2001 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2001.

"The play – for which Briony had designed the posters, programs and tickets, constructed the sales booth out of a folding screen tipped on its side, and lined the collection box in red crepe paper – was written by her in a two-day tempest of composition, causing her to miss breakfast and lunch." – Opening sentence, Ian McEwan, Atonement

Events

 * February 15 – The author Michael Crichton signs a new deal with HarperCollins Publishers that reportedly earns him $40 million for two books.
 * April 1 – The BookCrossing scheme for leaving books for strangers to find is launched.
 * April 13 – The film version of Helen Fielding's 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary has uncredited cameo roles as themselves for Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes and Jeffrey Archer, at a literary party.
 * July 19 – The English popular novelist and politician Jeffrey Archer, having been found guilty of perjury in a libel trial, is sentenced to imprisonment.
 * September 19 – Amiri Baraka reads his poem "Somebody Blew Up America?" at a poetry festival in New Jersey, eight days after the September 11 attacks.
 * November 4 – Film premiere of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, first in the commercially successful Harry Potter film series based on the novels of J. K. Rowling.
 * December 10 – The live-action film version of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, directed by Peter Jackson, opens in London. Its appearance has a strong impact on readership of the trilogy.

Fiction

 * Niccolò Ammaniti – Io non ho paura
 * Hiromu Arakawa – Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, manga series, begins publication)
 * Tahar Ben Jelloun – Cette aveuglante absence de lumière (This Blinding Absence of Light)
 * Raymond Benson – Never Dream of Dying
 * Dennis Bock – The Ash Garden
 * Ben Bova – The Precipice
 * Geraldine Brooks – Year of Wonders
 * Lois McMaster Bujold – The Curse of Chalion
 * Javier Cercas – Soldiers of Salamis (Soldados de Salamina)
 * Joseph Connolly – S.O.S.
 * Bernard Cornwell
 * Sharpe's Trafalgar
 * Gallows Thief
 * Douglas Coupland – All Families Are Psychotic
 * Achmat Dangor – Bitter Fruit
 * Helen Dunmore – The Siege
 * Umberto Eco – Baudolino
 * James Ellroy – The Cold Six Thousand
 * Leif Enger – Peace Like a River
 * Sebastian Faulks – On Green Dolphin Street
 * Ken Follett – Jackdaws
 * Leon Forrest – Meteor in the Madhouse
 * Jonathan Franzen – The Corrections
 * Rodrigo Fresán – Mantra
 * Diana Gabaldon – The Fiery Cross
 * Neil Gaiman – American Gods
 * Kate Grenville – The Idea of Perfection
 * John Grisham
 * A Painted House
 * Skipping Christmas
 * Abdulrazak Gurnah – By the Sea
 * Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Impostors
 * Joanne Harris – Five Quarters of the Orange
 * Vigdis Hjorth – Om bare (If only)
 * Nick Hornby – How to Be Good
 * Silas House – Clay's Quilt
 * Nancy Huston – Dolce Agonia
 * John Irving – The Fourth Hand
 * Fleur Jaeggy – Proleterka
 * P. D. James – Death in Holy Orders
 * Greg Keyes
 * Edge of Victory: Conquest
 * Edge of Victory: Rebirth
 * Stephen King
 * Black House
 * Dreamcatcher
 * Christian Kracht – 1979
 * Hanif Kureishi – Gabriel's Gift
 * Joe R. Lansdale – Captains Outrageous
 * John le Carré – The Constant Gardener
 * Ursula K. Le Guin – The Birthday of the World, and Other Stories
 * Pedro Lemebel – Tengo miedo torero (My Tender Matador)
 * Mario Vargas Llosa – The Feast of the Goat (La fiesta del chivo)
 * David Lodge – Thinks ...
 * James Luceno – Cloak of Deception
 * Ian McEwan – Atonement
 * Andreï Makine – Music of a Life (La Musique d'une vie)
 * Juliet Marillier – Child of the Prophecy
 * Yann Martel – Life of Pi
 * Alice Munro – Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (short stories)
 * V S Naipaul – Half a Life
 * R. K. Narayan – Under the Banyan Tree
 * Joyce Carol Oates – Middle Age: A Romance
 * Chuck Palahniuk – Choke
 * Noni Power – Crawling at Night
 * Terry Pratchett
 * The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
 * Thief of Time
 * The Last Hero
 * Sven Regener – Herr Lehmann
 * Kathy Reichs – Fatal Voyage
 * Alain Robbe-Grillet – La Reprise
 * Jean-Christophe Rufin – Rouge Brésil
 * Salman Rushdie – Fury
 * Richard Russo – Empire Falls
 * W. G. Sebald – Austerlitz
 * Nava Semel – And the Rat Laughed (ואת צחוק של עכברוש)
 * Michael Slade – Death's Door
 * Olga Slavnikova – Bessmertniy (The Immortal)
 * Danielle Steel – Leap of Faith
 * Antonio Tabucchi – It's Getting Later All the Time
 * Amy Tan – The Bonesetter's Daughter
 * Timothy Taylor – Stanley Park
 * Anne Tyler – Back When We Were Grownups
 * Jane Urquhart – The Stone Carvers
 * Andrew Vachss – Pain Management
 * Tim Winton – Dirt Music
 * Carlos Ruiz Zafón – La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind; first in El cementerio de los libros olvidados (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books) series)
 * Juli Zeh – Eagles and Angels

Children and young people

 * David Almond – Secret Heart
 * Malorie Blackman – Noughts and Crosses (first in the Noughts and Crosses series of five books)
 * Ann Brashare – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
 * Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl (first in the eponymous series of eight books)
 * Eva Ibbotson – Journey to the River Sea
 * Brian Jacques – Castaways of the Flying Dutchman
 * David Klass – You Don't Know Me
 * Hilary McKay – Saffy's Angel
 * Patricia McKissack – Goin' Someplace Special
 * Michael Morpurgo
 * More Muck and Magic
 * Out of the Ashes
 * Toro! Toro!
 * Lesléa Newman – Cats, Cats, Cats!
 * Linda Sue Park – A Single Shard
 * Philip Reeve – Mortal Engines (November 16)
 * J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Lemony Snicket
 * The Ersatz Elevator
 * The Vile Village
 * The Hostile Hospital
 * Jacqueline Wilson – Sleepovers

Drama

 * Richard Alfieri – Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks
 * Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti – Behsharam (Shameless)
 * Abdelkader Benali – Yasser
 * Jon Fosse – Dødsvariasjonar (Death Variations)
 * Neil LaBute – The Shape of Things
 * Lynn Manning – Weights
 * Peter Morris – The Age of Consent
 * Zlatko Topčić – Time Out

Poetry

 * Anne Carson – The Beauty of the Husband

Non-fiction

 * David Allen – Getting Things Done
 * Tom Allen – Rolling Home
 * Jan Bondeson – Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear
 * Dionne Brand – A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging
 * Edwin Bryant – The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture
 * Eamon Duffy – The Voices of Morebath. Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village
 * Barbara Ehrenreich – Nickel and Dimed
 * Koenraad Elst – The Saffron Swastika
 * Mem Fox – Reading Magic
 * Antonia Fraser – Marie Antoinette: The Journey
 * Dorothy Gallagher – How I Came Into My Inheritance and Other True Stories
 * Stephen Hawking – The Universe in a Nutshell
 * Laura Hillenbrand – Seabiscuit: An American Legend
 * Christopher Hitchens – The Trial of Henry Kissinger
 * Gary Lachman – Turn Off Your Mind
 * Lawrence Lessig – The Future of Ideas
 * Normand Lester – Le Livre noir du Canada Anglais (The Black Book of English Canada)
 * Steven Levy – Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government—Saving Privacy in the Digital Age
 * Margaret MacMillan – Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War
 * Michael Moore – Stupid White Men
 * Mumtaz Mufti – Ali Pur Ka Aeeli
 * Pavel Polian – Against Their Will... A History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR
 * E. Hoffmann Price – Book of the Dead
 * Eric Schlosser – Fast Food Nation
 * Miranda Seymour – Mary Shelley
 * Andrew Solomon – The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
 * Ben Thompson - Ways of Hearing
 * Türkmenbaşy – Ruhnama (The Book of the Soul, first part)
 * Ivan Vladislavic – The Restless Supermarket
 * Frans de Waal – The Ape and the Sushi Master
 * Benjamin Woolley – The Queen's Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr. Dee

Deaths

 * January 5 – G. E. M. Anscombe, English analytic philosopher (died 2001)
 * January 8 – Catherine Storr, English children's writer (born 1913)
 * January 11 – Lorna Sage, English scholar (born 1943)
 * January 31 – Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian-born American science fiction writer (born 1923)
 * February 7 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and aviator (born 1906)
 * February 14
 * Alan Ross, Indian-born English poet and editor (born 1922)
 * Richard Laymon, American horror fiction writer (born 1947)
 * March 1 – Mahmud Arif, Saudi Arabian poet (born 1909)
 * March 12 – Robert Ludlum, American novelist (born 1927)
 * May 11 – Douglas Adams, English writer, humorist and dramatist (born 1952)
 * May 13
 * Jason Miller, American actor and playwright (born 1939)
 * R. K. Narayan, Indian novelist writing in English (born 1906)
 * June 1 – Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist (born 1920)
 * June 27 – Tove Jansson, Finnish children's author writing in Swedish (born 1914)
 * July 3 – Mordecai Richler, Canadian author, screenwriter and essayist (born 1931)
 * July 18 – James Hatfield, American author (born 1958)
 * July 31 – Poul Anderson, American fantasy and sci-fi author (born 1926)
 * August 6 – Jorge Amado, Brazilian writer (born 1912)
 * August 20 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and science fiction writer (born 1915)
 * November 10 – Ken Kesey, American author (born 1935)
 * November 25 – David Gascoyne, English surrealist poet (born 1916)
 * December 21 – Dick Schaap, American journalist and author (born 1934)
 * December 14 – W. G. Sebald, German novelist and academic (born 1944)

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: V.S. Naipaul

Australia

 * Miles Franklin Award: Frank Moorhouse, Dark Palace

Canada

 * Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Richard B. Wright – Clara Callan
 * See 2001 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
 * Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Taras Grescoe – Sacré Blues

France

 * Prix Décembre: Chloé Delaume, Le Cri du sablier
 * Prix Femina: Marie Ndiaye, Rosie Carpe
 * Prix Goncourt: Jean-Christophe Rufin, Rouge Brésil
 * Prix Médicis French: Edwy Plenel, Secrets de jeunesse
 * Prix Médicis Non-Fiction: Le Loup mongol
 * Prix Médicis International: Antonio Skarmeta, La noce du poète

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Sid Smith, Something Like a House
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: Volume 3 – Fighting for Britain 1937–1946 
 * Caine Prize for African Writing: Helon Habila, "Love Poems"
 * Cholmondeley Award: Ian Duhig, Paul Durcan, Kathleen Jamie, Grace Nichols
 * Eric Gregory Award: Leontia Flynn, Thomas Warner, Tishani Doshi, Patrick Mackie, Kathryn Gray, Sally Read
 * Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Carson, Men in the Off Hours and Nikolai Popov and Heather McHugh, translation of Glottal Stop: 101 Poems by Paul Celan
 * Hugo Award: J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Samuel Johnson Prize: Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Michael Longley
 * Orange Prize for Fiction: Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection
 * Whitbread Best Book Award: Patrick Neate, Twelve Bar Blues

United States

 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Gabriel Gudding for A Defense of Poetry
 * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, Frederick Morgan
 * Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, “Circus Fire, 1944”
 * Bollingen Prize for Poetry, Louise Glück
 * Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Robin Behn, Horizon Note
 * Compton Crook Award: Syne Mitchell, Murphy's Gambit
 * Frost Medal: Sonia Sanchez
 * Hugo Award: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Richard Peck, A Year Down Yonder
 * National Book Award for Fiction: to The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
 * National Book Critics Circle Award: to Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
 * PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Philip Roth for The Human Stain
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: David Auburn, Proof
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Stephen Dunn, Different Hours
 * Wallace Stevens Award: John Ashbery
 * Whiting Awards:
 * Fiction: Emily Carter, Matthew Klam, Akhil Sharma, Samrat Upadhyay, John Wray
 * Nonfiction: Judy Blunt, Kathleen Finneran
 * Plays: Brighde Mullins
 * Poetry: Joel Brouwer, Jason Sommer

Other

 * Camões Prize: Eugénio de Andrade
 * Europe Theatre Prize: Lev Dodin, Michel Piccoli
 * Finlandia Prize: Hannu Raittila, Canal Grande
 * International Dublin Literary Award: Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief
 * Premio Nadal: Fernando Marías, El Niño de los Coroneles
 * Premio Strega: Domenico Starnone, Via Gemito
 * Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja (first award): Javier Reverte, La Noche Detenida
 * Premio Antón Losada Diéguez (category Creación literaria): Xurxo Borrazás, Na maleta
 * SAARC Literary Award: Ganesh Narayandas Devy, Shamsur Rahman
 * Viareggio Prize: Niccolò Ammaniti, Io non ho paura, Michele Ranchetti, Verbale, and Giorgio Pestelli, Canti del destino