2008 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2008.

Events

 * January 1 – In the UK's 2008 New Year Honours List, Hanif Kureishi (CBE), Jenny Uglow (OBE), Peter Vansittart (OBE) and Debjani Chatterjee (MBE) are all rewarded for "services to literature."
 * February 29 – Belgian-born "Misha Defonseca" admits that her bestselling Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years (1997) is a literary forgery.
 * April – Signet Books announce they will cease to publish the American historical romance novelist Cassie Edwards after a dispute over plagiarism.
 * April 25 – The first Twitter novel, Small Places by Nicholas Belardes, is launched.
 * May 7–11 – The first Palestine Festival of Literature is held.
 * June 15 – Gore Vidal, asked in a New York Times interview how he felt about the death of his rival William F. Buckley, Jr., replies: "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred."
 * July – Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981) is the winner of a poll to select the "Best of the Booker".

Fiction

 * Aravind Adiga
 * The White Tiger
 * Between the Assassinations (November 1)
 * Uwem Akpan – Say You're One of Them
 * Paul Auster – Man in the Dark
 * Sebastian Barry – The Secret Scripture (September 29)
 * Henry Bauchau – Le Boulevard périphérique
 * John Berger – From A to X
 * Charles Bock – Beautiful Children (January 22)
 * Roberto Bolaño – 2666: A Novel (November 11)
 * Xurxo Borrazás – Costa norte/ZFK
 * Christopher Buckley – Supreme Courtship (September 3)
 * Alastair Campbell – All in the Mind (October 30)
 * Martín Caparrós – A quien corresponda
 * Eleanor Catton – The Rehearsal
 * Wendy Coakley-Thompson – Triptych (December 18)
 * Robert Crais – Chasing Darkness
 * Debra Dean – Confessions of a Falling Woman
 * Klaus Ebner – Hominid (October 1)
 * Ralph Ellison (posthumous, ed. John F. Callahan) – Three Days Before the Shooting...
 * Mathias Énard – Zone (August 15)
 * Sebastian Faulks – Devil May Care (James Bond continuation novel)
 * Keith Gessen – All the Sad Young Literary Men (April 10)
 * Shanta Gokhale – Tyā varshī (Crowfall)
 * Juan Goytisolo – Exiled from Almost Everywhere
 * Paul Griffiths – let me tell you
 * Lauren Groff – The Monsters of Templeton (February 5)
 * Peter Handke – The Moravian Night (January 12, Germany)
 * Johan Harstad – DARLAH
 * Zoë Heller – The Believers (September 24)
 * Aleksandar Hemon – The Lazarus Project (May 1)
 * M. H. Herlong – The Great Wide Sea (October 2)
 * Samantha Hunt – The Invention of Everything Else (February 7)
 * Siri Hustvedt – The Sorrows of an American (April 1)
 * Karl Iagnemma – The Expeditions (January 15)
 * Robert Juan-Cantavella – El Dorado
 * Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs (posthumous) – And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (November 1; written 1945)
 * Christian Kracht – Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten (September)
 * László Krasznahorkai – Seiobo There Below
 * Jhumpa Lahiri – Unaccustomed Earth (April 1)
 * Kelly Link – Pretty Monsters (October 2)
 * David Lodge – Deaf Sentence (May 1)
 * James McBride – Song Yet Sung (February 5)
 * Joe McGinniss Jr. – The Delivery Man (January 15)
 * Ronit Matalon – The Sound of Our Steps (Kol Tsa'adenu)
 * Lydia Millet – How the Dead Dream (January 25)
 * Toni Morrison – A Mercy (November 11)
 * Nunoe Mura – GeGeGe no Nyōbō (ゲゲゲの女房)
 * Joyce Carol Oates – My Sister, My Love (June 24)
 * Sofi Oksanen – Puhdistus
 * Chuck Palahniuk – Snuff (May 20)
 * Arturo Perez-Reverte – The Painter of Battles (January 8)
 * Jodi Picoult – Change of Heart (March 4)
 * José Luis Rodríguez Pittí – Sueños urbanos
 * Richard Price – Lush Life (March 4)
 * Ruth Rendell – Portobello (November 20)
 * Nina Revoyr – The Age of Dreaming
 * Nathaniel Rich – The Mayor's Tongue (April 8)
 * Marilynne Robinson – Home (September 2)
 * Charlotte Roche – Feuchtgebiete (February 25)
 * Mary Ann Rodman – Jimmy's Stars
 * Philip Roth – Indignation (September 16)
 * Salman Rushdie – The Enchantress of Florence (June 3)
 * Will Self – The Butt
 * Curtis Sittenfeld – American Wife (September 2)
 * Sjón – Rökkurbýsnir
 * Elizabeth Strout – Olive Kitteridge (March 25)
 * Tom Rob Smith – Child 44
 * Joan Thomas – Reading by Lightning
 * David Turashvili – Flight from the USSR
 * John Updike – The Widows of Eastwick (October 28)
 * Tobias Wolff – Our Story Begins (March 25)

Genre fiction

 * Jim Butcher – Small Favor (April 1) (Harry Dresden #10)
 * Matthew J. Costello – Doom 3: Worlds on Fire (February 26)
 * Ursula K. Le Guin – Lavinia
 * Stephen King – Duma Key (January 22)
 * Patricia A. McKillip – The Bell at Sealey Head (September 2)
 * Stephenie Meyer – Breaking Dawn (August 2)
 * Douglas Preston – Blasphemy (January 8)
 * Matthew Stover – Caine Black Knife (October 14)
 * Brent Weeks – The Way of Shadows

Children and young people

 * David Almond
 * The Savage
 * Jackdaw Summer
 * Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson – Science Fair
 * Nick Bland – The Very Cranky Bear
 * Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (July 15)
 * Frank Cottrell-Boyce – Desirable
 * Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games (September 14)
 * John Fardell – Manfred the Baddie
 * Mem Fox – Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
 * Cornelia Funke – Inkdeath (October 7)
 * John Green – Paper Towns (October 16)
 * Brian Greene – Icarus At The Edge Of Time
 * Charlie Higson – Young Bond: By Royal Command (September 3)
 * Minoru Kawakami and Satoyasu – Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere
 * D. J. MacHale – Raven Rise (May 20)
 * Patricia Martin - Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love (January 8)
 * Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock (June 1)
 * Garth Nix – Superior Saturday (May 5)
 * Arielle North Olson – More Bones: Scary Stories From Around The World
 * Christopher Paolini – Brisingr (September 20)
 * Amjed Qamar – Beneath My Mother's Feet
 * Rick Riordan – The Maze of Bones
 * Angie Sage – Queste (April 8)
 * Michael Salzhauer – My Beautiful Mommy

Drama

 * Salvatore Antonio – In Gabriel's Kitchen
 * Howard Brenton – Never So Good
 * Mary Higgins Clark – Where Are You Now?
 * Paul Dwyer – The Bougainville Photoplay Project
 * Nicholas de Jongh – Plague Over England
 * Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels – The Broken Circle Breakdown featuring the cover-ups of Alabama
 * Ella Hickson – Eight
 * Sam Holcroft – Cockroach
 * Elaine Murphy – Little Gem
 * Lynn Nottage – Ruined
 * Tyler Perry – The Marriage Counselor
 * Taavi Vartia – Kaikkien aikojen Pertsa ja Kilu

Non-fiction

 * The Academi – Encyclopaedia of Wales (Gwyddoniadur Cymru) (January)
 * Julie Andrews – Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (April 1)
 * Kwame Anthony Appiah – Experiments in Ethics
 * Dan Ariely – Predictably Irrational (February 19)
 * Margaret Atwood – Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (October 1)
 * Mary Beard – Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town
 * Dionne Brand – A Kind of Perfect Speech (Ralph Gustafson Lecture)
 * Augusten Burroughs – A Wolf at the Table (April 29)
 * Michael Chabon – Maps and Legends (May 1)
 * D. K. Chakrabarti – The Battle for Ancient India: An essay in the sociopolitics of Indian archaeology
 * Sloane Crosley – I Was Told There'd Be Cake (April 1)
 * John Duignan – The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology (October 7)
 * Eminem – The Way I Am (October 21)
 * Richard Florida – Who's Your City? (March)
 * Raymond Geuss – Philosophy and Real Politics
 * Philip Hoare – Leviathan, or The Whale (September 16)
 * Jim Holt – Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes
 * Chloe Hooper – The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island
 * B. B. Lal – Rāma, His Historicity, Mandir, and Setu: Evidence of Literature, Archaeology, and Other Sciences
 * Thomas Cairns Livingstone – Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913–1918
 * Minae Mizumura – The Fall of Language in the Age of English
 * Scholastique Mukasonga – La femme aux pieds nus (The Barefoot Woman)
 * Haruki Murakami (translated by Philip Gabriel) – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (July 29)
 * Shuja Nawaz – Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within
 * Frances Osborne – The Bolter: Idina Sackville
 * Chris Pash – The Last Whale
 * Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow – Last Lecture
 * Peter Rees – The Other ANZACs
 * David Sedaris – When You Are Engulfed in Flames (June 3)
 * Vaclav Smil – Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems
 * Chunghee Sarah Soh – The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan
 * Jane Straus – The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
 * Kate Summerscale – The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, or The Murder at Road Hill House (April)
 * Ronnie Thompson (pseudonym) – Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer (January 24)
 * Bjørn Christian Tørrissen – One for the Road (January 31; translation of I pose og sekk!, 2005)
 * Barbara Walters – Audition: A Memoir (May 6)
 * Russell Wangersky – Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself
 * Meralda Warren and others – Mi Base side orn Pitcairn (My Favourite Place on Pitcairn, first book published in Pitkern creole)
 * Dagmar S. Wodtko, Britta Irslinger and Carolin Schneider (eds.) – Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon

Deaths

 * January 2 – George MacDonald Fraser, Scottish novelist and screenplay writer (born 1925)
 * January 3 – Henri Chopin, French poet (born 1922)
 * January 11 – Nancy Phelan, Australian writer (born 1913)
 * January 13 – Patricia Verdugo, Chilean journalist and writer (born 1947)
 * January 16 – Hone Tuwhare, New Zealand poet (born 1922)
 * January 17 – Edward D. Hoch, American detective fiction writer (born 1930)
 * January 26
 * John Ardagh, Nyasaland-born English journalist and writer (born 1928)
 * Abraham Brumberg, American writer and editor (born 1926)
 * January 29 – Margaret Truman, American crime novelist and singer (born 1924)
 * January 30 – Miles Kington, Northern Irish-born English journalist and writer (born 1941)
 * February 4 – Rose Hacker, English writer and journalist (born 1906)
 * February 7 – Richard Altick, American literary historian (born 1915)
 * February 8 – Phyllis A. Whitney, Japan-born American mystery writer (born 1903)
 * February 10 – Steve Gerber, American comic book writer (born 1947)
 * February 18 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French novelist (born 1922)
 * February 21
 * Archie Hind, Scottish novelist (born 1928)
 * Robin Moore, American novelist and memoirist (born 1925)
 * February 22 – Stephen Marlowe, American science fiction and crime writer (born 1928)
 * February 28 – Julian Rathbone, English novelist (born 1935)
 * February 29 – Val Plumwood (Val Routley), Australian philosopher (born 1939)
 * March 16 – Jonathan Williams, American poet (born 1929)
 * March 19
 * Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer and futurologist (born 1917)
 * Hugo Claus, Belgian writer in Flemish and English (born 1929)
 * March 23 – E. A. Markham, Montserrat poet, writer and activist (born 1939)
 * April 3 – Andrew Crozier, English poet and scholar (born 1943)
 * April 7 – Ludu Daw Amar, Burmese writer and journalist (born 1915)
 * April 13 – Robert Greacen, Irish poet (born 1920)
 * April 17
 * Aimé Césaire, Martinique poet and writer in French (born 1913)
 * Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Russian writer and editor (born 1929)
 * April 18
 * Michael de Larrabeiti, English young-adult novelist and travel writer (born 1934)
 * William W. Warner, American biologist and Pulitzer Prize writer (born 1920)
 * May 1 – Elaine Dundy, American novelist, biographer and playwright (born 1921)
 * May 9 – Nuala O'Faolain, Irish critic and writer (born 1940)
 * May 11 – Jeff Torrington, Scottish novelist (born 1935)
 * May 12 – Oakley Hall, American novelist (born 1920)
 * May 14 – Roy Heath, Guyanese novelist (born 1926)
 * May 15 – Muhyi al-Din Faris, Sudanese poet (born 1936)
 * May 19 – Vijay Tendulkar, Indian playwright (born 1928)
 * May 22 – Robert Asprin, American science fiction writer (born 1946)
 * May 23 – Alan Brien, English journalist and novelist (born 1925)
 * May 28 – Elinor Lyon, British children's writer (born 1921)
 * June 2 – Ferenc Fejtő, Hungarian-born French historian and journalist (born 1909)
 * June 4 – Matthew Bruccoli, American biographer and scholar (born 1931)
 * June 5 – Angus Calder, British writer and scholar (born 1942)
 * June 8 – Peter Rühmkorf, German poet and writer (born 1929)
 * June 9 – Algis Budrys (John A. Sentry), American science fiction writer of Lithuanian origin (born 1931)
 * June 10
 * Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyz writer in Kyrgyz and Russian (born 1928)
 * Eliot Asinof, American novelist and baseball writer (born 1919)
 * June 16 – Mario Rigoni Stern, Italian novelist (born 1921)
 * June 18 – Tasha Tudor, American children's writer and illustrator (born 1915)
 * June 22 – Albert Cossery, Egyptian-born French novelist (born 1913)
 * June 24 – Ruth Cardoso, Brazilian anthropologist and writer (born 1930)
 * June 25 – Lyall Watson, South African scientist and new age writer (born 1939)
 * June 27 – Lenka Reinerová, Czech writer in German (born 1916)
 * July 1
 * Clay Felker, American magazine editor and journalist (born 1925)
 * Robert Harling, English typographer and novelist (born 1910)
 * July 2 – Simone Ortega, Spanish cookery writer (born 1919)
 * July 4
 * Thomas M. Disch, American science fiction author and poet. (born 1940)
 * Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch novelist and writer in Dutch and English (born 1931)
 * July 20 – Roger Wolcott Hall, American memoirist and novelist (born 1919)
 * July 27 – Bob Crampsey, Scottish writer (born 1930)
 * July 30 – Peter Coke, English playwright (born 1913)
 * August 3 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Nobel laureate (born 1918)
 * August 7 – Simon Gray, English playwright and memoirist (born 1936)
 * August 9 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (born 1942)
 * August 11 – George Furth, American playwright (born 1932)
 * August 17 – Dave Freeman, American writer and advertising executive (born 1961)
 * August 23 – John Russell, English art critic (born 1919)
 * August 25 – Ahmed Faraz (Syed Akhmad Shah), Pakistani poet in Urdu (born 1931)
 * August 31 – Ken Campbell, English novelist and playwright (born 1941)
 * September 5 – Robert Giroux, American editor and publisher (born 1914)
 * September 7 – Gregory Mcdonald, American mystery writer (born 1937)
 * September 12 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist (born 1962)
 * September 17 – James Crumley, American crime writer (born 1939)
 * September 20 – Duncan Glen, Scottish poet, critic and literary historian (born 1933)
 * September 23 – William Woodruff, English historian and autobiographer (born 1916)
 * September 24 – Bengt Anderberg, Swedish poet, novelist and children's writer (born 1920)
 * September 29 – Hayden Carruth, American poet and literary critic (born 1921)
 * October 4 – Peter Vansittart, English novelist and historical writer (born 1920)
 * October 10 – Ilie Purcaru, Romanian journalist and poet (born 1933)
 * October 14 – Barrington J. Bayley, English science fiction writer (born 1937)
 * October 26 – Tony Hillerman, American mystery writer (born 1925)
 * October 27 – Es'kia Mphahlele, South African writer in English (born 1919)
 * October 29 – William Wharton (Albert William Du Aime), American novelist (born 1925)
 * October 31 – Studs Terkel, American historian and broadcaster (born 1912)
 * November 4 – Michael Crichton, American writer and scholar (born 1942)
 * November 13 – Jules Archer, American historian and author (born 1915)
 * November 14 – Kristin Hunter, American author and academic (born 1931)
 * December 1 – Dorothy Sterling, American non-fiction writer for children and historian (born 1913)
 * December 4 – Forrest J Ackerman, American magazine editor, science fiction writer, and literary agent (born 1916)
 * December 15 – Anne-Catharina Vestly, Norwegian children's book author (born 1920)
 * December 20 – Adrian Mitchell, English poet, playwright and fiction writer (born 1932)
 * December 24 – Harold Pinter, English playwright and screenwriter (born 1930)
 * December 31 – Donald E. Westlake, American novelist (born 1933)

Awards and honors

 * Camões Prize: João Ubaldo Ribeiro
 * Europe Theatre Prize: Patrice Chéreau
 * European Book Prize: Tony Judt, Postwar
 * International Dublin Literary Award: Rawi Hage, De Niro's Game
 * International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Bahaa Taher, Sunset Oasis
 * Nobel Prize in Literature: J. M. G. Le Clézio

Australia

 * Miles Franklin Award: Steven Carroll, The Time We Have Taken

Canada

 * Canada Reads: Paul Quarrington, King Leary
 * Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Main award, Zoe Whittall; honours of distinction, Brian Francis, John Miller.
 * Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Bruce Serafin, Stardust
 * Governor General's Awards: Multiple categories; see 2008 Governor General's Awards.
 * Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction: Taras Grescoe, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood
 * Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Miriam Toews, The Flying Troutmans
 * Scotiabank Giller Prize: Joseph Boyden, Through Black Spruce
 * Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award: Michael Winter

Sweden

 * Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Sonya Hartnett

United Kingdom

 * Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year: The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais, Philip M. Parker
 * Caine Prize for African Writing: Henrietta Rose-Innes, "Poison"
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Philip Reeve, Here Lies Arthur
 * Man Booker Prize: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
 * Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction: to The Road Home by Rose Tremain

United States

 * Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2008 Lambda Literary Awards.
 * National Book Award for Fiction: to Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
 * National Book Critics Circle Award: to 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Laura Amy Schlitz, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
 * PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Kate Christensen, The Great Man
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Junot Diaz, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
 * Whiting Awards:
 * Fiction: Mischa Berlinski, Laleh Khadivi, Manuel Muñoz, Benjamin Percy, Lysley Tenorio
 * Nonfiction: Donovan Hohn
 * Plays: Dael Orlandersmith
 * Poetry: Rick Hilles, Douglas Kearney, Julie Sheehan

Other

 * Premio de la Crítica de Galicia (category Ensayo y Pensamiento): Xurxo Borrazás, Arte e parte