2016 in literature

Updated on Dec 19, 2024

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 2016.

Events

May 20 - Writers who sign a letter calling for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union include Hilary Mantel, John le Carré, Philip Pullman and Tom Stoppard.

May 24 - Hundreds of US writers, including Stephen King, Robert Polito and Nicole Krauss, sign an "open letter to the American people", urging them not to support Donald Trump as a presidential candidate.

November 26 - UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy receives the Wilfred Owen Poetry Award.

Anniversaries

January 10 – semicentenary of the publication of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

February 1 – 20th anniversary of the publication of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.

February 22 – 40th anniversary of the publication of Raymond Carver's Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?

February 28 – centenary of Henry James's death in 1916.

March 28 – 75th anniversary of the death of Virginia Woolf in 1941.

April 3 – 25th anniversary of Graham Greene's death in 1991.

April 12 – centenary of the birth of Beverly Cleary, American children's author

May 21 – centenary of the birth of Harold Robbins, American novelist, who has been dubbed one of "the world's bestselling authors."

May 28 – centenary of the birth of Walker Percy, National Book Award-winning American novelist (The Moviegoer, published 55 years ago in 1961)

April 21 – bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë's birth in 1816.

April 22 – 400th anniversary of Cervantes's death.

April 23 – 400th anniversary (possibly) of Shakespeare's death.

April 24 – Centenary of the Easter Rising in Dublin, which inspired W. B. Yeats's poem "Easter, 1916".

July 1 – centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in which those fighting included Robert Graves, Ford Madox Ford and JRR Tolkien.

July 14 – centenary of the birth of Natalia Ginzburg, Italian author

September 13 – centenary of the birth of Roald Dahl, Welsh-born children's author

September 17 – centenary of the birth of Mary Stewart (Mary Rainbow), English romantic suspense novelist

September 28 – semicentenary of the death of André Breton, French poet, essayist and theorist; the leading exponent of Surrealism in literature

October 3 – centenary of the birth of James Herriot (James Alfred Wight), English writer and veterinary surgeon

October 22 – 90 years ago, Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises is published in a first edition consisting of 5090 copies, selling at $2.00 per copy.

December 14 – centenary of the birth of Shirley Jackson, American novelist and short story writer

December 29 – centenary of the publication of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce in book form (in New York).

New books

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

Fiction

Margaret Atwood – Hag-Seed (October)

Sebastian Barry – Days Without End (October)

Gary Barwin – Yiddish for Pirates (April 8)

Mike Binder – Keep Calm (February 2)

Pierce Brown – Morning Star (February 9)

Marcia Clark, Blood Defense (May 1)

J. M. Coetzee – The Schooldays of Jesus (September 27, UK only)

Emma Donoghue, The Wonder (September)

Michael Helm – After James (September 13)

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson – Navigators of Dune (September 13)

Anosh Irani – The Parcel

Alexandra Kleeman – Intimations: Stories (September 13)

Christian Kracht – Die Toten (September 8, Germany)

Deborah Levy – Hot Milk (March 24, UK)

Mike McCormack – Solar Bones (May 5, UK)

Ian McDonald – Luna: Wolf Moon (September 27)

Maggie O'Farrell – This Must Be the Place (May 17, UK)

Sarah Perry – The Essex Serpent (May 27, UK)

Kerry Lee Powell – Willem de Kooning's Paintbrush

Steven Rowley – Lily and the Octopus (June 7)

Joss Sheldon – The Little Voice (November 23, UK)

Ali Smith – Autumn (October 20, UK)

Zadie Smith — Swing Time

Francis Spufford – Golden Hill (May 26, UK)

Botho Strauß – Oniritti Höhlenbilder (October 10, Germany)

David Szalay – All That Man Is (linked short stories) (April 7, UK)

Yasuko Thanh – Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains

Rose Tremain – The Gustav Sonata (May 19, UK)

Madeleine Thien – Do Not Say We Have Nothing (October 11)

Katherena Vermette – The Break

Colson Whitehead — The Underground Railroad

Zoe Whittall – The Best Kind of People (August 27)

Corrina Wycoff – Damascus House (May 25)

Children and young people

Brian Conaghan – The Bombs that Brought us Together (September 13, UK)

Sophie Piper (with Anne Yvonne Gilbert) - Jesus is Born

John Rozanski – Growing Around: Party Panic (October 31)

Francesca Simon – The Monstrous Child (May 5)

Maggie Stiefvater – The Raven King (last book in The Raven Cycle, April 26)

Jacqueline Wilson – Rent a Bridesmaid (May 5)

Poetry

Matthew and Michael Dickman - Brother

Alice Oswald - Falling Awake

Jacob Polley - Jackself

Drama

Caryl Churchill

Escaped Alone (20 January 2016, Royal Court Theatre, London, UK)

Pigs And Dogs (21 July 2016, UK)

Non-fiction

Jimmy Barnes - Working Class Boy

Paul Cartledge – Democracy: A Life (March 24, UK)

Keggie Carew – Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory (July 28, UK)

John Guy – Elizabeth: the forgotten years (May 5, UK)

Hisham Matar – The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between (June 30, UK)

Sylvia Patterson – I'm Not with the Band: A Writer's Life Lost in Music (June 16, UK)

Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in literature" article:

January 11 – Gunnel Vallquist, Swedish writer and translator (born 1918)

January 18 – Michel Tournier, French writer, 91 (born 1924)

February 8 – Margaret Forster, English novelist and biographer, 77 (born 1938)

February 18 – Yūko Tsushima (津島佑子), Japanese author, 68 (born 1947)

February 19

Umberto Eco – Italian philosopher and novelist, 84 (born 1932)

Harper Lee – American author (To Kill a Mockingbird), 89 (born 1926)

March 4 – Pat Conroy, American novelist (The Prince of Tides), 70 (born 1945)

March 31 – Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer and the 2002 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 86 (born 1929)

April 3 – Lars Gustafsson, Swedish writer and scholar, novelist and poet, 79 (born 1936)

April 5 – E. M. Nathanson, American author (The Dirty Dozen), 87 (born 1928)

April 12 – Sir Arnold Wesker, English dramatist, 83 (born 1932)

April 30 – Daniel Berrigan, American Jesuit priest, poet, peace activist and recidivist, won the 1957 Lamont Prize in Poetry, 94 (born 1921)

June 6 – Sir Peter Shaffer, English playwright (Amadeus), 90 (born 1926)

June 25 – Adam Small, 79, South African writer and poet, winner of the Hertzog Prize (born 1936)

June 30 – Sir Geoffrey Hill, English poet, 84 (born 1932)

July 1 – Yves Bonnefoy, French poet, 93 (born 1923)

July 2 – Elie Wiesel, American Jewish author (Night) and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner (born 1928)

July 14 – Péter Esterházy, Hungarian writer, 66 (born 1950)

July 19 – Carlos Gorostiza, Argentine playwright, theatre director and novelist, 96 (born 1920)

August 24 – Michel Butor, French essayist, novelist, critic, and a leading figure of 1950s Nouveau Roman group, 89 (born 1926)

September 4 :

Isidore Okpewho, Nigerian novelist and critic, 74 (born 1941)

Cyril C. Perera, Sri Lankan author and translator, 93 (born 1923)

September 16

Edward Albee, American playwright (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), 88 (born 1928)

W. P. Kinsella, Canadian author (Shoeless Joe), 81 (born 1935)

October 13 – Dario Fo, Italian playwright and the 1997 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 90 (born 1926)

October 31 – Natalie Babbitt, American author (Tuck Everlasting), 84 (born 1932)

November 7 – Leonard Cohen, Canadian poet, novelist and songwriter, 82 (born 1934)

November 10 – Francisco Nieva, Spanish playwright, novelist and short story writer, 91 (born 1924)

November 20 – William Trevor, Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer, 88 (born 1928)

December 12 – Shirley Hazzard, Australian novelist and short story writer, 85 (born 1931)

December 24 - Richard Adams, British author (Watership Down), 96 (born 1920)

December 28 – Michel Déon, French novelist, 97 (born 1919)

Awards

The following list is arranged alphabetically:

Akutagawa Prize:

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award: Mary Morris for The Jazz Palace

Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction: Lisa McInerney, The Glorious Heresies

Baillie Gifford Prize: Philippe Sands, East West Street

Camões Prize: Raduan Nassar

Costa Book Awards: Sebastian Barry, Days Without End (novel and overall winner); Francis Spufford, Golden Hill (first novel); Alice Oswald, Falling Awake (poetry); Keggie Carew, Dadland (biography); Brian Conaghan, The Bombs that Brought us Together (children's)

Danuta Gleed Literary Award: Heather O'Neill, Daydreams of Angels

Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Leah Horlick

Desmond Elliott Prize: Lisa McInerney, The Glorious Heresies

DSC Prize for South Asian Literature:

Dylan Thomas Prize: Max Porter, Grief is the Thing with Feathers

Folio Prize:

German Book Prize: Bodo Kirchhoff, Widerfahrnis

Goldsmiths Prize: Mike McCormack, Solar Bones

Gordon Burn Prize: David Szalay, All That Man Is

Governor General's Award for English-language fiction: Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Governor General's Award for French-language fiction: Dominique Fortier, Au péril de la mer

Governor General's Awards, other categories: See 2016 Governor General's Awards.