2015 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2015.

Events

January 7 – Charlie Hebdo shooting: An attack on the leading Franch satirical weekly kills 12 and wounds 11. This week's cover features Michel Houellebecq, whose novel Submission is published that day.
January 21 – The British Broadcasting Corporation launches a six-part television miniseries of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.
March 8 – The BBC launches a new television series of Winston Graham's Poldark novels.
March 10 – Jacek Dukaj's cyberpunk novel The Old Axolotl is published in its original Polish version as Starość aksolotla as purely electronic literature including hypertext and 3D printable character models.
March 19 – Kim Thúy's novel Ru wins the 2015 edition of Canada Reads.
July 7 – Jeff Lindsay releases his final novel in the "Dexter" series, writing off Dexter Morgan two years after the final episode in the television series.
c. October 14 – Start of Causeway Bay Books disappearances: Five staff of the political bookseller Causeway Bay Books in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, go missing, apparently detained by mainland Chinese authorities.
November 10 – The Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford acquires its twelve millionth book, a unique copy of Shelley's subversive Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things "by a Gentleman of the University of Oxford", published in 1811.
November 25 – Singapore's Media Development Authority lifts prohibitions on 240 publications under the Undesirable Publications Act.
unknown date – English author Iain Pears' novel Arcadia is accompanied as an electronic book by an interactive app allowing readers to switch between multiple narratives.

Anniversaries

January 4 – 50th anniversary of the death of Anglo-American poet T. S. Eliot
April 23 – Centenary of the death of English poet Rupert Brooke, on active service
June – Centenary of the publication of T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
June 10 – Centenary of Saul Bellow's birth
June 13 – 150th anniversary of W. B. Yeats, who was born on this date in 1865
September 26 – 75th anniversary of his death of Walter Benjamin
October – Centenary of the publication of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.
November 26 – 150th anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
October 21 – 75th anniversary of the publication of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls
December 21 – 75th anniversary of the death of American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald
December 23 – Bicentenary of the publication of Jane Austen's ''Emma''

New books

''The date in brackets after a title refers to U.S. publication unless otherwise stated.''

Fiction

Rabai al-Madhoun – Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Naqba
André Alexis – Fifteen Dogs
Isabel Allende – El amante japonés
Claudia Amengual – Cartagena
Margaret Atwood – The Heart Goes Last
Leigh Bardugo – Six of Crows
Paul Beatty – The Sellout
Pierce Brown – Golden Son
Graeme Macrae Burnet – His Bloody Project
Mark Z. Danielewski
*The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May
*The Familiar, Volume 2: Into the Forest
Mathias Énard – Boussole
Raymond Carver – Beginners
Anne Enright – The Green Road
Jonathan Franzen – Purity
Paula Hawkins – The Girl on the Train
Lawrence Hill – The Illegal
Michel Houellebecq - Submission
John Irving – Avenue of Mysteries
Kazuo Ishiguro – The Buried Giant
Miranda July – The First Bad Man
Stephen King
*Finders Keepers
*The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
Harper Lee – Go Set a Watchman
Sarah J. Maas – A Court of Thorns and Roses
Michael Livingston – The Shards of Heaven
Attica Locke – Pleasantville
Tom McCarthy – Satin Island
Ian McDonald – Luna: New Moon
Lisa McInerney – The Glorious Heresies
Henning Mankell – Svenska gummistövlar
Toni Morrison – God Help the Child
Ottessa Moshfegh – Eileen
Haruki Murakami – Wind/Pinball: Two Novels
Viet Thanh Nguyen – The Sympathizer
Chigozie Obioma – The Fishermen
Max Porter – Grief is the Thing with Feathers
Orhan Pamuk – A Strangeness in My Mind
Sunjeev Sahota – The Year of the Runaways
John Scalzi – The End of All Things
Roger Scruton – The Disappeared
Joss Sheldon – Occupied
Neal Stephenson – Seveneves
Anne Tyler – A Spool of Blue Thread
Guy Vanderhaeghe – Daddy Lenin and Other Stories
Sarai Walker – Dietland
Hanya Yanagihara – ''A Little Life''

Children and young people

Kevan Atteberry – Bunnies!!!
Bob Barner - Sea Bones
Janeen Brian - I’m A Hungry Dinosaur
Sarah Crossan – One
Brian Falkner - Battlesaurus: Rampage at Waterloo
Nadia Fink – Frida Kahlo for Girls and Boys
Peter Goes – Timeline
Jane Godwin – The True Story of Mary
Frances Hardinge – The Lie Tree
Moriah McStay - Everything That Makes You
Carol Morley – 7 Miles Out
Barry Moser – We Were Brothers
Lesléa Newman - Ketzel, the Cat who Composed
Jerry Pinkney - The Grasshopper & the Ants
Rick Riordan
*Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes
*The Sword of Summer
R. A. Spratt - Friday Barnes, Under Suspicion
Yasmine Surovec – My Pet Human
Hiro Kamigaki – ''Pierre the Maze Detective''

Drama

Non-fiction

Elizabeth Alexander – The Light of the World: A Memoir
Björk – Archives
Carrie Brownstein – Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl
Noam Chomsky – Because We Say So
Kate Christensen - How To Cook A Moose: A Culinary Memoir
Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips – The Misfit Economy
Ta-Nehisi Coates - Between the World and Me
Isaac Deutscher – The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky
Kim Gordon – Girl in a Band
Greg Grandin – Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman
Chris Hedges – Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt
Tameka Hobbs - Democracy Abroad, Lynching At Home
Robert Hughes – The Spectacle of Skill: Selected Writings
W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne - Blue Ocean Strategy
B. B. Lal – The Rigvedic People: Invaders? Immigrants? or Indigenous?
Zachary Leader – The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915–1964
Mark Levin – Plunder and Deceit
Bethany McLean – Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants
Alberto Manguel – Curiosity
John Marenbon – Pagans and Philosophers
Leslie D. Michelson – The Patient's Playbook
Minae Mizumura – The Fall of Language in the Age of English
Maggie Nelson – The Argonauts
Jay Parini – Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal
Marilynne Robinson – The Givenness of Things: Essays
Oliver Sacks – Gratitude
Ruth Scurr – John Aubrey: My Own Life
James Shapiro – The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606
Steve Silberman – NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
Aaron Swartz – The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz
Edmund de Waal – The White Road. A Pilgrimage of Sorts
Jim Wallis – America's Original Sin
Rainn Wilson - ''The Bassoon King''

Films

The Danish Girl

Deaths

January 1 – Miller Williams, American poet, 84
January 4 – Michele Serros, American novelist, poet, and staff writer, 48
January 10 – Robert Stone, American novelist, 77
January 12 – John Bayley, novelist and critic, 89
January 25 – John Leggett, American author and academic, 97
January 27 – Suzette Haden Elgin, American linguist and science fiction author, 78
January 28 – Lionel Gilbert, Australian historian, author, and academic, 90
January 29 – Colleen McCullough, Australian author, 77
February 6
*André Brink, South African novelist and professor of literature,
*Assia Djebar, Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker,
February 13 – Faith Bandler, Australian author and civil rights activist, 96
February 14 – Philip Levine, American poet laureate, 87
February 23 – James Aldridge, Australian-born British novelist and journalist, 96
February 26
*Fritz J. Raddatz, German feuilleton writer, essayist and biographer
*Avijit Roy, Bangladeshi-American writer, 42
February 28 – Yaşar Kemal, Turkish writer and intellectual
March 12 – Sir Terry Pratchett, English author of fantasy novels, 66
March 18 – Grace Ogot, Kenyan writer, 84
March 24 – Alan Seymour, Australian playwright, 87
March 26 – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet, translator, and Nobel prizewinner, 83
April 9 – Ivan Doig, American novelist, 75.
April 13
*Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist, 74
*Günter Grass, German novelist, poet, playwright, and Nobel prizewinner, 87
April 15 – Rosemary Tonks, English poet and novelist, 85
May 2 – Ruth Rendell, English crime and thriller writer, 85
May 2 – William Zinsser American journalist and critic
May 20 – J. S. Harry, Australian poet, 76
May 23 – Moyra Caldecott, English writer, 87
June 19 – James Salter, American novelist and short-story writer, 90
July 21 – E. L. Doctorow, American novelist, 84
July 31 – Alan Cheuse, American writer and radio reviewer, 75
August 30 – Oliver Sacks, British neurologist and author, 82
October 2 – Brian Friel, Irish playwright and short-story writer, 86
October 5 – Henning Mankell, Swedish novelist, children’s author and playwright, 67
October 7 – W. R. Mitchell, English journalist and author, 87
October 18
*Gamal El-Ghitani, Egyptian novelist and cultural critic, 70
*Paul West, English-born American novelist, poet and essayist, 85
October 27 – Mitzura Arghezi, Romanian book editor, illustrator, and politician
November 30:
*Dan Fante, American author and playwright, 71
*Hazel Holt, English novelist, 87
November 30 – Fatema Mernissi, Moroccan scholar and writer, 75
December 5 – William McIlvanney, Scottish novelist, short-story writer and poet, 79
December 9 – Akiyuki Nosaka, Japanese writer, 85
December 16 - Peter Dickinson, English author and poet

Awards

Akutagawa Prize, Japan: Masatsugu Ono for 9 Nen Mae no Inori
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, U.S.: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction: How to Be Both by Ali Smith
Caine Prize for African Writing: Namwali Serpell, The Sack
Camões Prize, Portugal: Hélia Correia
David Cohen Prize: Tony Harrison
Dayne Ogilvie Prize, Canada: Alex Leslie
Desmond Elliott Prize, U.K.: Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
DSC Prize for South Asian Literature: The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, India
Folio Prize, U.K.: Family Life by Akhil Sharma
European Book Prize: Jean-Pierre Orban, Vera and, Robert Menasse, Der Europäische Landbote
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Navid Kermani
German Book Prize: Die Erfindung der Roten Armee Fraktion durch einen manisch-depressiven Teenager im Sommer 1969 by Frank Witzel
Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia: Bei Dao
Goldsmiths Prize, U.K.: Beatlebone by Kevin Barry
Gordon Burn Prize, U.K.: In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies
Governor General's Award for English-language fiction, Canada: Guy Vanderhaeghe, Daddy Lenin and Other Stories
Governor General's Award for French-language fiction, Canada: Nicolas Dickner, Six degrés de liberté
Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française: Les Prépondérants by Hédi Kaddour; 2084: la fin du monde by Boualem Sansal
International Prize for Arabic Fiction: The Italian by Shukri Mabkhout, Tunisia
International Dublin Literary Award: Harvest by Jim Crace
Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award: Blue Is the Night by Eoin McNamee
Man Booker Prize: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Miguel de Cervantes Prize: Fernando del Paso
Miles Franklin Award: The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna
National Book Award for Fiction, U.S.: Fortune Smiles By Adam Johnson
Nobel Prize in Literature: Svetlana Alexievich, Belarus
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish
PEN Center USA 2015 Fiction Award: Robert Thomas, Bridge
Premio Planeta de Novela, Spain: Hombres desnudos by Alicia Giménez-Bartlett; La isla de Alice by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo
Premio Strega, Italy: Nicola Lagioia
Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing, U. S.: David Hackett Fischer
Prix Goncourt: Boussole by Mathias Énard
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, U.S.: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: U.S.: Digest by Gregory Pardlo
RBC Taylor Prize, Canada: They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson
Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Canada: André Alexis, Fifteen Dogs
Russian Booker Prize: Vera by Alexander Snegirev
SAARC Literary Award: Sitakant Mahapatra, Selina Hossain, Suman Pokhrel, Nisar Ahmad Chaudhary, Aryan Aroon
Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction, U.K.: Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Steve Silberman
Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada: André Alexis, Fifteen Dogs
Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, U.K.: The Ten Thousand Things by John Spurling
Whiting Awards, U.S.: Fiction: Leopoldine Core, Dan Josefson, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi; Nonfiction: Elena Passarello; Plays: Lucas Hnath, Anne Washburn; Poetry: Anthony Carelli, Aracelis Girmay, Jenny Johnson, Roger Reeves
W. Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction, U.S.: Redeployment by Phil Klay
Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award: Ryszard Krynicki