soprano

Tom Stoppard - The Hard Problem (February 5, UK)

Non-fiction

Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips - The Misfit Economy

Robert Hughes – The Spectacle of Skill: Selected Writings (November 17)

Marilynne Robinson – The Givenness of Things: Essays (October 27)

Aaron Swartz – The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz (November 26, UK)

Edmund de Waal – The White Road. A Pilgrimage of Sorts (porcelain)

Biography and memoirs

Alexander, Elizabeth. The Light of the World: A Memoir. New York: Grand Central Publishing. 

Brownstein, Carrie. Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl. New York: Riverhead Books. 

Deutscher, Isaac. The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky. London; New York: Verso Books. 

Gordon, Kim. Girl in a Band. New York: Dey Street Books. 

Grandin, Greg. Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman. New York: Metropolitan Books. 

Hodgman, George. Bettyville: A Memoir. New York: Viking. 

Leader, Zachary. The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964. London; New York: Cape; Knopf. 

Parini, Jay. Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal. New York: Doubleday. 

Sacks, Oliver. Gratitude. New York: Knopf. 

Scurr, Ruth. John Aubrey: My Own Life. London: Chatto & Windus. 

Literary criticism

Manguel, Alberto. Curiosity. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. 

Music and musicians

Björk: Archives (30 March)

David Masciotra. Mellencamp: American Troubadour. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky (18 February)

Metallica. NewYork: Bloomsbury Academic. (24 September)

Politics and government

Hedges, Chris. Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt. New York: Nation Books. 

Chomsky, Noam. Because We Say So. San Francisco: City Lights. 

Levin, Mark. Plunder and Deceit. New York: Threshold Editions. 

Burgis, Tom. The Looting Machine: Warlords, Tycoons, Smugglers, and the Systematic Theft of Africa's Wealth. London: William Collins. 

Science

Silberman, Steve. NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. New York: Avery. 

Deaths

January 1 – Miller Williams, American poet, 84 (born 1930)

January 4 – Michele Serros, American novelist, poet, and staff writer, 48 (born 1966)

January 10 – Robert Stone, American novelist, 77 (born 1937)

January 12 – John Bayley, novelist and critic, 89 (born 1925)

January 25 – John Leggett, American author and academic, 97 (born 1917)

January 27 – Suzette Haden Elgin, American linguist and science fiction author, 78 (born 1936)

January 28 – Lionel Gilbert, Australian historian, author, and academic, 90 (born 1924)

January 29 – Colleen McCullough, Australian author, 77 (born 1937)

February 6

André Brink, South African novelist and professor of literature, (born 1935)

Assia Djebar, Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker, (born 1936)

February 14 – Philip Levine, American poet and poet l, 87 (born 1928)

February 26

Fritz J. Raddatz, German feuilleton writer, essayist and biographer (suicide, born 1931)

Avijit Roy, Bangladeshi-American writer, 42 (stabbed, born 1972)

February 28 – Yaşar Kemal, Turkish writer and intellectual (born 1923)

March 12 – Sir Terry Pratchett, English author of fantasy novels, 66 (posterior cortical atrophy, born 1948)

March 18 – Grace Ogot, Kenyan writer, 84 (born 1930)

March 26 – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet, translator, and Nobel prizewinner, 83 (born 1931)

April 9 – Ivan Doig, American novelist, 75 (born 1939).

April 13

Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist, 74 (lung cancer, born 1940)

Günter Grass, German novelist, poet, playwright, and Nobel prizewinner, 87 (lung infection, born 1927)

May 2 – Ruth Rendell, English crime and thriller writer, 85 (born 1930)

June 19 – James Salter, American novelist and short-story writer, 90 (born 1925)

July 21 – E. L. Doctorow, American novelist, 84 (born 1931)

July 31 – Alan Cheuse, American writer and radio reviewer, 75 (born 1940)

August 30 – Oliver Sacks, British neurologist and author (Awakenings), 82 (born 1933)

October 2 – Brian Friel, Irish playwright and short-story writer, 86 (born 1929)

October 5 – Henning Mankell, Swedish novelist, children’s author and playwright, 67 (born 1948)

October 18

Gamal El-Ghitani, Egyptian novelist and cultural critic, 70 (born 1945)

Paul West, English-born American novelist, poet and essayist, 85 (born 1930)

November 30:

Dan Fante, American author and playwright, 71 (born 1944)

Hazel Holt, English novelist, 87 (born 1928)

November 30 – Fatema Mernissi, Moroccan scholar and writer, 75 (born 1940)

December 5 – William McIlvanney, Scottish novelist, short-story writer and poet, 79 (born 1936)

December 9 – Akiyuki Nosaka, Japanese writer (Grave of the Fireflies), 85 (born 1930)

Awards

Akutagawa Prize, Japan: Masatsugu Ono for 9 Nen Mae no Inori (A Prayer Nine Years Ago)

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, U.S.: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction: How to Be Both by Ali Smith

Camões Prize, Portugal: Hélia Correia

Dayne Ogilvie Prize, Canada: Alex Leslie

Desmond Elliott Prize, U.K.: Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

DSC Prize for South Asian Literature: The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, India

Folio Prize, U.K.: Family Life by Akhil Sharma

German Book Prize: Die Erfindung der Roten Armee Fraktion durch einen manisch-depressiven Teenager im Sommer 1969 by Frank Witzel

Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia: Bei Dao (China)

Goldsmiths Prize, U.K.: Beatlebone by Kevin Barry

Gordon Burn Prize, U.K.: In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies

Governor General's Award for English-language fiction, Canada: Guy Vanderhaeghe, Daddy Lenin and Other Stories

Governor General's Award for French-language fiction, Canada: Nicolas Dickner, Six degrés de liberté

For other categories see 2015 Governor General's Awards

Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française: Les Prépondérants by Hédi Kaddour; 2084: la fin du monde by Boualem Sansal

International Prize for Arabic Fiction: The Italian by Shukri Mabkhout, Tunisia

International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Harvest by Jim Crace

Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award: Blue Is the Night by Eoin McNamee

Man Booker Prize: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

Miguel de Cervantes Prize: Fernando del Paso

Miles Franklin Award: The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

National Book Award for Fiction, U.S.: Fortune Smiles By Adam Johnson

National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction:

NBCCA Finalists:

Paul Beatty, “The Sellout”

Lauren Groff, “Fates and Furies”

Valeria Luiselli, “The Story of My Teeth,” translated by Christina MacSweeney

Anthony Marra, “The Tsar of Love and Techno”

Ottessa Moshfegh, “Eileen”

Nobel Prize in Literature: Svetlana Alexievich, Belarus

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish

PEN Center USA 2015 Fiction Award: Robert Thomas, Bridge

Premio Planeta de Novela, Spain: Hombres desnudos by Alicia Giménez-Bartlett; La isla de Alice by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo

Premio Strega, Italy: Nicola Lagioia

Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing, U. S.: David Hackett Fischer

Prix Goncourt: Boussole by Mathias Énard

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, U.S.: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: U.S.: Digest by Gregory Pardlo

RBC Taylor Prize, Canada: They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Canada: André Alexis, Fifteen Dogs

Russian Booker Prize: Vera by Alexander Snegirev

Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction, U.K.: Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Steve Silberman

Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada: André Alexis, Fifteen Dogs

Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, U.K.: The Ten Thousand Things by John Spurling

Whiting Awards, U.S.:

Fiction: Leopoldine Core, Dan Josefson, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi

Nonfiction: Elena Passarello

Plays: Lucas Hnath, Anne Washburn

Poetry: Anthony Carelli, Aracelis Girmay, Jenny Johnson, Roger Reeves

W. Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction, U.S.: Redeployment by Phil Klay