1995 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1995.

Events

• January 12 – The première of Sarah Kane's complete Blasted at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London provokes outrage.^[1]
• February 28 – The Diary of Bridget Jones column first appears in The Independent newspaper (London).^[2]
• March 1 – The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter.^[3]
• April 23 – World Book Day is first celebrated.
• July 16 – Amazon.com, incorporated a year earlier by Jeff Bezos in Washington (state) as an online bookstore, sells its first book: Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.^{[4] [5]}
• August – Blackwell UK becomes the first British bookseller to offer online purchasing.^[6]
• December 13 – The released film of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility has an Academy Award-winning screenplay by Emma Thompson.

Uncertain dates

• Simon & Schuster pays US$4.2 million for hardcover publishing rights to The Christmas Box, self-published by Richard Paul Evans, which has appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.^[7]
• Fjærland in Norway becomes a book town.^[8]

New books

Fiction

• Ben Aaronovitch – The Also People
• Louisa May Alcott (posthumous) – A Long Fatal Love Chase
• Roger MacBride Allen
  • Ambush at Corellia
  • Assault at Selonia
  • Showdown at Centerpoint
• Julia Alvarez – In the Time of the Butterflies
• Martin Amis – The Information
• Kevin J. Anderson – Darksaber
• Iain Banks – Whit
• Pat Barker – The Ghost Road
• Daniel Blythe – Infinite Requiem
• Thomas Brussig – Helden wie wir (Heroes Like Us)
• Christopher Bulis – The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Edgar Rice Burroughs and Joe R. Lansdale –
• T. C. Boyle – The Tortilla Curtain
• Albert Camus (posthumous) – The First Man (Le Premier Homme, unfinished)
• Andrew Cartmel – Warlock
• Mary Higgins Clark – Silent Night
• Michael Connelly – The Last Coyote
• Paul Cornell – Human Nature
• Bernard Cornwell
  • Sharpe's Battle
  • Battle Flag
  • The Winter King
• Douglas Coupland – Microserfs
• Robert Crais – Voodoo River
• Michael Crichton – The Lost World
• Maurice G. Dantec – Les Racines du mal
• Martin Day – The Menagerie
• L. Sprague de Camp and Christopher Stasheff – The Exotic Enchanter
• Samuel Delany – Hogg
• Terrance Dicks – Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
• Umberto Eco – The Island of the Day Before
• Stanley Elkin – Mrs. Ted Bliss
• Kirill Eskov – The Gospel of Afranius («Евангелие от Афрания»)
• Nicholas Evans – The Horse Whisperer
• Timothy Findley – The Piano Man's Daughter
• Richard Ford – Independence Day
• Jon Fosse – Melancholy (Melancholia I)
• Carlos Fuentes – The Crystal Frontier (La frontera de cristal)
• John Gardner – GoldenEye
• John Grisham – The Rainmaker
• Barbara Hambly – Children of the Jedi
• Craig Hinton – Millennial Rites
• Nick Hornby – High Fidelity
• Kazuo Ishiguro – The Unconsoled
• Elfriede Jelinek – The Children of the Dead
• Jo Jung-rae – Arirang
• Welwyn Wilton Katz – Out of the Dark
• Stephen King – Rose Madder
• Joe R. Lansdale – The Two-Bear Mambo
• John le Carré – Our Game
• Andy Lane
  • The Empire of Glass
  • Original Sin
• Paul Leonard
  • Dancing the Code
  • Toy Soldiers
• Jonathan Lethem – Amnesia Moon
• Barry Letts – The Ghosts of N-Space
• Robert Ludlum – The Apocalypse Watch
• Steve Lyons
  • Head Games
  • Time of Your Life
• Frank McCourt – Angela's Ashes (semi-autobiographical)
• Val McDermid – The Mermaids Singing
• David A. McIntee
  • Lords of the Storm
  • Sanctuary
• Andreï Makine – Dreams of My Russian Summers (Le Testament français)
• Henning Mankell – Chronicler of the Winds (Comédia infantil)
• Stephen Marley – Managra
• Zakes Mda – Ways of Dying
• James A. Michener – Miracle in Seville
• Rohinton Mistry – A Fine Balance
• Mary McGarry Morris – Songs in Ordinary Time
• Kate Orman – Set Piece
• Terry Pratchett – Maskerade
• Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
  • Relic
  • Mount Dragon
• Christoph Ransmayr – The Dog King (Morbus Kitahara)
• Jean Raspail – L'Anneau du pêcheur
• Justin Richards – System Shock
• Andrew Roberts – The Aachen Memorandum
• Gareth Roberts
  • The Romance of Crime
  • Zamper
• J. Jill Robinson – Eggplant Wife
• Philip Roth – Sabbath's Theater
• Salman Rushdie – The Moor's Last Sigh
• Gary Russell – Invasion of the Cat-People
• Josè Saramago – Blindness (Ensaio sobre a cegueira)
• Bernhard Schlink – The Reader
• W. G. Sebald – Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt (The Rings of Saturn: An English Pilgrimage)
• Sidney Sheldon – Morning, Noon and Night
• Jane Smiley - Moo
• Danielle Steel – Five Days In Paris
• Neal Stephenson – The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
• James B. Stewart – Blood Sport
• Dave Stone – Sky Pirates!
• Olga Tokarczuk – E.E.
• Jim Turner, editor – Cthulhu 2000: A Lovecraftian Anthology
• Andrew Vachss – Footsteps of the Hawk
• Robert James Waller – Puerto Vallarta Squeeze
• Dave Wolverton – The Courtship of Princess Leia

Children and young people

• Chris Van Allsburg – Bad Day at Riverbend
• Elizabeth Arnold – The Parsley Parcel
• Marion Zimmer Bradley (with Rosemary Edghill) – Ghostlight
• Jimmy Carter (illustrated by Amy Carter) – The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer
• Donald Hall (with Barry Moser) – The Pageant
• Virginia Hamilton (with Leo and Diane Dillon) –
• Joe R. Lansdale –
• Fran Manushkin (with Ned Bittinger) – The Matzah That Papa Brought Home
• Jim Murphy – The Great Fire^[9]
• Alison Prince – The Sherwood Hero
• Philip Pullman – Northern Lights (in US as The Golden Compass)^[10]
• Diana Pullein-Thompson – I Wanted a Pony
• Josephine Pullein-Thompson – Six Ponies
• Mario Vargas Llosa (with Willi Glasauer) – Hitos y Mitos Literarios (The Milestones and the Stories of Greatest Literary Works)
• Judith Viorst – Alexander, Who Is Not (Do You Hear Me? I Mean It!) Going to Move^[11]
• Jacqueline Wilson – Double Act^[12]

Drama

• Parv Bancil – Papa Was A Bus Conductor
• Jez Butterworth – Mojo
• Margaret Edson – Wit
• Horton Foote – The Young Man From Atlanta
• Jon Fosse – The Name (Namnet)
• Ronald Harwood – Taking Sides
• Sarah Kane – Blasted
• Terrence McNally – Master Class
• Lynn Nottage
  • Crumbs from the Table of Joy
  • Por'Knockers
• Yasmina Reza – The Unexpected Man (L'homme du hasard)
• Tom Stoppard – Indian Ink

Poetry

See main article: article and 1995 in poetry.

• Mark Doty – Atlantis: Poems

Non-fiction

• André Aciman – Out of Egypt
• Jean Baudrillard – The Gulf War Did Not Take Place
• John G. Bennett (posthumously) – The Masters of Wisdom
• George G. Blackburn – The Guns of Normandy
• Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams – The Craft of Research
• Pascal Bruckner – The Temptation of Innocence
• L. Sprague de Camp – The Ape-Man Within
• Tim Cornell – The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars
• Paul Davies – About Time
• Robin Dunbar – The Trouble with Science
• Mark Epstein – Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective
• Bill Gates – The Road Ahead
• Doris Kearns Goodwin –
• Richard Hoffman –
• Nelson Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom
• Leonard Nimoy – I Am Spock
• Leslie and Les Parrott – Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts
• Man Ray and André Breton – Man Ray, 1890–1976
• Condoleezza Rice and Philip Zelikow – Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft
• Oliver Sacks – An Anthropologist on Mars
• Simon Schama – Landscape and Memory
• Sterling Seagrave – Lords of the Rim
• Miranda Seymour – Robert Graves: Life on the Edge
• Howard Stern – Miss America
• Ibn Warraq – Why I Am Not a Muslim
• Jane Wesman – Dive Right In: The Sharks Won't Bite^[13]
• Jane Wilson-Howarth – Bugs, Bites & Bowels (later editions as The Essential Guide to Travel Health)

Films

• Sense and Sensibility

Births

• June 7 - Beth Reekles, Welsh author of young adult fiction
• June 13 - S. C. Megale, American novelist and screenwriter

Deaths

• January 9 – Peter Cook, English writer, comedian and satirist (born 1937)^[14]
• January 30 – Gerald Durrell, English nature writer and naturalist (born 1925)^[15]
• January 31 – George Abbott, American writer, director and producer (born 1887)^[16]
• February 4 – Patricia Highsmith, American crime novelist (born 1921)^[17]
  • • February 6 James Merrill, American poet (born 1926)^[18]
  • Xia Yan (夏衍), Chinese playwright and screenwriter, (born 1900)^[19]
• February 21
  • Robert Bolt, English dramatist (born 1924)^[20]
  • Calder Willingham, American writer (born 1922)
• February 23 – James Herriot, English veterinary novelist (born 1916)^[21]
• March 9 – Ian Ballantine, American publisher (born 1916)^[22]
• March 20 – Sidney Kingsley, American dramatist (born 1906)^[23]
• April 14 – Brian Coffey, Irish poet (born 1905)^[24]
• April 27 – Willem Frederik Hermans, Dutch writer (born 1921)^[25]
• May 30 or May 31 – Ștefana Velisar Teodoreanu, Romanian novelist, memoirist and poet (born 1897)
• June 14 – Roger Zelazny, American fantasy and science fiction writer (born 1937)^[26]
• June 15 – Charles Bennett, English screenwriter (born 1899)^[27]
• June 20 – Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (born 1911)
• June 21– Katarína Lazarová, Slovak novelist and translator (born 1914)
• June 25 – Qiu Miaojin (邱妙津), Taiwanese Chinese novelist (suicide, born 1969)
• July 6 – Aziz Nesin, Turkish writer (born 1915)^[28]
• July 13 – Ashapoorna Devi, Indian author and poet (born 1908)^[29]
• July 16
  • May Sarton, Belgian-born American poet, novelist and memoirist (born 1912)
  • Stephen Spender, English poet (born 1909)^[30]
• July 25 – Janice Elliott, English novelist and children's writer (born 1931)
• August 3 – Edward Whittemore, American novelist, (born 1933)
• August 17 – Howard Koch, American screenwriter (born 1901)^[31]
• August 19 – Pierre Schaeffer, French composer and writer (born 1910)
• August 29 – Michael Ende, German fantasy novelist (born 1929)^[32]
• September 8 – Eileen Chang, Chinese writer (born 1920)^[33]
• October 13 – Henry Roth, Austrian-born American novelist and short story writer (born 1906)
• October 22 – Kingsley Amis, English novelist (born 1922)^[34]
• October 29 – Terry Southern, American screenwriter (born 1924)^[35]
• November 4 – Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (born 1925)^[36]
• November 10 – Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian writer (executed, born 1941)
• November 13 – Mary Elizabeth Counselman, American author and poet (born 1911)
• November 16 – Robert H. Adleman, American novelist and historian (born 1919)
• November 17 – Marguerite Young, American novelist, poet and biographer (born 1908)
• November 20 – Robie Macauley, American writer and literary critic (born 1919)^[37]
• November 22 – Margaret St. Clair, American science fiction writer (born 1911)^[38]
• December 2 – Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (born 1913)^[39]
• December 9 – Toni Cade Bambara, American writer (born 1939)
• December 30 – Heiner Müller, German dramatist (born 1929)^[40]

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature

Seamus Heaney

• Camões Prize

José Saramago

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award

Richard King, Kindling Does For Firewood

• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry

Bruce Beaver, Anima and Other Poems

• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry

Peter Boyle, Coming Home From the World

• Mary Gilmore Prize

Aileen Kelly, Coming Up for Light

• Miles Franklin Award

Helen Demidenko, The Hand That Signed the Paper

Canada

• Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction

Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

• See 1995 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Denise Chong, The Concubine's Children^[41]

France

• Prix Goncourt

Andreï Makine, Le Testament français

• Prix Décembre

Jean Échenoz, Les Grandes Blondes

• Prix Médicis French: Vassilis Alexakis, La Langue maternelle and Andreï Makine, Le testament français
• Prix Médicis International: Alessandro Baricco, Châteaux de la colère

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize

Pat Barker, The Ghost Road

• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Philip Pullman, Northern Lights^[42]
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Christopher Priest, The Prestige
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle with the Truth
• Cholmondeley Award

U. A. Fanthorpe, Christopher Reid, C. H. Sisson, Kit Wright

• Eric Gregory Award

Colette Bryce, Sophie Hannah, Tobias Hill, Mark Wormald

• Newdigate prize

Antony Dunn

• Whitbread Book of the Year Award

Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize

Sandy Solomon, Pears, Lake, Sun

• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry

Maxine Kumin

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction, William Maxwell
• Carnegie Medal

Philip Pullman, Northern Lights

• Compton Crook Award

Doranna Durgin, Dun Lady's Jess

• Hugo Award

Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

• Nebula Award

Robert Sawyer, The Terminal Experiment

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Sharon Creech, Walk Two Moons
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Horton Foote, The Young Man From Atlanta

• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries

• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Philip Levine, The Simple Truth

• Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography

Joan D. Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life

• Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction

Jonathan Weiner, The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time

• Pulitzer Prize for History

Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II

• Wallace Stevens Award

James Tate

• Whiting Awards

Fiction: Michael Cunningham, Reginald McKnight, Matthew Stadler, Melanie Sumner

Nonfiction: André Aciman, Lucy Grealy (nonfiction/poetry), Suzannah Lessard, Russ Rymer

Poetry: James L. McMichael, Mary Ruefle

Elsewhere

• New Zealand Book Award for Poetry

Michele Leggott, Dia

• Montana Book Award for Poetry

Michael Jackson, Pieces of Music

• Premio Nadal

Ignacio Carrión Hernández, Cruzar el Danubio

• Premio San Clemente: Xurxo Borrazás, Vicious

Notes

• Book: Hahn . Daniel . The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature . 2015 . Oxford. University Press . 9780198715542 . 2nd.

Notes and References

1. Book: Saunders, Graham . Love me or kill me: Sarah Kane and the theatre of extremes . Manchester University Press . 2002 . 0-7190-5956-9.
2. Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library . 0-14-102715-0 . 2006.
3. Web site: Dylan Thomas Centre: University of Wales leases Swansea building . . 23 February 2012 . 21 July 2012.
4. Web site: History & Timeline . Amazon.com . 2012-07-02.
5. Book: Byers, Ann . 2006 . Jeff Bezos: the founder of Amazon.com. The Rosen Publishing Group . 46–47. 9781404207172 .
6. Web site: 140 years at Blackwell's. Blackwell's. 2 July 2020.
7. Book: Geoff Hamilton. Brian Jones. Encyclopedia of American Popular Fiction. 12 May 2010. Infobase Publishing. 978-1-4381-1694-5. 117.
8. Book: Jen Campbell. The Bookshop Book. 2 October 2014. Little, Brown Book Group. 978-1-4721-1670-3. 107.
9. Hahn 2015, p. 408
10. Hahn 2015, p. 275
11. Hahn 2015, p. 14
12. Hahn 2015, p. 361
13. Web site: Nonfiction Book Review: Dive Right in, the Sharks Won't Bite: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Success by Jane Wesman, Author Kaplan Publishing $19.95 (194p) ISBN 978-0-7931-1101-5.
14. Web site: Goodbyee ... Dud bids poignant farewell to his partner Pete. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/goodbyee-dud-bids-poignant-farewell-to-his-partner-pete-1617816.html . May 1, 2022 . subscription . live. The Independent. May 2, 1995. October 12, 2017.
15. News: Gerald Durrell, 70, Who Prized Animals, Dies . March 16, 2014 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160331034705/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/01/obituaries/gerald-durrell-70-who-prized-animals-dies.html . March 31, 2016 . The New York Times . February 1995 . Hilchey . Tim .
16. Encyclopedia: Encyclopædia Britannica. Abbott, George. 15th. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.. I: A– Ak–Bayes. Chicago, Illinois. 978-1-59339-837-8. 13. registration.
17. News: Hodgson. Godfrey. Obituary: Patricia Highsmith. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-patricia-highsmith-1571740.html . May 1, 2022 . subscription . live. The Independent. March 16, 2017. February 6, 1995.
18. Gussow, Mel. James Merrill Is Dead at 68; Elegant Poet of Love and Loss. The New York Times. February 7, 1995.
19. Web site: Xia Yan (Chinese author). Encyclopædia Britannica. 13 June 2014.
20. News: Obituary: Robert Bolt . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-robert-bolt-1574410.html . May 1, 2022 . subscription . live . . Calder . John . February 23, 1995 . July 21, 2016.
21. James Herriot, 78, Writer, Dies; Animal Stories Charmed People. Mary B. W. Tabor. The New York Times. February 24, 1995.
22. News: Ian Ballantine, 79, a Publisher Who Led Move Into Paperbacks. Mary B. W. Tabor. The New York Times. March 10, 1995.
23. News: Sidney Kingsley, Playwrite, Is Dead at 88; Creator of 'Dead End' and 'Men in White'. Peter B.. Flint. The New York Times. March 21, 1995.
24. News: Obituary: Brian Coffey. The Independent. Michael Smith. 16 April 1995.
25. Otterspeer, Willem (in Dutch) (2013). De mislukkingskunstenaar: Willem Frederik Hermans. Biografie, deel 1 (1921–1952), De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam. [''The Artist of Failure: Willem Frederik Hermans''. A Biography, Vol. 1, (1921–1952)]
26. "...And Call Me Roger": The Literary Life of Roger Zelazny, Part 6, by Christopher S. Kovacs. In: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume 6: The Road to Amber, NESFA Press, 2009.
27. News: The man who knew too much. Bergan, Ronald. The Guardian. 19 June 1995. 4.
28. News: Aziz Nesin of Turkey Dies at 80; Writer Escaped Militants' Arson. Pace. Eric. July 7, 1995. The New York Times. January 31, 2020. en-US. 0362-4331.
29. News: Bengal gears up to pay homage to Ashapurna Devi . 21 June 2021 . . Express News Service . December 28, 2008.
30. News: Stephen Spender, Poet of Melancholic Vision and Social Conscience, Dies at 86. Pace. Eric. July 18, 1995. The New York Times. October 8, 2017. 0362-4331.
31. News: Howard Koch, a Screenwriter For 'Casablanca,' Dies at 93. Mel Gussow. The New York Times. August 18, 1995. D17.
32. Web site: Michael Ende, 65, German Children's Writer. The New York Times. September 1, 1995. Alan Cowell.
33. News: Eileen Chang, 74, Chinese Writer Revered Outside the Mainland. The New York Times. March 27, 2019. Robert McG. Thomas Jr..
34. News: Jacobs . Eric . Sir Kingsley Amis obituary: From angry young man to old devil . May 21, 2020 . The Guardian. October 23, 1995.
35. News: Terry Southern, Screenwriter, Is Dead at 71. Eric Pace. October 31, 1995. The New York Times.
36. News: Gilles Deleuze, 70, French Professor and Author. Craig R. Whitney. November 7, 1995. The New York Times.
37. Pace, Eric, "Robie Macauley, 76, Editor, Educator And Fiction Writer" (Obituary), The New York Times, November 23, 1995
38. Web site: Authors : St Clair, Margaret : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia . www.sf-encyclopedia.com . 15 March 2019.
39. News: Obituary: Professor Robertson Davies. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-professor-robertson-davies-1524175.html . May 1, 2022 . subscription . live. The Independent. October 23, 2011. Felicity Bryan.
40. News: Heiner Muller, the Playwright And Social Critic, Dies at 66. The New York Times. Eric Pace. January 3, 1996.
41. Faculty of Arts, 1995, Edna Staebler Award , Wilfrid Laurier University, Previous winners, Denise Chong, Retrieved 11/27/2012
42. Hahn 2015, p. 660