2011 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2011.

Events

 * June 7 – Ransom Riggs publishes his young-adult novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which pins its narrative around a series of earlier private photographs he had collected. It remains top of The New York Times Children's Chapter Books list for 45 weeks and founds a series of five novels.
 * July – J. K. Rowling ends her relationship with her long-standing agent Christopher Little and joins his rival, Neil Blair.
 * September 24 – The first 100 Thousand Poets for Change Day takes place, the organization having been founded by Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion in March.
 * November 12 – The Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar Literature Museum Library opens in Istanbul, Turkey.

Fiction

 * Chris Adrian – The Great Night
 * David Almond – The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean
 * Charlie Jane Anders – Six Months, Three Days
 * Kevin Barry – City of Bohane
 * Giannina Braschi – United States of Banana
 * T. C. Boyle – When the Killing's Done
 * Geraldine Brooks – Caleb's Crossing
 * Kate Christensen – The Astral: A Novel
 * Patrick deWitt – The Sisters Brothers
 * E. L. Doctorow – All the Time in the World
 * Steve Earle – I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive
 * Esi Edugyan – Half-Blood Blues
 * Jeffrey Eugenides – The Marriage Plot
 * Jonathan Evison – West of Here
 * Robb Forman Dew – Being Polite to Hitler
 * Charles Frazier – Nightwoods
 * James Frey – The Final Testament of the Holy Bible
 * Roxane Gay – Ayiti (short stories)
 * Abdulrazak Gurnah – The Last Gift
 * Benjamin Hale – The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore
 * Hallgrímur Helgason – Konan við 1000° (The Woman at 1000°)
 * Ron Hansen – A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion
 * Chad Harbach – The Art of Fielding
 * Philip Hensher – King of the Badgers
 * Alan Hollinghurst – The Stranger's Child
 * E. L. James – Fifty Shades of Grey
 * Mat Johnson – Pym
 * Stephen Kelman – Pigeon English
 * Jeanine Leane – Purple Threads
 * Ben Lerner – Leaving the Atocha Station
 * Merethe Lindstrøm – Days in the History of Silence (Dager i stillhetens historie)
 * Javier Marías – Los enamoramientos (The Infatuations)
 * Andrew Miller – Pure
 * Haruki Murakami (村上 春樹) – 1Q84
 * Téa Obreht – The Tiger's Wife
 * Daniel Olivas – The Book of Want
 * Michael Ondaatje – The Cat's Table
 * Ann Patchett – State of Wonder
 * Chuck Palahniuk – Damned
 * Tom Perrotta – The Leftovers
 * Arthur Phillips – The Tragedy of Arthur
 * Nina Revoyr – Wingshooters
 * Rodrigo Rey Rosa – Severina (novella)
 * Karen Russell – Swamplandia!
 * Stig Sæterbakken – Through the Night (Gjennom natten)
 * John Sayles – A Moment in the Sun
 * Faruk Šehić – Knjiga o Uni (Quiet Flows the Una)
 * Dana Spiotta – Stone Arabia
 * Colm Tóibín – The Empty Family
 * Zlatko Topčić – The Final Word
 * Donald Trump (with Jeffrey Robinson) – Trump Tower
 * Juan Gabriel Vásquez – The Sound of Things Falling (El ruido de las cosas al caer)
 * David Foster Wallace – The Pale King
 * Daniel Woodrell – The Outlaw Album

Children and young people

 * David Almond – The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean
 * Kelley Armstrong – The Gathering
 * Stéphane-Yves Barroux – Mr Leon's Paris
 * Paula Bossio – El Lapiz (The Pencil, 2016)
 * Carmen Agra Deedy (with Randall Wright) – The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale
 * Cornelia Funke – Ghost Knight
 * Andy Griffiths – The 13-Storey Treehouse (first in the Treehouse series of seven books)
 * Anthony Horowitz – Scorpia Rising
 * Jon Klassen – I Want My Hat Back
 * Gordon Korman, Peter Lerangis, Rick Riordan, and Jude Watson – Vespers Rising
 * Derek Landy – Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked
 * Patricia McKissack (with Leo and Diane Dillon) – Never Forgotten
 * Courtney Allison Moulton – Angelfire
 * Brandon Mull – Beyonders: A World Without Heroes
 * Christopher Paolini – Inheritance
 * Liz Pichon – The Brilliant World of Tom Gates
 * Jerry Pinkney (adaptation) – Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
 * Catherine Rayner – Solomon Crocodile
 * Rick Riordan
 * The Throne of Fire
 * The Son of Neptune
 * Douglas Wood – Franklin and Winston: A Christmas That Changed the World

Poetry
See 2011 in poetry.
 * Rae Armantrout – Money Shot (February)
 * Billy Collins – Horoscopes for the Dead (April)
 * Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi – Meri Tasveer (Urdu, My Portrait)
 * Susan Howe – That This (February)
 * Alice Notley – Culture of One (March)
 * Sarah Palin (edited by Michael Solomon) – I Hope Like Heck (June 21)
 * Michael Palmer – Thread (May)
 * Lee Wardlaw – Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku

Drama

 * Richard Bean – One Man, Two Guvnors (adaptation)
 * Alecky Blythe – London Road (musical verbatim theatre)
 * Nick Dear – Frankenstein
 * Vivienne Franzmann – Mogadishu
 * Rodrigo García – Golgota Picnic
 * Stephen Adly Guirgis – The Motherfucker with the Hat
 * Sam Holcroft – Edgar and Annabel
 * Stephen Karam – Sons of the Prophet
 * Andrew Motion – Incoming
 * Various authors – Sixty-Six Books

Science fiction and fantasy

 * Joe Abercrombie – The Heroes
 * Daniel Abraham
 * The Dragon's Path
 * Leviathan Wakes (writing as James S. A. Corey, with Ty Franck)
 * Ann Aguirre – Aftermath
 * Greg Bear – Halo: Cryptum
 * Lauren Beukes – Zoo City
 * Jack Campbell – The Lost Frontier: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnought
 * Orson Scott Card – The Lost Gate
 * Ernest Cline – Ready Player One
 * Michael Crichton & Richard Preston – Micro
 * Ian Douglas – Center of Gravity
 * David Anthony Durham – The Sacred Band
 * Greg Egan – The Clockwork Rocket
 * William Giraldi – Busy Monsters
 * Michael Grant — Plague
 * Mira Grant – Deadline
 * Lev Grossman – The Magician King
 * Stephen Hunt – The Rise of the Iron Moon
 * N. K. Jemisin – The Kingdom of Gods
 * Stephen King — 11/22/63
 * Sharon Lee & Steve Miller – Ghost Ship
 * Pittacus Lore — The Power of Six
 * George R. R. Martin – A Dance with Dragons
 * Jack McDevitt – Firebird
 * China Miéville – Embassytown
 * Andrew Miller – Pure
 * Karen Miller – A Blight of Mages
 * Richard K. Morgan – The Cold Commands
 * Joseph Nassise – Eyes to See
 * Terry Pratchett – Snuff
 * Cherie Priest – Ganymede
 * Hannu Rajaniemi – The Quantum Thief
 * Brian Ruckley – The Edinburgh Dead
 * Brandon Sanderson – The Alloy of Law
 * John Scalzi – Fuzzy Nation
 * Dan Simmons – Flashback
 * Neal Stephenson – Reamde
 * Charles Stross – Rule 34
 * Michael Swanwick – Dancing with Bears
 * Catherynne M. Valente – Deathless
 * Vernor Vinge – The Children of the Sky
 * Jo Walton – Among Others
 * David Weber – How Firm a Foundation
 * Robert Charles Wilson – Vortex
 * Daniel Wilson – Robopocalypse
 * Gene Wolfe – Home Fires

Crime and Thrillers

 * Jeff Abbott – Adrenaline
 * Ace Atkins – The Ranger
 * Kate Atkinson – Started Early, Took My Dog
 * Steve Berry – The Jefferson Key
 * James Lee Burke – Feast Day of Fools
 * Lee Child – The Affair
 * Edward Conlon – Red on Red
 * Michael Connelly – The Fifth Witness
 * John Connolly – The Burning Soul
 * Chris Culver – The Abbey
 * Jeffery Deaver – Carte Blanche
 * Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee – Forbidden
 * Ted Dekker – The Priest's Graveyard
 * Ranj Dhaliwal – Daaku: The Gangster's Life
 * Sue Grafton – V is for Vengeance
 * John Grisham – The Litigators
 * Morag Joss – Among the Missing
 * Stuart M. Kaminsky – A Whisper to the Living
 * Joe R. Lansdale
 * Hyenas: a Hap and Leonard Novella
 * Devil Red
 * Henning Mankell – The Troubled Man
 * Jo Nesbø – The Snowman
 * T. Jefferson Parker – The Border Lords
 * George Pelecanos – The Cut
 * Ralph Peters – The Officers' Club
 * James Rollins – The Devil's Colony
 * John Sandford – Buried Prey
 * Marcus Sakey – The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes
 * Bernard J. Schaffer – Whitechapel: The Final Stand of Sherlock Holmes
 * Duane Swierczynski – Fun and Games
 * Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan – The Night Eternal
 * Nicolaas Vergunst – Knot of Stone
 * Ferdinand von Schirach – Der Fall Collini (The Collini Case)
 * S. J. Watson – Before I Go to Sleep

Non-fiction

 * Peter Bergen – The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda
 * Abhinav Bindra – A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold
 * Mark Bowden – Worm: The First Digital World War
 * Frank Brady – Endgame: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Bobby Fischer
 * Michael Bronski – A Queer History of the United States
 * David Brooks – The Social Animal
 * Brian Christian – The Most Human Human
 * Wade Davis – Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest
 * Richard Dawkins – The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True
 * Douglas Edwards – I'm Feeling Lucky
 * T. J. English – The Savage City: Race, Murder and a Generation on the Edge
 * Ulrich Eberl – Life in 2050
 * Tina Fey – Bossypants
 * John M. Findlay and Bruce Hevly - Atomic Frontier Days: Hanford and the American West
 * Joshua Foer – Moonwalking with Einstein
 * James Gleick – The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
 * Brian Greene – The Hidden Reality
 * Michael Gross – Unreal Estate: Money, Ambition, and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles
 * Yuval Noah Harari – קיצור תולדות האנושות (Ḳitsur toldot ha-enoshut, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind)
 * Matthew Hollis – Now All Roads Lead to France
 * Louis Hyman – Debtor Nation
 * Zlatan Ibrahimović and David Lagercrantz – I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović (Jag är Zlatan Ibrahimović)
 * Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow
 * David King – Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris
 * Joshua Knelman – Hot Art
 * Lawrence M. Krauss – Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science
 * B. B. Lal – Piecing Together – Memoirs of an Archaeologist
 * Erik Larson – In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
 * Joseph Lelyveld – Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India
 * Steven Levy – In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
 * Charles C. Mann – 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
 * Rajiv Malhotra
 * Being Different
 * Breaking India
 * David McCullough – The Greater Journey
 * Ben Mezrich – Sex on the Moon
 * Scott Miller – The President and the Assassin
 * Errol Morris – Believing is Seeing
 * Grant Morrison – Supergods
 * Joyce Carol Oates – A Widow's Story
 * Patton Oswalt – Zombie, Spaceship, Wasteland
 * Dana Priest – Top Secret America
 * Annie Proulx – Bird Cloud: A Memoir
 * Janet Reitman – Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
 * Sylvain Tesson – The Consolations of the Forest
 * Sarah Vowell – Unfamiliar Fishes
 * Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie – The Declaration of Independents
 * Jeanette Winterson – Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
 * Daniel Yergin – The Quest
 * Mitchell Zuckoff – Lost in Shangri-La

Deaths

 * January 2 – Robert Trumble, Australian writer (born 1919)
 * January 4
 * Eva Strittmatter, German author and poet (born 1930)
 * Dick King-Smith English children's writer (born 1922)
 * January 10 – Joe Gores, American novelist and screenwriter (born 1931)
 * January 11 – Marcel Trudel, Canadian historian and author (born 1917)
 * January 14 – Sun Axelsson, Swedish novelist (born 1935)
 * January 15 – Romulus Linney, American playwright (born 1930)
 * January 16 – R. F. Langley, English poet and diarist (born 1938)
 * January 17 – Jean Dutourd, French novelist (born 1920)
 * January 19 – Wilfrid Sheed, English-born American novelist and essayist (born 1930)
 * January 20
 * F. A. Nettelbeck, American poet (born 1950)
 * Reynolds Price, American author (born 1933)
 * January 22 – Park Wan-suh, South Korean novelist (born 1931)
 * January 23 – Novica Tadić, Serbian poet (born 1949)
 * January 24 – Anna Yablonskaya, Ukrainian playwright and poet (born 1981)
 * January 25 – Vincent Cronin, English writer (born 1924)
 * January 29
 * Loreen Rice Lucas, Canadian author (born 1914)
 * Hemayel Martina, Curaçaon poet (born 1990)
 * January 30 – Hisaye Yamamoto, Japanese American author (born 1921)
 * February 2 – Eric Nicol, Canadian author (born 1919)
 * February 3 – Édouard Glissant, Martinique poet and critic writing in French (born 1928)
 * February 5
 * Charles E. Silberman, American author (born 1925)
 * Martin Quigley Jr., American author and publisher (born 1917)
 * Brian Jacques, English children's writer (born 1939)
 * February 9 – David Sánchez Juliao, Colombian author and diplomat (born 1945)
 * February 13 – Oakley Hall III, American playwright (born 1950)
 * February 15 – Judith Binney, New Zealand author (born 1940)
 * February 16
 * Justinas Marcinkevičius, Lithuanian poet and playwright (born 1930)
 * Hans Joachim Alpers, German science fiction author (born 1943)
 * February 17
 * Perry Moore, American author (born 1971)
 * Vivien Noakes, English biographer and critic (born 1937)
 * James McLure, American playwright (born 1951)
 * February 18 – Victor Martinez, US poet and novelist (born 1954)
 * February 19 – Max Wilk, American playwright, screenwriter and author (born 1920)
 * February 22 – Ion Hobana, Romanian science fiction author (born 1931)
 * February 25
 * Manny Fried, American playwright and actor (born 1913)
 * Aminath Faiza, Maldivian poet and writer in the Dhivehi language (born 1924)
 * February 26 – Arnošt Lustig, Czech author (born 1926)
 * February 28 – Netiva Ben-Yehuda, Israeli author (born 1928)
 * March 2 – Thor Vilhjálmsson, Icelandic author (born 1925)
 * March 3 – May Cutler, Canadian author and publisher (born 1923)
 * March 5 – Alberto Granado, Argentine-born Cuban biochemist and writer (born 1922)
 * March 8
 * Iraj Afshar, Iranian bibliographer and historian (born 1925)
 * Steven Kroll, American children's author (born 1941)
 * March 9 – Doris Burn, American children's author and illustrator (born 1923)
 * March 13 – Leo Steinberg, American art historian and critic (born 1920)
 * March 14 – Giora Leshem, Israeli poet and publisher (born 1940)
 * March 19 – Raymond Garlick, English-born Welsh poet and editor (born 1926)
 * March 26 – Diana Wynne Jones, English children's fantasy novelist (born 1934)
 * March 27 – H. R. F. Keating, English crime novelist (born 1926)
 * April 2 – Paul Violi, American poet (born 1944)
 * April 3 – Ulli Beier, German writer, editor and scholar (born 1922)
 * April 4 – Craig Thomas, Welsh novelist (born 1942)
 * April 6 – Thøger Birkeland, Danish children's writer (born 1922)
 * April 10 – Stephen Watson, South African writer and critic in English (born 1954)
 * April 12 – Sachin Bhowmick, Indian screenwriter (born 1930)
 * April 14
 * Rosihan Anwar, Indonesian journalist (born 1922)
 * Patrick Cullinan, South African poet and biographer (born 1933)
 * April 16 – William A. Rusher, American columnist and publisher (born 1923)
 * April 17 – Bob Block, English comedy writer (born 1921)
 * April 19 – Anne Blonstein, English poet (born 1958)
 * April 20 – Madelyn Pugh, American screenwriter (born 1921)
 * April 21 – W. J. Gruffydd (Elerydd), Welsh-language poet (born 1916)
 * April 25 – Gonzalo Rojas, Chilean poet (born 1917)
 * April 29
 * Abdul Hameed, Pakistani novelist (born 1928)
 * Joanna Russ, American science fiction author (born 1937)
 * April 30
 * Richard Holmes, English military historian (born 1946)
 * Ernesto Sabato, Argentine writer (born 1911)
 * May 4 – Frans Sammut, Maltese writer (born 1945)
 * May 5 – Arthur Laurents, American playwright, librettist and screenwriter (born 1917)
 * May 9 – Newton Thornburg, American novelist (born 1929)
 * May 10 – Patrick Galvin, Irish poet and dramatist (born 1927)
 * May 11 – Reach Sambath, Cambodian journalist (born 1964)
 * May 13
 * Pam Gems, English playwright (born 1925)
 * Badal Sarkar, Indian dramatist (born 1925)
 * May 14 – Birgitta Trotzig, Swedish novelist and poet (born 1929)
 * May 15 – Martin Woodhouse, English novelist, screenwriter and inventor (born 1932)
 * May 19 – William Kloefkorn, American poet (born 1932)
 * May 21 – Pádraig Kennelly, Irish journalist, publisher and editor (born 1938)
 * May 22 – Chidananda Dasgupta, Indian film critic (born 1921)
 * May 23 – Roberto Sosa, Honduran poet (heart attack, born 1930)
 * May 24 – Fănuș Neagu, Romanian novelist, journalist, and short story writer (cancer, born 1932)
 * May 25
 * Leonora Carrington, British-born Mexican painter and novelist (born 1917)
 * Edwin Honig, American poet and translator (born 1919)
 * Yannis Varveris, Greek poet, critic and translator (born 1955)
 * May 30 – Marek Siemek, Polish philosopher and historian of philosophy (born 1942)
 * June 4 – Curth Flatow, German dramatist and screenwriter (born 1920)
 * June 7 – Jorge Semprún, Spanish writer and politician (born 1923)
 * June 10 – Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, English travel writer and novelist, (born 1915)
 * June 13 – Burt Styler, American screenwriter (born 1925)
 * June 18 – Cheryl B, American poet and spoken word artist (born 1972)
 * June 21 – Robert Kroetsch, Canadian novelist and poet (car crash, born 1927)
 * June 22 – Zbyněk Zeman, Czech historian (born 1928)
 * June 29 – K. D. Sethna, Indian poet, writer and cultural critic (born 1904)
 * July 7 – Olav Versto, Norwegian journalist and editor (drowning, born 1950)
 * July 3 – Iain Blair (Emma Blair), Scottish romance novelist (born 1942)
 * July 11 – Henry Carlisle, American translator, novelist and activist (born 1926)
 * July 16 – Geraint Bowen, Welsh poet (born 1915)
 * July 18 – Georgess McHargue, American author and poet (born 1941)
 * July 20 – Blaize Clement, American mystery writer and psychologist (born 1932)
 * July 22 – Ifti Nasim, Pakistani-born American poet and radio host (born 1946)
 * July 27 – Agota Kristof, Hungarian novelist writing in French (born 1935)
 * July 28 – Ahmed Omaid Khpalwak, Afghan journalist (killed in explosion, born c. 1958)
 * July 30 – Pêr Denez, French Breton linguist and writer (born 1921)
 * July 31 – Eliseo Alberto, Cuban-born Mexican novelist, essayist and journalist (born 1951)
 * August 1 – Stan Barstow, English novelist (born 1928)
 * August 3
 * Simona Monyová, Czech novelist (murdered, born 1967)
 * William Sleator, American science-fiction writer (born 1945)
 * August 10 – Selwyn Griffith, Welsh poet (born 1928)
 * August 15 – Michael Legat, English author and publisher (born 1923)
 * August 17 – Michel Mohrt, French writer (born 1914)
 * August 26 – Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, American novelist (born 1940)
 * August 27 – N. F. Simpson, English dramatist (born 1919)
 * September 9
 * Herbert Lomas, English poet (born 1924)
 * Khairy Shalaby, Egyptian novelist and dramatist (born 1938)
 * September 14 – Frank Parkin, Welsh sociologist and novelist (born 1931)
 * September 22
 * Cengiz Dağcı, Crimean Tatar novelist and poet writing in Turkish (born 1919)
 * Margaret Ogola, Kenyan novelist (born 1958)
 * September 23 – José Miguel Varas, Chilean writer (born 1928)
 * September 26 – David Zelag Goodman, American screenwriter (born 1930)
 * September 27
 * David Croft, English television writer and producer (born 1922)
 * Sara Douglass, Australian fantasy author (ovarian cancer, born 1957)
 * September 29 – Hella Haasse, Dutch novelist (born 1918)
 * October 4 – Vittorio Curtoni, Italian science fiction writer and translator (born 1949)
 * October 10 – Uno Röndahl, Swedish writer (born 1924)
 * October 11 – Ewald Osers, Czech translator and poet (born 1917)
 * October 12 – Lowell H. Harrison, American historian (born 1922)
 * October 15 – Earl McRae, Canadian journalist (born 1942)
 * October 18
 * Paul Everac, Romanian writer (born 1924)
 * Friedrich Kittler, German literary scholar and media theorist (born 1943)
 * October 19
 * Kakkanadan, Indian Malayalam writer (born 1935)
 * Bohdan Osadchuk, Ukrainian historian and journalist (born 1920)
 * October 21
 * Hikmet Bilâ, Turkish journalist and author (lung cancer, born 1954)
 * Tone Pavček, Slovenian author and translator (born 1928)
 * October 23
 * Florence Parry Heide, American children's author (born 1919)
 * Bogdan Zakrzewski, Polish historian and researcher of Polish literature (born 1916)
 * October 24 – Morio Kita (北 杜夫), Japanese novelist, essayist and psychiatrist (born 1927)
 * November 3
 * H. G. Francis, German science fiction author (born 1936)
 * Morris Philipson, American novelist and publisher (born 1926)
 * November 21
 * Arie van Deursen, Dutch historian (born 1931)
 * Theodore Enslin, American poet (born 1925)
 * Anne McCaffrey, American fantasy writer (born 1926)
 * November 25 – Leonid Borodin, Russian novelist, journalist and Soviet dissident, (born 1938) (Russian)
 * November 26 – Rashid Karim, Bangladeshi novelist (born 1925)
 * November 30
 * Ana Daniel, Portuguese poet (born 1928)
 * Partap Sharma, Indian playwright (born 1939)
 * December 15 – Christopher Hitchens, English journalist and commentator (esophageal cancer, born 1949)
 * December 20 – Barry Reckord, Jamaican playwright (born 1926)
 * December 23 – Tripuraneni Maharadhi, Indian screenwriter (born 1930)
 * December 27 – Thinley Norbu, Tibetan Buddhist writer and teacher (born 1931)
 * December 30 – Eleanor Ross Taylor, American poet (born 1920)
 * December 31
 * Celia Dale, English fiction writer and book reviewer (born 1912
 * Penny Jordan, English romantic novelist (born 1946)

Awards

 * Nobel Prize in Literature: Tomas Tranströmer

Australia

 * Miles Franklin Award: Kim Scott, That Deadman Dance

Canada

 * Amazon.ca First Novel Award: David Bezmozgis, The Free World
 * Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Helen Waldstein Wilkes, Letters from the Lost
 * Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Main award, Farzana Doctor; honours of distinction, Dani Couture, Matthew J. Trafford.
 * Governor General's Awards: Multiple categories; see 2011 Governor General's Awards.
 * Scotiabank Giller Prize: Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues
 * Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers
 * Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction: Charles Foran, Mordecai: The Life and Times
 * Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award: Wayne Johnston

United Kingdom

 * Man Booker Prize: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
 * Caine Prize for African Writing: NoViolet Bulawayo, "Hitting Budapest"
 * David Cohen Prize: Julian Barnes
 * Orange Prize for Fiction: Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife

United States

 * Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2011 Lambda Literary Awards.
 * National Book Award for Fiction: to Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
 * National Book Critics Circle Award: to Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories by Edith Pearlman
 * PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad
 * Whiting Awards: Fiction: Scott Blackwood, Ryan Call, Daniel Orozco, Teddy Wayne; Nonfiction: Paul Clemens; Plays: Amy Herzog; Poetry: Don Mee Choi, Eduardo C. Corral, Shane McCrae, Kerri Webster

Other

 * Camões Prize: Manuel António Pina
 * Europe Theatre Prize: Peter Stein
 * European Book Prize: Maxim Leo, Red Love, and Anna Bikont, The Crime and the Silence
 * International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Mohammed Achaari, The Arch and the Butterfly, and Raja'a Alem, The Doves' Necklace
 * SAARC Literary Award: Ibrahim Waheed, Syed Akhtar Hussain Akhtar