2004 in literature

The year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation.
 * June 1 - Sasebo, Nagasaki - Controversy briefly surrounded Koushun Takami's Battle Royale, when an 11-year-old fan of the story murdered her classmate, 12-year-old Satomi Mitarai (Sasebo slashing), in a way that mimicked a scene from the story.

New prose fiction

 * Germano Almeida - O mar na Lajinha
 * R. Scott Bakker - The Darkness That Comes Before
 * Blue Balliett - Chasing Vermeer
 * Steven Barnes - The Cestus Deception
 * Alistair Beaton - A Planet for the President
 * Thomas Berger - Adventures of the Artificial Woman
 * Louis de Bernières - Birds Without Wings
 * T. C. Boyle - The Inner Circle
 * Gennifer Choldenko - Al Capone Does My Shirts
 * Stephen Clarke - A Year in the Merde
 * Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
 * Wendy Coakley-Thompson - Back to Life
 * Suzanne Collins - Gregor the Overlander
 * J. J. Connelly - Layer Cake
 * Afua Cooper - The Hanging of Angelique
 * Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Escape and The Last Kingdom
 * Douglas Coupland - Eleanor Rigby
 * Stevie Davies - Kith & Kin
 * L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg - Sagas of Conan
 * Cory Doctorow - Eastern Standard Tribe
 * Ben Elton - Past Mortem
 * Gustav Ernst - Grado. Süße Nacht
 * Giorgio Faletti - Niente di vero tranne gli occhi
 * Karen Joy Fowler - The Jane Austen Book Club
 * Robert Goddard - Play to the End
 * Adrien Goetz - La Dormeuse de Naples
 * Helon Habila - Waiting for an Angel
 * Elisabeth Harvor, All Times Have Been Modern (Canada)
 * Michael Helm - In the Place of Last Things
 * Carl Hiaasen - Skinny Dip
 * Allison Hedge Coke - Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer
 * Alan Hollinghurst - The Line of Beauty
 * Jiang Rong - Wolf Totem
 * Cynthia Kadohata - Kira-Kira
 * Peg Kehret - Escaping the Giant Wave
 * Thomas Keneally - The Tyrant's Novel
 * Stephen King - The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower and The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
 * Karl Ove Knausgård - A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven
 * David Leavitt - The Body of Jonah Boyd
 * Tanith Lee - Piratica
 * David Lodge - Author, Author
 * Henning Mankell - Depths
 * David Michaels - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
 * David Mitchell -Cloud Atlas
 * Aka Morchiladze - Santa Esperanza
 * Robert Muchamore - The Recruit (novel) and Class A (novel)
 * Bharati Mukherjee - The Tree Bride
 * Alice Munro - Runaway
 * Garth Nix - Grim Tuesday
 * Cees Nooteboom - Lost Paradise
 * Linda Sue Park - When My Name Was Keoke
 * Michael Reaves and Steve Perry - MedStar I: Battle Surgeons and MedStar II: Jedi Healer
 * Marilynne Robinson - Gilead
 * Roberto Bolaño - 2666
 * Philip Roth - The Plot Against America
 * Nick Sagan - Edenborn
 * David Sherman & Dan Cragg - ''Jedi Trial
 * Kyle Smith - Love Monkey
 * Lemony Snicket - The Grim Grotto
 * David Southwell - Conspiracy Files
 * Muriel Spark - The Finishing School
 * Olen Steinhauer - The Confession
 * Neal Stephenson - The Confusion (Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle) and The System of the World (Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle)
 * Sean Stewart - Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
 * Thomas Sullivan - Dust of Eden
 * Michel Thaler - Le Train de Nulle Part
 * Karen Traviss - Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact
 * Jonathan Trigell - Boy A
 * Andrew Vachss - Down Here
 * Vivian Vande Velde - Heir Apparent
 * Bob Weltlich - Crooked Zebra
 * A. N. Wilson - My Name Is Legion
 * Michael Winter - The Big Why
 * Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Shadow of the Wind
 * Juli Zeh - Gaming Instinct

New drama

 * Alan Bennett - The History Boys
 * Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti - Behzti
 * Neil Brand - Stan (radio)
 * Bryony Lavery - Frozen
 * Brent Hartinger - ''The Geography Club
 * Louis Nowra - The Woman with Dog's Eyes
 * John Patrick Shanley - Doubt

Poetry

 * Seamus Heaney - Beacons of Bealtaine

Non-fiction

 * Thomas P. M. Barnett - The Pentagon's New Map
 * T. Mike Childs - The Rocklopedia Fakebandica
 * Richard A. Clarke - Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror
 * Flora Fraser - Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III
 * Leonie Frieda - Catherine de' Medici
 * Sheila Hancock - The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw
 * Allison Hedge Coke - Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer
 * Lawrence Lessig - Free Culture
 * Roger Lowenstein - Origins of the Crash
 * Farah Pahlavi - An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah
 * Chuck Palahniuk - Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories
 * Michael Palin - Himalaya
 * Anita Roddick - Take it personally: How globalization affects you and powerful ways to challenge it
 * Miranda Seymour - The Bugatti Queen: In Search of a Motor-Racing Legend
 * Owen Sheers - The Dust Diaries
 * Ben Stein - Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, The Truth, and What to Do About It
 * Jon Stewart and writers of The Daily Show - America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction''
 * Milt Thomas - Cave of a Thousand Tales
 * J. Maarten Troost - The Sex Lives of Cannibals

January–February

 * January 3 - Lillian Beckwith, writer of semi-autobiographical Hebridean novels (born 1916)
 * January 4
 * John Toland, author and historian (born 1912)
 * Joan Aiken, adults' and children's novelist (born 1924)
 * Jeff Nuttall, poet, publisher, actor, painter, sculptor, jazz trumpeter, anarchist sympathiser and social commentator (born 1933)
 * January 10
 * Alexandra Ripley, author of Scarlett (born 1934)
 * (or January 11) Spalding Gray, actor and author (born 1942)
 * January 13 - Zeno Vendler, philosopher and linguist (born 1921)
 * January 14 - Jack Cady, fantasy and horror novelist (born 1932)
 * January 15
 * Olivia Goldsmith, novelist (born 1949) (complications from cosmetic surgery)
 * Alex Barris, Canadian actor and writer (born 1922)
 * January 22 - George Woodbridge, illustrator (born 1930)
 * January 29 -
 * M. M. Kaye, novelist (The Far Pavilions) (born 1908)
 * Janet Frame, New Zealand novelist, poet and short story writer (born 1924)
 * February 2 - Alan Bullock, historian (born 1914)
 * February 4 - Hilda Hilst, Brazilian poet, playwright and novelist (born 1930)
 * February 5 - Frances Partridge, diarist and last surviving member of the Bloomsbury group (born 1900)
 * February 7 - Norman Thelwell, cartoonist (born 1923)
 * February 8 - Julius Schwartz, comic book and pulp magazine editor (born 1915)
 * February 17 - Bruce Beaver, Australian poet and novelist (born 1928)
 * February 27 - Paul Sweezy, economist and founding editor of the Monthly Review (born 1910)
 * February 28 - Daniel J. Boorstin, historian (born 1914)
 * February 29 - Jerome Lawrence, playwright (born 1915)

Mar-August

 * March 9 - Albert Mol, author, actor, and dancer (born 1917)
 * March 28 - Robert Merle, French novelist (born 1908)
 * March 29 - Peter Ustinov, actor, dramatist and memoirist (born 1921)
 * March 30
 * Dr Michael King OBE New Zealand historian, author and biographer (born 1945)
 * Alistair Cooke - English-born journalist and broadcaster (born 1908)
 * April 19
 * Norris McWhirter, records compiler (born 1925)
 * John Maynard Smith, evolutionary biologist and writer (born 1920)
 * April 25 - Thom Gunn, poet (born 1929)
 * April 26 - Hubert Selby, Jr., American author (born 1928)
 * May 2 - Paul Guimard, French writer (born 1921)
 * July 1 - Peter Barnes, playwright (born 1931)
 * July 8 - Paula Danziger, young adult novelist (born 1945)
 * August 8 - Farida Diouri, Moroccan novelist (born 1953)

September–December

 * September 18 - Norman Cantor, Canadian historian (born 1929)
 * September 24 - Françoise Sagan, French novelist (born 1935)
 * September 28 - Mulk Raj Anand, Indian novelist in English language (born 1905)
 * October - Natalya Baranskaya, Russian short-story writer (born 1908)
 * October 13 - Bernice Rubens, Booker-winning novelist (born 1928)
 * October 16 - Vincent Brome, English biographer and novelist (born 1910)
 * October 20 - Anthony Hecht, American poet (born 1923)
 * November 9 - Steig Larsson, Swedish journalist and crime novelist (born 1954) (heart attack)
 * November 24 - Arthur Hailey, Canadian novelist (born 1920)
 * December 2 - Mona Van Duyn, American poet (born 1921)
 * December 8 - Jackson Mac Low, American poet (born 1922)
 * December 12 - Phaswane Mpe, South African novelist (born 1970)
 * December 18 - Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (born 1926)
 * December 28 - Susan Sontag, American novelist (born 1933)

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Elfriede Jelinek

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Julienne van Loon, Road Story
 * Victorian Premier's Literary Award C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Judith Beveridge, Wolf Notes
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Pam Brown, Dear Deliria: New & Selected Poems
 * Mary Gilmore Prize: David McCooey, Blister Pack; Michael Brennan, Imageless World
 * Miles Franklin Award: Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire
 * Victorian Premier's Literary Award Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction: Annamarie Jagose, Slow Water

Canada

 * Giller Prize: Alice Munro, Runaway
 * Governor General's Awards: See 2004 Governor General's Awards
 * Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Simpson, Loop and August Kleinzahler, The Strange Hours Travelers Keep

United Kingdom

 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions
 * Cholmondeley Award: John Agard, Ruth Padel Lawrence Sail, Eva Salzman
 * Eric Gregory Award: Nick Laird, Elizabeth Manuel, Abi Curtis, Sophie Levy, Saradha Soobrayen
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Jonathan Bate, John Clare: A Biography
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: David Peace, GB84
 * Man Booker Prize: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
 * Orange Prize for Fiction: Andrea Levy, Small Island
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Hugo Williams
 * Whitbread Best Book Award: Andrea Levy, Small Island

United States

 * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Henry Taylor
 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Aaron Smith, Blue on Blue Ground
 * Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Jeremy Glazier, "Conversations with the Sidereal Messenger"
 * Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: B.H. Fairchild, Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest
 * Brittingham Prize in Poetry: John Brehm, Sea of Faith
 * Compton Crook Award: E. E. Knight, Way of the Wolf
 * Frost Medal: Richard Howard
 * Hugo Award for Best Novel: Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls
 * Wallace Stevens Award: Mark Strand

Elsewhere

 * Premio Nadal: Antonio Soler, El camino de los ingleses