2004 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2004.

Events

• January
• The poet Jang Jin-sung, in trouble with the North Korean authorities, defects to South Korea.
• The Richard & Judy Book Club is launched on UK daytime television.
• February – Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation.
• February 16 – Edwin Morgan becomes Scotland's first official national poet, the Scots Makar, appointed by the Scottish Parliament.
• May 23 – Seattle Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, opens to the public.
• June 1 – Controversy surrounds Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (高見広春), when an 11-year-old fan of the story in Sasebo, Nagasaki, murders her classmate, 12-year-old Satomi Mitarai, in a way that mimics a scene from the story.
• October 14 – Edinburgh becomes UNESCO's first City of Literature.
• October 31 – Denoël in Paris publishes Irène Némirovsky's Suite française, consisting of two novellas, Tempête en juin and Dolce, written and set in 1940–1941, from a sequence left unfinished on the author's death in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.
• December 18 – The première of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's play Behzti (Dishonour) at England's Birmingham Repertory Theatre is cancelled after violent protests by members of the Sikh community.
• unknown dates
• Kansas City Public Library's Community Bookshelf is built.
• The typeface Calibri, designed by Luc(as) de Groot, is introduced.

New books

Fiction

• Cecelia Ahern – PS, I Love You
• Blue Balliett – Chasing Vermeer
• Iain M. Banks – The Algebraist
• Steven Barnes – The Cestus Deception
• Alistair Beaton – A Planet for the President
• Thomas Berger – Adventures of the Artificial Woman
• Roberto Bolaño (posthumous) – 2666
• T. C. Boyle – The Inner Circle
• Gennifer Choldenko – Al Capone Does My Shirts
• Kate Christensen – '
• 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. Connolly – Layer Cake
• Afua Cooper – The Hanging of Angelique
• Bernard Cornwell
• Sharpe's Escape
• The Last Kingdom
• Douglas Coupland – Eleanor Rigby
• Stevie Davies – Kith & Kin
• L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg – Sagas of Conan
• Michel Déon – Your Father's Room
• Cory Doctorow – Eastern Standard Tribe
• Saken Omur – Joyful Road
• Ben Elton – Past Mortem
• Gustav Ernst – Grado. Süße Nacht
• Giorgio Faletti – Niente di vero tranne gli occhi
• Jon Fosse – Det er Ales (Aliss at the Fire)
• Karen Joy Fowler – The Jane Austen Book Club
• Ge Fei (格非) – 人面桃花 (Renmian Taohua, Peach Blossom Beauty)
• Robert Goddard – Play to the End
• Adrien Goetz – La Dormeuse de Naples
• Helon Habila – Waiting for an Angel
• Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Brave
• Elisabeth Harvor, All Times Have Been Modern (Canada)
• Michael Helm – In the Place of Last Things
• Carl Hiaasen – Skinny Dip
• Alan Hollinghurst – The Line of Beauty
• Jiang Rong – Wolf Totem
• Cynthia Kadohata – Kira-Kira
• Mitsuyo Kakuta (角田 光代) – Woman on the Other Shore
• Peg Kehret – Escaping the Giant Wave
• Thomas Keneally – The Tyrant's Novel
• Stephen King
• '
• '
• John Kiriamiti – My Life in Prison
• Karl Ove KnausgÃ¥rd – A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven (En tid for alt)
• László Krasznahorkai – Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens (Rombolás és bánat az Ég alatt)
• Thor Kunkel – Endstufe
• David Leavitt – The Body of Jonah Boyd
• Tanith Lee – Piratica
• David Lodge – Author, Author
• Andreï Makine – The Woman Who Waited (La femme qui attendait)
• Henning Mankell – Depths (Djup)
• David Michaels – Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
• David Mitchell – Cloud Atlas
• Aka Morchiladze – Santa Esperanza
• Bharati Mukherjee – The Tree Bride
• Alice Munro – Runaway
• V. S. Naipaul – Magic Seeds
• Garth Nix – Grim Tuesday
• Cees Nooteboom – Lost Paradise (Paradijs verloren)
• Linda Sue Park – When My Name Was Keoko
• Jodi Picoult – My Sister's Keeper
• Terry Pratchett
• A Hat Full of Sky
• Going Postal
• Michael Reaves and Steve Perry – ' and '
• Marilynne Robinson – Gilead
• Philip Roth – The Plot Against America
• Edward Rutherfurd – '
• Nick Sagan – Edenborn
• Andrzej Sapkowski – Warriors of God
• David Sherman and Dan Cragg – Jedi Trial
• Kyle Smith – Love Monkey
• David Southwell – Conspiracy Files
• Muriel Spark – The Finishing School
• Olen Steinhauer – The Confession
• Neal Stephenson
• The Confusion (Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle)
• The System of the World (Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle)
• Sean Stewart – '
• Michel Thaler – Le Train de Nulle Part
• Colm Tóibín – The Master
• Zlatko Topčić – Bare Skin
• 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
• Carlos Ruiz Zafon – The Shadow of the Wind
• Juli Zeh – Gaming Instinct
• Florian Zeller – La Fascination du pire (The Fascination of Evil)

Children and young people

• David Almond – Kate, the Cat and the Moon
• Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson - Peter and the Starcatchers
• Mary Bartek – Funerals and Fly Fishing
• John Fardell – The Seven Professors of the Far North
• Mem Fox – Where Is the Green Sheep?
• Cornelia Funke – When Santa Fell to Earth
• Virginia Hamilton (with Barry Moser) – Wee Winnie Witch's Skinny: An Original African American Scare Tale
• E. L. Konigsburg - The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
• Gordon Korman – '
• J. Patrick Lewis (with Gary Kelley) – The Stolen Smile
• Robert Muchamore – The Recruit (first in the CHERUB series)
• Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Blue Boa
• Liz Pichon – My Big Brother, Boris
• Carlos Cuauhtémoc Sánchez – The Eyes of My Princess
• Lemony Snicket – The Grim Grotto
• Dugald Steer (with Nghiem Ta, etc.) – '

Drama

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

Poetry

• Seamus Heaney – Beacons at Bealtaine

Non-fiction

• Steve Almond – Candyfreak
• Thomas P.M. Barnett – The Pentagon's New Map
• Ingmar and Ingrid Bergman and Maria von Rosen – Tre dagböcker (Three diaries)
• T. Mike Childs – The Rocklopedia Fakebandica
• Richard A. Clarke – Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror
• Jonathan Coe – Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson
• Allison Hedge Coke – Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer
• Anne Coleman – I'll Tell You a Secret
• Flora Fraser – Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III
• Leonie Frieda – Catherine de' Medici
• Sheila Hancock – '
• Gareth Stedman Jones – An End to Poverty?
• Pedro Lemebel – '
• Doris Lessing – '
• Lawrence Lessig – Free Culture
• Mario Vargas Llosa – The Temptation of the Impossible
• Roger Lowenstein – Origins of the Crash
• Hugh Masekela – Still Grazing (autobiography)
• Predrag Miletić – Biciklom do Hilandara
• Farah Pahlavi – '
• Chuck Palahniuk – '
• Michael Palin – Himalaya
• Sethy Regenvanu – Laef blong mi (From village to nation: an autobiography)
• Anita Roddick – Take it Personally: How globalization affects you and powerful ways to challenge it
• Miranda Seymour – '
• Owen Sheers – The Dust Diaries
• Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark
• 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
• United Kingdom Government – Delivering Security in a Changing World
• Francis Wheen – How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World (also Idiot Proof: A Short History of Modern Delusions)
• Alford A. Young Jr. – The Minds of Marginalized Black Men

Films

• 2046 - inspired by Liu Yichang's "The Drunkard"
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• The Phantom of the Opera

Deaths

• January 3 – Lillian Beckwith, English novelist (born 1916)
• January 4
• Joan Aiken, English novelist and children's writer (born 1924)
• Jeff Nuttall, English poet, artist and activist (born 1933)
• Dorota Terakowska, Polish writer and journalist, author of fantasy books for children and young adults (born 1938)
• John Toland, American author and historian (born 1912)
• January 10
• Alexandra Ripley, American novelist (born 1934)
• (or January 11) Spalding Gray, American writer and actor (born 1942)
• January 13 – Zeno Vendler, American philosopher and linguist (born 1921)
• January 14 – Jack Cady, American fantasy and horror novelist (born 1932)
• January 15
• Alex Barris, Canadian actor and writer (born 1922)
• Olivia Goldsmith, American novelist (complications from cosmetic surgery, born 1949)
• January 24 – Abdul Rahman Munif, Arab writer (born 1933)
• January 29
• Janet Frame, New Zealand novelist, poet and short story writer (born 1924)
• M. M. Kaye, Indian-born English novelist (born 1908)
• February 2 – Alan Bullock, English historian (born 1914)
• February 4 – Hilda Hilst, Brazilian poet, playwright and novelist (born 1930)
• February 5 – Frances Partridge, English diarist (born 1900)
• February 7 – Norman Thelwell, English cartoonist (born 1923)
• February 17 – Bruce Beaver, Australian poet and novelist (born 1928)
• February 27 – Paul Sweezy, American economist and editor (born 1910)
• February 28 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian (born 1914)
• February 29 – Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (born 1915)
• March 9 – Albert Mol, Dutch author, actor and dancer (born 1917)
• March 27 – Robert Merle, French novelist (born 1908)
• March 29 – Peter Ustinov, English actor, dramatist and memoirist (born 1921)
• March 30
• Alistair Cooke, English-born American journalist and broadcaster (born 1908)
• Michael King OBE, New Zealand historian, author and biographer (born 1945)
• April 19
• Norris McWhirter, English writer and activist (born 1925)
• John Maynard Smith, English evolutionary biologist and writer (born 1920)
• April 25 – Thom Gunn, English poet (born 1929)
• April 26 – Hubert Selby, Jr., American author (born 1928)
• May 2 – Paul Guimard, French writer (born 1921)
• May 12
• Syd Hoff, American author and illustrator (born 1912)
• Alexander Skutch, American scientific writer and naturalist (born 1904)
• May 31 – Lionel Abrahams, South African novelist, poet and essayist (born 1928)
• July 1 – Peter Barnes, English playwright (born 1931)
• July 8 – Paula Danziger, American children's and young adult novelist (born 1945)
• August 8 – Farida Diouri, Moroccan novelist (born 1953)
• August 12 – Humayun Azad, Bangladeshi author, poet, scholar and linguist (born 1947)
• August 14 – Czesław Miłosz, Polish writer and Nobel laureate (born 1911)
• August 30 – Mario Levrero, Uruguayan novelist (born 1940)
• September 18 – Norman Cantor, Canadian historian (born 1929)
• September 24 – Françoise Sagan, French novelist (born 1935)
• September 28 – Mulk Raj Anand, Indian novelist in English (born 1905)
• October – Natalya Baranskaya, Russian short-story writer (born 1908)
• October 8 – Jacques Derrida, Algerian-born French literary critic (born 1930)
• October 13 – Bernice Rubens, Welsh-born novelist (born 1928)
• October 16
• Vincent Brome, English biographer and novelist (born 1910)
• Harold Perkin, English social historian (born 1926)
• October 20 – Anthony Hecht, American poet (born 1923)
• November 9 – Stieg Larsson, Swedish journalist and crime novelist (heart attack, born 1954)
• November 24 – Arthur Hailey, Canadian novelist (born 1920)
• December 2 – Mona Van Duyn, American poet (born 1921)
• December 8 – Jackson Mac Low, American poet (born 1922)
• December 12 – Phaswane Mpe, South African novelist (born 1970)
• December 13 – Jón frá Pálmholti (Jón Kjartansson), Icelandic writer and journalist (born 1930)
• December 18 – Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (born 1926)
• December 28 – Susan Sontag, American novelist (born 1933)

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Elfriede Jelinek
• Camões Prize: Agustina Bessa-Luís

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
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Andrea Curtis, Into the Blue

Sweden

• Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Lygia Bojunga Nunes

United Kingdom

• Caine Prize for African Writing: Brian Chikwava, "Seventh Street Alchemy"
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions
• 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: Aaron Smith, 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, 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
• Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2004 Lambda Literary Awards.
• National Book Award for Fiction: to The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
• National Book Critics Circle Award: to Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to by John Updike
• Wallace Stevens Award: Mark Strand
• Whiting Awards:

Fiction: Daniel Alarcón, Kirsten Bakis, Victor LaValle

Nonfiction: Allison Glock, John Jeremiah Sullivan

Plays: Elana Greenfield, Tracey Scott Wilson

Poetry: Catherine Barnett, Dan Chiasson, A. Van Jordan

Elsewhere

• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Péter Esterházy
• Premio Nadal: Antonio Soler, El camino de los ingleses

See also

• List of years in literature
• Literature
• Poetry
• List of literary awards
• List of poetry awards
• The Best American Short Stories 2004
• 2004 in Australian literature

Notes

References