2005 in literature

Children and young people

Films

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Oliver Twist
• Pride & Prejudice
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Deaths

• January 4 – Humphrey Carpenter, English biographer, children's fiction writer and radio broadcaster (born 1946)
• January 7 – Pierre Daninos, French novelist (born 1913)
• January 14 – Charlotte MacLeod, American mystery writer (born 1922)
• January 15
• Walter Ernsting, German science fiction author (born 1920)
• Elizabeth Janeway, American feminist author (born 1913)
• January 19 – K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (suicide; born 1974)
• January 20 – Roland Frye, American theologian and critic (born 1921)
• January 21
• John L. Hess, American journalist and critic (born 1917)
• Theun de Vries, Dutch writer and poet (born 1907)
• January 24 – Vladimir Savchenko, Ukrainian science fiction writer (born 1933)
• January 25 – Max Velthuijs, Dutch writer and illustrator (born 1923)
• January 29 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli satirist, dramatist, and screenwriter (born 1924)
• February 10 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (born 1915)
• February 11 – Jack L. Chalker, American science fiction writer (born 1944)
• February 20 – Hunter S. Thompson, American writer, creator of Gonzo journalism (born 1937)
• February 21 – Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (born 1929)
• February 25 – Phoebe Hesketh, English poet (born 1909)
• March 7 – Willis Hall, English playwright (born 1929)
• March 8
• Alice Thomas Ellis, English novelist, essayist and cookery book author (born 1932)
• Anna Haycraft, English novelist (born 1932)
• March 10 – Patience Gray, English cookery and travel writer (born 1917)
• March 17 – Andre Norton, American science fiction writer (born 1912)
• March 22 – Anthony Creighton, English playwright (born 1922)
• March 30 – Robert Creeley, American poet (born 1926)
• April 5 – Saul Bellow, Canadian writer (born 1915)
• April 7 – Yvonne Vera, Zimbabwean novelist (meningitis, born 1964)
• April 26 – Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan novelist (born 1917)
• May 7 – Tristan Egolf, American novelist (suicide, born 1971)
• June 9 – Hovis Presley, English poet (heart attack, born 1960)
• June 10 – Nick Darke, Cornish playwright (cancer, born 1948)
• June 14 – Norman Levine, Canadian short story writer (born 1923)
• June 16 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican novelist (born 1905)
• June 20 – Larry Collins, American novelist (born 1929)
• June 22 – William Donaldson, English satirist (born 1935)
• June 27 – Shelby Foote, American novelist (born 1916)
• June 28 – Philip Hobsbaum, Scottish poet and critic (born 1932)
• June 30 – Christopher Fry, English dramatist (born 1907)
• July 6
• Evan Hunter, American novelist (born 1926)
• Claude Simon, French Nobel laureate in literature (born 1913)
• July 7 – Gustaf Sobin, American poet (born 1935)
• July 17 – Gavin Lambert, English novelist and biographer (born 1924)
• July 19 – Edward Bunker, American crime writer (born 1933)
• August 9 – Judith Rossner, American novelist (born 1935)
• August 16 – William Corlett, English author and playwright (born 1938)
• August 21 – Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (born 1036)
• August 29 – Sybil Marshall, English novelist (born 1913)
• September 3 – R. S. R. Fitter, English nature writer (born 1913)
• September 26 – Helen Cresswell, English children's writer (born 1934)
• September 27
• Ronald Pearsall, English writer (born 1927)
• Mary Lee Settle, American novelist (born 1918)
• October 2 – August Wilson, American playwright (born 1945)
• October 17 – Ba Jin (巴金), Chinese novelist (born 1904)
• October 31 – Amrita Pritam, Indian Punjabi poet and novelist (born 1919)
• November 1 – Michael Thwaites, Australian poet (born 1915)
• November 2 – Gordon A. Craig, Scottish historian
• November 4 – Michael G. Coney, Canadian science-fiction writer (born 1932)
• November 5 – John Fowles, English writer (born 1926)
• November 21 – Aileen Fox, English archaeologist (born 1907)
• November 26 – Stan Berenstain, American children's writer and illustrator (born 1923)
• December 1 – Mary Hayley Bell, dramatist
• December 2 – Christine Pullein-Thompson, English novelist (born 1925)
• December 9 – Robert Sheckley, American short story writer (born 1928)
• December 15 – Julián Marías, Spanish philosopher and author (born 1914)
• December 16 – Kenneth Bulmer, English novelist and short story writer (born 1921)

Awards

• Nobel Prize in Literature: Harold Pinter
• Camões Prize: Lygia Fagundes Telles

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Andrew T. O'Connor, Tuvalu
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: M. T. C. Cronin,
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Samuel Wagan Watson, Smoke Encrypted Whispers
• Miles Franklin Award: Andrew McGahan, The White Earth

Canada

• Governor General's Award for English-language fiction: David Gilmour, A Perfect Night to Go to China
• Griffin Poetry Prize: Roo Borson, Short Journey Upriver Towards Oishida and Charles Simic, Selected Poems: 1963-2003
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
• Scotiabank Giller Prize: David Bergen, The Time in Between
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Anne Coleman, I'll Tell You a Secret

Sweden

• Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Philip Pullman and Ryōji Arai

United Kingdom

• Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting (first award): Duncan Macmillan, Monster
• Caine Prize for African Writing: S. A. Afolabi, "Monday Morning"
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Mal Peet, Tamar
• Cholmondeley Award: Jane Duran, Christopher Logue, M. R. Peacocke, Neil Rollinson
• Commonwealth Writers Prize: Andrea Levy, Small Island
• Dagger of Daggers: John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)
• Eric Gregory Award: Melanie Challenger, Carolyn Jess, Luke Kennard, Jaim Smith
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Sue Prideaux, Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Ian McEwan, Saturday
• Man Booker International Prize (first award): Ismail Kadare
• Man Booker Prize: John Banville, The Sea
• Samuel Johnson Prize: Jonathan Coe, Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin
• Somerset Maugham Award: Justin Hill, Passing Under Heaven; Maggie O'Farrell, The Distance Between Us
• Whitbread Book of the Year Award: Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master: The Conquest of Colour 1909-1954

United States

• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: B. H. Fairchild
• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Rick Hilles, Brother Salvage: Poems
• Arthur Rense Prize: Daniel Hoffman
• Bollingen Prize for Poetry: Jay Wright
• Brittingham Prize in Poetry: Susanna Childress, Jagged with Love
• Compton Crook Award: Tamara Siler Jones, Ghosts in the Snow
• Frost Medal: Marie Ponsot
• Hugo Award: Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
• Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2005 Lambda Literary Awards.
• National Book Award for Poetry: W. S. Merwin, Migration: New and Selected Poems
• National Book Critics Circle Award: to War Trash by Ha Jin
• Newbery Medal: Cynthia Kadohata, Kira-Kira
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to The March by E.L. Doctorow
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: John Patrick Shanley, Doubt: A Parable
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Ted Kooser, Delights & Shadows
• Wallace Stevens Award: Gerald Stern
• Whiting Awards:

Other