2008 In Literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2008.

Events

*January 1 – In the UK's 2008 New Year Honours List, Hanif Kureishi (CBE), Jenny Uglow (OBE), Peter Vansittart (OBE) and Debjani Chatterjee (MBE) are all rewarded for "services to literature."
*February 29 – Belgian-born " Misha Defonseca" admits that her bestselling '' Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years'' (1997) is a literary forgery.
*April – Signet Books announce they will cease to publish the American historical romance novelist Cassie Edwards after a dispute over plagiarism.
* April 25 – The first Twitter novel, ''Small Places'' by Nicholas Belardes, is launched.
*May 7– 11 – The first Palestine Festival of Literature is held.
*June 15 – Gore Vidal, asked in a ''New York Times'' interview how he felt about the death of his rival William F. Buckley, Jr., replies: "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred."
*July – Salman Rushdie's ''Midnight's Children'' (1981) is the winner of a poll to select the " Best of the Booker".

New books

Fiction

* Aravind Adiga
**'' The White Tiger''
**'' Between the Assassinations'' (November 1)
* Uwem Akpan – ''Say You're One of Them''
*Paul Auster – '' Man in the Dark''
* Sebastian Barry – '' The Secret Scripture'' (September 29)
* Henry Bauchau – '' Le Boulevard périphérique''
*John Berger – '' From A to X''
* Charles Bock – '' Beautiful Children'' (January 22)
* Roberto Bolaño – '' 2666: A Novel'' (November 11)
* Christopher Buckley – '' Supreme Courtship'' (September 3)
*Alastair Campbell – '' All in the Mind'' (October 30)
* Martín Caparrós – '' A quien corresponda''
*Eleanor Catton – '' The Rehearsal''
* Wendy Coakley-Thompson – ''Triptych'' (December 18)
*Robert Crais – '' Chasing Darkness''
* Debra Dean – '' Confessions of a Falling Woman''
* Klaus Ebner – ''Hominid'' (October 1)
*Ralph Ellison (posthumous, ed. John F. Callahan) – '' Three Days Before the Shooting...''
* Mathias Énard – '' Zone'' (August 15)
*Sebastian Faulks – '' Devil May Care'' (James Bond continuation novel)
* Keith Gessen – '' All the Sad Young Literary Men'' (April 10)
* Shanta Gokhale – ''Tyā varshī (Crowfall)''
*Juan Goytisolo – '' Exiled from Almost Everywhere''
* Paul Griffiths – ''let me tell you''
* Lauren Groff – '' The Monsters of Templeton'' (February 5)
*Peter Handke – '' The Moravian Night'' (January 12, Germany)
* Johan Harstad – '' DARLAH''
* Zoë Heller – '' The Believers'' (September 24)
* Aleksandar Hemon – '' The Lazarus Project'' (May 1)
*M. H. Herlong – '' The Great Wide Sea'' (October 2)
* Samantha Hunt – '' The Invention of Everything Else'' (February 7)
* Siri Hustvedt – '' The Sorrows of an American'' (April 1)
* Karl Iagnemma – ''The Expeditions'' (January 15)
* Robert Juan-Cantavella – ''El Dorado''
*Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs (posthumous) – ''And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks'' (November 1; written 1945)
*Christian Kracht – '' Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten'' (September)
*László Krasznahorkai – '' Seiobo There Below''
* Jhumpa Lahiri – '' Unaccustomed Earth'' (April 1)
* Kelly Link – ''Pretty Monsters'' (October 2)
* David Lodge – '' Deaf Sentence'' (May 1)
* James McBride – ''Song Yet Sung'' (February 5)
* Joe McGinniss Jr. – '' The Delivery Man'' (January 15)
* Ronit Matalon – ''The Sound of Our Steps (Kol Tsa'adenu)''
* Lydia Millet – ''How the Dead Dream'' (January 25)
*Toni Morrison – ''A Mercy'' (November 11)
*Nunoe Mura – '' GeGeGe no Nyōbō'' (ゲゲゲの女房)
*Joyce Carol Oates – '' My Sister, My Love'' (June 24)
* Sofi Oksanen – '' Puhdistus''
*Chuck Palahniuk – '' Snuff'' (May 20)
* Arturo Perez-Reverte – ''The Painter of Battles'' (January 8)
*Jodi Picoult – '' Change of Heart'' (March 4)
* José Luis Rodríguez Pittí – ''Sueños urbanos''
*Richard Price – '' Lush Life'' (March 4)
*Ruth Rendell – '' Portobello'' (November 20)
* Nina Revoyr – ''The Age of Dreaming''
* Nathaniel Rich – ''The Mayor's Tongue'' (April 8)
*Marilynne Robinson – ''Home'' (September 2)
* Charlotte Roche – '' Feuchtgebiete'' (February 25)
*Mary Ann Rodman – '' Jimmy's Stars''
* Philip Roth – '' Indignation'' (September 16)
*Salman Rushdie – '' The Enchantress of Florence'' (June 3)
*Will Self – '' The Butt''
* Curtis Sittenfeld – '' American Wife'' (September 2)
*Sjón – '' Rökkurbýsnir''
* Elizabeth Strout – '' Olive Kitteridge'' (March 25)
* Tom Rob Smith – '' Child 44''
* Joan Thomas – '' Reading by Lightning''
* David Turashvili – '' Flight from the USSR''
*John Updike – '' The Widows of Eastwick'' (October 28)
* Tobias Wolff – ''Our Story Begins'' (March 25)

Genre fiction

*Jim Butcher – '' Small Favor'' (April 1) (Harry Dresden #10)
*Matthew J. Costello – '' Doom 3: Worlds on Fire'' (February 26)
*Ursula K. Le Guin – Lavinia
*Stephen King – '' Duma Key'' (January 22)
* Patricia A. McKillip – '' The Bell at Sealey Head'' (September 2)
*Stephenie Meyer – ''Breaking Dawn'' (August 2)
* Douglas Preston – ''Blasphemy'' (January 8)
*Matthew Stover – '' Caine Black Knife'' (October 14)
* Brent Weeks – '' The Way of Shadows''

Children and young people

*David Almond
**'' The Savage''
**'' Jackdaw Summer''
*Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson – ''Science Fair''
*Nick Bland – '' The Very Cranky Bear''
* Eoin Colfer – '' Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox'' (July 15)
* Frank Cottrell-Boyce – ''Desirable''
*Suzanne Collins – ''The Hunger Games'' (September 14)
* John Fardell – ''Manfred the Baddie''
* Mem Fox – '' Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes''
*Cornelia Funke – '' Inkdeath'' (October 7)
*John Green – '' Paper Towns'' (October 16)
*Brian Greene – '' Icarus At The Edge Of Time''
* Charlie Higson – ''Young Bond: By Royal Command'' (September 3)
* Minoru Kawakami and Satoyasu – '' Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere''
* D. J. MacHale – '' Raven Rise'' (May 20)
*Patricia Martin - '' Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love'' (January 8)
*Jenny Nimmo – '' Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock'' (June 1)
*Garth Nix – '' Superior Saturday'' (May 5)
* Arielle North Olson – '' More Bones: Scary Stories From Around The World''
*Christopher Paolini – ''Brisingr'' (September 2)
*Ridley Pearson - '' Steel Trapp: The Challenge''
*Amjed Qamar – '' Beneath My Mother's Feet''
*Rick Riordan – '' The Maze of Bones''
*Angie Sage – '' Queste'' (April 8)
* Michael Salzhauer – '' My Beautiful Mommy''⁶

Drama

* Salvatore Antonio – '' In Gabriel's Kitchen''
*Howard Brenton – '' Never So Good''
* Mary Higgins Clark – '' Where Are You Now?''
*Paul Dwyer – '' The Bougainville Photoplay Project''
* Nicholas de Jongh – '' Plague Over England''
* Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels – ''The Broken Circle Breakdown featuring the cover-ups of Alabama''
*Ella Hickson – ''Eight''
* Sam Holcroft – ''Cockroach''
* Elaine Murphy – '' Little Gem''
* Lynn Nottage – '' Ruined''
*Tyler Perry – ''The Marriage Counselor''
* Taavi Vartia – '' Kaikkien aikojen Pertsa ja Kilu''

Poetry

Non-fiction

* The Academi – '' Encyclopaedia of Wales (Gwyddoniadur Cymru)'' (January)
*Julie Andrews – '' Home: A Memoir of My Early Years'' (April 1)
*Kwame Anthony Appiah – '' Experiments in Ethics''
*Dan Ariely – '' Predictably Irrational'' (February 19)
*Margaret Atwood – '' Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth'' (October 1)
* Mary Beard – ''Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town''
*Dionne Brand – ''A Kind of Perfect Speech (Ralph Gustafson Lecture)''
* Augusten Burroughs – '' A Wolf at the Table'' (April 29)
*Michael Chabon – '' Maps and Legends'' (May 1)
* D. K. Chakrabarti – ''The Battle for Ancient India: An essay in the sociopolitics of Indian archaeology''
*Rob Christensen – '' The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics''
* Sloane Crosley – '' I Was Told There'd Be Cake'' (April 1)
* John Duignan – '' The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology'' (October 7)
*Eminem – '' The Way I Am'' (October 21)
* Richard Florida – '' Who's Your City?'' (March)
* Raymond Geuss – '' Philosophy and Real Politics''
* Philip Hoare – ''Leviathan, or The Whale'' (September 16)
* Jim Holt – '' Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes''
* Chloe Hooper – '' The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island''
* B. B. Lal – ''Rāma, His Historicity, Mandir, and Setu: Evidence of Literature, Archaeology, and Other Sciences''
*Thomas Cairns Livingstone – '' Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913–1918''
* Minae Mizumura – '' The Fall of Language in the Age of English''
*Scholastique Mukasonga – ''La femme aux pieds nus'' (The Barefoot Woman)
*Haruki Murakami (translated by Philip Gabriel) – '' What I Talk About When I Talk About Running'' (July 29)
*Shuja Nawaz – '' Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within''
* Frances Osborne – ''The Bolter: Idina Sackville''
*Chris Pash – '' The Last Whale''
* Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow – ''Last Lecture''
*Peter Rees – '' The Other ANZACs''
*David Sedaris – '' When You Are Engulfed in Flames'' (June 3)
* Tore Skeie – ''Alv Erlingsson: fortellingen om en adelsmanns undergang''
* Vaclav Smil – ''Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems''
* Chunghee Sarah Soh – '' The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan''
*Shreve Stockton - '' The Daily Coyote''
* Jane Straus – ''The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation''
* Kate Summerscale – ''The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, or The Murder at Road Hill House'' (April)
*Ronnie Thompson (pseudonym) – '' Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer'' (January 24)
* Bjørn Christian Tørrissen – '' One for the Road'' (January 31; translation of ''I pose og sekk!'', 2005)
*Barbara Walters – ''Audition: A Memoir'' (May 6)
* Russell Wangersky – '' Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself''
* Meralda Warren and others – ''Mi Base side orn Pitcairn'' (My Favourite Place on Pitcairn, first book published in Pitkern creole)
*Dagmar S. Wodtko, Britta Irslinger and Carolin Schneider (eds.) – ''Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon''

Deaths

*January 2 – George MacDonald Fraser, Scottish novelist and screenplay writer (born 1925)
*January 3 – Henri Chopin, French poet (born 1922)
*January 11 – Nancy Phelan, Australian writer (born 1913)
*January 13 – Patricia Verdugo, Chilean journalist and writer (born 1947)
*January 16 – Hone Tuwhare, New Zealand poet (born 1922)
*January 17 – Edward D. Hoch, American detective fiction writer (born 1930)
*January 26
** John Ardagh, Nyasaland-born English journalist and writer (born 1928)
** Abraham Brumberg, American writer and editor (born 1926)
*January 29 – Margaret Truman, American crime novelist and singer (born 1924)
*January 30 – Miles Kington, Northern Irish-born English journalist and writer (born 1941)

*February 4 – Rose Hacker, English writer and journalist (born 1906)
*February 7 – Richard Altick, American literary historian (born 1915)
*February 8 – Phyllis A. Whitney, Japan-born American mystery writer (born 1903)
*February 10 – Steve Gerber, American comic book writer (born 1947)
*February 18 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French novelist (born 1922)
*February 21
** Archie Hind, Scottish novelist (born 1928)
** Robin Moore, American novelist and memoirist (born 1925)
*February 22 – Stephen Marlowe, American science fiction and crime writer (born 1928)
*February 28 – Julian Rathbone, English novelist (born 1935)
*February 29 – Val Plumwood (Val Routley), Australian philosopher (born 1939)

*March 16 – Jonathan Williams, American poet (born 1929)
*March 19
** Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer and futurologist (born 1917)
** Hugo Claus, Belgian writer in Flemish and English (born 1929)
*March 23 – E. A. Markham, Montserrat poet, writer and activist (born 1939)
*April 3 – Andrew Crozier, English poet and scholar (born 1943)
*April 7 – Ludu Daw Amar, Burmese writer and journalist (born 1915)
*April 13 – Robert Greacen, Irish poet (born 1920)
*April 17
**Aimé Césaire, Martinique poet and writer in French (born 1913)
** Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Russian writer and editor (born 1929)
*April 18
** Michael de Larrabeiti, English young-adult novelist and travel writer (born 1934)
** William W. Warner, American biologist and Pulitzer Prize writer (born 1920)
*May 1 – Elaine Dundy, American novelist, biographer and playwright (born 1921)
*May 9 – Nuala O'Faolain, Irish critic and writer (born 1940)
*May 11 – Jeff Torrington, Scottish novelist (born 1935)
*May 12 – Oakley Hall, American novelist (born 1920)
*May 14 – Roy Heath, Guyanese novelist (born 1926)
*May 15 – Muhyi al-Din Faris, Sudanese poet (born 1936)
*May 19 – Vijay Tendulkar, Indian playwright (born 1928)
*May 22 – Robert Asprin, American science fiction writer (born 1946)
*May 23 – Alan Brien, English journalist and novelist (born 1925)
*May 28 – Elinor Lyon, British children's writer (born 1921)

* June 2 – Ferenc Fejtő, Hungarian-born French historian and journalist (born 1909)
* June 4 – Matthew Bruccoli, American biographer and scholar (born 1931)
* June 5 – Angus Calder, British writer and scholar (born 1942)
* June 8 – Peter Rühmkorf, German poet and writer (born 1929)
*June 9 – Algis Budrys (John A. Sentry), American science fiction writer of Lithuanian origin (born 1931)
*June 10
** Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyz writer in Kyrgyz and Russian (born 1928)
** Eliot Asinof, American novelist and baseball writer (born 1919)
*June 16 – Mario Rigoni Stern, Italian novelist (born 1921)
*June 18 – Tasha Tudor, American children's writer and illustrator (born 1915)
*June 22 – Albert Cossery, Egyptian-born French novelist (born 1913)
* June 24 – Ruth Cardoso, Brazilian anthropologist and writer (born 1930)
* June 25 – Lyall Watson, South African scientist and new age writer (born 1939)
*June 27 – Lenka Reinerová, Czech writer in German (born 1916)

*July 1
**Clay Felker, American magazine editor and journalist (born 1925)
** Robert Harling, English typographer and novelist (born 1910)
* July 2 – Simone Ortega, Spanish cookery writer (born 1919)
*July 4
** Thomas M. Disch, American science fiction author and poet. (born 1940)
** Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch novelist and writer in Dutch and English (born 1931)
* July 20 – Roger Wolcott Hall, American memoirist and novelist (born 1919)
* July 27 – Bob Crampsey, Scottish writer (born 1930)
* July 30 – Peter Coke, English playwright (born 1913)

* August 3 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Nobel laureate (born 1918)
* August 7 – Simon Gray, English playwright and memoirist (born 1936)
* August 9 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (born 1942)
*August 11 – George Furth, American playwright (born 1932)
* August 17 – Dave Freeman, American writer and advertising executive (born 1961)
*August 23 – John Russell, English art critic (born 1919)
* August 25 – Ahmed Faraz (Syed Akhmad Shah), Pakistani poet in Urdu (born 1931)
*August 31 – Ken Campbell, English novelist and playwright (born 1941)

* September 5 – Robert Giroux, American editor and publisher (born 1914)
*September 7 – Gregory Mcdonald, American mystery writer (born 1937)
* September 12 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist (born 1962)
*September 17 – James Crumley, American crime writer (born 1939)
* September 20 – Duncan Glen, Scottish poet, critic and literary historian (born 1933)
* September 23 – William Woodruff, English historian and autobiographer (born 1916)
*September 24 – Bengt Anderberg, Swedish poet, novelist and children's writer (born 1920)
*September 29 – Hayden Carruth, American poet and literary critic (born 1921)
*October 4 – Peter Vansittart, English novelist and historical writer (born 1920)
*October 10 – Ilie Purcaru, Romanian journalist and poet (born 1933)
*October 14 – Barrington J. Bayley, English science fiction writer (born 1937)
*October 26 – Tony Hillerman, American mystery writer (born 1925)
*October 27 – Es'kia Mphahlele, South African writer in English (born 1919)
*October 29 – William Wharton (Albert William Du Aime), American novelist (born 1925)
*October 31 – Studs Terkel, American historian and broadcaster (born 1912)
*November 4 – Michael Crichton, American writer and scholar (born 1942)
*November 13 – Jules Archer, American historian and author (born 1915)
*November 14 – Kristin Hunter, American author and academic (born 1931)
* December 1 – Dorothy Sterling, American non-fiction writer for children and historian (born 1913)
* December 4 – Forrest J Ackerman, American magazine editor, science fiction writer, and literary agent (born 1916)
*December 15 – Anne-Catharina Vestly, Norwegian children's book author (born 1920)
*December 20 – Adrian Mitchell, English poet, playwright and fiction writer (born 1932)
*December 24 – Harold Pinter, English playwright and screenwriter (born 1930)
*December 31 – Donald E. Westlake, American novelist (born 1933)

Awards and honors

*Camões Prize: João Ubaldo Ribeiro
* Europe Theatre Prize: Patrice Chéreau
* European Book Prize: Tony Judt, ''Postwar''
*International Dublin Literary Award: Rawi Hage, '' De Niro's Game''
* International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Bahaa Taher, ''Sunset Oasis''
*Nobel Prize in Literature: J. M. G. Le Clézio

Australia

*Miles Franklin Award: Steven Carroll, '' The Time We Have Taken''

Canada

*Canada Reads: Paul Quarrington, '' King Leary''
* Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Main award, Zoe Whittall; honours of distinction, Brian Francis, John Miller.
* Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Bruce Serafin, '' Stardust''
*Governor General's Awards: Multiple categories; see 2008 Governor General's Awards.
* Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction: Taras Grescoe, ''Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood''
*Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Miriam Toews, ''The Flying Troutmans''
*Scotiabank Giller Prize: Joseph Boyden, '' Through Black Spruce''
* Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award: Michael Winter

Sweden

*Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Sonya Hartnett

United Kingdom

*Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year: '' The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais'', Philip M. Parker
* Caine Prize for African Writing: Henrietta Rose-Innes, "Poison"
* Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Philip Reeve, '' Here Lies Arthur''
*Man Booker Prize: Aravind Adiga, '' The White Tiger''
* Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction: to The Road Home by Rose Tremain

United States

*Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2008 Lambda Literary Awards.
*National Book Award for Fiction: to Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
*National Book Critics Circle Award

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