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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2001.

Events

  • February 15 – The author Michael Crichton signs a new deal with HarperCollins Publishers that reportedly earns him $40 million for two books.
  • April 1 – The BookCrossing scheme for leaving books for strangers to find is launched.
  • April 13 – The film version of Helen Fielding's 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary has uncredited cameo roles as themselves for Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes and Jeffrey Archer, at a literary party.
  • July 19 – The English popular novelist and politician Jeffrey Archer, having been found guilty of perjury in a libel trial, is sentenced to imprisonment.
  • September 19 – Amiri Baraka reads his poem "Somebody Blew Up America?" at a poetry festival in New Jersey, eight days after the September 11 attacks.
  • November 4 – Film premiere of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, first in the commercially successful Harry Potter film series based on the novels of J. K. Rowling.
  • December 10 – The live-action film version of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, directed by Peter Jackson, opens in London. Its appearance has a strong impact on readership of the trilogy.

New books

Fiction

  • Niccolò Ammaniti – Io non ho paura
  • Hiromu Arakawa – Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, manga series, begins publication)
  • Tahar Ben Jelloun – Cette aveuglante absence de lumière (This Blinding Absence of Light)
  • Raymond Benson – Never Dream of Dying
  • Dennis Bock – The Ash Garden
  • Ben Bova – The Precipice
  • Geraldine Brooks – Year of Wonders
  • Lois McMaster Bujold – The Curse of Chalion
  • Javier Cercas – Soldiers of Salamis (Soldados de Salamina)
  • Joseph Connolly – S.O.S.
  • Bernard Cornwell
  • Sharpe's Trafalgar
  • Gallows Thief
  • Douglas Coupland – All Families Are Psychotic
  • Achmat Dangor – Bitter Fruit
  • Helen Dunmore – The Siege
  • Umberto Eco – Baudolino
  • James Ellroy – The Cold Six Thousand
  • Leif Enger – Peace Like a River
  • Sebastian Faulks – On Green Dolphin Street
  • Ken Follett – Jackdaws
  • Leon Forrest – Meteor in the Madhouse
  • Jonathan Franzen – The Corrections
  • Rodrigo Fresán – Mantra
  • Diana Gabaldon – The Fiery Cross
  • Neil Gaiman – American Gods
  • Kate Grenville – The Idea of Perfection
  • John Grisham
  • A Painted House
  • Skipping Christmas
  • Abdulrazak Gurnah – By the Sea
  • Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Impostors
  • Joanne Harris – Five Quarters of the Orange
  • Vigdis Hjorth – Om bare (If only)
  • Nick Hornby – How to Be Good
  • Silas House – Clay's Quilt
  • Nancy Huston – Dolce Agonia
  • John Irving – The Fourth Hand
  • Fleur Jaeggy – Proleterka
  • P. D. James – Death in Holy Orders
  • Greg Keyes
  • Edge of Victory: Conquest
  • Edge of Victory: Rebirth
  • Stephen King
  • Black House
  • Dreamcatcher
  • Christian Kracht – 1979
  • Hanif Kureishi – Gabriel's Gift
  • Joe R. Lansdale – Captains Outrageous
  • John le Carré – The Constant Gardener
  • Ursula K. Le Guin – The Birthday of the World, and Other Stories
  • Pedro Lemebel – Tengo miedo torero (My Tender Matador)
  • Mario Vargas Llosa – The Feast of the Goat (La fiesta del chivo)
  • David Lodge – Thinks ...
  • James Luceno – Cloak of Deception
  • Ian McEwan – Atonement
  • Andreï Makine – Music of a Life (La Musique d'une vie)
  • Juliet Marillier – Child of the Prophecy
  • Yann Martel – Life of Pi
  • Alice Munro – Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (short stories)
  • V S Naipaul – Half a Life
  • R. K. Narayan – Under the Banyan Tree
  • Joyce Carol Oates – Middle Age: A Romance
  • Chuck Palahniuk – Choke
  • Noni Power &ndash; Crawling at Night
  • Terry Pratchett
  • The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
  • Thief of Time
  • The Last Hero
  • Sven Regener – Herr Lehmann
  • Kathy Reichs – Fatal Voyage
  • Alain Robbe-Grillet – La Reprise
  • Jean-Christophe Rufin – Rouge Brésil
  • Salman Rushdie – Fury
  • Richard Russo – Empire Falls
  • W. G. Sebald – Austerlitz
  • Nava Semel – And the Rat Laughed (ואת צחוק של עכברוש)
  • Olga Slavnikova – Bessmertniy (The Immortal)
  • Danielle Steel – Leap of Faith
  • Antonio Tabucchi – It's Getting Later All the Time
  • Amy Tan – The Bonesetter's Daughter
  • Timothy Taylor – Stanley Park
  • Anne Tyler – Back When We Were Grownups
  • Jane Urquhart – The Stone Carvers
  • Andrew Vachss – Pain Management
  • Tim Winton – Dirt Music
  • Carlos Ruiz Zafón – La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind; first in El cementerio de los libros olvidados (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books) series)
  • Juli Zeh – Eagles and Angels

Children and young people

  • David Almond – Secret Heart
  • Malorie Blackman – Noughts and Crosses (first in the Noughts and Crosses series of five books)
  • Ann Brashare – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
  • Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl (first in the eponymous series of eight books)
  • Eva Ibbotson – Journey to the River Sea
  • Brian Jacques – Castaways of the Flying Dutchman
  • David Klass – You Don't Know Me
  • Hilary McKay – Saffy's Angel
  • Patricia McKissack &ndash; Goin' Someplace Special
  • Michael Morpurgo
  • More Muck and Magic
  • Out of the Ashes
  • Toro! Toro!
  • Lesléa Newman – Cats, Cats, Cats!
  • Linda Sue Park – A Single Shard
  • Philip Reeve – Mortal Engines (November 16)
  • J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  • Lemony Snicket
  • The Ersatz Elevator
  • The Vile Village
  • Jan Bondeson – Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear
  • Dionne Brand – A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging
  • Edwin Bryant – The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture
  • Joan Didion – Political Fictions
  • Eamon Duffy – The Voices of Morebath. Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village
  • Barbara Ehrenreich – Nickel and Dimed
  • Koenraad Elst – The Saffron Swastika
  • Mem Fox – Reading Magic
  • Antonia Fraser – Marie Antoinette: The Journey
  • Dorothy Gallagher – How I Came Into My Inheritance and Other True Stories
  • Stephen Hawking – The Universe in a Nutshell
  • Laura Hillenbrand – Seabiscuit: An American Legend
  • Christopher Hitchens – The Trial of Henry Kissinger
  • Gary Lachman – Turn Off Your Mind
  • Lawrence Lessig – The Future of Ideas
  • Normand Lester – Le Livre noir du Canada Anglais (The Black Book of English Canada)
  • Steven Levy – Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government—Saving Privacy in the Digital Age
  • Margaret MacMillan – Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War
  • Michael Moore – Stupid White Men
  • Mumtaz Mufti – Ali Pur Ka Aeeli
  • Pavel Polian – Against Their Will... A History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR
  • E. Hoffmann Price – Book of the Dead
  • Eric Schlosser – Fast Food Nation
  • Miranda Seymour – Mary Shelley
  • Andrew Solomon – The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
  • Ben Thompson - Ways of Hearing
  • Türkmenbaşy – Ruhnama (The Book of the Soul, first part)
  • Ivan Vladislavic – The Restless Supermarket
  • Frans de Waal – The Ape and the Sushi Master
  • Benjamin Woolley – The Queen's Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr. Dee

Deaths

  • January 5 – G. E. M. Anscombe, English analytic philosopher (died 2001)
  • January 8 – Catherine Storr, English children's writer (born 1913)
  • January 11 – Lorna Sage, English scholar (born 1943)
  • January 31 – Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian-born American science fiction writer (born 1923)
  • February 7 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and aviator (born 1906)
  • February 14
  • Alan Ross, Indian-born English poet and editor (born 1922)
  • Richard Laymon, American horror fiction writer (born 1947)
  • March 1 – Mahmud Arif, Saudi Arabian poet (born 1909)
  • March 12 – Robert Ludlum, American novelist (born 1927)
  • May 11 – Douglas Adams, English writer, humorist and dramatist (born 1952)
  • May 13
  • Jason Miller, American actor and playwright (born 1939)
  • R. K. Narayan, Indian novelist writing in English (born 1906)
  • June 1 – Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist (born 1920)
  • June 27 – Tove Jansson, Finnish children's author writing in Swedish (born 1914)
  • July 3 – Mordecai Richler, Canadian author, screenwriter and essayist (born 1931)
  • July 18 – James Hatfield, American author (born 1958)
  • July 31 – Poul Anderson, American fantasy and sci-fi author (born 1926)
  • August 6 – Jorge Amado, Brazilian writer (born 1912)
  • August 20 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and science fiction writer (born 1915)
  • November 10 – Ken Kesey, American author (born 1935)
  • November 25 – David Gascoyne, English surrealist poet (born 1916)
  • December 21 – Dick Schaap, American journalist and author (born 1934)
  • December 14 – W. G. Sebald, German novelist and academic (born 1944)

Awards

  • Nobel Prize for Literature: V.S. Naipaul

Australia

  • Miles Franklin Award: Frank Moorhouse, Dark Palace

Canada

  • Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Richard B. Wright – Clara Callan
  • See 2001 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
  • Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Taras Grescoe – Sacré Blues

France

  • Prix Décembre: Chloé Delaume, '
  • Prix Femina: Marie Ndiaye, '
  • Prix Goncourt: Jean-Christophe Rufin, '
  • Prix Médicis French: Edwy Plenel, '
  • Prix Médicis Non-Fiction: '
  • Prix Médicis International: Antonio Skarmeta, '

United Kingdom

  • Booker Prize: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang
  • Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Sid Smith, Something Like a House
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: Volume 3 – Fighting for Britain 1937–1946
  • Caine Prize for African Writing: Helon Habila, "Love Poems"
  • Cholmondeley Award: Ian Duhig, Paul Durcan, Kathleen Jamie, Grace Nichols
  • Eric Gregory Award: Leontia Flynn, Thomas Warner, Tishani Doshi, Patrick Mackie, Kathryn Gray, Sally Read
  • Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Carson, Men in the Off Hours and Nikolai Popov and Heather McHugh, translation of Glottal Stop: 101 Poems by Paul Celan
  • Hugo Award: J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  • Samuel Johnson Prize: Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich
  • Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Michael Longley
  • Orange Prize for Fiction: Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection
  • Whitbread Best Book Award: Patrick Neate, Twelve Bar Blues

United States

  • Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Gabriel Gudding for A Defense of Poetry
  • Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, Frederick Morgan
  • Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, “Circus Fire, 1944”
  • Bollingen Prize for Poetry, Louise Glück
  • Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Robin Behn, Horizon Note
  • Compton Crook Award: Syne Mitchell, Murphy's Gambit
  • Frost Medal: Sonia Sanchez
  • Hugo Award: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  • Newbery Medal for children's literature: Richard Peck, A Year Down Yonder
  • National Book Award for Fiction: to The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
  • National Book Critics Circle Award: to Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
  • PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Philip Roth for The Human Stain
  • Pulitzer Prize for Drama: David Auburn, Proof
  • Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
  • Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Stephen Dunn, Different Hours
  • Wallace Stevens Award: John Ashbery
  • Whiting Awards:

:Fiction: Emily Carter, Matthew Klam, Akhil Sharma, Samrat Upadhyay, John Wray

:Nonfiction: Judy Blunt, Kathleen Finneran

:Plays: Brighde Mullins

:Poetry: Joel Brouwer, Jason Sommer

Other

  • Camões Prize: Eugénio de Andrade
  • Europe Theatre Prize: Lev Dodin, Michel Piccoli
  • Finlandia Prize: Hannu Raittila, Canal Grande
  • Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Jürgen Habermas
  • International Dublin Literary Award: Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief
  • Premio Nadal: Fernando Marías, El Niño de los Coroneles
  • Premio Strega: Domenico Starnone, Via Gemito
  • Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja (first award): Javier Reverte, La Noche Detenida
  • Premio Antón Losada Diéguez (category Creación literaria): Xurxo Borrazás, Na maleta
  • SAARC Literary Award: Ganesh Narayandas Devy, Shamsur Rahman
  • Viareggio Prize: Niccolò Ammaniti, Io non ho paura, Michele Ranchetti, Verbale, and Giorgio Pestelli, Canti del destino

References

  • Popular Books of 2001 at Goodreads

cy:Llenyddiaeth yn 2000