2017 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2017.

Events

 * March – Emulating Kerouac's On the Road, Ross Goodwin drives from New York to New Orleans with an artificial intelligence device in a laptop hooked up to various sensors, whose output it turns into words printed on rolls of thermal paper; the result is published unedited as 1 the Road in 2018.
 * August – The Chinese crime novelist Liu Yongbiao is arrested and eventually sentenced to death for four murders committed 22 years before.
 * August 30 – A hard disk drive containing unfinished work by the English comic fantasy novelist Sir Terry Pratchett (died 2015) is crushed by a steamroller on his instructions.
 * October 5 - The Swedish Academy announce that the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro.
 * October – Tianjin Binhai Library opens in China.
 * December – Kristen Roupenian's short story "Cat Person" is published in The New Yorker and becomes a viral phenomenon online, with more than 2.6 million hits.

Anniversaries

 * Tercentenary of the Aberbaijani poet Molla Panah Vagif's birth in 1717
 * 600th anniversary of the death of the Turkic mystical poet Imadaddin Nasimi in 1417
 * March 19 – Bicentenary of the Slovak writer Jozef Miloslav Hurban's birth
 * May 8 – The American novelist Thomas Pynchon turns 80.
 * June 18 – Centenary of the death of the Romanian literary critic and former prime minister Titu Maiorescu
 * June 26 – 20th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (U.K. edition)
 * July 12 – 200th birthday of Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden
 * July 14 – Bicentenary of the early French salonnière Madame de Staël's death
 * July 18 – Bicentenary of the novelist Jane Austen's death in 1817
 * Nov 30 – 350th anniversary of the Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift's birth in 1667
 * December 4 – Bicentenary of the birth of Nikoloz Baratashvili's in 1817, who introduced European style into Georgian literature.

New books
Dates after each title indicate U.S. publication, unless otherwise indicated.

Fiction

 * Ayobami Adebayo – Stay With Me (March 2, UK)
 * Paul Auster – 4 3 2 1 (January 31)
 * Brunonia Barry – The Fifth Petal: a novel
 * Darcey Bell – A Simple Favor (March 1)
 * Dan Brown – Origin (October 3)
 * Peter Carey – A Long Way From Home (October 30, Australia)
 * J. M. Coetzee – The Schooldays of Jesus (February 21)
 * Claire G. Coleman – Terra Nullius
 * Curtis Dawkins – The Graybar Hotel (July 4)
 * Didier Decoin – Le bureau des jardins et des étangs (The Office of Gardens and Ponds) (France)
 * Steve Erickson – Shadowbahn
 * Christine Féret-Fleury – La fille qui lisait dans le Métro (The Girl who Read on the Metro) (March 9, France)
 * Karl Geary –  Montpelier Parade (August 31)
 * John Grisham – Camino Island (June 6)
 * Mohsin Hamid – Exit West (March 2, UK)
 * Catherine Hernandez - Scarborough
 * Alan Hollinghurst – The Sparsholt Affair (September 26, UK)
 * Gail Honeyman – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (UK)
 * N. K. Jemisin – The Stone Sky (August 15)
 * Lisa Jewell – Then She Was Gone (July 27, UK)
 * The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty) – 2023 (August 23, UK)
 * Ian McDonald – Luna: Wolf Moon (March 23, UK)
 * Jon McGregor – Reservoir 13 (April 6, UK)
 * Claude McKay (died 1948) – Amiable with Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem (February 7; written 1941)
 * Robert Menasse – Die Hauptstadt (The Capital) (Germany)
 * Denise Mina – The Long Drop (March 2, UK)
 * Fiona Mozley – Elmet (August 10, UK)
 * Neel Mukherjee – A State of Freedom (July 6, UK)
 * Timothy Ogene – The Day Ends Like Any Day (April 6, UK)
 * James Patterson & Candice Fox – Never Never (January 16, US)
 * Tim Pears – The Horseman (January, UK)
 * Gwendoline Riley – First Love (February, UK)
 * Sally Rooney – Conversations with Friends (June, UK)
 * George Saunders – Lincoln in the Bardo (February 14)
 * Rachel Seiffert – A Boy in Winter (June 1, UK)
 * Kamila Shamsie – Home Fire (August 15, UK)
 * Joss Sheldon – Money Power Love (October 7, UK)
 * Elizabeth Strout – Anything is Possible (April 25)
 * J. R. R. Tolkien (died 1973), edited by Christopher Tolkien – Beren and Lúthien (June 1, UK; original version written 1917)
 * Zlatko Topčić
 * Dagmar
 * The Final Word (Zavrsna rijec)
 * Éric Vuillard – The Order of the Day (L'Ordre du jour) (April 29, France)
 * Jesmyn Ward – Sing, Unburied, Sing (September 5)
 * Sarah Winman – Tin Man (July 27, UK)
 * Kathleen Winter – Lost in September

Children and young people

 * Galia Bernstein – I Am a Cat (November, Australia, Singapore)
 * Sarah Crossan – Moonrise (September 1, UK)
 * Lissa Evans – Wed Wabbit (January 5, UK)
 * Susie Ghahremani – Stack the Cats (USA)
 * Connie Glynn – Undercover Princess (October 30, UK)
 * Kiran Millwood Hargrave – The Island at the End of Everything (May 4, UK)
 * Amanda Hocking – Freeks (January 3)
 * Anna McQuinn – Lulu Gets a Cat
 * Philip Pullman – La Belle Sauvage, first volume in The Book of Dust trilogy (October 19, UK)
 * Katherine Rundell – The Explorer (August 10, UK)
 * Angie Thomas – The Hate U Give (September 28)
 * Jacqueline Wilson – Wave Me Goodbye (May 18, UK)

Poetry

 * Helen Dunmore (died June 5) – Inside the Wave ( April 27, UK )
 * Robert Macfarlane (illustrated by Jackie Morris) – The Lost Words: A Spell Book ( October, UK )
 * Sinéad Morrissey – On Balance ( May 25 )

Drama

 * Jez Butterworth – The Ferryman
 * Inua Ellams – Barber Shop Chronicles

Non-fiction

 * Nathaniel Frank – Awakening: How Gays and Lesbians Brought Marriage Equality to America
 * Howard W. French – Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China's Push for Global Power
 * David Grann – Killers of the Flower Moon
 * Paul Hawken – Drawdown (April 18)
 * Michel Houellebecq – En présence de Schopenhauer (January 11, France)
 * Christine Hyung-Oak Lee – Tell Me Everything You Don't Remember (February 14)
 * Obi Kaufmann – The California Field Atlas (September 1)
 * Roel Konijnendijk - Classical Greek Tactics
 * Jamie Oliver – 5 Ingredients – Quick and Easy Food (August 24, UK)
 * Walter Scheidel – The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century
 * Matt Taibbi – Insane Clown President (January 17)
 * Hedi Yahmed – I Was in Raqqa (كنت في الرقة)

Biography and memoirs

 * Craig Brown – Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret (September 21, UK)
 * Richard Ford – Between Them: Remembering My Parents (May 2)
 * Adam Kay – This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor (September 7, UK)
 * Caroline Moorehead – A Bold and Dangerous Family: The Rossellis and the Fight Against Mussolini (June 15)
 * Rebecca Stott – In the Days of Rain: a daughter, a father, a cult (June 1, UK)
 * Stephen Westaby – Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table (February 9, UK)
 * Xiaolu Guo – Once Upon a Time in the East (January 26)

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in literature" article:
 * January 2 – John Berger, English novelist, painter, art critic and poet, 90 (born 1926)
 * January 12 – William Peter Blatty, American author (The Exorcist), 89 (born 1928)
 * January 25:
 * Buchi Emecheta, Nigerian novelist and children's writer (The Bride Price, The Joys of Motherhood), 72 (born 1944)
 * Harry Mathews, American novelist and poet, 86 (born 1930)
 * January 29 – Howard Frank Mosher, American novelist (Where the Rivers Flow North), 74 (born 1942)
 * January 30 - Teresa Amy, Uruguayan poet and translator, 66 (born 1950)
 * February 1 – William Melvin Kelley, African-American novelist, 79 (born 1937)
 * February 8 – Tom Raworth, English poet, 78 (born 1938)
 * March 10 – Robert James Waller, American novelist (The Bridges of Madison County), 77 (b. 1939)
 * March 16 – Torgny Lindgren, Swedish writer, 78 (born 1938)
 * March 17 – Derek Walcott, Saint Lucian poet and playwright, Nobel Laureate in 1992, 87 (b. 1930)
 * April 1 – Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet, 84 (b. 1933)
 * May 1:
 * Anatoly Aleksin, Russian writer and poet, 92
 * Mohamed Talbi, Tunisian historian, 95
 * May 24 – Denis Johnson, American poet, novelist (Tree of Smoke), and short story writer (Jesus' Son), 67 (born 1949).
 * June 2
 * Jaroslav Kořán, Czech translator, writer and politician, 77
 * Barrie Pettman, English author, publisher and philanthropist, 73
 * S. Abdul Rahman, Indian poet, 79
 * June 4
 * Juan Goytisolo, Spanish essayist, poet and novelist, 86
 * Jack Trout, American marketer and author, 82
 * June 5
 * Helen Dunmore, English poet, novelist and children's writer, 64 (born 1952)
 * Anna Jókai, Hungarian writer, 84
 * June 8 – Naseem Khan, British journalist, 77
 * June 12 – C. Narayana Reddy, Indian poet and writer, Jnanpith Awardee, 85
 * June 27 – Michael Bond, English author (Paddington Bear), 91 (born 1926)
 * June 28 – Bruce Stewart, New Zealand author and playwright, 80
 * July 2
 * Tony Bianchi, Welsh-language author, 65
 * Jack Collom, American poet, essayist and poetry teacher, 85
 * Abiola Irele, Nigerian literary critic, 81
 * Fay Zwicky, Australian poet, 83
 * July 5 – Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian poet, 63 (cancer)
 * July 9
 * Miep Diekmann, Dutch writer of children's literature, 92 (born 1925)
 * Anton Nossik, Russian writer and internet entrepreneur, 51 (heart attack)
 * July 10 – Peter Härtling, German writer and poet, 83
 * September 23 – Harvey Jacobs, American author, 87
 * November 20 – Amir Hamed, Uruguayan writer, essayist and translator, 55 (born 1962)
 * November 23 – Božena Mačingová, Slovak writer, author of books for children and young adults (born 1922)
 * December 28 – Sue Grafton, American mystery author, 77

Awards
In alphabetical order of prize names:
 * Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction: Naomi Alderman for The Power
 * Baillie Gifford Prize: David France for How to Survive a Plague
 * Booker Prize: George Saunders for Lincoln in the Bardo
 * Caine Prize for African Writing: Bushra Elfadil, "The Story of the Girl Whose Bird Flew Away"
 * Camões Prize: Manuel Alegre
 * Costa Book Awards: Helen Dunmore (died June 5) for Inside the Wave (poetry)
 * Danuta Gleed Literary Award: Kris Bertin, Bad Things Happen
 * David Cohen Prize: Tom Stoppard
 * Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Kai Cheng Thom
 * Desmond Elliott Prize: Francis Spufford, Golden Hill
 * DSC Prize for South Asian Literature:
 * Dylan Thomas Prize: Fiona McFarlane for The High Places
 * European Book Prize: David Van Reybrouck, Zink and, Raffaele Simone, Si la démocratie fait faillite
 * Folio Prize: Hisham Matar for The Return
 * German Book Prize: Robert Menasse for Die Hauptstadt
 * Goldsmiths Prize: Nicola Barker for H(a)ppy
 * Gordon Burn Prize: Denise Mina for The Long Drop
 * Governor General's Award for English-language fiction: Joel Thomas Hynes, We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night
 * Governor General's Award for French-language fiction: Christian Guay-Poliquin, Le Poids de la neige
 * Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française:
 * Hugo Award for Best Novel: N. K. Jemisin for The Obelisk Gate
 * International Booker Prize: David Grossman for A Horse Walks Into a Bar
 * International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Mohammed Hasan Alwan for A Small Death
 * International Dublin Literary Award: José Eduardo Agualusa for A General Theory of Oblivion
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction:
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography:
 * Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award:
 * Lambda Literary Awards: Various categories, see 29th Lambda Literary Awards
 * Miguel de Cervantes Prize:
 * Miles Franklin Award: Josephine Wilson for Extinctions
 * National Biography Award:
 * National Book Award for Fiction:
 * National Book Critics Circle Award:
 * Newdigate Prize: Dominic Hand
 * Nike Award:
 * Nobel Prize in Literature: Kazuo Ishiguro
 * PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Imbolo Mbue for Behold the Dreamers
 * PEN Center USA Fiction Award:
 * Premio Planeta de Novela:
 * Premio Strega:
 * Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing:
 * Prix Goncourt:
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Colson Whitehead for The Underground Railroad
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Tyehimba Jess for Olio
 * RBC Taylor Prize: Ross King for Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies
 * Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: David Chariandy, Brother
 * Russian Booker Prize:
 * Scotiabank Giller Prize: Michael Redhill, Bellevue Square
 * Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings:
 * Walter Scott Prize: Sebastian Barry for Days Without End
 * W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction:
 * Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award: Breyten Breytenbach