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1996 in literature
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1996 literature poetry
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1996.
Events
July 8 – Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and 30 other books are struck from an English reading list in Lindale, Texas, as they "conflict with the values of the community."Herbert N. Foerstel, Banned in the USA, Greenwood Press, 2002, p. 233.
July 11 – As requested by Nelson Mandela, Benjamin Zephaniah hosts the President's Two Nations Concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.Life at the Hall – Happy Birthday, Nelson Mandela https://web.archive.org/web/20141213021905/http://life.royalalberthall.com/2012/07/18/happy-birthday-nelson-mandela/ 2014-12-13. Accessed 9 December 2014.
October 3 – The first performance is held in New York of Eve Ensler's episodic feminist play The Vagina Monologues.New York Times Theater Reviews The New York Times Theatre Reviews 1999-2000 https://books.google.com/books?id=CcVciO--PkgC&pg=RA3-PA5 December 2001 Taylor & Francis 978-0-415-93697-2 3
unknown dates
In the UK, the first Orange Prize for Fiction for female novelists goes to Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter.https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/05/helen-dunmore-obituary Helen Dunmore obituary Kate Kellaway The Guardian 5 June 2017 9 June 2017 live https://web.archive.org/web/20170609075655/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/05/helen-dunmore-obituary 9 June 2017
Peter O'Donnell publishes Cobra Trap, a final volume featuring Modesty Blaise. The first appeared in 1965.
Margaret Mitchell's lost first novella, Lost Laysen, is published, 80 years after it was written.Victoria Brooks Literary Trips: Following in the Footsteps of Fame https://books.google.com/books?id=JbktvlhYdr8C&pg=PA158 2000 GreatestEscapes.com Pub. 978-0-9686137-0-2 158
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Romance Writings, including her novel Princess Docile, are first published 234 years after her death.David Scott Kastan George M Bodman Professor of English David Scott Kastan The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature https://books.google.com/books?id=DlMUSz-hiuEC&pg=RA3-PA12 2006 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-516921-8 12
New books
Fiction
Anonymous (Joe Klein) – Primary Colors: a novel of politics
Jeffrey Archer – The Fourth Estate
Margaret Atwood – Alias GraceAlias Grace Atwood Margaret McClelland & Stewart 1996 0-7710-0835-X "Author's Afterword" 462
Beryl Bainbridge – Every Man for HimselfBeryl Bainbridge Every Man For Himself: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, 1996 https://books.google.com/books?id=dJ5XLgB2FL0C 26 August 2010 Little, Brown Book Group 978-0-7481-2521-0
David Baldacci – Absolute Powerhttps://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-02-06-9602060114-story.html Diary of a Best Seller Cheryl Lavin, Tribune Staff Writer chicagotribune.com 6 February 1996
Iain M. Banks – Excessionhttp://www.spikemagazine.com/0996bank.php Iain Banks : Whit and Excession: Getting Used To Being God September 3, 1996 Chris Mitchell Spike Magazine
David Bergen – A Year of Lesserhttp://www.cbc.ca/books/booksandauthors/david-bergen.html David Bergen's The Age of Hope is being defended by Ron MacLean for Canada Reads 2013 CBC 15 May 2017
Dionne Brand – In Another Place, Not Here
Larry Brown – Father and Son
Candace Bushnell – Sex and the City
Brett Butler – Knee Deep in Paradise
Tom Clancy – Executive Orders
Joseph Connolly – This Is It
Bernard Cornwell – The Bloody Ground and Enemy of God
Douglas Coupland – Polaroids from the Deadhttps://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/21/books/slouching-toward-brentwood.html Slouching Toward Brentwood The New York Times 21 July 1996 Lord M. G.
Amanda Craig – A Vicious Circle
Robert Crais – Sunset Express
John Darnton – NeanderthalC. Loring Brace Evolution in an Anthropological View AltaMira Press 2000 9780742502635 58
Donald Davidson – The Big Ballad JamboreeStaff writer 1996-03-04 http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-87805-853-2 Fiction Book Review: The Big Ballad Jamboree by Donald Davidson Publishers Weekly 2015-05-02
Seamus Deane – Reading in the Dark
Joan Didion – The Last Thing He Wanted
Stephen R. Donaldson – The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die
Ben Elton – Popcorn
Steve Erickson – Amnesiascope
Helen Fielding – Bridget Jones's Diary
Jon Fosse – Melancholy II (Melancholia II)
Neil Gaiman
The Sandman: The Kindly Ones (graphic novel; ninth in The Sandman series)
The Sandman: The Wake (graphic novel; tenth in The Sandman series)
John Gardner – Cold
Richard Garfinkle – Celestial Matters
Alex Garland – The Beach
William Golding – The Double Tongue
John Grisham – The Runaway Jury and Hackers (short stories)
James L. Halperin – The Truth Machine
Colin Harrison – Manhattan Nocturne
Elisabeth Harvor – Let Me Be the One (short stories)Löschnigg, Maria The Routledge Introduction to the Canadian Short Story Taylor & Francis 7 2022 9781000816419
Nancy Huston – The Goldberg Variations
Tama Janowitz – By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee
Matt Jones – Bad Therapy
Stephen King
Desperation
The Green Mile
The Regulators
Dean R. Koontz – Intensity
Michael P. Kube-McDowell – Before the Storm
Shield of Lies
Tyrant's Test
Caroline Lamarche – Le Jour du chien (The Day of the Dog)
Hugh Laurie – The Gun Seller
John le Carré – The Tailor of Panama
Paul Leonard – Speed of Flight
Steve Lyons – Killing Ground
George R. R. Martin – A Game of Thrones
David A. McIntee – The Shadow of Weng-Chiang
Terry McMillan – How Stella Got Her Groove Back
Javier Marías – When I Was Mortal (Cuando fui mortal, short stories)
Vladimir Megre – Anastasiya
Lawrence Miles – Christmas on a Rational Planet
Rohinton Mistry – A Fine Balance
Shani Mootoo – Cereus Blooms at Night
Joyce Carol Oates – We Were the Mulvaneys
Daniel O'Mahony – The Man in the Velvet Mask
Kate Orman – Return of the Living Dad and Sleepy
Chuck Palahniuk – Fight Club
Lance Parkin – Cold Fusion and Just War
Marc Platt – Downtime
Terry Pratchett – Feet of Clay and Hogfather
Qiu Miaojin (posthumous) – Last Words from Montmartre
James Redfield – The Tenth Insight
Justin Richards – The Sands of Time
Gareth Roberts
The English Way of Death
The Plotters
Mary Rosenblum – Synthesis & Other Virtual Realities
Kristine Kathryn Rusch – The New Rebellion
Gary Russell – The Scales of Injustice
Jeff Shaara – Gods and Generals
Michael Stackpole
The Krytos Trap
Rogue Squadron
Wedge's Gamble
Dave Stone – Death and Diplomacy
Graham Swift – Last Orders
Guy Vanderhaeghe – The Englishman's Boy
David Foster Wallace – Infinite Jest
Daniel Woodrell – Give Us a Kiss
Monika Maron – Animal Triste
Children and young people
K.A. Applegate – Animorphs series
Marion Zimmer Bradley (with Rosemary Edghill) – Witchlight
Eve Bunting (with Ned Bittinger) – The Blue and the Gray
James C. Christensen (with Renwick St. James and Alan Dean Foster) – Voyage of the Basset
Anne Fine – The Tulip Touch
Elaine Forrestal – Someone Like Me
Mem Fox – Boo to a Goose
Mark Helprin (with Chris Van Allsburg) – A City in Winter
E. T. A. Hoffmann (with Roberto Innocenti) – The Nutcracker
Lyll Becerra de Jenkins – So Loud a Silence
Julius Lester – Sam and the Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo
Anne McCaffrey – No One Noticed the Cat
Michael Morpurgo – The Butterfly Lion
Jim Murphy – A Young Patriot: The American Revolution as Experienced by One Boy
Andre Norton (with Martin H. Greenberg and Mark Hess) – Catfantastic IV
Joyce Carol Oates (with Barry Moser) – First Love: A Gothic Tale
Iona Opie – My Very First Mother Goose
Alan Schroeder – Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman
Diane Stanley – Leonardo da Vinci
Jean Ure – Skinny Melon and Me
Drama
Jeff Baron – Visiting Mr. Green
Nick Enright – Blackrock
Eve Ensler – The Vagina Monologues
Jon Fosse
Barnet (The Child)
Nokon kjem til å komme (Someone is going to come) (completed 1993)
Pam Gems – Stanley
Jenny Kemp – The Black Sequin Dress
Ayub Khan-Din – East is East
Martin McDonagh – The Beauty Queen of Leenane
Mark Ravenhill – Shopping and Fucking
Wallace Shawn – The Designated Mourner
Joshua Sobol – Alma
Shelagh Stephenson – The Memory of Water
Botho Strauß – Ithaka
Enda Walsh – Disco Pigs
Peter Whelan – The Herbal Bed
Roy Williams – The No Boys Cricket Club
Poetry
1996 in poetry
Non-fiction
Nelson Algren (posthumous) – Nonconformity (essay, written 1953)
Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Carlos Alberto Montaner and Álvaro Vargas Llosa – Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot (essay)
Stephen Ambrose – Undaunted Courage
Bruce Bawer (editor) – Beyond Queer
John Berendt – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
David Chalmers – The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory
Norman Davies – Europe: A History
Richard Dawkins – Climbing Mount Improbable
David Denby – Great Books
Antonia Fraser – The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605Fraser Antonia The Gunpowder Plot: Terror And Faith In 1605 1996 Orion London 9780297857938 https://books.google.com/books?id=rA9diLCo-o0C&pg=PT3 en
Daniel Goleman – Emotional Intelligence
Denis Guedj – Numbers: The Universal Language
Jennifer Hanson – The Real Freshman Handbook
Samuel P. Huntington – The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Richard Mabey – Flora Britannica
Howard Marks – Mr Nice
Dylan Morgan – The Principles of Hypnotherapy
Anne Mullens – Timely DeathFaculty of Arts, 1997, Edna Staebler Award https://web.archive.org/web/20121001115411/https://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=2529&p=11316 2012-10-01, Wilfrid Laurier University, Previous winners, Anne Mullens. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
Denise Schmandt-Besserat – How Writing Came About
Arun Shourie – Missionaries in India
Alexander Skutch – The Minds of Birds
Alessandro Vezzosi – Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance
Births
May 29 - R. F. Kuang, American fantasy and contemporary fiction writer
November 13 - Zeki Majed, Kurdish filmmaker and poet
December 25 - Elvira Natali, Indonesian author and actress
Deaths
January 5 – Lincoln Kirstein, American writer and impresario (born 1907)
January 8 – Howard Taubman, American author and critic (born 1907)
January 11 – Harold Walter Bailey, English linguistics scholar (born 1899)
January 16 – Kaye Webb, English publisher and journalist (born 1914)Julia Eccleshare Obituary: Kaye Webb, The Independent, 18 January 1996.
January 21 – Efua Sutherland, Ghanaian dramatist, poet and children's author (born 1924)Judith Greenwood https://lucas.leeds.ac.uk/review/the-legacy-of-efua-sutherland-pan-african-cultural-activism/ The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan-African Cultural Activism" (review) Leeds University Centre for African Studies African Studies Bulletin 70 December 2008 84–86
January 27 – Barbara Skelton, English fiction writer, memoirist and literary figure (born 1916)
January 28
Jerry Siegel, American cartoonist (born 1914)Oliver Myrna January 31, 1996 Jerry Siegel; Co-Creator of Superman https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-01-31-mn-30756-story.html Los Angeles Times December 12, 2016
Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (myocardial infarction, born 1940)McFadden Robert Dennis Robert D. McFadden 29 January 1996 Joseph Brodsky, Exiled Poet Who Won Nobel, Dies at 55 https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/29/arts/joseph-brodsky-exiled-poet-who-won-nobel-dies-at-55.html The New York Times 1 January 2009
February 11
Bob Shaw, Northern Irish science fiction writer (born 1931)
Amelia Rosselli, Italian poet (born 1930)
February 12 – Ryōtarō Shiba, Japanese novelist (born 1923)https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/16/nyregion/ryotaro-shiba-72-historical-novelist.html Ryotaro Shiba, 72, Historical Novelist The New York Times February 16, 1996 July 11, 2009
February 18 – Cathal Ó Sándair, Irish-language novelist (born 1922)Breathnach Diarmuid Ní Mhurchú Máire Ó SÁNDAIR, Cathal (1922–1996) https://www.ainm.ie/Bio.aspx?ID=1757 22 July 2023 Ainm ga-IE
March 3
Marguerite Duras, French dramatist and film director (born 1914)Paul Gifford Johnnie Gratton Subject Matters: Subject and Self in French Literature from Descartes to the Present https://books.google.com/books?id=lmnYCNrG57wC&pg=PA159 2000 Rodopi 90-420-0630-7 159
Léo Malet, French crime novelist and surrealist (born 1909)
March 15 – Wolfgang Koeppen, German novelist (born 1906)Reference Guide to Holocaust Literature St. James Press 2002 167
March 18
Jacquetta Hawkes (née Hopkins), English writer and archeologist (born 1910)Contemporary Authors https://books.google.com/books?id=zMniAAAAMAAJ 1996 Gale Research Company 978-0-8103-9351-6 228
Odysseas Elytis, Greek writer and Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)The Nobel Prize in Literature 1979 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1979/summary/ 2020-09-22 NobelPrize.org en-US
March 22
Claude Mauriac, French novelist and journalist (born 1914)Contemporary Authors Gale Research Company 1997 302
Ian Stephens, Canadian poet (year of birth not known)
March 29 – Frank Daniel, Czech-born screenwriter, director, and teacher (born 1926)
March 31 – Dario Bellezza, Italian poet and dramatist (HIV, born 1944)
April 16 – Leila Mackinlay, British romantic novelist (born 1910)
April 18 – Kalim Siddiqui, Pakistani-born English writer and Islamic activist (born 1931)
April 20 – Christopher Robin Milne, English writer and bookseller (born 1920)Ann Thwaite https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-christopher-milne-1306346.html Obituary: Christopher Milne The Independent 6 June 2017
April 22 – Erma Bombeck, American humorist and writer (born 1927)Oliver, Myrna Erma Bombeck, Columnist, Dies After Transplant; Writers: The homemaker-turned-humor author and speaker succumbs to complications at age 69 Los Angeles Times April 23, 1996 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-04-23-mn-61747-story.html 4 June 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20180523022954/http://articles.latimes.com/1996-04-23/news/mn-61747_1_erma-bombeck 23 May 2018 live
April 23 – P. L. Travers, Australian-born children's writer (born 1899)
May 2 – Emile Habibi, Palestinian Israeli writer and politician (born 1922)
May 8 – Larry Levis, American poet, author, and critic (born 1946)
May 24 – Joseph Mitchell, American journalist (born 1908)
May 26
Ovidiu Papadima, Romanian critic and essayist (born 1909)
Margaret Douglas-Home, English writer and musician (born 1906)
May 31 – Timothy Leary, American psychologist and writer (born 1920)Simons Marlise A Final Turn-On Lifts Timothy Leary Off April 22, 1997 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/22/world/a-final-turn-on-lifts-timothy-leary-off.html May 27, 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20160630021355/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/22/world/a-final-turn-on-lifts-timothy-leary-off.html June 30, 2016 live
June 2 – Leon Garfield, English children's author (born 1921)B. Copson, "Garfield, Leon (1921–1996)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP), September 2004; online edition January 2007
June 14 – Gesualdo Bufalino, Italian novelist (born 1920)
June 15 – Fitzroy Maclean, Scottish political writer, autobiographer and diplomat (born 1911)
July 10 – Eno Raud, Estonian children's author (born 1928)
July 22 – Jessica Mitford, English author, journalist and campaigner (born 1917) Severo Richard 23 July 1996 Jessica Mitford, Mordant Critic of American Ways, and a British Upbringing, Dies at 78 The New York Times http://www.mitford.org/nytimes.htm 28 October 2007 https://web.archive.org/web/20071012232315/http://www.mitford.org/nytimes.htm 12 October 2007 dead
September 21 – Henri Nouwen, Dutch priest, theologian and author (born 1932)
September 29 – Shusaku Endo (遠藤周作), Japanese novelist (born 1923)Olive Classe Encyclopedia of literary translation into English: A-L 2000 https://books.google.com/books?id=myLDA0_brhcC&pg=PA406 17 November 2011 Taylor & Francis 978-1-884964-36-7 406
October 16 – Eric Malpass, English novelist (born 1910)McLaughlin John Obituary: Eric Malpass https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-eric-malpass-1359895.html 2 October 2021 The Independent 23 October 1996
October 24 – Sorley Maclean, Gaelic poet (born 1911)
November 27 – Lili Berger, Yiddish writer, antifascist militant and literary critic (born 1916)
December 7 – José Donoso, Chilean writer (born 1924)McFadden Robert D. 1996-12-09 Jose Donoso, 72, Fantastical Chilean Novelist en-US The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/09/arts/jose-donoso-72-fantastical-chilean-novelist.html 2020-06-25 0362-4331
December 9 – Diana Morgan, Welsh playwright and screenwriter (born 1908)
December 12 – Vance Packard, American journalist and social critic (born 1914)Consumerism critic, author Vance Packard https://www.newspapers.com/image/167501509/?terms=%22Vance%2BPackard%22 December 7, 2017 The Chicago Tribune December 13, 1996 13 Newspapers.com registration
December 16 – Quentin Bell, English biographer and art historian (born 1910)
December 20 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist and writer (born 1934)Peggy Saari Stephen Allison Marie C. Ellavich Scientists: Their Lives and Works https://books.google.com/books?id=si8UAQAAMAAJ 1997 U*X*L 978-0-7876-1874-2 198
December 21 – Margret Rey, American author and illustrator (born 1906)
Awards
Nobel Prize for Literature: Wislawa Szymborska
Camões Prize: Eduardo Lourenço
Australia
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Bernard Cohen, The Blindman's Hat
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Peter Bakowski, In the Human Night
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Eric Beach, Weeping for Lost Babylon
Mary Gilmore Prize: Jordie Albiston, Nervous Arcs
Miles Franklin Award: Christopher Koch, Highways to a War
Canada
Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award
Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Margaret Atwood: – Alias Grace
See 1996 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: George G. Blackburn, The Guns of NormandyFaculty of Arts, 1996, Edna Staebler Award https://web.archive.org/web/20121001115435/https://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=2529&p=11317 2012-10-01 , Wilfrid Laurier University, previous winners, George G. Blackburn, Retrieved 11/27/2012
United Kingdom
Booker Prize: Graham Swift, Last Orders
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Melvin Burgess, Junk
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Graham Swift, Last Orders, and Alice Thompson, Justine
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life
Cholmondeley Award: Elizabeth Bartlett, Dorothy Nimmo, Peter Scupham, Iain Crichton Smith
Eric Gregory Award: Sue Butler, Cathy Cullis, Jane Griffiths, Jane Holland, Chris Jones, Sinéad Morrissey, Kate Thomas
Orange Prize for Fiction: Helen Dunmore, A Spell of Winter
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Peter Redgrove
Whitbread Best Book Award: Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level
United States
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Helen Conkling, Red Peony NightHarriet Monroe Poetry https://books.google.com/books?id=pHAqAQAAIAAJ 1997 Modern Poetry Association 305
Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: John Voiklis, "The Princeling's Apology", and (separately) Sarah Arvio, "Visits from the Seventh"
Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Kenneth Koch, One Train
Compton Crook Award: Daniel Graham Jr., The Gatekeepers
Hugo Award: Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
National Book Award: Andrea Barrett, Ship Fever and Other Stories
National Book Critics Circle Award: for Fiction Gina Berriault, Women in Their Beds
National Book Critics Circle Award: for Poetry William Matthews, Time and Money
National Book Critics Circle Award: for General nonfiction Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action
National Book Critics Circle Award: for Biography Robert Polito, Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson
Nebula Award: Nicola Griffith, Slow River
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Karen Cushman, The Midwife's Apprentice
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Richard Ford, Independence Day
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Jonathan Larson, Rent1996 Pulitzer Prizes http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/1996 pulitzer.org 1 May 2017
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Richard Ford – Independence Day
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Jorie Graham: The Dream of the Unified Field
Wallace Stevens Award: Adrienne Rich
Whiting Awards: Fiction: Anderson Ferrell, Cristina García, Molly Gloss, Brian Kiteley, Chris Offutt (fiction/nonfiction), Judy Troy, A.J. Verdelle. Nonfiction: Patricia Storace (nonfiction/poetry). Poetry: Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Elizabeth Spires
Elsewhere
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Mario Vargas Llosa
International Dublin Literary Award: David Malouf, Remembering Babylon
Premio Nadal: Pedro Maestre, Matando dinosaurios con tirachinas
References
30em
External links
Popular Books of 1996 at Goodreads
Published 1996 Books at Goodreads
1996 Books at Goodreads