2016 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2016.

Events

May 20 – Writers who sign a letter calling for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union include Hilary Mantel, John le Carré, Philip Pullman and Tom Stoppard; nevertheless, the June 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum endorses Brexit.
May 24 – Hundreds of US writers, including Stephen King, Robert Polito and Nicole Krauss, sign an "open letter to the American people" urging them not to support Donald Trump as a presidential candidate in the November 2016 United States presidential election.
November 26 – UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy receives the Wilfred Owen Poetry Award.

Anniversaries

January 10 – Fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood
February 1 – 20th anniversary of the publication of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
February 22 – 40th anniversary of the publication of Raymond Carver's Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
February 28 – Centenary of Henry James's death in 1916
March 28 – 75th anniversary of the death of Virginia Woolf in 1941
April 3 – 25th anniversary of Graham Greene's death in 1991
April 12 – Centenary of the birth of Beverly Cleary, American children's author
May 21 – Centenary of the birth of Harold Robbins, American novelist dubbed one of "the world's bestselling authors."
May 28 – Centenary of the birth of Walker Percy, National Book Award-winning American novelist (The Moviegoer, published 55 years ago in 1961)
April 21 – Bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë's birth in 1816
April 22 – 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes.
April 23 – Possible 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death
April 24 – Centenary of the Easter Rising in Dublin, which inspired W. B. Yeats's poem "Easter, 1916"
July 1 – Centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in which those fighting included Robert Graves, Ford Madox Ford and JRR Tolkien
July 14 – Centenary of the birth of Natalia Ginzburg, Italian author
September 13 – Centenary of the birth of Roald Dahl, Welsh-born children's author
September 17 – Centenary of the birth of Mary Stewart (Mary Rainbow), English romantic suspense novelist
September 28 – Fiftieth anniversary of the death of André Breton, French poet, essayist and theorist; the leading exponent of Surrealism in literature
October 3 – Centenary of the birth of James Herriot (James Alfred Wight), English writer and veterinary surgeon
October 22 – 90 years ago, Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises is published in a first edition consisting of 5090 copies, selling at $2.00 per copy
December 14 – Centenary of the birth of Shirley Jackson, American novelist and short story writer
December 29 – Centenary of the publication in book form of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, in New York

New books

The date after each title indicate the U.S. publication date, unless otherwise stated.

Fiction

Naomi Alderman – The Power (UK, October)
Mohammed Hasan Alwan – A Small Death (موت صغير, Lebanon, May)
Fernando Aramburu – Patria (Spain)
Anuk Arudpragasam – The Story of a Brief Marriage (UK)
Margaret Atwood – Hag-Seed (October)
Sebastian Barry – Days Without End (October)
Gary Barwin – Yiddish for Pirates (April 8)
Mike Binder – Keep Calm (February 2)
Pierce Brown – Morning Star (February 9)
Graeme Macrae Burnet – His Bloody Project (UK)
Marcia Clark – Blood Defense (May 1)
J. M. Coetzee – The Schooldays of Jesus (UK, September 27)
Jean-Baptiste Del Amo – Règne animal (France, August 18)
Emma Donoghue – The Wonder (September)
Paul Goldberg – The Yid (February 2)
Linda Grant – The Dark Circle (UK only, November 3)
Mark Greaney – Back Blast
Yaa Gyasi – Homegoing
Michael Helm – After James (September 13)
Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson – Navigators of Dune (September 13)
Vigdis Hjorth – Arv og miljø (Wills and Testaments, Norway)
Anosh Irani – The Parcel
Alexandra Kleeman – Intimations: Stories (September 13)
Christian Kracht – The Dead (Die Toten, Germany, September 8)
László Krasznahorkai – Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming (Báró Wenckheim hazatér, Hungary, September)
Shari Lapena – The Couple Next Door
Deborah Levy – Hot Milk (UK, March 24)
Édouard Louis – Histoire de la violence (History of Violence, France, January 7)
Mike McCormack – Solar Bones (UK, May 5)
Elizabeth McKenzie – The Portable Veblen
C. E. Morgan – The Sport of Kings
Sayaka Murata – Convenience Store Woman (コンビニ人間, Konbini ningen, Japan, July 27)
Maggie O'Farrell – This Must Be the Place (UK, May 17)
Chibundu Onuzo – Welcome to Lagos (UK)
Stef Penney – Under A Pole Start
Sarah Perry – The Essex Serpent (UK, May 27)
Kerry Lee Powell – Willem de Kooning's Paintbrush
Christoph Ransmayr – Cox
David Adams Richards – Principles to Live By
Steven Rowley – Lily and the Octopus (June 7)
Joss Sheldon – The Little Voice (UK, November 23)
Leïla Slimani – Chanson douce (France, August 18, translated as Lullaby or The Perfect Nanny)
Ali Smith – Autumn (UK, October 20)
Zadie Smith – Swing Time
Botho Strauß – Oniritti Höhlenbilder (Germany, October 10)
David Szalay – All That Man Is (linked short stories, UK, April 7)
Yasuko Thanh – Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains (Canada)
Madeleine Thien – Do Not Say We Have Nothing (October 11)
Rose Tremain – The Gustav Sonata (UK, May 19)
Katherena Vermette – The Break (Canada)
Colson Whitehead – The Underground Railroad
Zoe Whittall – The Best Kind of People (August 27)
Corrina Wycoff – Damascus House (May 25)

Children and young people

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (with Mahlon F. Craft and Kinuko Y. Craft) – Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête)
Jo Ellen Bogart – The White Cat and the Monk
Paula Bossio – The Pencil (original El Lapiz, 2011)
Maxine Beneba Clarke – The Patchwork Bike
Brian Conaghan – The Bombs that Brought Us Together
Mem Fox and Judy Horacek – Ducks Away!
Denise Fleming – 5 Little Ducks
Jory John and Lane Smith – Penguin Problems
Dav Pilkey – Dog Man (first in the eponymous series of 10 books)
J. Patrick Lewis (with Gary Kelley) – The Navajo Code Talkers
Sophie Piper (with Anne Yvonne Gilbert) – Jesus is Born
Dave Rudden – Knights of the Borrowed Dark
Francesca Simon – The Monstrous Child
Maggie Stiefvater – The Raven King (last book in The Raven Cycle series)
Jacqueline Wilson – Rent a Bridesmaid
Toni Yuly – Cat Nap (Yuly book)

Poetry

Matthew and Michael Dickman – Brother
Alice Oswald – Falling Awake
Jacob Polley – Jackself

Drama

Caryl Churchill
- Escaped Alone (UK, 20 January)
- Pigs And Dogs (UK, 21 July)
Martyna Majok – Cost of Living
Suman Pokhrel – Yajnaseni
J. T. Rogers – Oslo (June)
Zlatko Topčić – Silvertown
Alex Vickery-Howe – Out of the Ordinary

Non-fiction

Jimmy Barnes – Working Class Boy
Daniel Beer – The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars (UK)
Paul Cartledge – Democracy: A Life (UK, March 24)
Nicholas Crane – The Making of the British Landscape: From the Ice Age to the Present
Daisy Deomampo – Transnational Reproduction
Susan Faludi – In the Darkroom (June 14)
Christopher Goscha – The Penguin History of Vietnam
John Guy – Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years (UK, May 5)
Jock Haswell (with John Lewis-Stempel) – A Brief History of the British Army (UK, May 26)
Gareth Stedman Jones – Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion (UK, August)
Daniel Levitin – A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age
John Lewis-Stempel
- The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland (UK, June 20)
- Where Poppies Blow: The British Soldier, Nature, The Great War (UK)
John McWhorter – Words on the Move: Why English Won't – and Can't – Sit Still (Like, Literally)
Rajiv Malhotra
- Academic Hinduphobia
- Battle for Sanskrit
Hisham Matar – The Return (UK, June 30)
Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack – The Index Card (January 5)
Patrick Phillips – Blood at the Root
John Preston – A Very English Scandal (UK, May 5)
Kassia St. Clair – The Secret Lives of Colour
Gary Younge – Another Day in the Death of America

Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in literature" article:

January 11 – Gunnel Vallquist, Swedish writer and translator (born 1918)
January 18 – Michel Tournier, French writer, 91 (born 1924)
January 20 – David G. Hartwell, American anthologist, author and critic (b. 1941)
February 8 – Margaret Forster, English novelist and biographer, 77 (born 1938)
February 18 – Yūko Tsushima (津島佑子), Japanese author, 68 (born 1947)
February 19
- Umberto Eco – Italian philosopher and novelist (The Name of the Rose), 84 (born 1932)
- Harper Lee – American author (To Kill a Mockingbird), 89 (born 1926)
February 29 – Louise Rennison, English author and comedian (born 1951)
March 1 – Carole Achache, French writer, photographer and actress, 63, (born 1952)
March 4 – Pat Conroy, American novelist (The Prince of Tides), 70 (born 1945)
March 8 - Enrique Estrázulas, Uruguayan writer, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist and diplomat, 74 (born 1942)
March 21 – Tomás de Mattos, Uruguayan writer and librarian, 68 (born 1947)
March 31 – Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer and the 2002 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 86 (born 1929)
April 3 – Lars Gustafsson, Swedish writer and scholar, novelist and poet, 79 (born 1936)
April 5 – E. M. Nathanson, American author (The Dirty Dozen), 87 (born 1928)
April 12 – Sir Arnold Wesker, English dramatist, 83 (born 1932)
April 30 – Daniel Berrigan, American Jesuit priest, poet, peace activist and recidivist, won the 1957 Lamont Prize in Poetry, 94 (born 1921)
June 6 – Sir Peter Shaffer, English playwright (Amadeus), 90 (born 1926)
June 25 – Adam Small, 79, South African writer and poet, winner of the Hertzog Prize (born 1936)
June 30 – Sir Geoffrey Hill, English poet, 84 (born 1932)
July 1 – Yves Bonnefoy, French poet, 93 (born 1923)
July 2 – Elie Wiesel, American Jewish author (Night) and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner (born 1928)
July 14 – Péter Esterházy, Hungarian writer, 66 (born 1950)
July 19 – Carlos Gorostiza, Argentine playwright, theatre director and novelist, 96 (born 1920)
August 24 – Michel Butor, French essayist, novelist, critic and a leading figure of 1950s Nouveau Roman group, 89 (born 1926)
September 4 :
- Isidore Okpewho, Nigerian novelist and critic, 74 (born 1941)
- Cyril C. Perera, Sri Lankan author and translator, 93 (born 1923)
September 16
- Edward Albee, American playwright (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), 88 (born 1928)
- W. P. Kinsella, Canadian author (Shoeless Joe), 81 (born 1935)
September 28 – Gloria Naylor, African-American novelist and academic (The Women of Brewster Place), 66, (born 1950)
October 13 – Dario Fo, Italian playwright and the 1997 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 90 (born 1926)
October 31 – Natalie Babbitt, American author (Tuck Everlasting), 84 (born 1932)
November 7 – Leonard Cohen, Canadian poet, novelist and songwriter, 82 (born 1934)
November 10 – Francisco Nieva, Spanish playwright, novelist and short story writer, 91 (born 1924)
November 11 – Sir James McNeish, New Zealand novelist, playwright and biographer, 85 (born 1931)
November 20 – William Trevor, Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer, 88 (born 1928)
December 12 – Shirley Hazzard, Australian novelist and short story writer, 85 (born 1931)
December 24 – Richard Adams, English author (Watership Down), 96 (born 1920)
December 28 – Michel Déon, French novelist, 97 (born 1919)

Awards

In alphabetical order of prize names:

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award: Mary Morris for The Jazz Palace
Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction: Lisa McInerney, The Glorious Heresies
Baillie Gifford Prize: Philippe Sands, East West Street
Booker Prize: Paul Beatty, The Sellout (first American winner)
Caine Prize for African Writing: Lidudumalingani Mqombothi, "Memories We Lost"
Camões Prize: Raduan Nassar
Costa Book Awards: Sebastian Barry, Days Without End (novel and overall winner); Francis Spufford, Golden Hill (first novel); Alice Oswald, Falling Awake (poetry); Keggie Carew, Dadland (biography); Brian Conaghan, The Bombs that Brought us Together (children's)
Danuta Gleed Literary Award: Heather O'Neill, Daydreams of Angels
Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Leah Horlick
Desmond Elliott Prize: Lisa McInerney, The Glorious Heresies
DSC Prize for South Asian Literature: Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy, India
Dylan Thomas Prize: Max Porter, Grief is the Thing with Feathers
European Book Prize: Javier Cercas, The Impostor and, Erri De Luca, Le Plus et le Moins
Folio Prize: No prize awarded
German Book Prize: Bodo Kirchhoff, Widerfahrnis
Goldsmiths Prize: Mike McCormack, Solar Bones
Gordon Burn Prize: David Szalay, All That Man Is
Governor General's Award for English-language fiction: Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing
Governor General's Award for French-language fiction: Dominique Fortier, Au péril de la mer
Governor General's Awards, other categories: See 2016 Governor General's Awards.
Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française: Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre Le Dernier des nôtres
International Booker Prize: Han Kang, The Vegetarian
International Dublin Literary Award: Family Life by Akhil Sharma
International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Rabai al-Madhoun, Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Naqba
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction: Eimear McBride, The Lesser Bohemians
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography: Laura Cumming, The Vanishing Man
Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award: Anne Enright, The Green Road
Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 28th Lambda Literary Awards.
Miguel de Cervantes Prize: Eduardo Mendoza
Miles Franklin Award: A. S. Patrić, Black Rock White City
National Biography Award: Brenda Niall for Mannix
National Book Award for Fiction: Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad
National Book Critics Circle Award: Louise Erdrich, LaRose
Nike Award: Bronka Nowicka, Nakarmić kamień
Nobel Prize in Literature: Bob Dylan
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: James Hannaham, Delicious Foods
PEN Center USA Fiction Award:
Premio Planeta de Novela:
Premio Strega: Edoardo Albinati, La scuola cattolica
Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing: Hew Strachan
Prix Goncourt: Leïla Slimani, Chanson douce
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Peter Balakian, Ozone Journal
RBC Taylor Prize: Rosemary Sullivan, Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva
Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Yasuko Thanh, Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains
Russian Booker Prize:
Scotiabank Giller Prize: Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing
Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings:
Walter Scott Prize: Simon Mawer, Tightrope
W. Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction: Ralph Peters, Valley of the Shadow
Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award: Lars Gustafsson