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The year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

[edit] Events

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

• Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation.
• June 1 - Sasebo, Nagasaki - Controversy briefly surrounded Koushun Takami's Battle Royale, when an 11-year-old fan of the story murdered her classmate, 12-year-old Satomi Mitarai (Sasebo slashing), in a way that mimicked a scene from the story. [1] [2]

[edit] New books

• Germano Almeida - O mar na Lajinha
• R. Scott Bakker - The Darkness That Comes Before
• Steven Barnes - The Cestus Deception
• Alistair Beaton - A Planet for the President
• T. C. Boyle - The Inner Circle
• Gennifer Choldenko - Al Capone Does My Shirts
• Stephen Clarke - A Year in the Merde
• Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
• Wendy Coakley-Thompson - Back to Life
• Suzanne Collins - Gregor the Overlander
• J. J. Connelly - Layer Cake
• Afua Cooper - The Hanging of Angelique
• Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Escape and The Last Kingdom
• Douglas Coupland - Eleanor Rigby
• Stevie Davies - Kith & Kin
• L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg - Sagas of Conan
• Cory Doctorow - Eastern Standard Tribe
• Ben Elton - Past Mortem
• Gustav Ernst - Grado. Süße Nacht
• Giorgio Faletti - Niente di vero tranne gli occhi
• Karen Joy Fowler - The Jane Austen Book Club
• Robert Goddard - Play to the End
• Adrien Goetz - La Dormeuse de Naples
• Elisabeth Harvor, All Times Have Been Modern (Canada)
• Michael Helm - In the Place of Last Things
• Carl Hiaasen - Skinny Dip
• Allison Hedge Coke - Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer
• Alan Hollinghurst - The Line of Beauty
• Jiang Rong - Wolf Totem
• Cynthia Kadohata - Kira-Kira
• Peg Kehret - Escaping the Giant Wave
• Stephen King - The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower and The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
• David Leavitt - The Body of Jonah Boyd
• Tanith Lee - Piratica
• David Lodge - Author, Author
• Henning Mankell - Depths
• David Michaels - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
• David Mitchell -Cloud Atlas
• Aka Morchiladze - Santa Esperanza
• Bharati Mukherjee - The Tree Bride
• Alice Munro - Runaway
• Garth Nix - Grim Tuesday
• Linda Sue Park - When My Name Was Keoke
• Michael Reaves and Steve Perry - MedStar I: Battle Surgeons and MedStar II: Jedi Healer
• Marilynne Robinson - Gilead
• Philip Roth - The Plot Against America
• Nick Sagan - Edenborn
• David Sherman & Dan Cragg - Jedi Trial
• Kyle Smith - Love Monkey
• Lemony Snicket - The Grim Grotto
• David Southwell - Conspiracy Files
• Muriel Spark - The Finishing School
• Olen Steinhauer - The Confession
• Neal Stephenson - The Confusion (Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle) and The System of the World (Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle)
• Sean Stewart - Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
• Thomas Sullivan - Dust of Eden
• Michel Thaler - Le Train de Nulle Part
• Karen Traviss - Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact
• Jonathan Trigell - Boy A
• Andrew Vachss - Down Here
• Vivian Vande Velde - Heir Apparent
• Bob Weltlich - Crooked Zebra
• A. N. Wilson - My Name Is Legion
• Michael Winter - The Big Why

[edit] New drama

• Alan Bennett - The History Boys
• Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti - Behzti
• Neil Brand - Stan (radio)
• Bryony Lavery - Frozen
• Brent Hartinger - The Geography Club
• Louis Nowra - The Woman with Dog's Eyes
• John Patrick Shanley - Doubt

[edit] Poetry

• Seamus Heaney - Beacons of Bealtaine

[edit] Non-fiction

• Thomas P. M. Barnett - The Pentagon's New Map
• T. Mike Childs - The Rocklopedia Fakebandica
• Richard A. Clarke - Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror
• Flora Fraser - Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III
• Leonie Frieda - Catherine de' Medici
• Sheila Hancock - The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw
• Allison Hedge Coke - Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer
• Lawrence Lessig - Free Culture
• Roger Lowenstein - Origins of the Crash
• Farah Pahlavi - An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah
• Chuck Palahniuk - Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories
• Michael Palin - Himalaya
• Miranda Seymour - The Bugatti Queen: In Search of a Motor-Racing Legend
• Owen Sheers - The Dust Diaries
• Ben Stein - Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, The Truth, and What to Do About It
• Jon Stewart and writers of The Daily Show - America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction
• Milt Thomas - Cave of a Thousand Tales
• J. Maarten Troost - The Sex Lives of Cannibals

[edit] Deaths

[edit] January-February

• January 3 - Lillian Beckwith, writer of semi-autobiographical Hebridean novels (b. 1916)
• January 4
  • John Toland, author and historian
  • Joan Aiken, author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
  • Jeff Nuttall, poet, publisher, and author of Bomb Culture
• January 10
  • Alexandra Ripley, author of Scarlett
  • (or January 11) Spalding Gray, actor and author
• January 13 - Zeno Vendler, philosopher and linguist
• January 14 - Jack Cady, science fiction author
• January 15
  • Olivia Goldsmith, novelist (b. 1949) (complications from cosmetic surgery)
  • Alex Barris, Canadian actor and writer
• January 22 - George Woodbridge, illustrator
• January 29 -
  • M. M. Kaye, author of The Far Pavilions
  • Janet Frame, New Zealand author
• February 2 - Alan Bullock, historian
• February 4 - Hilda Hilst, Brazilian novelist
• February 5 - Frances Partridge, last surviving member of the Bloomsbury group
• February 7 - Norman Thelwell, cartoonist
• February 8 - Julius Schwartz, comic book and pulp magazine editor
• February 16 - Bill Oakley, comic book letterer
• February 27 - Paul Sweezy, economist and founding editor of the Monthly Review
• February 28 - Daniel J. Boorstin, historian
• February 29 - Jerome Lawrence, playwright

[edit] March-August

• March 9 - Albert Mol, author, actor, and dancer
• March 29 - Peter Ustinov, actor, dramatist and memoirist (b. 1921)
• March 30
  • Dr Michael King OBE New Zealand historian, author and biographer
  • Alistair Cooke - English-born journalist and broadcaster (b. 1908)
• May 2 - Paul Guimard, French writer
• April 25 - Thom Gunn, poet (b. 1929)
• April 26 - Hubert Selby, Jr., American author
• July 1 - Peter Barnes, playwright
• July 8 - Paula Danziger, young adult novelist

[edit] September-December

• September 18 - Norman Cantor, Canadian historian (b. 1929)
• September 24 - Françoise Sagan, French novelist (b. 1935)
• September 28 - Mulk Raj Anand, Indian novelist in English language (b. 1905)
• October - Natalya Baranskaya, Russian short-story writer (b. 1908)
• October 16 - Vincent Brome, English biographer and novelist
• October 20 - Anthony Hecht, American poet
• November 24 - Arthur Hailey, Canadian novelist
• December 2 - Mona Van Duyn, American poet (b. 1921)
• December 8 - Jackson Mac Low, American poet
• December 12 - Phaswane Mpe, South African novelist (b. 1970)
• December 18 - Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (b. 1926)
• December 28 - Susan Sontag, American novelist (b. 1933)

[edit] Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Elfriede Jelinek

[edit] Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Julienne van Loon, Road Story
• Victorian Premier's Literary Award C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Judith Beveridge, Wolf Notes
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Pam Brown, Dear Deliria: New & Selected Poems
• Mary Gilmore Prize: David McCooey, Blister Pack; Michael Brennan, Imageless World
• Miles Franklin Award: Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire
• Victorian Premier's Literary Award Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction: Annamarie Jagose, Slow Water

[edit] Canada

• Giller Prize: Alice Munro, Runaway
• Governor General's Awards: See 2004 Governor General's Awards
• Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Simpson, Loop and August Kleinzahler, The Strange Hours Travelers Keep

[edit] United Kingdom

• Cholmondeley Award: John Agard, Ruth Padel Lawrence Sail, Eva Salzman
• Eric Gregory Award: Nick Laird, Elizabeth Manuel, Abi Curtis, Sophie Levy, Saradha Soobrayen
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Jonathan Bate, John Clare: A Biography
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: David Peace, GB84
• Man Booker Prize: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Andrea Levy, Small Island
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Hugo Williams
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Andrea Levy, Small Island

[edit] United States

• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, Henry Taylor
• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Aaron Smith for Blue on Blue Ground
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Jeremy Glazier, "Conversations with the Sidereal Messenger"
• Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, B.H. Fairchild for Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest
• Brittingham Prize in Poetry, John Brehm, Sea of Faith
• Compton Crook Award: E. E. Knight, Way of the Wolf
• Frost Medal: Richard Howard
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls
• Wallace Stevens Award: Mark Strand

[edit] Elsewhere

• Premio Nadal: Antonio Soler, El camino de los ingleses

[edit] See also

• list of years in literature
• Literature
• Poetry
• List of literary awards
• List of poetry awards