1997 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1997.

Events

 * February 20 – Allen Ginsberg makes a final public appearance at the NYU Poetry Slam. He continues to write through his final illness, his last poem being "Things I'll Not Do (Nostalgias)" written on March 30.
 * May 27 – Shakespeare's Globe in London, a reconstruction of the Elizabethan Globe Theatre, opens with a production of Shakespeare's Henry V.
 * June 3 – The supposed climax of Max Beerbohm's 1916 short story Enoch Soames occurs at the old British Museum Reading Room in London.
 * June 26 – J. K. Rowling's first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, is published in London by Bloomsbury Publishing, in an edition of 500 copies.
 * July 13 – The release occurs in Ireland of the film of Patrick McCabe's 1992 novel The Butcher Boy. The author plays Jimmy The Skite, the town drunk.
 * September 1 – The Adventures of Captain Underpants, the first in Dav Pilkey's series of children's novels, is published by Scholastic.
 * October – The online literary magazine Jacket is founded.
 * November 24 – The new British Library building in London designed by Colin St John Wilson opens to readers.
 * December 30 – The memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is removed from the ninth-grade English curriculum in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, for portraying "white people as being horrible, nasty, stupid people".

Uncertain dates
 * Tom Clancy signs a deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. giving him US $50 million for the world English rights to two new books. A second agreement pays another $25 million for a four-year book/multimedia deal, and a third, with Berkley Books for 24 paperbacks to tie in with an ABC television miniseries for $22 million.
 * Janet Dailey admits to plagiarism of the novels of the fellow American bestselling romance writer Nora Roberts.

Fiction

 * Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman – So Vile a Sin
 * Mitch Albom – Tuesdays With Morrie
 * Martin Amis – Night Train
 * Iain Banks – A Song of Stone
 * John Banville – The Untouchable
 * Hazel Barnes – The Story I Tell Myself
 * Marie Bashkirtseff (died 1884) – I Am the Most Interesting Book of All (translation)
 * Raymond Benson
 * Tomorrow Never Dies
 * Zero Minus Ten
 * Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman – Vampire Science
 * Roberto Bolaño – Last Evenings on Earth (Llamadas Telefonicas)
 * Pascal Bruckner – Les Voleurs de beauté
 * Simon Bucher-Jones – Ghost Devices
 * Christopher Bulis – A Device of Death
 * Tim Burton – The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories
 * Candace Bushnell – Sex and the City
 * Peter Carey – Jack Maggs
 * Caleb Carr – The Angel of Darkness
 * Agatha Christie (died 1976) – collected short stories
 * The Harlequin Tea Set
 * While the Light Lasts and Other Stories
 * Daniel Clowes – Ghost World (graphic novel)
 * Warwick Collins – Gents
 * Bernard Cornwell
 * Sharpe's Tiger
 * Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur
 * Patricia Cornwell
 * Hornet's Nest
 * Unnatural Exposure
 * Paul Cornell – Oh No It Isn't!
 * Jim Crace – Quarantine
 * Robert Crais – Indigo Slam
 * Ann C. Crispin
 * The Hutt Gambit
 * The Paradise Snare
 * 'Misha Defonseca' – Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years (published as non-fiction)
 * Don DeLillo – Underworld
 * Anita Diamant – The Red Tent
 * Terrance Dicks
 * The Eight Doctors
 * Mean Streets
 * Fernanda Eberstadt – When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of the Earth
 * Bernardine Evaristo – Lara
 * Charles Frazier – Cold Mountain
 * Anthony Frewin – London Blues
 * Anastasia Gosteva – Дочь самурая (The Samurai's Daughter)
 * John Grisham – The Partner
 * Barbara Hambly – Planet of Twilight
 * Allison Hedge Coke – Dog Road Woman
 * Matt Jones – Beyond the Sun
 * Sebastian Junger – The Perfect Storm
 * Winona LaDuke – Last Standing Woman
 * Joe R. Lansdale – Bad Chili
 * Paul Leonard – Genocide
 * Melissa Lucashenko – Steam Pigs
 * Ann-Marie MacDonald – Fall on Your Knees
 * Bernard MacLaverty – Grace Notes
 * Ian R. MacLeod – Voyages by Starlight
 * Norman Mailer – The Gospel According to the Son
 * Ian McEwan – Enduring Love
 * David A. McIntee – The Dark Path
 * Lawrence Miles
 * Down
 * Mark Morris – The Bodysnatchers
 * Toni Morrison – Paradise
 * Jim Mortimore – Eternity Weeps
 * Herta Müller – The Appointment
 * Ryū Murakami (村上 龍) – In the Miso Soup (イン ザ・ミソスープ, English translation 2005)
 * Courttia Newland – The Scholar
 * Kate Orman – The Room with No Doors
 * Hanne Ørstavik – Kjærlighet (Love)
 * Lance Parkin – The Dying Days
 * James Patterson – Cat and Mouse
 * Cyril Pearl – Morisson of Peking
 * John Peel – War of the Daleks
 * Pepetela – A Gloriosa Família
 * Marc Platt – Lungbarrow
 * Terry Pratchett – Jingo
 * Annie Proulx – "Brokeback Mountain" (short story)
 * Thomas Pynchon – Mason & Dixon
 * Kathy Reichs – Déjà Dead
 * Nina Revoyr – The Necessary Hunger
 * Justin Richards – Dragons' Wrath
 * Mordecai Richler – Barney's Version
 * Gareth Roberts – The Well-Mannered War
 * Philip Roth – American Pastoral
 * Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things
 * Don Miguel Ruiz – The Four Agreements
 * Gary Russell
 * Deadfall
 * Instruments of Darkness
 * Will Self – Great Apes
 * Carol Shields – Larry's Party
 * Sidney Sheldon – The Best Laid Plans
 * Michael Stackpole – The Bacta War
 * Danielle Steel
 * The Ghost
 * The Ranch
 * Special Delivery
 * Dave Stone
 * Burning Heart
 * Ship of Fools
 * William Sutcliffe – Are You Experienced?
 * Antonio Tabucchi – The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro (La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro)
 * Kaoru Takamura – Lady Joker (レディ・ジョーカー) (book publication completed)
 * Eckhart Tolle – The Power of Now
 * Zlatko Topčić – Nightmare
 * Kurt Vonnegut – Timequake
 * Lulu Wang – Het Lelietheater (The Lily Theatre)
 * Niall Williams – Four Letters of Love
 * Connie Willis – To Say Nothing of the Dog
 * Timothy Zahn – Specter of the Past
 * Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold – Donnerjack

Children and young people

 * Lloyd Alexander – The Iron Ring
 * Lynne Reid Banks – Harry the Poisonous Centipede: A Story to Make You Squirm (first in the Harry the Poisonous Centipede trilogy)
 * 'Asta Bowen – Wolf: A Journey Home
 * Nancy Butts - The Door in the Lake
 * Cao Wenxuan (曹文軒) – The Grass House (草房子)
 * Sarah Ferguson – Budgie the Little Helicopter (first in an eponymous series of 5 books)
 * Mem Fox – Whoever You Are
 * Cornelia Funke – Dragon Rider
 * Virginia Hamilton (with Barry Moser) – A Ring of Tricksters: Animal Tales from America, the West Indies, and Africa
 * Mark Helprin (with Chris Van Allsburg) – The Veil of Snows
 * William Mayne – Lady Muck (illustrated by Jonathan Heale)
 * Eloise Jarvis McGraw – The Moorchild
 * Junko Morimoto – The Two Bullies
 * Barbara Nichol (with Barry Moser) – Dippers
 * Mary Pope Osborne (with Ned Bittinger) – Rocking Horse Christmas
 * Dav Pilkey – The Adventures of Captain Underpants (first in the Captain Underpants series of 12 books)
 * Philip Pullman – The Subtle Knife
 * Rick Riordan – Big Red Tequila
 * J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (first book in the Harry Potter series)
 * Ron Roy – The Absent Author (first in the A to Z Mysteries series of 26 books)
 * Simms Taback – There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly
 * Vivian Walsh – Olive, the Other Reindeer
 * Jacqueline Wilson – Girls in Love

Drama

 * Jon Fosse – Nightsongs
 * Lee Hall – Spoonface Steinberg (radio monologue)
 * Moisés Kaufman – Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
 * Thomas Kilroy – The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde
 * Conor McPherson – The Weir
 * Patrick Marber – Closer
 * Richard Nelson – Goodnight Children Everywhere
 * Peter Whelan – The Herbal Bed

Poetry

 * Ted Hughes – Tales from Ovid

Non-fiction

 * Dave Barry – Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs
 * Jean-Dominique Bauby – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le papillon)
 * Cari Beauchamp – Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood
 * Jan Bondeson – A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities
 * Bill Bryson – A Walk in the Woods
 * D. K. Chakrabarti – Colonial Indology : sociopolitics of the ancient Indian past
 * Iris Chang – The Rape of Nanking
 * Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs and Steel
 * Jenny Diski – Skating to Antarctica
 * Michael Drosnin – The Bible Code
 * Gerina Dunwich – A Wiccan's Guide to Prophecy and Divination
 * Geoff Dyer – Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of D. H. Lawrence
 * Timothy Ferris – The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report
 * Benjamin Fondane (died 1944) – Le Voyageur n'a pas fini de voyager
 * Stephen Fry – Moab Is My Washpot (autobiography)
 * Charlotte Gray – Mrs. King
 * Alan Guth – The Inflationary Universe
 * Robert Hughes – American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America
 * Jesse Lee Kercheval – Building Fiction
 * Betty Kobayashi Issenman – Sinews of Survival
 * Geneviève Lacambre – Gustave Moreau : Maître sorcier
 * B. B. Lal – The Earliest civilization of South Asia: rise, maturity, and decline
 * Peter Maas – Underboss
 * Deborah Madison – Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
 * James McBride – The Color of Water
 * Adele Morales – The Last Party: Scenes From My Life with Norman Mailer
 * Penguin Random House – Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
 * E. Wayne Ross – The Social Studies Curriculum
 * Ian Smith – The Great Betrayal
 * Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont – Fashionable Nonsense
 * Maria Todorova – Imagining the Balkans
 * Larry Trask – The Penguin Guide to Punctuation
 * Kevin Warwick – March of the Machines
 * Thierry Zéphir – Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia

Births

 * February 12 – Alexander Nikolov, Bulgarian poet
 * June 22 – Aqiil Gopee, Mauritian writer and poet
 * November 28 – Franz Mherryon Robles, Filipino novelist and aphorist

Deaths

 * January 19 – James Dickey, American poet and novelist (born 1923)
 * February 3 – Bohumil Hrabal, Czech novelist (born 1914)
 * February 18 – Emily Hahn, American journalist and author (born 1905)
 * March 21 - Wilbert Awdry, British Anglican reverend and author (born 1911)
 * April 5 – Allen Ginsberg, American poet (liver cancer, born 1926)
 * May 9 – Rina Lasnier, Canadian poet (born 1915)
 * May 23 – Alison Adburgham, English social historian and journalist (born 1912)
 * June 8 – George Turner, Australian novelist and critic (born 1916)
 * June 11 – Susanna Roth, Swiss bohemist and literary translator (born 1950)
 * July 26 – Joseph Henry Reason, American librarian (born 1905)
 * August 2 – William S. Burroughs, American novelist (born 1914
 * August 16 – Gerard McLarnon, Irish actor and playwright (born 1915)
 * August 27 – Johannes Edfelt, Swedish poet, translator and critic (born 1904)
 * October 14 – Harold Robbins, American novelist (born 1916)
 * October 16 – James A. Michener, American novelist and historian (born 1907)
 * November 6 – Leon Forrest, African American novelist and essayist (cancer, born 1937)
 * November 30 – Kathy Acker, American novelist and poet (breast cancer, born 1947)
 * December 14 – Owen Barfield, British philosopher, author and poet (born 1898)

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Dario Fo
 * Europe Theatre Prize: Robert Wilson
 * Camões Prize: Pepetela

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Eva Sallis, Hiam
 * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Les Murray, Subhuman Redneck Poems
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Anthony Lawrence, The Viewfinder
 * Mary Gilmore Prize: Morgan Yasbincek, Night Reversing
 * Miles Franklin Award: David Foster, The Glade Within the Grove

Canada

 * Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award: Rachel Rose
 * Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version
 * See 1997 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
 * Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Anne Mullens, Timely Death

France

 * Prix Goncourt: Patrick Rambaud, La Bataille
 * Prix Décembre: Lydie Salvayre, La Compagnie des spectres
 * Prix Médicis International: T. Coraghessan Boyle, America
 * Prix Médicis French: Les Sept Noms du peintre – Philippe Le Guillou

Spain

 * Premio Miguel de Cervantes: Guillermo Cabrera Infante

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Tim Bowler, River Boy
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Andrew Miller, Ingenious Pain
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: R. F. Foster, William Butler Yeats: A Life, Volume 1 – The Apprentice Mage 1965-1914
 * Cholmondeley Award: Alison Brackenbury, Gillian Clarke, Tony Curtis, Anne Stevenson
 * Eric Gregory Award: Matthew Clegg, Sarah Corbett, Polly Clark, Tim Kendall, Graham Nelson, Matthew Welton
 * Orange Prize for Fiction: Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
 * Whitbread Best Book Award: Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid

United States

 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Richard Blanco, City of a Hundred Fires
 * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Fred Chappell
 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, John Ashbery
 * Compton Crook Award: Richard Garfinkle, Celestial Matters
 * Hugo Award: Kim Stanley Robinson, Blue Mars
 * Nebula Award: Vonda McIntyre, The Moon and the Sun
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: E. L. Konigsburg, The View from Saturday
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Steven Millhauser – Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Lisel Mueller: Alive Together: New and Selected Poems
 * Wallace Stevens Award: Anthony Hecht
 * Whiting Awards:
 * Fiction: Josip Novakovich (fiction/nonfiction), Melanie Rae Thon
 * Nonfiction: Jo Ann Beard, Suketu Mehta (fiction/nonfiction), Ellen Meloy
 * Plays: Erik Ehn
 * Poetry: Connie Deanovich, Forrest Gander, Jody Gladding, Mark Turpin

Elsewhere

 * International Dublin Literary Award: Javier Marías, A Heart So White
 * Premio Nadal: Carlos Cañeque, Quién