This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1996.
Events July 8 – Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and 30 other books are struck from an English reading list in Lindale, Texas, as they "conflict with the values of the community."Herbert N. Foerstel, Banned in the USA, Greenwood Press, 2002, p. 233. July 11 – As requested by Nelson Mandela, Benjamin Zephaniah hosts the President's Two Nations Concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.Life at the Hall – Happy Birthday, Nelson Mandela . Accessed 9 December 2014. October 3 – The first performance is held in New York of Eve Ensler's episodic feminist play The Vagina Monologues. unknown dates In the UK, the first Orange Prize for Fiction for female novelists goes to Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter. Peter O'Donnell publishes Cobra Trap, a final volume featuring Modesty Blaise. The first appeared in 1965. Margaret Mitchell's lost first novella, Lost Laysen, is published, 80 years after it was written. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Romance Writings, including her novel Princess Docile, are first published 234 years after her death.
New books
Fiction Anonymous (Joe Klein) – Primary Colors: a novel of politics Jeffrey Archer – The Fourth Estate Margaret Atwood – Alias Grace Beryl Bainbridge – Every Man for Himself David Baldacci – Absolute Power Iain M. Banks – Excession David Bergen – A Year of Lesser Dionne Brand – In Another Place, Not Here Larry Brown – Father and Son Candace Bushnell – Sex and the City Brett Butler – Knee Deep in Paradise Tom Clancy – Executive Orders Joseph Connolly – This Is It Bernard Cornwell – The Bloody Ground and Enemy of God Douglas Coupland – Polaroids from the Dead Amanda Craig – A Vicious Circle Robert Crais – Sunset Express John Darnton – Neanderthal Donald Davidson – The Big Ballad Jamboree Seamus Deane – Reading in the Dark Joan Didion – The Last Thing He Wanted Stephen R. Donaldson – The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die Ben Elton – Popcorn Steve Erickson – Amnesiascope Helen Fielding – Bridget Jones's Diary Jon Fosse – Melancholy II (Melancholia II) Neil Gaiman The Sandman: The Kindly Ones (graphic novel; ninth in The Sandman series) The Sandman: The Wake (graphic novel; tenth in The Sandman series) John Gardner – Cold Richard Garfinkle – Celestial Matters Alex Garland – The Beach William Golding – The Double Tongue John Grisham – The Runaway Jury and Hackers (short stories) James L. Halperin – The Truth Machine Colin Harrison – Manhattan Nocturne Elisabeth Harvor – Let Me Be the One (short stories) Nancy Huston – The Goldberg Variations Tama Janowitz – By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee Matt Jones – Bad Therapy Stephen King Desperation The Green Mile The Regulators Dean R. Koontz – Intensity Michael P. Kube-McDowell – Before the Storm Shield of Lies Tyrant's Test Caroline Lamarche – Le Jour du chien (The Day of the Dog) Hugh Laurie – The Gun Seller John le Carré – The Tailor of Panama Paul Leonard – Speed of Flight Steve Lyons – Killing Ground George R. R. Martin – A Game of Thrones David A. McIntee – The Shadow of Weng-Chiang Terry McMillan – How Stella Got Her Groove Back Javier Marías – When I Was Mortal (Cuando fui mortal, short stories) Vladimir Megre – Anastasiya Lawrence Miles – Christmas on a Rational Planet Rohinton Mistry – A Fine Balance Shani Mootoo – Cereus Blooms at Night Joyce Carol Oates – We Were the Mulvaneys Daniel O'Mahony – The Man in the Velvet Mask Kate Orman – Return of the Living Dad and Sleepy Chuck Palahniuk – Fight Club Lance Parkin – Cold Fusion and Just War Marc Platt – Downtime Terry Pratchett – Feet of Clay and Hogfather Qiu Miaojin (posthumous) – Last Words from Montmartre James Redfield – The Tenth Insight Justin Richards – The Sands of Time Gareth Roberts The English Way of Death The Plotters Mary Rosenblum – Synthesis & Other Virtual Realities Kristine Kathryn Rusch – The New Rebellion Gary Russell – The Scales of Injustice Jeff Shaara – Gods and Generals Michael Stackpole The Krytos Trap Rogue Squadron Wedge's Gamble Dave Stone – Death and Diplomacy Graham Swift – Last Orders Guy Vanderhaeghe – The Englishman's Boy David Foster Wallace – Infinite Jest Daniel Woodrell – Give Us a Kiss Monika Maron – Animal Triste
Children and young people K.A. Applegate – Animorphs series Marion Zimmer Bradley (with Rosemary Edghill) – Witchlight Eve Bunting (with Ned Bittinger) – The Blue and the Gray James C. Christensen (with Renwick St. James and Alan Dean Foster) – Voyage of the Basset Anne Fine – The Tulip Touch Elaine Forrestal – Someone Like Me Mem Fox – Boo to a Goose Mark Helprin (with Chris Van Allsburg) – A City in Winter E. T. A. Hoffmann (with Roberto Innocenti) – The Nutcracker Lyll Becerra de Jenkins – So Loud a Silence Julius Lester – Sam and the Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo Anne McCaffrey – No One Noticed the Cat Michael Morpurgo – The Butterfly Lion Jim Murphy – A Young Patriot: The American Revolution as Experienced by One Boy Andre Norton (with Martin H. Greenberg and Mark Hess) – Catfantastic IV Joyce Carol Oates (with Barry Moser) – First Love: A Gothic Tale Iona Opie – My Very First Mother Goose Alan Schroeder – Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman Diane Stanley – Leonardo da Vinci Jean Ure – Skinny Melon and Me
Drama Jeff Baron – Visiting Mr. Green Nick Enright – Blackrock Eve Ensler – The Vagina Monologues Jon Fosse Barnet (The Child) Nokon kjem til å komme (Someone is going to come) (completed 1993) Pam Gems – Stanley Jenny Kemp – The Black Sequin Dress Ayub Khan-Din – East is East Martin McDonagh – The Beauty Queen of Leenane Mark Ravenhill – Shopping and Fucking Wallace Shawn – The Designated Mourner Joshua Sobol – Alma Shelagh Stephenson – The Memory of Water Botho Strauß – Ithaka Enda Walsh – Disco Pigs Peter Whelan – The Herbal Bed Roy Williams – The No Boys Cricket Club
Poetry
Non-fiction Nelson Algren (posthumous) – Nonconformity (essay, written 1953) Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Carlos Alberto Montaner and Álvaro Vargas Llosa – Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot (essay) Stephen Ambrose – Undaunted Courage Bruce Bawer (editor) – Beyond Queer John Berendt – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil David Chalmers – The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory Norman Davies – Europe: A History Richard Dawkins – Climbing Mount Improbable David Denby – Great Books Antonia Fraser – The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605 Daniel Goleman – Emotional Intelligence Denis Guedj – Numbers: The Universal Language Jennifer Hanson – The Real Freshman Handbook Samuel P. Huntington – The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order Richard Mabey – Flora Britannica Howard Marks – Mr Nice Dylan Morgan – The Principles of Hypnotherapy Anne Mullens – Timely DeathFaculty of Arts, 1997, Edna Staebler Award , Wilfrid Laurier University, Previous winners, Anne Mullens. Retrieved 2012-11-17. Denise Schmandt-Besserat – How Writing Came About Arun Shourie – Missionaries in India Alexander Skutch – The Minds of Birds Alessandro Vezzosi – Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance
Births May 29 - R. F. Kuang, American fantasy and contemporary fiction writer November 13 - Zeki Majed, Kurdish filmmaker and poet December 25 - Elvira Natali, Indonesian author and actress
Deaths January 5 – Lincoln Kirstein, American writer and impresario (born 1907) January 8 – Howard Taubman, American author and critic (born 1907) January 11 – Harold Walter Bailey, English linguistics scholar (born 1899) January 16 – Kaye Webb, English publisher and journalist (born 1914)Julia Eccleshare Obituary: Kaye Webb, The Independent, 18 January 1996. January 21 – Efua Sutherland, Ghanaian dramatist, poet and children's author (born 1924) January 27 – Barbara Skelton, English fiction writer, memoirist and literary figure (born 1916) January 28 Jerry Siegel, American cartoonist (born 1914) Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (myocardial infarction, born 1940) February 11 Bob Shaw, Northern Irish science fiction writer (born 1931) Amelia Rosselli, Italian poet (born 1930) February 12 – Ryōtarō Shiba, Japanese novelist (born 1923) February 18 – Cathal Ó Sándair, Irish-language novelist (born 1922) March 3 Marguerite Duras, French dramatist and film director (born 1914) Léo Malet, French crime novelist and surrealist (born 1909) March 15 – Wolfgang Koeppen, German novelist (born 1906) March 18 Jacquetta Hawkes (née Hopkins), English writer and archeologist (born 1910) Odysseas Elytis, Greek writer and Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911) March 22 Claude Mauriac, French novelist and journalist (born 1914) Ian Stephens, Canadian poet (year of birth not known) March 29 – Frank Daniel, Czech-born screenwriter, director, and teacher (born 1926) March 31 – Dario Bellezza, Italian poet and dramatist (HIV, born 1944) April 16 – Leila Mackinlay, British romantic novelist (born 1910) April 18 – Kalim Siddiqui, Pakistani-born English writer and Islamic activist (born 1931) April 20 – Christopher Robin Milne, English writer and bookseller (born 1920) April 22 – Erma Bombeck, American humorist and writer (born 1927) April 23 – P. L. Travers, Australian-born children's writer (born 1899) May 2 – Emile Habibi, Palestinian Israeli writer and politician (born 1922) May 8 – Larry Levis, American poet, author, and critic (born 1946) May 24 – Joseph Mitchell, American journalist (born 1908) May 26 Ovidiu Papadima, Romanian critic and essayist (born 1909) Margaret Douglas-Home, English writer and musician (born 1906) May 31 – Timothy Leary, American psychologist and writer (born 1920) June 2 – Leon Garfield, English children's author (born 1921)B. Copson, "Garfield, Leon (1921–1996)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP), September 2004; online edition January 2007 June 14 – Gesualdo Bufalino, Italian novelist (born 1920) June 15 – Fitzroy Maclean, Scottish political writer, autobiographer and diplomat (born 1911) July 10 – Eno Raud, Estonian children's author (born 1928) July 22 – Jessica Mitford, English author, journalist and campaigner (born 1917) September 21 – Henri Nouwen, Dutch priest, theologian and author (born 1932) September 29 – Shusaku Endo (遠藤周作), Japanese novelist (born 1923) October 16 – Eric Malpass, English novelist (born 1910) October 24 – Sorley Maclean, Gaelic poet (born 1911) November 27 – Lili Berger, Yiddish writer, antifascist militant and literary critic (born 1916) December 7 – José Donoso, Chilean writer (born 1924) December 9 – Diana Morgan, Welsh playwright and screenwriter (born 1908) December 12 – Vance Packard, American journalist and social critic (born 1914) December 16 – Quentin Bell, English biographer and art historian (born 1910) December 20 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist and writer (born 1934) December 21 – Margret Rey, American author and illustrator (born 1906)
Awards Nobel Prize for Literature: Wislawa Szymborska Camões Prize: Eduardo Lourenço
Australia The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Bernard Cohen, The Blindman's Hat C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Peter Bakowski, In the Human Night Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Eric Beach, Weeping for Lost Babylon Mary Gilmore Prize: Jordie Albiston, Nervous Arcs Miles Franklin Award: Christopher Koch, Highways to a War
Canada Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Margaret Atwood: – Alias Grace See 1996 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: George G. Blackburn, The Guns of NormandyFaculty of Arts, 1996, Edna Staebler Award , Wilfrid Laurier University, previous winners, George G. Blackburn, Retrieved 11/27/2012
United Kingdom Booker Prize: Graham Swift, Last Orders Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Melvin Burgess, Junk James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Graham Swift, Last Orders, and Alice Thompson, Justine