1997 in literature

The year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

*Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. (both part of Pearson Education), giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a four-year book/multimedia deal. Clancy follows this up with an agreement with Berkley Books for 24 paperbacks to tie in with the an ABC television miniseries in an agreement worth US$22 million bringing the total value of the package to US$97 million.
* December 30 - The memoir, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, is removed from the ninth-grade English curriculum in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, because it "portrays white people as being horrible, nasty, stupid people" [CNN] . [ "CNN.com: Harry Potter, 'Huckleberry Finn' among controversial.." webpage: [http://www.cnn.com/2000/books/news/09/14/banned.books.ap/index.html CNN-banned-books] . ]
* "Jacket" online literary magazine founded.

New books

*Norman Mailer - "The Gospel According to the Son"
*Ben Aaronovitch & Kate Orman - "So Vile a Sin"
*Mitch Albom - "Tuesdays With Morrie"
*Martin Amis - "Night Train"
*John Banville - "The Untouchable"
*Marie Bashkirtseff - "I Am the Most Interesting Book of All" (Translation)
*Raymond Benson - "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "Zero Minus Ten"
*Jonathan Blum & Kate Orman - "Vampire Science"
*Simon Bucher-Jones - "Ghost Devices"
*Christopher Bulis - "A Device of Death"
*Candace Bushnell - "Sex and the City"
*Mary Higgins Clark - "Pretend You Don't See Her"
*Warwick Collins - "Gents"
*Bernard Cornwell - "Sharpe's Tiger" and ""
*Patricia Cornwell - "Hornet's Nest" and "Unnatural Exposure"
*Paul Cornell - "Oh No It Isn't!"
*Ann C. Crispin - "The Hutt Gambit" and "The Paradise Snare"
*Don DeLillo - "Underworld"
*Anita Diamant - "The Red Tent"
*Terrance Dicks - "The Eight Doctors" and "Mean Streets"
*Fernanda Eberstadt - "When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of the Earth"
*Charles Frazier - "Cold Mountain"
*Anthony Frewin - "London Blues"
*John Grisham - "The Partner"
*Barbara Hambly - "Planet of Twilight"
*Allison Hedge Coke - "Dog Road Woman" American Book Award winner 1998
*Nancy Huston - "Instruments of Darkness"
*Matt Jones - "Beyond the Sun"
*Sebastian Junger - "The Perfect Storm"
*Winona LaDuke - "Last Standing Woman"
*Paul Leonard - "Genocide"
*Ann-Marie MacDonald - "Fall On Your Knees"
*Ian R. MacLeod - "Voyages by Starlight"
*David A. McIntee - "The Dark Path"
*Lawrence Miles - "Alien Bodies" and "Down"
*Mark Morris - "The Bodysnatchers"
*Jim Mortimore - "Eternity Weeps"
*Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum - "The Room With No Doors", "So Vile a Sin" and "Vampire Science"
*Lance Parkin - "The Dying Days"
*James Patterson - "Cat and Mouse"
*Cyril Pearl - "Morisson of Peking"
*John Peel - "War of the Daleks"
*Marc Platt - "Lungbarrow"
*Terry Pratchett - "Jingo"
*Philip Pullman - "The Subtle Knife"
*Thomas Pynchon - "Mason & Dixon"
*Kathy Reichs - "Déjà Dead"
*Justin Richards - "Dragons' Wrath"
*Mordecai Richler - "Barney's Version"
*Gareth Roberts - "The Well-Mannered War"
*Philip Roth - "American Pastoral"
*J. K. Rowling - "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"
*Gary Russell - "Deadfall"
*Sarah Ferguson - "Budgie the Little Helicopter"
*Carol Shields - "Larry's Party"
*Sidney Sheldon - "The Best Laid Plans"
*Michael Stackpole - "The Bacta War
*Danielle Steel - "The Ghost", "The Ranch" and "Special Delivery"
*Dave Stone - "Burning Heart" and "Ship of Fools"
*William Sutcliffe - "Are You Experienced?"
*Kurt Vonnegut - "Timequake"
*Timothy Zahn - "Specter of the Past"
*Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold - "Donnerjack"
*Binod Bihari Verma - "Nayanmani" Maithili Novel

New drama

*Thomas Kilroy - "The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde"
*Peter Whelan - "The Herbal Bed"

Poetry

*Ted Hughes - "Tales from Ovid"

Non-fiction

*Karen Armstrong - ""
*Dave Barry - "Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs"
*Jean-Dominique Bauby - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
*Cari Beauchamp - ""
*Bill Bryson - "A Walk in the Woods"
*Michael Drosnin - "The Bible Code"
*Gerina Dunwich - "A Wiccan's Guide to Prophecy and Divination"
*Stephen Fry - "Moab Is My Washpot" (autobiography)
*Reinhold Heller - ""
*James McBride - "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother"
*Maria Todorova - "Imagining the Balkans"

Births

*

Deaths

* January 19 - James Dickey, poet, novelist
* February 3 - Bohumil Hrabal, author
* April 5 - Allen Ginsberg, poet
* August 2 - William S. Burroughs, novelist
* August 27 - Johannes Edfelt, poet, translator and critic
* October 14 - Harold Robbins, novelist
* October 16 - James A. Michener, novelist and historian

Awards

* Nobel Prize for Literature: Dario Fo

Australia

* The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Eva Sallis, "Hiam"
* C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Les Murray, "Subhuman Redneck Poems"
* Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Anthony Lawrence, "The Viewfinder"
* Mary Gilmore Prize: Morgan Yasbincek, "Night Reversing"

Canada

* Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award: Rachel Rose
* Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Mordecai Richler: - "Barney's Version"
* See 1997 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

* Prix Goncourt: Patrick Rambaud, "La Bataille"
* Prix Décembre: Lydie Salvayre, "La Compagnie des spectres"
* Prix Médicis International: T. Coraghessan Boyle, "America"
* Prix Médicis French: "Les Sept Noms du peintre" - Philippe Le Guillou

United Kingdom

* Booker Prize: Arundhati Roy, "The God of Small Things"
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Andrew Miller, "Ingenious Pain"
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: R. F. Foster, "William Butler Yeats: A Life, Volume 1 - The Apprentice Mage 1965-1914"
* Cholmondeley Award: Alison Brackenbury, Gillian Clarke, Tony Curtis, Anne Stevenson
* Eric Gregory Award: Matthew Clegg, Sarah Corbett, Polly Clark, Tim Kendall, Graham Nelson, Matthew Welton
* Orange Prize for Fiction: Anne Michaels, "Fugitive Pieces"
* Whitbread Best Book Award: Ted Hughes, "Tales from Ovid"

United States

* Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Richard Blanco, "City of a Hundred Fires"
* Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Fred Chappell
* American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, John Ashbery
* Compton Crook Award: Richard Garfinkle, "Celestial Matters"
* Hugo Award: Kim Stanley Robinson, "Blue Mars"
* Nebula Award: Vonda McIntyre, "The Moon and the Sun"
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: E. L. Konigsburg, "The View from Saturday"
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: "no award given"
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Steven Millhauser - ""
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Lisel Mueller: "Alive Together: New and Selected Poems"
* Wallace Stevens Award: Anthony Hecht

Elsewhere

* IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Javier Marias, "A Heart So White"
*Premio Nadal: Carlos Cañeque, "Quién"

Notes