2006 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2006.

Events

March – The first full-length original novel in the Manx language, Dunveryssyn yn Tooder-Folley, is published by Brian Stowell, after being serialized in the press.
April 7 – Justice Peter Smith concludes in a case of February 27 in the London High Court of Justice against the publisher Random House over the bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, that the author, Dan Brown, has not breached the copyright of Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh in their The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. The judgment also contains a coded message on the whim of the judge.
April 7–9 – First Jaipur Literature Festival held in India.
Summer – Brutalism becomes the first literary movement to be launched through the social networking site Myspace.
June 14 – Ciaran Creagh's play Last Call, based loosely on the hanging of the murderer Michael Manning in 1954, as witnessed by the playwright's father, is staged in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, where it is set.
June–September – Elif Şafak is tried for "insulting Turkishness" in her novel The Bastard of Istanbul, published earlier in the year, but eventually acquitted.
June 7 – The final portion of the library accumulated by Sir Thomas Phillipps is sold by Christie's in London.
July 14 – The Times Literary Supplement reports on the discovery of a missing copy of Shelley's Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things, an 1811 pamphlet containing a 172-line poem critical of war, politics and religion; although published anonymously, the poem is thought to have contributed to the rebel poet's expulsion from the University of Oxford.
August 1 – The University of Helsinki library becomes the National Library of Finland.
September – Museum of Modern Literature opens in Marbach am Neckar, Schiller's birthplace in Germany.
September 20 – The Writers Guild of America, West, holds a Los Angeles rally in support of the America's Next Top Model writers' strike. President Patric Verrone says: "Every piece of media with a moving image on a screen or a recorded voice must have a writer, and every writer must have a WGA contract."
November 6 – WGAw files an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board after Top Model producers say the next season of the show will not require writers. In response, Verrone said, "As they demanded union representation, the company decided they were expendable. This is illegal strikebreaking."

New books

Births

unknown dates
*Nick Stitle – American fantasy author

Deaths

January 4 – Irving Layton, Canadian poet
January 16 – Jan Mark, English children's writer
January 19 – Awn Alsharif Qasim, Sudanese author and scholar
January 30 – Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright
February 2 – Chris Doty, Canadian dramatist
February 4 – Betty Friedan, American feminist writer
February 8 – Michael Gilbert, English crime writer
February 9 – Ena Lamont Stewart, Scottish playwright
February 11 – Peter Benchley, American novelist
February 17 – Sybille Bedford, German-born English novelist and journalist
February 20 – Lucjan Wolanowski, Polish writer, journalist and traveler
February 21
*Gennadiy Aygi, Chuvashian poet and translator
*Theodore Draper, American historian
February 22 – Hilde Domin, German writer
February 24 – Octavia E. Butler, American science fiction writer
February 25 – Margaret Gibson, Canadian novelist and story writer
March 27 – Stanisław Lem, Polish science fiction writer
March 30 – John McGahern, Irish novelist, dramatist and short story writer
April 3 – Muhammad al-Maghut, Syrian Ismaili poet
April 6 – Leslie Norris, Anglo-Welsh poet and author
April 8 – Gerard Reve, Dutch novelist and poet
April 13 – Muriel Spark, Scottish-born novelist
April 25 – Jane Jacobs, American urban planning critic and activist
May 9 – Jerzy Ficowski, poet, writer and translator
May 16 – Clare Boylan, Irish novelist
May 18 – Gilbert Sorrentino, American novelist and poet
June 17 – James H. McClure, South African-born crime writer
June 28 – Nigel Cox, New Zealand novelist
July 17 – Mickey Spillane, American crime writer
July 28 – David Gemmell, English fantasy novelist
August 16 – Alex Buzo, Australian playwright and author
August 17 – Shamsur Rahman, Bengali poet
August 21 – S. Yizhar, Israeli novelist
August 25 – Silva Kaputikyan, Armenian poet
August 30 – Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian novelist, 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate
September 1 – György Faludy, Hungarian poet, writer and translator
September 12 – Edna Staebler CM, Canadian author and literary journalist
October 13 – Protiva Bose, Bengali writer and singer
October 17 – Ursula Moray Williams, English children's writer
October 25 – Paul Ableman, English writer of erotic fiction and playwright
November 1 – William Styron, American novelist
November 6 – Nelson S. Bond, American writer
November 9 – Ellen Willis, American journalist and critic
November 10 – Jack Williamson, American science fiction author
November 15 – George G. Blackburn MC, Canadian author
November 23
*Jesús Blancornelas, Mexican journalist
*Richard Clements, English journalist
November 24
*William Diehl, American author
*Phyllis Fraser, American writer, publisher and actor
*George W. S. Trow, American writer and media critic
November 27 – Bebe Moore Campbell, American author
December 21 – Philippa Pearce, English children's writer
December 26 – John Heath-Stubbs, English poet and translator

Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature: Orhan Pamuk
2006 Governor General's Awards: see article
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Katherine Paterson
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Belinda Castles, The River Baptists
Caine Prize for African Writing: Mary Watson, "Jungfrau"
Camões Prize: José Luandino Vieira
Compton Crook Award: Maria Snyder, Poison Study
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: John Tranter, Urban Myths: 210 Poems
Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Francis Chalifour, After
Eric Gregory Award: Fiona Benson, Retta Bowen, Frances Leviston, Jonathan Morley, Eoghan Walls
Europe Theatre Prize: Harold Pinter
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Wolf Lepenies
Griffin Poetry Prize: Sylvia Legris, Nerve Squall, and Kamau Brathwaite, Born to Slow Horses
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Cormac McCarthy, The Road
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Byron Rogers, The Man Who Went into the West: The life of R.S. Thomas
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Jaya Savige, Latecomers
Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2006 Lambda Literary Awards.
Man Booker Prize: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss.
Miles Franklin Award: Roger McDonald, The Ballad of Desmond Kale
National Book Award for Fiction: Richard Powers, The Echo Maker
National Book Critics Circle Award: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
Orange Prize for Fiction: Zadie Smith, On Beauty
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: E. L. Doctorow, [The March (novel)|March (novel)|The March]
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Geraldine Brooks, March
Premio Nadal: Eduardo Lago, Llámame Brooklyn
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Fleur Adcock
SAARC Literary Award: Maitreyi Pushpa, Zahida Hina, Laxman Gaikwad, Tissa Abeysekara
Scotiabank Giller Prize: Vincent Lam, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures
Wallace Stevens Award: Michael Palmer
Whiting Awards: Fiction: Charles D’Ambrosio, Yiyun Li, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, Nina Marie Martínez, Patrick O’Keeffe; Plays: Stephen Adly Guirgis, Bruce Norris; Poetry: Sherwin Bitsui, Tyehimba Jess, Suji Kwock Kim

2006 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Genre fiction

Drama

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards