1995 in literature

Children and young people

Drama

• Parv Bancil – Papa Was A Bus Conductor
• Jez Butterworth – Mojo
• Margaret Edson – Wit
• Horton Foote – The Young Man From Atlanta
• Jon Fosse – The Name (Namnet)
• Ronald Harwood – Taking Sides
• Sarah Kane – Blasted
• Terrence McNally – Master Class
• Lynn Nottage
• Crumbs from the Table of Joy
• Por'Knockers
• Yasmina Reza – The Unexpected Man (L'homme du hasard)
• Tom Stoppard – Indian Ink

Poetry

• Mark Doty – Atlantis: Poems

Non-fiction

Films

• Sense and Sensibility

Births

• June 7 - Beth Reekles, Welsh author of young adult fiction
• June 13 - S. C. Megale, American novelist and screenwriter

Deaths

• January 9 – Peter Cook, English writer, comedian and satirist (born 1937)
• January 30 – Gerald Durrell, English nature writer and naturalist (born 1925)
• January 31 – George Abbott, American writer, director and producer (born 1887)
• February 4 – Patricia Highsmith, American crime novelist (born 1921)
• February 6
• James Merrill, American poet (born 1926)
• Xia Yan (夏衍), Chinese playwright and screenwriter, (born 1900)
• February 14 – Mary Paik Lee, Korean-American writer (born 1900)
• February 20 – Robert Bolt, English dramatist (born 1924)
• February 21 – Calder Willingham, American writer (born 1922)
• February 23 – James Herriot, English veterinary novelist (born 1916)
• March 9 – Ian Ballantine, American publisher (born 1916)
• March 20 – Sidney Kingsley, American dramatist (born 1906)
• April 14 – Brian Coffey, Irish poet (born 1905)
• April 27 – Willem Frederik Hermans, Dutch writer (born 1921)
• May 30 or May 31 – Ștefana Velisar Teodoreanu, Romanian novelist, memoirist and poet (born 1897)
• June 14 – Roger Zelazny, American fantasy and science fiction writer (born 1937)
• June 15 – Charles Bennett, English screenwriter (born 1899)
• June 20 – Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (born 1911)
• June 21– Katarína Lazarová, Slovak novelist and translator (born 1914)
• June 25 – Qiu Miaojin (邱妙津), Taiwanese Chinese novelist (suicide, born 1969)
• July 6 – Aziz Nesin, Turkish writer (born 1915)
• July 13 – Ashapoorna Devi, Indian author and poet (born 1908)
• July 16
• May Sarton, Belgian-born American poet, novelist and memoirist (born 1912)
• Stephen Spender, English poet (born 1909)
• July 25 – Janice Elliott, English novelist and children's writer (born 1931)
• August 3 – Edward Whittemore, American novelist, (born 1933)
• August 17 – Howard Koch, American screenwriter (born 1901)
• August 19 – Pierre Schaeffer, French composer and writer (born 1910)
• August 29 – Michael Ende, German fantasy novelist (born 1929)
• September 8 – Eileen Chang, Chinese writer (born 1920)
• October 13 – Henry Roth, Austrian-born American novelist and short story writer (born 1906)
• October 22 – Kingsley Amis, English novelist (born 1922)
• October 29 – Terry Southern, American screenwriter (born 1924)
• November 4 – Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (born 1925)
• November 10 – Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian writer (executed, born 1941)
• November 13 – Mary Elizabeth Counselman, American author and poet (born 1911)
• November 16 – Robert H. Adleman, American novelist and historian (born 1919)
• November 17 – Marguerite Young, American novelist, poet and biographer (born 1908)
• November 20 – Robie Macauley, American writer and literary critic (born 1919)
• November 22 – Margaret St. Clair, American science fiction writer (born 1911)
• December 2 – Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (born 1913)
• December 9 – Toni Cade Bambara, American writer (born 1939)
• December 30 – Heiner Müller, German dramatist (born 1929)

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Seamus Heaney
• Camões Prize: José Saramago

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Richard King, Kindling Does For Firewood
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Bruce Beaver, Anima and Other Poems
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Peter Boyle, Coming Home From the World
• Mary Gilmore Prize: Aileen Kelly, Coming Up for Light
• Miles Franklin Award: Helen Demidenko, The Hand That Signed the Paper

Canada

• Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance
• See 1995 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Denise Chong, The Concubine's Children

France

• Prix Goncourt: Andreï Makine, Le Testament français
• Prix Décembre: Jean Échenoz, Les Grandes Blondes
• Prix Médicis French: Vassilis Alexakis, La Langue maternelle and Andreï Makine, Le testament français
• Prix Médicis International: Alessandro Baricco, Châteaux de la colère

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Philip Pullman, Northern Lights
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Christopher Priest, The Prestige
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle with the Truth
• Cholmondeley Award: U. A. Fanthorpe, Christopher Reid, C. H. Sisson, Kit Wright
• Eric Gregory Award: Colette Bryce, Sophie Hannah, Tobias Hill, Mark Wormald
• Newdigate prize: Antony Dunn
• Whitbread Book of the Year Award: Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Sandy Solomon, Pears, Lake, Sun
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Maxine Kumin
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction, William Maxwell
• Carnegie Medal: Philip Pullman, Northern Lights
• Compton Crook Award: Doranna Durgin, Dun Lady's Jess
• Hugo Award: Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance
• Nebula Award: Robert Sawyer, The Terminal Experiment
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Sharon Creech, Walk Two Moons
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Horton Foote, The Young Man From Atlanta
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Philip Levine, The Simple Truth
• Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography: Joan D. Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life
• Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction: Jonathan Weiner, The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
• Pulitzer Prize for History: Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
• Wallace Stevens Award: James Tate
• Whiting Awards:

Elsewhere

• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Annemarie Schimmel
• New Zealand Book Award for Poetry: Michele Leggott, Dia
• Montana Book Award for Poetry: Michael Jackson, Pieces of Music
• Premio Nadal: Ignacio Carrión Hernández, Cruzar el Danubio
• Premio San Clemente: Xurxo Borrazás, Vicious

Notes

References