2005 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2005.

Events

• January 16 – This is the 400th anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes' publication of the first part of Don Quixote in Spain.
• February 25 – Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation.^[1]
• March 26 – The classic U.K. science fiction series Doctor Who returns to television with a script by Russell T Davies, the executive producer.^[2]
• April 23 – The Grande Bibliothèque at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec is officially opened. It actually opens on April 30.^[3]
• June 13 – The poet Dannie Abse is injured and his wife Joan killed in an accident on the M4 in South Wales.^[4]
• August 15 – An integrated National Library of Norway opens to readers in Oslo for the first time.^[5]

New books

See also: 2005 in books.

Fiction

• Tariq Ali – A Sultan in Palermo^[6]
• Rajaa Alsanea – Girls of Riyadh (بنات الرياض, Banat al-Riyadh)
• Avi – Never Mind
• Tash Aw – The Harmony Silk Factory
• Steve Aylett – Lint
• Doreen Baingana – Tropical Fish (short stories)
• John Banville – The Sea
• Sebastian Barry – A Long Long Way
• Nelson Bond – Other Worlds Than Ours
• Dionne Brand – What We All Long For
• Orson Scott Card
  • Magic Street
  • Shadow of the Giant
• Rita Chowdhury – Deo Langkhui
• Wendy Coakley-Thompson – What You Won't Do for Love
• Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception^[7]
• Bernard Cornwell – The Pale Horseman^[8]
• Colin Cotterill – Thirty-Three Teeth
• Robert Crais – The Forgotten Man
• Mitch Cullin – A Slight Trick of the Mind
• Michael Cunningham – Specimen Days
• Rana Dasgupta – Tokyo Cancelled
• Lindsey Davis – See Delphi and Die
• Abha Dawesar – Babyji
• L. Sprague de Camp –
• Troy Denning
  • The Joiner King
  • The Swarm War
  • The Unseen Queen
• Bret Easton Ellis – Lunar Park
• Alicia Erian – Towelhead
• Steve Erickson – Our Ecstatic Days
• Sebastian Faulks – Human Traces
• Amanda Filipacchi – Love Creeps
• Jonathan Safran Foer – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close^[9]
• Nicci French – Catch Me When I Fall
• Gayleen Froese – Touch
• Cornelia Funke – Inkspell
• David Gibbins – Atlantis
• Kate Grenville – The Secret River (Melbourne)
• Abdulrazak Gurnah – Desertion
• Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Enemy
• Joanne Harris – Gentlemen & Players
• Carl Hiaasen – Flush
• Charlie Higson – SilverFin
• Peter Hobbs – The Short Day Dying
• John Irving – Until I Find You
• Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go
• Uzodinma Iweala – Beasts of No Nation
• Raymond Khoury – The Last Templar
• Stephen King – The Colorado Kid
• Dean Koontz – Velocity
• Elizabeth Kostova – The Historian
• Stieg Larsson – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Marina Lewycka – A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
• Yiyun Li – A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (short stories)
• James Luceno
  • Labyrinth of Evil
• Mike McCormack – Notes from a Coma^[10]
• Ian McEwan – Saturday
• Elizabeth McKenzie  - Stop That Girl
• Kevin MacNeil – The Stornoway Way
• Gregory Maguire – Son of a Witch
• Gabriel García Márquez – Memories of My Melancholy Whores
• Stephenie Meyer – Twilight
• David Michaels –
• Robert Muchamore
  • Maximum Security
  • The Killing
• Péter Nádas – Parallel Stories
• Garth Nix – Drowned Wednesday
• Chuck Palahniuk – Haunted
• Christopher Paolini – Eldest
• Robert B. Parker – School Days
• Ruth Rendell – End in Tears
• Salman Rushdie – Shalimar the Clown
• Darren Shan – Lord Loss (first of The Demonata series)
• Michael Slade – Swastika
• Zadie Smith – On Beauty
• Wesley Stace – Misfortune
• Olen Steinhauer – 36 Yalta Boulevard
• Matthew Stover – Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
• Thomas Sullivan – Second Soul
• Jean-François Susbielle – La Morsure du dragon
• Vikas Swarup – Q & A
• Rupert Thomson – Divided Kingdom
• Harry Turtledove (editor) –
• Andrew Vachss – Two Trains Running
• Catherynne M. Valente –
• Michal Viewegh – Lekce tvůrčího psaní
• Narayan Wagle – Palpasa Cafe (पल्पसा क्याफे)
• Nalini Warriar – The Enemy Within
• David Weber – At All Costs
• Samantha Weinberg –
• Kirby Wright – Punahou Blues
• Markus Zusak – The Book Thief

Children and young people

• David Almond – Clay^[11]
• Charlie Jane Anders – Choir Boy
• Jackie French – They Came on Viking Ships
• Jonathon Scott Fuqua – King of the Pygmies
• John Green – Looking for Alaska^[12]
• Charlie Higson – SilverFin^[13]
• Julius Lester – The Old African
• Claire and Monte Montgomery - Hubert Invents the Wheel
• Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors^[14]
• Jane O'Connor – Fancy Nancy (first in a series of over 70 books)
• Margie Palatini (with Barry Moser) – The Three Silly Billies
• Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson – And Tango Makes Three
• Philip Reeve – Infernal Devices^[15]
• Rick Riordan – The Lightning Thief^[16]
• J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince^[17]
• Lemony Snicket – The Penultimate Peril^[18]
• Dugald Steer (with Nghiem Ta, etc.) –
• Jonathan Stroud – Ptolemy's Gate^[19]
• Scott Westerfeld – Uglies (first in the Uglies series of four books)
• Markus Zusak – The Book Thief^[20]

Drama

• Catherine Filloux – Lemkin's House
• debbie tucker green
  • stoning mary
  • generations
• Oleg Kagan – The Black Hat
• Carlos Lacamara – Nowhere on the Border
• Peter Morris – Guardians
• Vern Thiessen – Shakespeare's Will
• Laura Wade
  • Colder Than Here
  • Breathing Corpses
• Vincent Woods – A Cry from Heaven

Poetry

See main article: 2005 in poetry.

• Carol Ann Duffy – Rapture

Non-fiction

• Matthew Bortolin  - The Dharma of Star Wars
• Edwin Bryant – Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and inference in Indian history
• Francis Chalifour – After^[21]
• Jung Chang & Jon Halliday –
• Theodore Dalrymple –
• Michel Déon – Horseman, Pass By! (Cavalier, passe ton chemin!)
• Jared Diamond –
• Joan Didion – The Year of Magical Thinking
• Robert Fisk –
• Randy Grim – Miracle Dog
• John Grogan – Marley & Me
• Michael Gross –
• James Whitney Hicks - 50 Signs of Mental Illness: A Guide to Understanding Mental Health
• Adam Hochschild – Bury the Chains
• Tom Holland – Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West
• Tony Judt –
• W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne  - Blue Ocean Strategy
• Lawrence M. Krauss – Hiding in the Mirror
• Mark Levin – Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America
• Alexander Masters –
• Azadeh Moaveni – Lipstick Jihad
• Peter C. Newman –
• Lisa Randall – Warped Passages
• Paul A. Robinson – Queer Wars
• Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn –
• James S. Shapiro – 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
• Masamune Shirow – Ghost in the Shell 2: Man/Machine Interface
• Rebecca Solnit – A Field Guide to Getting Lost
• David Southwell – Secrets and Lies
• James B. Stewart – DisneyWar

Films

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Oliver Twist
• Pride & Prejudice
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Deaths

• January 4 – Humphrey Carpenter, English biographer, children's fiction writer and radio broadcaster (born 1946)
• January 7 – Pierre Daninos, French novelist (born 1913)
• January 14 – Charlotte MacLeod, American mystery writer (born 1922)
• January 15
  • Walter Ernsting, German science fiction author (born 1920)
  • Elizabeth Janeway, American feminist author (born 1913)
• January 19 – K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (suicide, born 1974)
• January 20 – Roland Frye, American theologian and critic (born 1921)
• January 21
  • John L. Hess, American journalist and critic (born 1917)
  • Theun de Vries, Dutch writer and poet (born 1907)
• January 24 – Vladimir Savchenko, Ukrainian science fiction writer (born 1933)
• January 25 – Max Velthuijs, Dutch writer and illustrator (born 1923)^[22]
• January 29 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli satirist, dramatist, and screenwriter (born 1924)
• February 10 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (born 1915)^[23]
• February 11 – Jack L. Chalker, American science fiction writer (born 1944)
• February 20 – Hunter S. Thompson, American writer, creator of Gonzo journalism (born 1937)^[24]
• February 21 – Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (born 1929)
• February 25 – Phoebe Hesketh, English poet (born 1909)
• March 7 – Willis Hall, English playwright (born 1929)
• March 8
  • Alice Thomas Ellis, English novelist, essayist and cookery book author (born 1932)^[25]
  • Anna Haycraft, English novelist (born 1932)
• March 10 – Patience Gray, English cookery and travel writer (born 1917)
• March 17 – Andre Norton, American science fiction writer (born 1912)^[26]
• March 22 – Anthony Creighton, English playwright (born 1922)
• March 30 – Robert Creeley, American poet (born 1926)
• April 5 – Saul Bellow, Canadian writer (born 1915)^[27]
• April 7 – Yvonne Vera, Zimbabwean novelist (meningitis, born 1964)^[28]
• April 26 – Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan novelist (born 1917)
• May 7 – Tristan Egolf, American novelist (suicide, born 1971)
• June 9 – Hovis Presley, English poet (heart attack, born 1960)
• June 10 – Nick Darke, Cornish playwright (cancer, born 1948)
• June 14 – Norman Levine, Canadian short story writer (born 1923)
• June 16 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican novelist (born 1905)
• June 20 – Larry Collins, American novelist (born 1929)
• June 22 – William Donaldson, English satirist (born 1935)
• June 27 – Shelby Foote, American novelist (born 1916)
• June 28 – Philip Hobsbaum, Scottish poet and critic (born 1932)
• June 30 – Christopher Fry, English dramatist (born 1907)
• July 6
  • Evan Hunter, American novelist (born 1926)
  • Claude Simon, French Nobel laureate in literature (born 1913)
• July 7 – Gustaf Sobin, American poet (born 1935)
• July 17 – Gavin Lambert, English novelist and biographer (born 1924)
• July 19 – Edward Bunker, American crime writer (born 1933)
• August 9 – Judith Rossner, American novelist (born 1935)
• August 16 – William Corlett, English author and playwright (born 1938)
• August 21 – Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (born 1036)
• August 29 – Sybil Marshall, English novelist (born 1913)
• September 3 – R. S. R. Fitter, English nature writer (born 1913)
• September 26 – Helen Cresswell, English children's writer (born 1934)^[29]
• September 27
  • Ronald Pearsall, English writer (born 1927)
  • Mary Lee Settle, American novelist (born 1918)
• October 2 – August Wilson, American playwright (born 1945)
• October 17 – Ba Jin (巴金), Chinese novelist (born 1904)
• October 31 – Amrita Pritam, Indian Punjabi poet and novelist (born 1919)
• November 1 – Michael Thwaites, Australian poet (born 1915)
• November 2 – Gordon A. Craig, Scottish historian
• November 4 – Michael G. Coney, Canadian science-fiction writer (born 1932)
• November 5 – John Fowles, English writer (born 1926)
• November 21 – Aileen Fox, English archaeologist (born 1907)
• November 26 – Stan Berenstain, American children's writer and illustrator (born 1923)
• December 1 – Mary Hayley Bell, dramatist
• December 2 – Christine Pullein-Thompson, English novelist (born 1925)
• December 9 – Robert Sheckley, American short story writer (born 1928)
• December 15 – Julián Marías, Spanish philosopher and author (born 1914)
• December 16 – Kenneth Bulmer, English novelist and short story writer (born 1921)

Awards

• Nobel Prize in Literature

Harold Pinter

• Camões Prize

Lygia Fagundes Telles

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award

Andrew T. O'Connor, Tuvalu

• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry

M. T. C. Cronin,

• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry

Samuel Wagan Watson, Smoke Encrypted Whispers

• Miles Franklin Award

Andrew McGahan, The White Earth

Canada

• Governor General's Award for English-language fiction

David Gilmour, A Perfect Night to Go to China

• Griffin Poetry Prize

Roo Borson, Short Journey Upriver Towards Oishida and Charles Simic, Selected Poems: 1963-2003

• Hugo Award for Best Novel

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

• Scotiabank Giller Prize

David Bergen, The Time in Between

• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Anne Coleman, I'll Tell You a Secret^[30]

Sweden

• Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

Philip Pullman and Ryōji Arai^[31]

United Kingdom

• Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting (first award): Duncan Macmillan, Monster
• Caine Prize for African Writing

S. A. Afolabi, "Monday Morning"

• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Mal Peet, Tamar^[32]
• Cholmondeley Award

Jane Duran, Christopher Logue, M. R. Peacocke, Neil Rollinson

• Commonwealth Writers Prize

Andrea Levy, Small Island

• Dagger of Daggers

John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)

• Eric Gregory Award

Melanie Challenger, Carolyn Jess, Luke Kennard, Jaim Smith

• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Sue Prideaux, Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Ian McEwan, Saturday
• Man Booker International Prize (first award): Ismail Kadare
• Man Booker Prize

John Banville, The Sea

• Samuel Johnson Prize

Jonathan Coe, Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson

• Orange Prize for Fiction

Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin

• Somerset Maugham Award

Justin Hill, Passing Under Heaven; Maggie O'Farrell, The Distance Between Us

• Whitbread Book of the Year Award

Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master: The Conquest of Colour 1909-1954

United States

• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry

B. H. Fairchild

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize

Rick Hilles, Brother Salvage: Poems

• Arthur Rense Prize

Daniel Hoffman

• Bollingen Prize for Poetry

Jay Wright

• Brittingham Prize in Poetry

Susanna Childress, Jagged with Love

• Compton Crook Award

Tamara Siler Jones, Ghosts in the Snow

• Frost Medal

Marie Ponsot

• Hugo Award

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

• Lambda Literary Awards

Multiple categories; see 2005 Lambda Literary Awards.

• National Book Award for Poetry

W. S. Merwin, Migration: New and Selected Poems

• National Book Critics Circle Award

to War Trash by Ha Jin

• Newbery Medal

Cynthia Kadohata, Kira-Kira^[33]

• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

to The March by E.L. Doctorow

• Pulitzer Prize for Drama

John Patrick Shanley, Doubt: A Parable

• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Ted Kooser, Delights & Shadows

• Wallace Stevens Award

Gerald Stern

• Whiting Awards

Fiction: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Nell Freudenberger, Seth Kantner, John Keene (fiction/poetry)

Plays: Rinne Groff

Poetry: Thomas Sayers Ellis, Ilya Kaminsky, Dana Levin, Spencer Reece, Tracy K. Smith

Other

• International Dublin Literary Award

Edward P. Jones, The Known World

• German Book Prize (first award): Arno Geiger, Es geht uns gut (We Are Doing Fine)
• Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres: Patti Smith

See also

• List of years in literature
• Literature
• Poetry
• List of literary awards
• List of poetry awards
• 2005 in Australian literature

Notes

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

Notes and References

1. Book: Janet Giltrow. Dieter Stein. Genres in the Internet: Issues in the Theory of Genre. 2009. John Benjamins Publishing. 978-90-272-5433-7. 100.
2. Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner . BBC . 10 March 2005 . 23 November 2013.
3. Book: Library Journal. 2005. Library Journal. 17.
4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/5217658.stm BBC News – "Poet tells of wife's crash death", 26 July 2006
5. Web site: National Library of Norway . 2 January 2017 . The European Library.
6. Book: Ludo Abicht. Islam & Europe: Challenges and Opportunities. 2008. Leuven University Press. 978-90-5867-672-6. 188.
7. News: Entertainment Weekly "Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception (2005)" . 17 June 2008 . 27 April 2005 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080528173110/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0%2C%2C1052618%2C00.html . 28 May 2008 . live .
8. Book: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the Low Countries. 1 November 2012. BRILL. 978-90-04-24186-2. 149.
9. Sien Uytterschout . Kristaan Versluys . Melancholy and Mourning in Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Orbis Litterarum . 63. 3 . 216–236 . May 15, 2008 . 10.1111/j.1600-0730.2008.00927.x. free.
10. Book: Book Review Digest. 2006. H. W. Wilson Company. 936.
11. Hahn 2015, p. 21
12. Hahn 2015, p. 246
13. Hahn 2015, p. 274
14. Web site: 04 Charlie Bone And The Castle Of Mirrors by Jenny Millward . www.penguin.com.au . 20 January 2022 . en.
15. Hahn 2015, p. 492
16. Hahn 2015, p. 449
17. Hahn 2015, p. 264-265
18. Book: Olson . Danel . 21st-century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000 . 2011 . Scarecrow Press . 978-0-8108-7728-3 . 523 . en.
19. Hahn 2015, p. 557
20. Hahn 2015, p. 652
21. Goodreads, After, Book review, Retrieved 2012-11-23.
22. Web site: Max Velthuijs. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/max-velthuijs-5345000.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription. 29 January 2005. The Independent. 20 January 2021.
23. Web site: Playwright Arthur Miller dies at age 89 – THEATER . Today.com. January 11, 2009. AP.
24. Web site: Citizen Thompson — Police report of death scene reveals gonzo journalist's "rosebud" . . September 8, 2005 . October 13, 2008.
25. Web site: Alice Thomas Ellis. Claire Colvin. 10 March 2005. The Guardian. 20 January 2021.
26. Web site: Andre Norton . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/andre-norton-529308.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription . The Independent . 8 October 2011 . 18 June 2018.
27. Web site: Saul Bellow. 7 April 2005. Stanley Reynolds. The Guardian. 20 January 2021.
28. Web site: Yvonne Vera. 27 April 2005. Helon Habila. The Guardian. 22 November 2023.
29. Web site: Obituary: Helen Cresswell . the Guardian . 10 January 2022 . en . 29 September 2005.
30. Faculty of Arts, 2005, Edna Staebler Award , Wilfrid Laurier University, Previous winners, Anne Coleman, Retrieved 11/27/2012
31. Hahn 2015, p. 653
32. Hahn 2015, p. 661
33. Hahn 2015, p. 658