2001 in literature

Events

• February 15 – The author Michael Crichton signs a new deal with HarperCollins Publishers that reportedly earns him $40 million for two books.
• April 1 – The BookCrossing scheme for leaving books for strangers to find is launched.
• April 13 – The film version of Helen Fielding's 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary has uncredited cameo roles as themselves for Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes and Jeffrey Archer, at a literary party.
• July 19 – The English popular novelist and politician Jeffrey Archer, having been found guilty of perjury in a libel trial, is sentenced to imprisonment.
• September 19 – Amiri Baraka reads his poem "Somebody Blew Up America?" at a poetry festival in New Jersey, eight days after 9/11.
• December 10 – The live-action film version of J. R. R. Tolkien's , directed by Peter Jackson, opens in London. Its appearance has a strong impact on readership of the trilogy.

  New books

Fiction

• Niccolò Ammaniti – Io non ho paura
• Raymond Benson – Never Dream of Dying
• Dennis Bock – The Ash Garden
• Ben Bova – The Precipice
• Geraldine Brooks – Year of Wonders
• Lois McMaster Bujold – The Curse of Chalion
• Javier Cercas – Soldiers of Salamis
• Joseph Connolly – S.O.S.
• Bernard Cornwell
• *Sharpe's Trafalgar
• *Gallows Thief
• Douglas Coupland – All Families Are Psychotic
• Achmat Dangor – Bitter Fruit
• Helen Dunmore – The Siege
• Umberto Eco – Baudolino
• James Ellroy – The Cold Six Thousand
• Leif Enger – Peace Like a River
• Sebastian Faulks – On Green Dolphin Street
• Leon Forrest – Meteor in the Madhouse
• Jonathan Franzen – The Corrections
• Rodrigo Fresán – Mantra
• Diana Gabaldon – The Fiery Cross
• Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff – Past Imperfect
• Kate Grenville – The Idea of Perfection
• John Grisham
• *A Painted House
• *Skipping Christmas
• Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Impostors
• Joanne Harris – Five Quarters of the Orange
• Vigdis Hjorth – Om bare
• Nick Hornby – How to Be Good
• Silas House – Clay's Quilt
• Nancy Huston – Dolce Agonia
• John Irving – The Fourth Hand
• Fleur Jaeggy – Proleterka
• P. D. James – Death in Holy Orders
• Greg Keyes
• '
• '
• Stephen King
• *Black House'
• *Dreamcatcher
• Christian Kracht – 1979
• Hanif Kureishi – Gabriel's Gift
• Joe R. Lansdale – Captains Outrageous
• John le Carré – The Constant Gardener
• Ursula K. Le Guin – The Birthday of the World, and Other Stories
• Pedro Lemebel – Tengo miedo torero
• Mario Vargas Llosa – The Feast of the Goat
• David Lodge – Thinks...
• James Luceno – Cloak of Deception
• Ian McEwan – Atonement
• Andreï Makine – Music of a Life
• Juliet Marillier – Child of the Prophecy
• Yann Martel – Life of Pi
• Alice Munro – Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
• V S Naipaul – Half a Life
• R. K. Narayan – Under the Banyan Tree
• Joyce Carol Oates –
• Chuck Palahniuk – Choke
• Noni Power - Crawling at Night
• Terry Pratchett
• *The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
• *Thief of Time
• *The Last Hero
• Sven Regener – Herr Lehmann
• Kathy Reichs – Fatal Voyage
• Alain Robbe-Grillet – La Reprise
• Jean-Christophe Rufin – Rouge Brésil
• Salman Rushdie – Fury
• Richard Russo – Empire Falls
• Eric Schlosser – Fast Food Nation
• W. G. Sebald – Austerlitz
• Nava Semel – And the Rat Laughed
• Michael Slade – Death's Door
• Olga Slavnikova – Bessmertniy
• Danielle Steel – Leap of Faith
• Antonio Tabucchi – It's Getting Later All the Time
• Amy Tan – The Bonesetter's Daughter
• Timothy Taylor – Stanley Park
• Anne Tyler – Back When We Were Grownups
• Jane Urquhart – The Stone Carvers
• Andrew Vachss – Pain Management
• Tim Winton – Dirt Music
• Carlos Ruiz Zafón – La sombra del viento
• Juli Zeh – Eagles and Angels''

  Children and young people

• David Almond – Secret Heart
• Malorie Blackman – Noughts and Crosses
• Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl
• Eva Ibbotson – Journey to the River Sea
• David Klass – You Don't Know Me
• Hilary McKay – Saffy's Angel
• Patricia McKissack - Goin' Someplace Special
• Michael Morpurgo
• *More Muck and Magic
• *Out of the Ashes
• *Toro! Toro!
• Linda Sue Park – A Single Shard
• J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Jacqueline Wilson – Sleepovers

  Drama

• Richard Alfieri – Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks
• Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti – Behsharam
• Abdelkader Benali – Yasser
• Neil LaBute – The Shape of Things
• Lynn Manning – Weights
• Peter Morris – The Age of Consent
• Zlatko Topčić – Time Out

  Poetry

Non-fiction

• Tom Allen – '
• Jan Bondeson – Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear
• Dionne Brand – A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging
• Edwin Bryant – The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture
• Eamon Duffy – The Voices of Morebath. Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village
• Barbara Ehrenreich – Nickel and Dimed
• Koenraad Elst – The Saffron Swastika
• Mem Fox – Reading Magic
• Antonia Fraser – '
• Dorothy Gallagher – How I Came Into My Inheritance and Other True Stories
• Stephen Hawking – The Universe in a Nutshell
• Laura Hillenbrand – Seabiscuit: An American Legend
• Christopher Hitchens – The Trial of Henry Kissinger
• Gary Lachman – Turn Off Your Mind
• Lawrence Lessig – The Future of Ideas
• Normand Lester – Le Livre noir du Canada Anglais
• Steven Levy – '
• Margaret MacMillan – '
• Michael Moore – Stupid White Men
• Mumtaz Mufti – Ali Pur Ka Aeeli
• Pavel Polian – Against Their Will... A History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR
• E. Hoffmann Price – Book of the Dead
• Miranda Seymour – Mary Shelley
• Andrew Solomon –
• Ben Thompson - Ways of Hearing
• Türkmenbaşy – Ruhnama
• Ivan Vladislavic – The Restless Supermarket
• Frans de Waal – The Ape and the Sushi Master
• Benjamin Woolley – The Queen's Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr. Dee

  Deaths

• January 5 – G. E. M. Anscombe, English analytic philosopher
• January 8 – Catherine Storr, English children's writer
• January 11 – Lorna Sage, English scholar
• January 31 – Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian-born American science fiction writer
• February 7 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and aviator
• February 14
• *Alan Ross, Indian-born English poet and editor
• *Richard Laymon, American horror fiction writer
• March 12 – Robert Ludlum, American novelist
• May 11 – Douglas Adams, English writer, humorist and dramatist
• May 13 – R.K. Narayan, Indian novelist writing in English
• June 1 – Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist
• June 27 – Tove Jansson, Finnish children's author writing in Swedish
• July 3 – Mordecai Richler, Canadian author, screenwriter and essayist
• July 18 – James Hatfield, American author
• July 31 – Poul Anderson, American fantasy and sci-fi author
• August 6 – Jorge Amado, Brazilian writer
• August 20 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and science fiction writer
• November 10 – Ken Kesey, American author
• November 25 – David Gascoyne, English surrealist poet
• December 21 – Dick Schaap, American journalist and author
• December 14 – W. G. Sebald, German novelist and academic

  Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: V.S. Naipaul

  Australia

• Miles Franklin Award: Frank Moorhouse, Dark Palace

  Canada

• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Richard B. Wright – Clara Callan
• See 2001 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Taras Grescoe – Sacré Blues

  France

• Prix Décembre: Chloé Delaume, Le Cri du sablier
• Prix Femina: Marie Ndiaye, Rosie Carpe
• Prix Goncourt: Jean-Christophe Rufin, Rouge Brésil
• Prix Médicis French: Edwy Plenel, Secrets de jeunesse
• Prix Médicis Non-Fiction: Le Loup mongol
• Prix Médicis International: Antonio Skarmeta, La noce du poète

  United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Sid Smith, Something Like a House
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: Volume 3 – Fighting for Britain 1937–1946
• Caine Prize for African Writing: Helon Habila, "Love Poems"
• Cholmondeley Award: Ian Duhig, Paul Durcan, Kathleen Jamie, Grace Nichols
• Eric Gregory Award: Leontia Flynn, Thomas Warner, Tishani Doshi, Patrick Mackie, Kathryn Gray, Sally Read
• Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Carson, Men in the Off Hours and Nikolai Popov and Heather McHugh, translation of Glottal Stop: 101 Poems by Paul Celan
• Hugo Award: J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Samuel Johnson Prize: Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Michael Longley
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Patrick Neate, Twelve Bar Blues

  United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Gabriel Gudding for A Defense of Poetry
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, Frederick Morgan
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, “Circus Fire, 1944”
• Bollingen Prize for Poetry, Louise Glück
• Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Robin Behn, Horizon Note
• Compton Crook Award: Syne Mitchell, Murphy's Gambit
• Frost Medal: Sonia Sanchez
• Hugo Award: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Richard Peck, A Year Down Yonder
• National Book Award for Fiction: to The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
• National Book Critics Circle Award: to Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Philip Roth for The Human Stain
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: David Auburn, Proof
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Stephen Dunn, Different Hours
• Wallace Stevens Award: John Ashbery
• Whiting Awards:

  Other

• Camões Prize: Eugénio de Andrade
• Europe Theatre Prize: Lev Dodin, Michel Piccoli
• Finlandia Prize: Hannu Raittila, Canal Grande
• International Dublin Literary Award: Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief
• Premio Nadal: Fernando Marías, El Niño de los Coroneles
• Premio Strega: Domenico Starnone, Via Gemito
• Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja : :es:Javier Reverte|Javier Reverte, La Noche Detenida
• SAARC Literary Award: Ganesh Narayandas Devy, Shamsur Rahman
• Viareggio Prize: Niccolò Ammaniti, Io non ho paura, Michele Ranchetti, Verbale, and Giorgio Pestelli, Canti del destino