This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2016.
Events March 11 – Jean Martin's The Raped Little Runaway becomes the first book since 1998 to be banned in the Republic of Ireland by its Censorship of Publications Board, being deemed "indecent or obscene" on account of repeated reference to child rape.Official notice, Iris Oifigiúil (Oireachtas) 11 March 2016 p. 388. May 20 – Writers who sign a letter calling for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union include Hilary Mantel, John le Carré, Philip Pullman and Tom Stoppard; nevertheless, the June 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum endorses Brexit. May 24 – Hundreds of US writers, including Stephen King, Robert Polito and Nicole Krauss, sign an "open letter to the American people" urging them not to support Donald Trump as a presidential candidate in the November 2016 United States presidential election.
Anniversaries January 10 – Fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood February 1 – 20th anniversary of the publication of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. February 22 – 40th anniversary of the publication of Raymond Carver's Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? February 28 – Centenary of Henry James's death in 1916 March 28 – 75th anniversary of the death of Virginia Woolf in 1941 April 3 – 25th anniversary of Graham Greene's death in 1991 April 12 – Centenary of the birth of Beverly Cleary, American children's author May 21 – Centenary of the birth of Harold Robbins, American novelist dubbed one of "the world's bestselling authors." May 28 – Centenary of the birth of Walker Percy, National Book Award-winning American novelist (The Moviegoer, published 55 years ago in 1961) April 21 – Bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë's birth in 1816 April 22 – 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes.Is it fair for Shakespeare to overshadow Cervantes?, BBC, 18 April 2016 April 23 – Possible 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death April 24 – Centenary of the Easter Rising in Dublin, which inspired W. B. Yeats's poem "Easter, 1916" July 1 – Centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in which those fighting included Robert Graves, Ford Madox Ford and JRR Tolkien July 14 – Centenary of the birth of Natalia Ginzburg, Italian author September 13 – Centenary of the birth of Roald Dahl, Welsh-born children's author September 17 – Centenary of the birth of Mary Stewart (Mary Rainbow), English romantic suspense novelist September 28 – Fiftieth anniversary of the death of André Breton, French poet, essayist and theorist; the leading exponent of Surrealism in literature October 3 – Centenary of the birth of James Herriot (James Alfred Wight), English writer and veterinary surgeon October 22 – 90 years ago, Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises is published in a first edition consisting of 5090 copies, selling at $2.00 per copy December 14 – Centenary of the birth of Shirley Jackson, American novelist and short story writer December 29 – Centenary of the publication in book form of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, in New York
New books The date after each title indicate the U.S. publication date, unless otherwise stated.
Fiction Naomi Alderman – The Power (UK, October) Mohammed Hasan Alwan – A Small Death (موت صغير, Lebanon, May) Fernando Aramburu – Patria (Spain) Anuk Arudpragasam – The Story of a Brief Marriage (UK) Margaret Atwood – Hag-Seed (October) Sebastian Barry – Days Without End (October) Gary Barwin – Yiddish for Pirates (April 8) Mike Binder – Keep Calm (February 2) Pierce Brown – Morning Star (February 9) Taylor Brown – Fallen Land (January 12) Graeme Macrae Burnet – His Bloody Project (UK) Catherine Chidgey – The Wish Child (New Zealand, November 1) Marcia Clark – Blood Defense (May 1) J. M. Coetzee – The Schooldays of Jesus (UK, September 27) Jean-Baptiste Del Amo – Règne animal (France, August 18) Emma Donoghue – The Wonder (September) Paul Goldberg – The Yid (February 2) Linda Grant – The Dark Circle (UK only, November 3) Mark Greaney – Back Blast Yaa Gyasi – Homegoing Michael Helm – After James (September 13) Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson – Navigators of Dune (September 13) Vigdis Hjorth – Arv og miljø (Wills and Testaments, Norway) Anosh Irani – The Parcel Philip Kerr – The Other Side of Silence Alexandra Kleeman – Intimations: Stories (September 13) Christian Kracht – The Dead (Die Toten, Germany, September 8) László Krasznahorkai – Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming (Báró Wenckheim hazatér, Hungary, September) Shari Lapena – The Couple Next Door Deborah Levy – Hot Milk (UK, March 24) Édouard Louis – Histoire de la violence (History of Violence, France, January 7) Mike McCormack – Solar Bones (UK, May 5) Elizabeth McKenzie – The Portable Veblen C. E. Morgan – The Sport of Kings Sayaka Murata – Convenience Store Woman (コンビニ人間, Konbini ningen, Japan, July 27) Maggie O'Farrell – This Must Be the Place (UK, May 17) Chibundu Onuzo – Welcome to Lagos (UK) Stef Penney – Under A Pole Start Sarah Perry – The Essex Serpent (UK, May 27) Kerry Lee Powell – Willem de Kooning's Paintbrush Christoph Ransmayr – Cox David Adams Richards – Principles to Live By Steven Rowley – Lily and the Octopus (June 7) Leila Segal – Breathe: Stories from Cuba Joss Sheldon – The Little Voice (UK, November 23) Leïla Slimani – Chanson douce (France, August 18, translated as Lullaby or The Perfect Nanny) Ali Smith – Autumn (UK, October 20) Zadie Smith – Swing Time Botho Strauß – Oniritti Höhlenbilder (Germany, October 10) David Szalay – All That Man Is (linked short stories, UK, April 7) Yasuko Thanh – Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains (Canada) Madeleine Thien – Do Not Say We Have Nothing (October 11) Rose Tremain – The Gustav Sonata (UK, May 19) Katherena Vermette – The Break (Canada) Colson Whitehead – The Underground Railroad Zoe Whittall – The Best Kind of People (August 27) Corrina Wycoff – Damascus House (May 25)
Children and young people Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (with Mahlon F. Craft and Kinuko Y. Craft) – Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) Jo Ellen Bogart – The White Cat and the Monk Paula Bossio – The Pencil (original El Lapiz, 2011) Peter Brown – The Wild Robot Maxine Beneba Clarke – The Patchwork Bike Brian Conaghan – The Bombs that Brought Us Together Mem Fox and Judy Horacek – Ducks Away! Denise Fleming – 5 Little Ducks Jory John and Lane Smith – Penguin Problems Dav Pilkey – Dog Man (first in the eponymous series of 10 books) J. Patrick Lewis (with Gary Kelley) – The Navajo Code Talkers Sophie Piper (with Anne Yvonne Gilbert) – Jesus is Born Dave Rudden – Knights of the Borrowed Dark Francesca Simon – The Monstrous Child Maggie Stiefvater – The Raven King (last book in The Raven Cycle series) Jacqueline Wilson – Rent a Bridesmaid Toni Yuly – Cat Nap (Yuly book)
Poetry
Matthew and Michael Dickman – Brother Alice Oswald – Falling Awake Jacob Polley – Jackself
Drama Caryl Churchill Escaped Alone (UK, 20 January) Pigs And Dogs (UK, 21 July) Martyna Majok – Cost of Living Suman Pokhrel – Yajnaseni J. T. Rogers – Oslo (June) Zlatko Topčić – Silvertown Alex Vickery-Howe – Out of the Ordinary
Non-fiction Jimmy Barnes – Working Class Boy Daniel Beer – The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars (UK) Paul Cartledge – Democracy: A Life (UK, March 24) Nicholas Crane – The Making of the British Landscape: From the Ice Age to the Present Daisy Deomampo – Transnational Reproduction Susan Faludi – In the Darkroom (June 14) Christopher Goscha – The Penguin History of Vietnam John Guy – Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years (UK, May 5) Jock Haswell (with John Lewis-Stempel) – A Brief History of the British Army (UK, May 26) Gareth Stedman Jones – Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion (UK, August)Timothy Shenk in London Review of Books (29 June 2017), pp. 17–20. Daniel Levitin – A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age John Lewis-Stempel The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland (UK, June 20) Where Poppies Blow: The British Soldier, Nature, The Great War (UK) John McWhorter – Words on the Move: Why English Won't – and Can't – Sit Still (Like, Literally) Rajiv Malhotra Academic Hinduphobia Battle for Sanskrit Hisham Matar – The Return (UK, June 30) Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack – The Index Card (January 5) Patrick Phillips – Blood at the Root John Preston – A Very English Scandal (UK, May 5) Kyle Schwartz - I Wish My Teacher Knew Chris Smith – The Daily Show (The Book) Kassia St. Clair – The Secret Lives of Colour JD Vance - Hillbilly Elegy Gary Younge – Another Day in the Death of America
Deaths Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in literature" article: January 11 – Gunnel Vallquist, Swedish writer and translator (born 1918) January 18 – Michel Tournier, French writer, 91 (born 1924) January 20 – David G. Hartwell, American anthologist, author and critic (b. 1941) February 8 – Margaret Forster, English novelist and biographer, 77 (born 1938) February 18 – Yūko Tsushima (津島 佑子), Japanese author, 68 (born 1947)作家の津島佑子さん死去68歳 太宰治の次女 February 19 Umberto Eco – Italian philosopher and novelist (The Name of the Rose), 84 (born 1932)Morto lo scrittore Umberto Eco. Ci mancherà il suo sguardo sul mondo Harper Lee – American author (To Kill a Mockingbird), 89 (born 1926) February 29 – Louise Rennison, English author and comedian (born 1951) March 1 – Carole Achache, French writer, photographer and actress, 63, (born 1952) March 4 – Pat Conroy, American novelist (The Prince of Tides), 70 (born 1945) March 8 - Enrique Estrázulas, Uruguayan writer, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist and diplomat, 74 (born 1942) March 21 – Tomás de Mattos, Uruguayan writer and librarian, 68 (born 1947) March 31 – Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer and the 2002 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 86 (born 1929) April 3 – Lars Gustafsson, Swedish writer and scholar, novelist and poet, 79 (born 1936) April 5 – E. M. Nathanson, American author (The Dirty Dozen), 87 (born 1928) April 12 – Sir Arnold Wesker, English dramatist, 83 (born 1932) April 30 – Daniel Berrigan, American Jesuit priest, poet, peace activist and recidivist, won the 1957 Lamont Prize in Poetry, 94 (born 1921) June 6 – Sir Peter Shaffer, English playwright (Amadeus), 90 (born 1926) June 25 – Adam Small, 79, South African writer and poet, winner of the Hertzog Prize (born 1936)Another tree has fallen – RIP Adam Small June 30 – Sir Geoffrey Hill, English poet, 84 (born 1932) July 1 – Yves Bonnefoy, French poet, 93 (born 1923) July 2 – Elie Wiesel, American Jewish author (Night) and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner (born 1928) July 14 – Péter Esterházy, Hungarian writer, 66 (born 1950) July 19 – Carlos Gorostiza, Argentine playwright, theatre director and novelist, 96 (born 1920) August 24 – Michel Butor, French essayist, novelist, critic and a leading figure of 1950s Nouveau Roman group, 89 (born 1926) September 4 : Isidore Okpewho, Nigerian novelist and critic, 74 (born 1941) Cyril C. Perera, Sri Lankan author and translator, 93 (born 1923) September 16 Edward Albee, American playwright (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), 88 (born 1928) W. P. Kinsella, Canadian author (Shoeless Joe), 81 (born 1935) September 28 – Gloria Naylor, African-American novelist and academic (The Women of Brewster Place), 66, (born 1950)Gloria Naylor, award-winning novelist, dies aged 66 October 13 – Dario Fo, Italian playwright and the 1997 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 90 (born 1926) October 31 – Natalie Babbitt, American author (Tuck Everlasting), 84 (born 1932) November 7 – Leonard Cohen, Canadian poet, novelist and songwriter, 82 (born 1934) November 10 – Francisco Nieva, Spanish playwright, novelist and short story writer, 91 (born 1924) November 11 – Sir James McNeish, New Zealand novelist, playwright and biographer, 85 (born 1931)