2004 in literature

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

Events

* 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. [http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200406/05/20040605p2a00m0dm003001c.html] [http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/features/0412/27sasebo.html]

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"
*Giorgio Faletti - "Niente di vero tranne gli occhi"
*Karen Joy Fowler - "The Jane Austen Book Club"
*Robert Goddard - "Play to the End"
*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" and "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"
*Alice Munro - "Runaway"
*Garth Nix - "Grim Tuesday"
*Linda Sue Park - "When My Name Was Keoke"
*Michael Reaves and Steve Perry - ' and '
*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 - ""
*Thomas Sullivan - "Dust of Eden"
*Karen Traviss - ""
*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"

New drama

*Alan Bennett - "The History Boys"
*Neil Brand - "Stan" (radio)
*Bryony Lavery - "Frozen"
*John Patrick Shanley - "Doubt"
*Brent Hartinger - "The Geography Club

Non-fiction

*Thomas P. M. Barnett - "The Pentagon's New Map"
*T. Mike Childs - "The Rocklopedia Fakebandica"
*Richard A. Clarke - ""
*Flora Fraser - "Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III"
*Leonie Frieda - "Catherine de' Medici"
*Sheila Hancock - ""
*Allison Hedge Coke - "Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer"
*Lawrence Lessig - "Free Culture"
*Roger Lowenstein - "Origins of the Crash"
*Farah Pahlavi - ""
*Chuck Palahniuk - ""
*Michael Palin - "Himalaya"
*Miranda Seymour - ""
*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 - ""
*Milt Thomas - "Cave of a Thousand Tales"
*J. Maarten Troost - "The Sex Lives of Cannibals"

Deaths

January-February

* 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"
* January 10 (or 11?), Spalding Gray, actor and author
* January 13, Zeno Vendler, philosopher and linguist
* January 14, Jack Cady, science fiction author
* January 15:*Olivia Goldsmith, author:*Alex Barris, Canadian actor and writer
* January 22, George Woodbridge, illustrator
* January 29, M. M. Kaye, author of "The Far Pavilions"
* 29 January, 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 19, Hermann Krings, German philosopher
* February 27, Paul Sweezy, economist and founding editor of the "Monthly Review"
* February 28, Daniel J. Boorstin, historian
* February 29, Jerome Lawrence, playwright

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 26, Hubert Selby, Jr., American author
* July 1, Peter Barnes, playwright
* July 8, Paula Danziger, young adult novelist

eptember-December

*September 18 - Norman Cantor, Canadian historian (b. 1929)
*September 24 - Françoise Sagan, French writer (b. 1935)
* October 16, Vincent Brome, English biographer and novelist
* October 20, Anthony Hecht, American poet
* November 24, Arthur Hailey, Canadian author
*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)

Awards

* Nobel Prize for Literature: Elfriede Jelinek

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"

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"

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"

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

Elsewhere

*Premio Nadal: Antonio Soler, "El camino de los ingleses"

ee also

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