2005 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2005.

Events

 * January 16 – This is the 400th anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes' publication of the first part of Don Quixote in Spain.
 * February 25 – Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation.
 * March 26 – The classic U.K. science fiction series Doctor Who returns to television with a script by Russell T Davies, the executive producer.
 * April 23 – The Grande Bibliothèque at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec is officially opened. It actually opens on April 30.
 * June 13 – The poet Dannie Abse is injured and his wife Joan killed in an accident on the M4 in South Wales.
 * August 15 – An integrated National Library of Norway opens to readers in Oslo for the first time.

Fiction

 * Tariq Ali – A Sultan in Palermo
 * Rajaa Alsanea – Girls of Riyadh (بنات الرياض, Banat al-Riyadh)
 * Avi – Never Mind
 * Tash Aw – The Harmony Silk Factory
 * Steve Aylett – Lint
 * Doreen Baingana – Tropical Fish (short stories)
 * John Banville – The Sea
 * Sebastian Barry – A Long Long Way
 * Nelson Bond – Other Worlds Than Ours
 * Dionne Brand – What We All Long For
 * Orson Scott Card
 * Magic Street
 * Shadow of the Giant
 * Rita Chowdhury – Deo Langkhui
 * Wendy Coakley-Thompson – What You Won't Do for Love
 * Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception
 * Bernard Cornwell – The Pale Horseman
 * Colin Cotterill – Thirty-Three Teeth
 * Robert Crais – The Forgotten Man
 * Mitch Cullin – A Slight Trick of the Mind
 * Michael Cunningham – Specimen Days
 * Rana Dasgupta – Tokyo Cancelled
 * Lindsey Davis – See Delphi and Die
 * Abha Dawesar – Babyji
 * L. Sprague de Camp – Years in the Making: the Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp
 * Troy Denning
 * The Joiner King
 * The Swarm War
 * The Unseen Queen
 * Bret Easton Ellis – Lunar Park
 * Alicia Erian – Towelhead
 * Steve Erickson – Our Ecstatic Days
 * Sebastian Faulks – Human Traces
 * Amanda Filipacchi – Love Creeps
 * Jonathan Safran Foer – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
 * Nicci French – Catch Me When I Fall
 * Gayleen Froese – Touch
 * Cornelia Funke – Inkspell
 * David Gibbins – Atlantis
 * Kate Grenville – The Secret River (Melbourne)
 * Abdulrazak Gurnah – Desertion
 * Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Enemy
 * Joanne Harris – Gentlemen & Players
 * Carl Hiaasen – Flush
 * Charlie Higson – SilverFin
 * Peter Hobbs – The Short Day Dying
 * John Irving – Until I Find You
 * Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go
 * Uzodinma Iweala – Beasts of No Nation
 * Raymond Khoury – The Last Templar
 * Stephen King – The Colorado Kid
 * Dean Koontz – Velocity
 * Elizabeth Kostova – The Historian
 * Stieg Larsson – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
 * Marina Lewycka – A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
 * Yiyun Li – A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (short stories)
 * James Luceno
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Mike McCormack – Notes from a Coma
 * Ian McEwan – Saturday
 * Elizabeth McKenzie – Stop That Girl
 * Kevin MacNeil – The Stornoway Way
 * Gregory Maguire – Son of a Witch
 * Gabriel García Márquez – Memories of My Melancholy Whores
 * Stephenie Meyer – Twilight
 * David Michaels – Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda
 * Robert Muchamore
 * Maximum Security
 * The Killing
 * Péter Nádas – Parallel Stories
 * Garth Nix – Drowned Wednesday
 * Chuck Palahniuk – Haunted
 * Christopher Paolini – Eldest
 * Robert B. Parker – School Days
 * Ruth Rendell – End in Tears
 * Salman Rushdie – Shalimar the Clown
 * Darren Shan – Lord Loss (first of The Demonata series)
 * Michael Slade – Swastika
 * Zadie Smith – On Beauty
 * Wesley Stace – Misfortune
 * Olen Steinhauer – 36 Yalta Boulevard
 * Matthew Stover – Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Thomas Sullivan – Second Soul
 * Jean-François Susbielle – La Morsure du dragon
 * Vikas Swarup – Q & A
 * Rupert Thomson – Divided Kingdom
 * Harry Turtledove (editor) – The Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de Camp
 * Andrew Vachss – Two Trains Running
 * Catherynne M. Valente – Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams
 * Michal Viewegh – Lekce tvůrčího psaní
 * Narayan Wagle – Palpasa Cafe (पल्पसा क्याफे)
 * Nalini Warriar – The Enemy Within
 * David Weber – At All Costs
 * Samantha Weinberg – The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel
 * Kirby Wright – Punahou Blues
 * Markus Zusak – The Book Thief

Children and young people

 * David Almond – Clay
 * Charlie Jane Anders – Choir Boy
 * Jackie French – They Came on Viking Ships
 * Jonathon Scott Fuqua – King of the Pygmies
 * John Green – Looking for Alaska
 * Charlie Higson – SilverFin
 * Julius Lester – The Old African
 * Claire and Monte Montgomery - Hubert Invents the Wheel
 * Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors
 * Jane O'Connor – Fancy Nancy (first in a series of over 70 books)
 * Margie Palatini (with Barry Moser) – The Three Silly Billies
 * Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson – And Tango Makes Three
 * Philip Reeve – Infernal Devices
 * Rick Riordan – The Lightning Thief
 * J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Lemony Snicket – The Penultimate Peril
 * Dugald Steer (with Nghiem Ta, etc.) – Wizardology: The Book of the Secrets of Merlin
 * Jonathan Stroud – Ptolemy's Gate
 * Scott Westerfeld – Uglies (first in the Uglies series of four books)
 * Markus Zusak – The Book Thief

Drama

 * Catherine Filloux – Lemkin's House
 * debbie tucker green
 * stoning mary
 * generations
 * Oleg Kagan – The Black Hat
 * Carlos Lacamara – Nowhere on the Border
 * The Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble – Wounded
 * Peter Morris – Guardians
 * Vern Thiessen – Shakespeare's Will
 * Laura Wade
 * Colder Than Here
 * Breathing Corpses
 * Vincent Woods – A Cry from Heaven

Poetry

 * Carol Ann Duffy – Rapture

Non-fiction

 * Matthew Bortolin – The Dharma of Star Wars
 * Edwin Bryant – Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and inference in Indian history
 * Francis Chalifour – After
 * Jung Chang & Jon Halliday – Mao: The Unknown Story
 * Theodore Dalrymple – Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses
 * Michel Déon – Horseman, Pass By! (Cavalier, passe ton chemin!)
 * Jared Diamond – Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
 * Joan Didion – The Year of Magical Thinking
 * Robert Fisk – The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
 * Randy Grim – Miracle Dog
 * John Grogan – Marley & Me
 * Michael Gross – 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building
 * James Whitney Hicks - 50 Signs of Mental Illness: A Guide to Understanding Mental Health
 * Adam Hochschild – Bury the Chains
 * Tom Holland – Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West
 * Tony Judt – Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
 * W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne – Blue Ocean Strategy
 * Lawrence M. Krauss – Hiding in the Mirror
 * Mark Levin – Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America
 * Alexander Masters – Stuart: A Life Backwards
 * Azadeh Moaveni – Lipstick Jihad
 * Peter C. Newman – The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister
 * Lisa Randall – Warped Passages
 * Paul A. Robinson – Queer Wars
 * Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn – Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing
 * James S. Shapiro – 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
 * Masamune Shirow – Ghost in the Shell 2: Man/Machine Interface
 * Rebecca Solnit – A Field Guide to Getting Lost
 * David Southwell – Secrets and Lies
 * James B. Stewart – DisneyWar

Films

 * Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
 * Oliver Twist
 * Pride & Prejudice
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Deaths

 * January 4 – Humphrey Carpenter, English biographer, children's fiction writer and radio broadcaster (born 1946)
 * January 7 – Pierre Daninos, French novelist (born 1913)
 * January 14 – Charlotte MacLeod, American mystery writer (born 1922)
 * January 15
 * Walter Ernsting, German science fiction author (born 1920)
 * Elizabeth Janeway, American feminist author (born 1913)
 * January 19 – K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (suicide, born 1974)
 * January 20 – Roland Frye, American theologian and critic (born 1921)
 * January 21
 * John L. Hess, American journalist and critic (born 1917)
 * Theun de Vries, Dutch writer and poet (born 1907)
 * January 24 – Vladimir Savchenko, Ukrainian science fiction writer (born 1933)
 * January 25 – Max Velthuijs, Dutch writer and illustrator (born 1923)
 * January 29 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli satirist, dramatist, and screenwriter (born 1924)
 * February 10 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (born 1915)
 * February 11 – Jack L. Chalker, American science fiction writer (born 1944)
 * February 20 – Hunter S. Thompson, American writer, creator of Gonzo journalism (born 1937)
 * February 21 – Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (born 1929)
 * February 25 – Phoebe Hesketh, English poet (born 1909)
 * March 7 – Willis Hall, English playwright (born 1929)
 * March 8
 * Alice Thomas Ellis, English novelist, essayist and cookery book author (born 1932)
 * Anna Haycraft, English novelist (born 1932)
 * March 10 – Patience Gray, English cookery and travel writer (born 1917)
 * March 17 – Andre Norton, American science fiction writer (born 1912)
 * March 22 – Anthony Creighton, English playwright (born 1922)
 * March 30 – Robert Creeley, American poet (born 1926)
 * April 5 – Saul Bellow, Canadian writer (born 1915)
 * April 7 – Yvonne Vera, Zimbabwean novelist (meningitis, born 1964)
 * April 26 – Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan novelist (born 1917)
 * May 7 – Tristan Egolf, American novelist (suicide, born 1971)
 * June 9 – Hovis Presley, English poet (heart attack, born 1960)
 * June 10 – Nick Darke, Cornish playwright (cancer, born 1948)
 * June 14 – Norman Levine, Canadian short story writer (born 1923)
 * June 16 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican novelist (born 1905)
 * June 20 – Larry Collins, American novelist (born 1929)
 * June 22 – William Donaldson, English satirist (born 1935)
 * June 27 – Shelby Foote, American novelist (born 1916)
 * June 28 – Philip Hobsbaum, Scottish poet and critic (born 1932)
 * June 30 – Christopher Fry, English dramatist (born 1907)
 * July 6
 * Evan Hunter, American novelist (born 1926)
 * Claude Simon, French Nobel laureate in literature (born 1913)
 * July 7 – Gustaf Sobin, American poet (born 1935)
 * July 17 – Gavin Lambert, English novelist and biographer (born 1924)
 * July 19 – Edward Bunker, American crime writer (born 1933)
 * August 9 – Judith Rossner, American novelist (born 1935)
 * August 16 – William Corlett, English author and playwright (born 1938)
 * August 21 – Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (born 1036)
 * August 29 – Sybil Marshall, English novelist (born 1913)
 * September 3 – R. S. R. Fitter, English nature writer (born 1913)
 * September 26 – Helen Cresswell, English children's writer (born 1934)
 * September 27
 * Ronald Pearsall, English writer (born 1927)
 * Mary Lee Settle, American novelist (born 1918)
 * October 2 – August Wilson, American playwright (born 1945)
 * October 17 – Ba Jin (巴金), Chinese novelist (born 1904)
 * October 31 – Amrita Pritam, Indian Punjabi poet and novelist (born 1919)
 * November 1 – Michael Thwaites, Australian poet (born 1915)
 * November 2 – Gordon A. Craig, Scottish historian
 * November 4 – Michael G. Coney, Canadian science-fiction writer (born 1932)
 * November 5 – John Fowles, English writer (born 1926)
 * November 21 – Aileen Fox, English archaeologist (born 1907)
 * November 26 – Stan Berenstain, American children's writer and illustrator (born 1923)
 * December 1 – Mary Hayley Bell, dramatist
 * December 2 – Christine Pullein-Thompson, English novelist (born 1925)
 * December 9 – Robert Sheckley, American short story writer (born 1928)
 * December 15 – Julián Marías, Spanish philosopher and author (born 1914)
 * December 16 – Kenneth Bulmer, English novelist and short story writer (born 1921)

Awards

 * Nobel Prize in Literature: Harold Pinter
 * Camões Prize: Lygia Fagundes Telles

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Andrew T. O'Connor, Tuvalu
 * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: M. T. C. Cronin,
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Samuel Wagan Watson, Smoke Encrypted Whispers
 * Miles Franklin Award: Andrew McGahan, The White Earth

Canada

 * Governor General's Award for English-language fiction: David Gilmour, A Perfect Night to Go to China
 * Griffin Poetry Prize: Roo Borson, Short Journey Upriver Towards Oishida and Charles Simic, Selected Poems: 1963-2003
 * Hugo Award for Best Novel: Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
 * Scotiabank Giller Prize: David Bergen, The Time in Between
 * Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Anne Coleman, I'll Tell You a Secret

Sweden

 * Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Philip Pullman and Ryōji Arai

United Kingdom

 * Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting (first award): Duncan Macmillan, Monster
 * Caine Prize for African Writing: S. A. Afolabi, "Monday Morning"
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Mal Peet, Tamar
 * Cholmondeley Award: Jane Duran, Christopher Logue, M. R. Peacocke, Neil Rollinson
 * Commonwealth Writers Prize: Andrea Levy, Small Island
 * Dagger of Daggers: John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)
 * Eric Gregory Award: Melanie Challenger, Carolyn Jess, Luke Kennard, Jaim Smith
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Sue Prideaux, Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Ian McEwan, Saturday
 * Man Booker International Prize (first award): Ismail Kadare
 * Man Booker Prize: John Banville, The Sea
 * Samuel Johnson Prize: Jonathan Coe, Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson
 * Orange Prize for Fiction: Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin
 * Somerset Maugham Award: Justin Hill, Passing Under Heaven; Maggie O'Farrell, The Distance Between Us
 * Whitbread Book of the Year Award: Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master: The Conquest of Colour 1909-1954

United States

 * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: B. H. Fairchild
 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Rick Hilles, Brother Salvage: Poems
 * Arthur Rense Prize: Daniel Hoffman
 * Bollingen Prize for Poetry: Jay Wright
 * Brittingham Prize in Poetry: Susanna Childress, Jagged with Love
 * Compton Crook Award: Tamara Siler Jones, Ghosts in the Snow
 * Frost Medal: Marie Ponsot
 * Hugo Award: Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
 * Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2005 Lambda Literary Awards.
 * National Book Award for Poetry: W. S. Merwin, Migration: New and Selected Poems
 * National Book Critics Circle Award: to War Trash by Ha Jin
 * Newbery Medal: Cynthia Kadohata, Kira-Kira
 * PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to The March by E.L. Doctorow
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: John Patrick Shanley, Doubt: A Parable
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Ted Kooser, Delights & Shadows
 * Wallace Stevens Award: Gerald Stern
 * Whiting Awards:
 * Fiction: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Nell Freudenberger, Seth Kantner, John Keene (fiction/poetry)
 * Plays: Rinne Groff
 * Poetry: Thomas Sayers Ellis, Ilya Kaminsky, Dana Levin, Spencer Reece, Tracy K. Smith

Other

 * International Dublin Literary Award: Edward P. Jones, The Known World
 * German Book Prize (first award): Arno Geiger, Es geht uns gut (We Are Doing Fine)
 * Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres: Patti Smith