2005 in literature

The year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * February 25 - Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation.
 * 400th anniversary of Cervantes' publication of the first part of Don Quixote.

New prose fiction books

 * Tariq Ali - A Sultan in Palermo
 * Rajaa Alsanea - Banat al-Riyadh
 * Avi - Never Mind
 * 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 and ''Shadow of the Giant
 * Rita Chowdhury - Deo Langkhui
 * Wendy Coakley-Thompson - What You Won't Do for Love
 * Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception
 * Bernard Cornwell - The Pale Horseman
 * Colin Cotterill - Thirty-Three Teeth
 * Robert Crais - The Forgotten Man
 * Michael Cunningham - Specimen Days
 * 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 and The Unseen Queen
 * Bret Easton Ellis - Lunar Park
 * Alicia Erian - Towelhead
 * Sebastian Faulks - Human Traces
 * Amanda Filipacchi - Love Creeps
 * Nicci French - Catch Me When I Fall
 * Gayleen Froese - Touch
 * David Gibbins - Atlantis
 * Joanne Harris - Gentlemen & Players
 * Carl Hiaasen - Flush
 * Charlie Higson - SilverFin
 * 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
 * Stieg Larsson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
 * Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
 * James Luceno - Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader and Labyrinth of Evil
 * Stephenie Meyer - ''Twilight
 * Ian McEwan - Saturday
 * Gregory Maguire - Son of a Witch
 * Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Memories of My Melancholy Whores
 * David Michaels - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda
 * Robert Muchamore - Maximum Security (novel) and The Killing (novel)
 * Péter Nádas - Parallel Stories
 * Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted
 * Christopher Paolini - Eldest
 * Robert B. Parker - School Days
 * Ruth Rendell - End in Tears
 * J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Salman Rushdie - Shalimar the Clown
 * Darren Shan - Lord Loss (first of The Demonata series)
 * Michael Slade - Swastika
 * Lemony Snicket - The Penultimate Peril
 * 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
 * Rupert Thomson - Divided Kingdom
 * Harry Turtledove, editor - The Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de Camp
 * Andrew Vachss - Two Trains Running
 * Michal Viewegh - Lekce tvůrčího psaní
 * David Weber - At All Costs
 * Samantha Weinberg - The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel
 * Garth Nix - Drowned Wednesday
 * Kirby Wright - Punahou Blues
 * Catherynne M. Valente - Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams

New drama

 * Catherine Filloux - Lemkin's House
 * Oleg Kagan - The Black Hat
 * Carlos Lacamara - Nowhere on the Border
 * The Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble - Wounded
 * Vern Thiessen - Shakespeare's Will
 * Vincent Woods - A Cry from Heaven

Non-fiction

 * Joan Didion - The Year of Magical Thinking
 * Tony Judt - Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
 * Jung Chang & Jon Halliday - Mao: The Unknown Story
 * Jared Diamond - Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
 * John Grogan - Marley & Me
 * Tom Holland - Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West
 * Alexander Masters - Stuart: A Life Backwards
 * Azadeh Moaveni - Lipstick Jihad
 * Peter C. Newman - The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister
 * Masamune Shirow - Ghost in the Shell 2: Man/Machine Interface
 * David Southwell - Secrets and Lies
 * James B. Stewart - DisneyWar
 * Từ điển Bách khoa toàn thư Việt Nam (encyclopedia)
 * Binod Bihari Verma - ''Vedmurti Taponishth SriRam Sharma Acharya Biography of Shriram Sharma Acharya
 * Theodore Dalrymple - Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses

Deaths

 * January 7 - Pierre Daninos, French novelist (born 1913)
 * January 14 - Charlotte MacLeod, American mystery writer (born 1922)
 * January 15
 * Elizabeth Janeway, American feminist author (born 1913)
 * Walter Ernsting, German science fiction author (born 1920)
 * January 19 - K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (born 1974) (suicide)
 * January 21 - 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
 * 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, British poet (born 1909)
 * March 7 - Willis Hall, English playwright (born 1929)
 * March 8 - Anna Haycraft, English novelist (born 1932)
 * 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 (born 1964) (meningitis)
 * April 26 - Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan novelist (born 1917)
 * May 7 - Tristan Egolf, American novelist (born 1971) (suicide)
 * June 9 - Hovis Presley, English poet (born 1960) (heart attack)
 * 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
 * Claude Simon, French Nobel laureate in literature (born 1913)
 * Evan Hunter, American novelist (born 1926)
 * 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 21 - Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (born 1936)
 * 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
 * Mary Lee Settle, American novelist (born 1918)
 * Ronald Pearsall, English writer (born 1927)
 * October 2 - August Wilson, American playwright (born 1945)
 * October 17 - Ba Jin, Chinese novelist (born 1904)
 * November 1 - Michael Thwaites, Australian poet (born 1915)
 * November 2 - Gordon A. Craig, Scottish historian
 * November 3 - Robert Waller, English poet, (born 1913)
 * November 4 - Michael G. Coney, Canadian science-fiction writer (born 1932)
 * November 5 - John Fowles, English writer (born 1926)
 * 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

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Andrew T. O'Connor, Tuvalu
 * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: M. T. C. Cronin, 1-100
 * 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

United Kingdom

 * 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: Ismail Kadare
 * Man Booker Prize: John Banville, The Sea
 * Samuel Johnson Prize: Jonathan Coe, Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of BS 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
 * National Book Award for Poetry: W.S. Merwin, Migration: New and Selected Poems
 * Newbery Medal: Cynthia Kadohata, Kira-Kira
 * 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 Writers' Awards:
 * Fiction: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Nell Freudenberger, Seth Kantner, John Keene (fiction/poetry)
 * Plays: Rinne Groff
 * Poetry: Thomas Sayers Ellis, Ilya Kaminsky, John Keene (fiction/poetry), Dana Levin, Spencer Reece, Tracy K. Smith


 * Wordcraft Writer of the Year Award for Poetry: Allison Hedge Coke, Off-Season City Pipe

Elsewhere

 * International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Edward P. Jones - The Known World
 * Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres: Patti Smith