The year
1996 in literature involved some
significant events and new books.
Events
New books
New drama
Non-fiction
Poetry
Births
Deaths
- January 21 - Efua Sutherland, Ghanaian dramatist, poet
and children's author (b. 1924)
- January 28
- Jerry Siegel, cartoonist, creator of Superman (b. 1914)
- Joseph Brodsky, Russian poet and
essayist, Nobel laureate (b. 1940)
- February 11
- Bob Shaw, science fiction writer (b. 1931)
- Amelia Rosselli, Italian poet
(b. 1930)
- March 3 - Marguerite Duras, French dramatist and film
director (b. 1914)
- March 18 - Odysseas Elytis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize
laureate (b. 1911)
- March 22 - Ian Stephens, Canadian poet
- March 31 - Dario Bellezza, Italian poet and dramatist
(b. 194)
- April 22 - Erma
Bombeck, American humorist and writer (b. 1927)
- May 24 - Joseph Mitchell, American journalist (b.
1908)
- May 26 - Ovidiu Papadima, Romanian critic and
essayist (b. 1909)
- June 2 - Leon
Garfield, English children's author (b. 1921)
- June 14 - Gesualdo Bufalino, Italian novelist (b.
1920)
- July 10 - Eno
Raud, Estonian children's author (b. 1928)
- October 24 - Sorley Maclean, Gaelic poet (b. 1911)
- December 12 - Vance Packard, journalist and social critic
(b. 1914)
- December 16 - Quentin Bell, English biographer and art
historian (b. 1910)
Awards
Australia
Canada
France
United Kingdom
- Booker Prize: Graham Swift, Last
Orders
- 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 Night
- 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
- Nebula Award: Nicola Griffith, Slow River
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Karen Cushman, The Midwife's Apprentice
- Pulitzer Prize for
Drama: Jonathan Larson,
Rent
- 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
Elsewhere
because it "conflicted with the values of the
community."
.
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