2007 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2007.
Events
- January 1 – Post- och Inrikes Tidningar, the world's oldest surviving newspaper, starts publishing online only.
- March 5 – A car bomb explodes on Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, the city's historic center of bookselling.
- April 1 – The first in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney is released in book form in New York.
- April 26 – Polly Stenham's play That Face, written when she was 19, opens at the Royal Court Theatre in London, UK.
- July 21 – The final book in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, sells over 11 million copies in its first 24 hours, becoming the fastest selling book in history.
- November 2 – The Tomi Ungerer Museum opens in Strasbourg.
- November 19 – The first Kindle e-book reader is released.
- December 5 – The first European Book Prize is awarded to Guy Verhofstadt for United States of Europe.
- December 11 – Terry Pratchett informs fans online that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.
New books
Fiction
- André Aciman – Call Me by Your Name
- Gilbert Adair – A Mysterious Affair of Style
- Alan Bennett – The Uncommon Reader
- Bob Burg and John D. Mann – The Go-Giver
- Michael Chabon – The Yiddish Policemen's Union
- Brock Clarke – An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
- Bernard Cornwell – Sword Song
- Don DeLillo – Falling Man
- Junot Díaz – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
- Steve Erickson – Zeroville
- Joshua Ferris – Then We Came to the End
- Ge Fei – 山河入梦
- Helon Habila – Measuring Time
- Mohsin Hamid – The Reluctant Fundamentalist
- Han Kang – The Vegetarian
- Elizabeth Hay – Late Nights on Air
- Khaled Hosseini – A Thousand Splendid Suns
- Hiromi Itō – The Thorn-Puller: New Tales of the Sugamo Jizō
- Denis Johnson – Tree of Smoke
- Panos Karnezis – The Birthday Party
- Andrus Kivirähk – Mees, kes teadis ussisõnu
- Jesse Lee Kercheval – The Alice Stories
- Torsten Krol – Callisto
- Min Jin Lee – Free Food for Millionaires
- Ian McEwan – On Chesil Beach
- Elizabeth McKenzie – MacGregor Tells the World
- Angela Makholwa – Red Ink
- Michael Ondaatje – Divisadero
- Tito Perdue – Fields of Asphodel
- Bahaa Taher – Sunset Oasis
- Olga Tokarczuk – Flights
- Zlatko Topčić – Safet Sušić
- Graham Swift – Tomorrow
- M. G. Vassanji – The Assassin's Song
- David Wong – John Dies at the End
- Kirby Wright – Moloka'i Nui Ahina, Summers on the Lonely Isle
- Corrina Wycoff – O Street
- Juli Zeh – ''Dark Matter''
Genre fiction
- Joe Abercrombie – Before They Are Hanged
- Christopher Barzak – One For Sorrow
- Jim Butcher – White Night
- Michael Chabon – The Yiddish Policemen's Union
- Hal Duncan – Ink
- Warren Ellis – Crooked Little Vein
- Steven Erikson – Reaper's Gale
- Justin Evans – A Good and Happy Child
- William Gibson – Spook Country
- Ed Greenwood – Dark Lord
- Tanith Lee – Piratica III: The Family Sea
- Scott Lynch – Red Seas Under Red Skies
- Richard K. Morgan – Th1rte3n
- Ian McDonald – Brasyl
- Chuck Palahniuk – Rant: An Oral History of Buster Casey
- Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child – The Wheel of Darkness
- Risa – Battle of Demons
- Lucius Shepard – Softspoken
- Jeffrey Thomas – Deadstock
- J. R. R. Tolkien – The Children of Húrin
- Catherynne M. Valente – ''The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice''
Children and young people
- David Almond – My Dad's a Birdman
- Sherman Alexie – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
- Robin Brande – Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature
- Libba Bray – The Sweet Far Thing
- Suzanne Collins – Gregor and the Code of Claw
- Catherine Drury – Ivan's Appeal
- Joseph Epstein, etc. – Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English and American Literature
- Charlie Higson
- *Double or Die
- *Hurricane Gold
- Dianne Hofmeyr – Eye of the Moon
- Nick Hornby – Slam
- Gordon Korman - Schooled
- D. J. MacHale – The Pilgrims of Rayne
- Richelle Mead – Vampire Academy
- Stephenie Meyer – Eclipse
- China Miéville – Un Lun Dun
- Robert Muchamore
- *The Fall
- *Mad Dogs
- Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf
- Garth Nix – Lady Friday
- Janet Nolan – A Father's Day Thank You
- Iona Opie – Mother Goose's Little Treasures
- Jerry Pinkney – Little Red Riding Hood
- J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Brian Selznick – The Invention of Hugo Cabret
- Hikaru Sugii – Heaven's Memo Pad
- Laura Wiess – Such A Pretty Girl
- N. D. Wilson – ''100 Cupboards''
Drama
- Hassan Abdulrazzak – Baghdad Wedding
- Bola Agbaje – Gone Too Far!
- Jacob M. Appel – The Mistress of Wholesome
- Sebastian Barry – The Pride of Parnell Street
- Jon Fosse – I Am the Wind
- Melissa James Gibson – Current Nobody
- Lee Hall – The Pitmen Painters
- David Henry Hwang – Yellow Face
- Tracy Letts – August: Osage County
- Caleb Lewis – Dogfall
- Tarell Alvin McCraney – The Brothers Size
- Hannah Moscovitch – East of Berlin
- Brendan O'Carroll – For the Love of Mrs. Brown
- Mark O'Rowe – Terminus
- Aaron Sorkin – The Farnsworth Invention
- Nick Stafford – War Horse
- Polly Stenham – ''That Face''
Poetry
- Dejan Stojanović – ''Ples vremena''
Non-fiction
- Peter Ackroyd – Thames: Sacred River
- Xurxo Borrazás – Arte e parte
- Andrea Cagan – Peace Is Possible: The Life and Message of Prem Rawat
- Umberto Eco – On Ugliness
- Wayne Federman, Marshall Terrill and Jackie Maravich – Maravich: The Definitive Biography of Pistol Pete Maravich
- David Halberstam – The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War
- Ian Halperin – Hollywood Undercover
- Christopher Hitchens – God is not Great
- A. J. Jacobs – The Year of Living Biblically
- Linda and Terry Jamison – Separated at Earth
- Naomi Klein – The Shock Doctrine
- Arthur Kroeger - Hard Passage: A Mennonite Family's Long Journey from Russia to Canada
- Anthony Lewis – Freedom for the Thought That We Hate
- Lupa – A Field Guide to Otherkin
- John Matteson – Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father
- Daisuke Miyao – Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom
- Haruki Murakami – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
- Ram Oren – ha-Shevu?ah
- Jessica Riskin - Genesis Redux
- Bruce Serafin – Stardust
- Kathy Stevens – Where the Blind Horse Sings
- Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș – ''Lupta vieții unui octogenar''
Deaths
- January 11 – Robert Anton Wilson, American author and conspiracy researcher
- January 19 – Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian journalist
- January 23 – Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist
- January 27 – Herbert Reinecker, German novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
- January 30 – Sidney Sheldon, American writer
- February 22 – Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author, painter, and art collector
- March 2 – Henri Troyat, French writer and historian
- February 16 – Sheridan Morley, English critic and biographer
- March 30 – Michael Dibdin, British crime writer
- April 1 – Driss Chraïbi, Moroccan author
- April 3 – Marion Eames, Welsh novelist writing mainly in Welsh
- April 11 – Kurt Vonnegut, American satirical novelist
- April 23 – David Halberstam, American journalist and historian
- May 8 – Philip R. Craig, American author and poet
- May 17 – Lloyd Alexander, American author
- June 3 – Suzanne Robert, French Canadian novelist
- June 21 – Douglas Hill, Canadian science fiction author and reviewer
- June 27 – Dragutin Tadijanović, Croatian poet
- July 31 – Margaret Avison, Canadian poet
- August 3 – John Gardner, British author of James Bond continuation novels
- September 3 – Mária Szepes, Hungarian novelist and screenwriter
- September 4 – Zenia Larsson, Polish-Swedish writer and sculptor of Jewish descent
- September 6 – Madeleine L'Engle, American novelist
- September 16 – Robert Jordan, American fantasy and historical novelist
- October 19 – Jan Wolkers, Dutch author, sculptor and painter
- October 22 – Ève Curie, French author, daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie
- November 10 – Norman Mailer, American novelist, journalist and playwright
- November 12 – Ira Levin, American novelist, dramatist and songwriter
- November 19 – Magda Szabó, Hungarian novelist, dramatist and essayist
- November 27 – Jane Rule, Canadian novelist
- November 28 – Elly Beinhorn, German pilot and author
- December 22 – Julien Gracq, French novelist, critic and poet
- December 27 – Jaan Kross, Estonian writer
Awards
Australia
- ALS Gold Medal: Alexis Wright, Carpentaria
- Miles Franklin Award: Alexis Wright, Carpentaria
- Patrick White Award: David Rowbotham
Canada
- Canada Reads: Heather O'Neill, Lullabies for Little Criminals, Le Combat des livres: Denis Thériault, L'Iguane
- Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Michael V. Smith
- Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Linden MacIntyre, Causeway
- Governor General's Awards: Multiple categories; see 2007 Governor General's Awards
- Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction: Anna Porter, Kasztner's Train: The True Story of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero of the Holocaust
- Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes
- Scotiabank Giller Prize: Elizabeth Hay, ''Late Nights on Air''
Europe
- Camões Prize: António Lobo Antunes
- Europe Theatre Prize: Robert Lepage and Peter Zadek
- European Book Prize: Guy Verhofstadt, United States of Europe
- Prix Goncourt: Gilles Leroy, ''Alabama Song''
Sweden
United Kingdom
- Caine Prize for African Writing: Monica Arac de Nyeko,"Jambula Tree"
- Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Meg Rosoff, Just in Case
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Rosalind Belben, Our Horses in Egypt
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Rosemary Hill, God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain
- Man Booker Prize: Anne Enright, The Gathering
- Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction: to Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
United States
- Newbery Award for children's literature: Susan Patron, The Higher Power Of Lucky
- Compton Crook Award: Naomi Novik, His Majesty's Dragon
- Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2007 Lambda Literary Awards.
- National Book Award for Fiction: to Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
- National Book Critics Circle Award: to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Everyman by Philip Roth
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: to The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- Whiting Awards: Fiction: Ben Fountain, Brad Kessler, Dalia Sofer; Nonfiction: Carlo Rotella, Peter Trachtenberg, Jack Turner; Plays: Sheila Callaghan, Tarell Alvin McCraney; Poetry: Paul Guest, Cate Marvin