2016 in literature

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; nevertheless, the June 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum endorses Brexit.
• 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; nevertheless he is victor in the November 2016 United States presidential election.
• November 26 – UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy receives the Wilfred Owen Poetry Award.

  Anniversaries

• January 10 – Fiftieth anniversary 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 dubbed one of "the world's bestselling authors."
• May 28 – Centenary of the birth of Walker Percy, National Book Award-winning American novelist
• April 21 – Bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë's birth in 1816
• April 22 – 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes.
• April 23 – Possible 400th anniversary 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, English romantic suspense novelist
• September 28 – Fiftieth anniversary 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, 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 in book form of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, in New York

  New books

Fiction

• Naomi Alderman – The Power
• Mohammed Hasan Alwan – A Small Death
• Fernando Aramburu – :es:Patria |Patria
• Anuk Arudpragasam – The Story of a Brief Marriage
• Margaret Atwood – Hag-Seed
• Sebastian Barry – Days Without End
• Gary Barwin – Yiddish for Pirates
• Mike Binder – Keep Calm
• Pierce Brown – Morning Star
• Graeme Macrae Burnet – His Bloody Project
• Marcia Clark – Blood Defense
• J. M. Coetzee – The Schooldays of Jesus
• Jean-Baptiste Del Amo – :fr:Règne animal |Règne animal
• Emma Donoghue – The Wonder
• Linda Grant – The Dark Circle
• Mark Greaney - Back Blast
• Yaa Gyasi – Homegoing
• Michael Helm – After James
• Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson – Navigators of Dune
• Vigdis Hjorth – Arv og miljø
• Anosh Irani – The Parcel
• Alexandra Kleeman – Intimations: Stories
• Christian Kracht – The Dead
• Shari Lapena – The Couple Next Door
• Deborah Levy – Hot Milk
• Mike McCormack – Solar Bones
• Elizabeth McKenzie – The Portable Veblen
• C. E. Morgan – The Sport of Kings
• Maggie O'Farrell – This Must Be the Place
• Chibundu Onuzo – Welcome to Lagos
• Stef Penney – Under A Pole Start
• Sarah Perry – The Essex Serpent
• Kerry Lee Powell – Willem de Kooning's Paintbrush
• Christoph Ransmayr – Cox
• David Adams Richards – Principles to Live By
• Steven Rowley – Lily and the Octopus
• Joss Sheldon – The Little Voice
• Leïla Slimani – Chanson douce
• Ali Smith – Autumn
• Zadie Smith – Swing Time
• Francis Spufford – Golden Hill
• Botho Strauß – Oniritti Höhlenbilder
• David Szalay – All That Man Is
• Yasuko Thanh – Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains
• Madeleine Thien – Do Not Say We Have Nothing
• Rose Tremain – The Gustav Sonata
• Katherena Vermette – The Break
• Colson Whitehead – The Underground Railroad
• Zoe Whittall – The Best Kind of People
• Corrina Wycoff – Damascus House

  Children and young people

• Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont – Beauty and the Beast
• Paula Bossio – The Pencil
• Brian Conaghan – The Bombs that Brought Us Together
• Mem Fox and Judy Horacek - Ducks Away!
• Denise Fleming - 5 Little Ducks
• J. Patrick Lewis – The Navajo Code Talkers
• Sophie Piper – Jesus is Born
• Francesca Simon – The Monstrous Child
• Maggie Stiefvater – The Raven King
• Jacqueline Wilson – Rent a Bridesmaid

  Poetry

• Matthew and Michael Dickman – Brother
• Alice Oswald – Falling Awake
• Jacob Polley – Jackself

  Drama

• Caryl Churchill
• *Escaped Alone
• *Pigs And Dogs
• Martyna Majok – Cost of Living
• Suman Pokhrel – Yajnaseni
• J. T. Rogers – Oslo
• Zlatko Topčić – Silvertown

  Non-fiction

• Jimmy Barnes – Working Class Boy
• Daniel Beer – The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars
• Paul Cartledge – Democracy: A Life
• Nicholas Crane – The Making of the British Landscape: From the Ice Age to the Present
• Daisy Deomampo – Transnational Reproduction
• Susan Faludi – In the Darkroom
• Christopher Goscha – The Penguin History of Vietnam
• John Guy – Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years
• Jock Haswell – A Brief History of the British Army
• Gareth Stedman Jones – Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion
• Daniel Levitin –
• John Lewis-Stempel
• * The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland
• * Where Poppies Blow: The British Soldier, Nature, The Great War
• Rajiv Malhotra
• *Academic Hinduphobia
• *Battle for Sanskrit
• Hisham Matar – The Return
• Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack – The Index Card
• Patrick Phillips – Blood at the Root
• John Preston – A Very English Scandal
• Kassia St. Clair – The Secret Lives of Colour
• Gary Younge – Another Day in the Death of America

  Deaths

• January 11 – Gunnel Vallquist, Swedish writer and translator
• January 18 – Michel Tournier, French writer, 91
• January 20 – David G. Hartwell, American anthologist, author, and critic
• February 8 – Margaret Forster, English novelist and biographer, 77
• February 18 – Yūko Tsushima, Japanese author, 68
• February 19
• *Umberto Eco – Italian philosopher and novelist, 84
• *Harper Lee – American author, 89
• February 29 – Louise Rennison, English author and comedian
• March 4 – Pat Conroy, American novelist, 70
• March 8 - Enrique Estrázulas, Uruguayan writer, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, and diplomat, 74
• March 21 – Tomás de Mattos, Uruguayan writer and librarian, 68
• March 31 – Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer and the 2002 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 86
• April 3 – Lars Gustafsson, Swedish writer and scholar, novelist and poet, 79
• April 5 – E. M. Nathanson, American author, 87
• April 12 – Sir Arnold Wesker, English dramatist, 83
• April 30 – Daniel Berrigan, American Jesuit priest, poet, peace activist and recidivist, won the 1957 Lamont Prize in Poetry, 94
• June 6 – Sir Peter Shaffer, English playwright, 90
• June 25 – Adam Small, 79, South African writer and poet, winner of the Hertzog Prize
• June 30 – Sir Geoffrey Hill, English poet, 84
• July 1 – Yves Bonnefoy, French poet, 93
• July 2 – Elie Wiesel, American Jewish author and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner
• July 14 – Péter Esterházy, Hungarian writer, 66
• July 19 – Carlos Gorostiza, Argentine playwright, theatre director and novelist, 96
• August 24 – Michel Butor, French essayist, novelist, critic, and a leading figure of 1950s Nouveau Roman group, 89
• September 4 :
• *Isidore Okpewho, Nigerian novelist and critic, 74
• *Cyril C. Perera, Sri Lankan author and translator, 93
• September 16
• *Edward Albee, American playwright, 88
• *W. P. Kinsella, Canadian author, 81
• October 13 – Dario Fo, Italian playwright and the 1997 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 90
• October 31 – Natalie Babbitt, American author, 84
• November 7 – Leonard Cohen, Canadian poet, novelist and songwriter, 82
• November 10 – Francisco Nieva, Spanish playwright, novelist and short story writer, 91
• November 20 – William Trevor, Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer, 88
• December 12 – Shirley Hazzard, Australian novelist and short story writer, 85
• December 24 – Richard Adams, English author, 96
• December 28 – Michel Déon, French novelist, 97

  Awards

• 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
• Booker Prize: Paul Beatty, The Sellout
• Caine Prize for African Writing: Lidudumalingani Mqombothi, "Memories We Lost"
• Camões Prize: Raduan Nassar
• Costa Book Awards: Sebastian Barry, Days Without End ; Francis Spufford, Golden Hill ; Alice Oswald, Falling Awake ; Keggie Carew, Dadland ; Brian Conaghan, The Bombs that Brought us Together
• 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: Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy, India
• Dylan Thomas Prize: Max Porter, Grief is the Thing with Feathers
• Folio Prize: No prize awarded
• 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.
• Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française: Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre Le Dernier des nôtres
• International Booker Prize: Han Kang, The Vegetarian
• International Dublin Literary Award: Family Life by Akhil Sharma
• International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Rabai al-Madhoun, Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Naqba
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction: Eimear McBride, The Lesser Bohemians
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography: Laura Cumming, The Vanishing Man
• Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award: Anne Enright, The Green Road
• Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 28th Lambda Literary Awards.
• Miguel de Cervantes Prize: Eduardo Mendoza
• Miles Franklin Award: A. S. Patrić, Black Rock White City
• National Biography Award: Brenda Niall for Mannix
• National Book Award for Fiction: Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad
• National Book Critics Circle Award: Louise Erdrich, LaRose
• Nike Award: Bronka Nowicka, Nakarmić kamień
• Nobel Prize in Literature: Bob Dylan
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: James Hannaham, Delicious Foods
• PEN Center USA 2016 Fiction Award:
• Premio Planeta de Novela:
• Premio Strega: Edoardo Albinati, La scuola cattolica
• Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing: Hew Strachan
• Prix Goncourt: Leïla Slimani, Chanson douce
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Peter Balakian, Ozone Journal
• RBC Taylor Prize: Rosemary Sullivan, Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva
• Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Yasuko Thanh, Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains
• Russian Booker Prize:
• Scotiabank Giller Prize: Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing
• Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings:
• Walter Scott Prize: Simon Mawer, Tightrope
• W. Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction: Ralph Peters, Valley of the Shadow
• Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award: Lars Gustafsson