2005 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2005.

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Events

February 25 – Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation.
March 26 – The classic U.K. science fiction series Doctor Who returns to television with a script by Russell T Davies, the executive producer.
April 23 – The Grande Bibliothèque at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec is officially opened. It actually opens on April 30.
June 13 – The poet Dannie Abse is injured and his wife Joan killed in an accident on the M4 in South Wales.
August 15 – An integrated National Library of Norway opens to readers in Oslo for the first time.

New books

Fiction

Tariq Ali – A Sultan in Palermo
Rajaa Alsanea – Girls of Riyadh (بنات الرياض, Banat al-Riyadh)
Avi – Never Mind
Tash Aw – The Harmony Silk Factory
Steve Aylett – Lint
Doreen Baingana – Tropical Fish (short stories)
John Banville – The Sea
Sebastian Barry – A Long Long Way
Nelson Bond – Other Worlds Than Ours
Dionne Brand – What We All Long For
Orson Scott Card
Magic Street
Shadow of the Giant
Cormac McCarthy – No Country for Old Men
Rita Chowdhury – Deo Langkhui
Wendy Coakley-Thompson – What You Won't Do for Love
Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception
Bernard Cornwell – The Pale Horseman
Colin Cotterill – Thirty-Three Teeth
Robert Crais – The Forgotten Man
Mitch Cullin – A Slight Trick of the Mind
Michael Cunningham – Specimen Days
Rana Dasgupta – Tokyo Cancelled
Lindsey Davis – See Delphi and Die
Abha Dawesar – Babyji
L. Sprague de Camp – Years in the Making: the Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp
Troy Denning
The Joiner King
The Swarm War
The Unseen Queen
Bret Easton Ellis – Lunar Park
Alicia Erian – Towelhead
Steve Erickson – Our Ecstatic Days
Sebastian Faulks – Human Traces
Amanda Filipacchi – Love Creeps
Jonathan Safran Foer – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Nicci French – Catch Me When I Fall
Gayleen Froese – Touch
Cornelia Funke – Inkspell
David Gibbins – Atlantis
Kate Grenville – The Secret River (Melbourne)
Abdulrazak Gurnah – Desertion
Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Enemy
Joanne Harris – Gentlemen & Players
Carl Hiaasen – Flush
Charlie Higson – SilverFin
Peter Hobbs – The Short Day Dying
John Irving – Until I Find You
Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go
Uzodinma Iweala – Beasts of No Nation
Raymond Khoury – The Last Templar
Stephen King – The Colorado Kid
Dean Koontz – Velocity
Elizabeth Kostova – The Historian
Sharon Krum – The Thing About Jane Spring
Stieg Larsson – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Marina Lewycka – A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Yiyun Li – A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (short stories)
James Luceno
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
Labyrinth of Evil
Mike McCormack – Notes from a Coma
Ian McEwan – Saturday
Elizabeth McKenzie – Stop That Girl
Kevin MacNeil – The Stornoway Way
Gregory Maguire – Son of a Witch
Gabriel García Márquez – Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Stephenie Meyer – Twilight
David Michaels – Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda
Robert Muchamore
Maximum Security
The Killing
Péter Nádas – Parallel Stories
Garth Nix – Drowned Wednesday
Chuck Palahniuk – Haunted
Christopher Paolini – Eldest
Robert B. Parker – School Days
Ruth Rendell – End in Tears
Salman Rushdie – Shalimar the Clown
Darren Shan – Lord Loss (first of The Demonata series)
Zadie Smith – On Beauty
Wesley Stace – Misfortune
Olen Steinhauer – 36 Yalta Boulevard
Matthew Stover – Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Thomas Sullivan – Second Soul
Jean-François Susbielle – La Morsure du dragon
Vikas Swarup – Q & A
Rupert Thomson – Divided Kingdom
Harry Turtledove (editor) – The Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de Camp
Andrew Vachss – Two Trains Running
Catherynne M. Valente – Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams
Michal Viewegh – Lekce tvůrčího psaní
Narayan Wagle – Palpasa Cafe (पल्पसा क्याफे)
Nalini Warriar – The Enemy Within
David Weber – At All Costs
Samantha Weinberg – The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel
Kirby Wright – Punahou Blues
Markus Zusak – The Book Thief

Children and young people

David Almond – Clay
Charlie Jane Anders – Choir Boy
Lysa Divine -Drama High
Jackie French – They Came on Viking Ships
Jonathon Scott Fuqua – King of the Pygmies
John Green – Looking for Alaska
Charlie Higson – SilverFin
Julius Lester – The Old African
Claire and Monte Montgomery - Hubert Invents the Wheel
Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors
Jane O'Connor – Fancy Nancy (first in a series of over 70 books)
Margie Palatini (with Barry Moser) – The Three Silly Billies
Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson – And Tango Makes Three
Philip Reeve – Infernal Devices
Rick Riordan – The Lightning Thief
J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Lemony Snicket – The Penultimate Peril
Dugald Steer (with Nghiem Ta, etc.) – Wizardology: The Book of the Secrets of Merlin
Jonathan Stroud – Ptolemy's Gate
Scott Westerfeld – Uglies (first in the Uglies series of four books)
Markus Zusak – The Book Thief

Drama

Catherine Filloux – Lemkin's House
debbie tucker green
stoning mary
generations
Oleg Kagan – The Black Hat
Carlos Lacamara – Nowhere on the Border
Peter Morris – Guardians
Vern Thiessen – Shakespeare's Will
Laura Wade
Colder Than Here
Breathing Corpses
Vincent Woods – A Cry from Heaven

Poetry

Carol Ann Duffy – Rapture

Non-fiction

Matthew Bortolin – The Dharma of Star Wars
Edwin Bryant – Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and inference in Indian history
Francis Chalifour – After
Jung Chang & Jon Halliday – Mao: The Unknown Story
Theodore Dalrymple – Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses
Michel Déon – Horseman, Pass By! (Cavalier, passe ton chemin!)
Jared Diamond – Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Joan Didion – The Year of Magical Thinking
Robert Fisk – The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
Randy Grim – Miracle Dog
John Grogan – Marley & Me
Michael Gross – 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building
James Whitney Hicks – 50 Signs of Mental Illness: A Guide to Understanding Mental Health
Adam Hochschild – Bury the Chains
Tom Holland – Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West
Tony Judt – Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne – Blue Ocean Strategy
Lawrence M. Krauss – Hiding in the Mirror
Mark Levin – Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America
Alexander Masters – Stuart: A Life Backwards
Azadeh Moaveni – Lipstick Jihad
Peter C. Newman – The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister
Lisa Randall – Warped Passages
Paul A. Robinson – Queer Wars
Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn – Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing
James S. Shapiro – 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
Masamune Shirow – Ghost in the Shell 2: Man/Machine Interface
Rebecca Solnit – A Field Guide to Getting Lost
David Southwell – Secrets and Lies
James B. Stewart – DisneyWar

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:

:Fiction: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Nell Freudenberger, Seth Kantner, John Keene (fiction/poetry)

:Plays: Rinne Groff

:Poetry: Thomas Sayers Ellis, Ilya Kaminsky, Dana Levin, Spencer Reece, Tracy K. Smith

Other

Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres: Patti Smith
German Book Prize (first award): Arno Geiger, Es geht uns gut (We Are Doing Fine)
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Orhan Pamuk
International Dublin Literary Award: Edward P. Jones, The Known World

Notes

References

External links

Popular Books of 2005 at Goodreads