This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 2008.

Events[edit]

• 
  January 1 – In the UK's 2008 New Year Honours List, Hanif Kureishi (CBE), Jenny Uglow (OBE), Peter Vansittart (OBE) and Debjani Chatterjee (MBE) are all rewarded for "services to literature."


• 
  May 7–11 – The first Palestine Festival of Literature is held.


• 
  June 15 – Gore Vidal, asked in a New York Times interview how he felt about the death of his great rival William F. Buckley, Jr., replies: "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred."


• July – Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is the winner of a poll to select the "Best of the Booker".


• The first Twitter novels appear.

New books[edit]

Fiction[edit]

• 
  Aravind Adiga
  
  
  
  • The White Tiger
  
  
  • 
    Between the Assassinations (November 1)
  
  
  
  


• 
  Uwem Akpan – Say You're One of Them
  


• 
  Paul Auster – Man in the Dark
  


• 
  Henry Bauchau – Le Boulevard périphérique
  


• 
  John Berger – From A to X
  


• 
  Charles Bock – Beautiful Children (January 22)


• 
  Roberto Bolaño – 2666: A Novel (November 11)


• 
  Christopher Buckley – Supreme Courtship (September 3)


• 
  Alastair Campbell – All in the Mind (October 30)


• 
  Martín Caparrós – A quien corresponda
  


• 
  Eleanor Catton – The Rehearsal
  


• 
  Wendy Coakley-Thompson – Triptych (December 18)


• 
  Robert Crais – Chasing Darkness
  


• 
  Debra Dean – Confessions of a Falling Woman
  


• 
  Klaus Ebner – Hominid (October 1)


• 
  Ralph Ellison (posthumous, ed. John F. Callahan) – Three Days Before the Shooting...
  


• 
  Mathias Énard – Zone (August 15)


• 
  Sebastian Faulks – Devil May Care (James Bond continuation novel)


• 
  Keith Gessen – All the Sad Young Literary Men (April 10)


• 
  Shanta Gokhale – Tyā varshī (Crowfall)
  


• 
  Juan Goytisolo – Exiled from Almost Everywhere
  


• 
  Paul Griffiths – let me tell you
  


• 
  Lauren Groff – The Monsters of Templeton (February 5)


• 
  Peter Handke – The Moravian Night (January 12, Germany)


• 
  Johan Harstad – DARLAH
  


• 
  Zoë Heller – The Believers (September 24)


• 
  Aleksandar Hemon – The Lazarus Project (May 1)


• 
  Samantha Hunt – The Invention of Everything Else (February 7)


• 
  Siri Hustvedt – The Sorrows of an American (April 1)


• 
  Karl Iagnemma – The Expeditions (January 15)


• 
  Robert Juan-Cantavella – El Dorado
  


• 
  Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs (posthumous) – And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (November 1; written 1945)


• 
  Christian Kracht – Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten (September)


• 
  László Krasznahorkai – Seiobo There Below
  


• 
  Jhumpa Lahiri – Unaccustomed Earth (April 1)


• Paul Laurendeau – Femmes fantastiques
  


• 
  Kelly Link – Pretty Monsters (October 2)


• 
  David Lodge – Deaf Sentence (May 1)


• 
  James McBride – Song Yet Sung (February 5)


• 
  Joe McGinniss Jr. – The Delivery Man (January 15)


• 
  Ronit Matalon – The Sound of Our Steps (Kol Tsa'adenu)
  


• 
  Lydia Millet – How the Dead Dream (January 25)


• 
  Toni Morrison – A Mercy (November 11)


• Nunoe Mura – GeGeGe no Nyōbō (ゲゲゲの女房)


• 
  Joyce Carol Oates – My Sister, My Love (June 24)


• 
  Chuck Palahniuk – Snuff (May 20)


• 
  Arturo Perez-Reverte – The Painter of Battles (January 8)


• 
  Jodi Picoult – Change of Heart (March 4)


• 
  José Luis Rodríguez Pittí – Sueños urbanos
  


• 
  Richard Price – Lush Life (March 4)


• 
  Ruth Rendell – Portobello (November 20)


• 
  Nina Revoyr – The Age of Dreaming
  


• 
  Nathaniel Rich – The Mayor's Tongue (April 8)


• 
  Marilynne Robinson – Home (September 2)


• 
  Charlotte Roche – Feuchtgebiete (February 25)


• 
  Philip Roth – Indignation (September 16)


• 
  Salman Rushdie – The Enchantress of Florence (June 3)


• 
  Will Self – The Butt
  


• 
  Curtis Sittenfeld – American Wife (September 2)


• 
  Sjón – Rökkurbýsnir (From the Mouth of the Whale) (October 23)


• 
  Tom Rob Smith – Child 44
  


• 
  David Turashvili – Flight from the USSR
  


• 
  John Updike – The Widows of Eastwick (October 28)


• 
  Tobias Wolff – Our Story Begins (March 25)

Genre fiction[edit]

• 
  Jim Butcher – Small Favor (April 1) (Harry Dresden #10)


• 
  Matthew J. Costello – Doom 3: Worlds on Fire (February 26)


• 
  Cornelia Funke – Inkdeath (October 7)


• 
  Stephen King – Duma Key (January 22)


• 
  Patricia A. McKillip – The Bell at Sealey Head (September 2)


• 
  Stephenie Meyer – Breaking Dawn (August 2)


• 
  Douglas Preston – Blasphemy (January 8)


• 
  Matthew Stover – Caine Black Knife (October 14)


• 
  Brent Weeks – The Way of Shadows
  

Children and young people[edit]

• 
  David Almond
  
  
  
  • The Savage
  
  
  • Jackdaw Summer
  
  
  
  


• 
  Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson – Science Fair
  


• Nick Bland – The Very Cranky Bear
  


• 
  Frank Cottrell-Boyce – Desirable
  


• 
  Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (July 15)


• 
  Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games (September 14)


• 
  John Fardell – Manfred the Baddie
  


• 
  Mem Fox – Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
  


• 
  John Green – Paper Towns (October 16)


• 
  Brian Greene – Icarus At The Edge Of Time
  


• 
  Charlie Higson – Young Bond: By Royal Command (September 3)


• 
  Minoru Kawakami and Satoyasu – Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere
  


• 
  D. J. MacHale – Raven Rise (May 20)


• 
  Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock (June 1)


• 
  Garth Nix – Superior Saturday (May 5)


• 
  Christopher Paolini – Brisingr (September 20)


• 
  Rick Riordan – The Maze of Bones
  


• 
  Angie Sage – Queste (April 8)


• 
  Michael Salzhauer – My Beautiful Mommy
  

Drama[edit]

• 
  Salvatore Antonio – In Gabriel's Kitchen
  


• 
  Howard Brenton – Never So Good
  


• 
  Mary Higgins Clark – Where Are You Now?
  


• Paul Dwyer – The Bougainville Photoplay Project
  


• 
  Nicholas de Jongh – Plague Over England
  


• 
  Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels – The Broken Circle Breakdown featuring the cover-ups of Alabama
  


• 
  Ella Hickson – Eight
  


• 
  Sam Holcroft – Cockroach
  


• 
  Elaine Murphy – Little Gem
  


• 
  Lynn Nottage – Ruined
  


• 
  Tyler Perry – The Marriage Counselor
  


• 
  Taavi Vartia – Kaikkien aikojen Pertsa ja Kilu
  

Poetry[edit]

Non-fiction[edit]

• 
  The Academi – Encyclopaedia of Wales (Gwyddoniadur Cymru) (January)


• 
  Julie Andrews – Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (April 1)


• 
  Kwame Anthony Appiah – Experiments in Ethics
  


• 
  Dan Ariely – Predictably Irrational (February 19)


• 
  Margaret Atwood – Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (October 1)


• 
  Mary Beard – Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town
  


• 
  Dionne Brand – A Kind of Perfect Speech (Ralph Gustafson Lecture)
  


• 
  Augusten Burroughs – A Wolf at the Table (April 29)


• 
  Michael Chabon – Maps and Legends (May 1)


• 
  D. K. Chakrabarti – The Battle for Ancient India: An essay in the sociopolitics of Indian archaeology
  


• 
  Sloane Crosley – I Was Told There'd Be Cake (April 1)


• 
  John Duignan – The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology (October 7)


• 
  Eminem – The Way I Am (October 21)


• 
  Richard Florida – Who's Your City? (March)


• 
  Raymond Geuss – Philosophy and Real Politics
  


• 
  Philip Hoare – Leviathan, or The Whale (September 16)


• 
  Chloe Hooper – The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island
  


• 
  B. B. Lal – Rāma, His Historicity, Mandir, and Setu: Evidence of Literature, Archaeology, and Other Sciences
  


• 
  Haruki Murakami (translated by Philip Gabriel) – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (July 29)


• Shuja Nawaz – Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within
  


• 
  Frances Osborne – The Bolter: Idina Sackville
  


• Chris Pash – The Last Whale
  


• 
  David Sedaris – When You Are Engulfed in Flames (June 3)


• 
  Vaclav Smil – Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems
  


• 
  Chunghee Sarah Soh – The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan
  


• 
  Kate Summerscale – The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, or The Murder at Road Hill House (April)


• Ronnie Thompson (pseudonym) – Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer (January 24)


• 
  Bjørn Christian Tørrissen – One for the Road (January 31; translation of I pose og sekk!, 2005)


• 
  Barbara Walters – Audition: A Memoir (May 6)


• 
  Russell Wangersky – Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself^[1]
  


• 
  Meralda Warren and others – Mi Base side orn Pitcairn (My Favourite Place on Pitcairn, first book published in Pitkern creole)


• Dagmar S. Wodtko, Britta Irslinger and Carolin Schneider (eds.) – Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon
  

Deaths[edit]

Margaret Truman

• 
  January 2 – George MacDonald Fraser, Scottish novelist and screenplay writer (born 1925)


• 
  January 3 – Henri Chopin, French poet (born 1922)


• 
  January 11 – Nancy Phelan, Australian writer (born 1913)


• 
  January 13 – Patricia Verdugo, Chilean journalist and writer (born 1947)


• 
  January 16 – Hone Tuwhare, New Zealand poet (born 1922)


• 
  January 17 – Edward D. Hoch, American detective fiction writer (born 1930)


• 
  January 26
  
  
  
  • 
    John Ardagh, Nyasaland-born English journalist and writer (born 1928)
  
  
  • 
    Abraham Brumberg, American writer and editor (born 1926)
  
  
  
  


• 
  January 29 – Margaret Truman, American crime novelist and singer (born 1924)


• 
  January 30 – Miles Kington, Northern Irish-born English journalist and writer (born 1941)

Steve Gerber

• 
  February 4 – Rose Hacker, English writer and journalist (born 1906)


• 
  February 7 – Richard Altick, American literary historian (born 1915)


• 
  February 8 – Phyllis A. Whitney, Japan-born American mystery writer (born 1903)


• 
  February 10 – Steve Gerber, American comic book writer (born 1947)


• 
  February 18 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French novelist (born 1922)


• 
  February 21
  
  
  
  • 
    Archie Hind, Scottish novelist (born 1928)
  
  
  • 
    Robin Moore, American novelist and memoirist (born 1925)
  
  
  
  


• 
  February 22 – Stephen Marlowe, American science fiction and crime writer (born 1928)


• 
  February 28 – Julian Rathbone, English novelist (born 1935)


• 
  February 29 – Val Plumwood (Val Routley), Australian philosopher (born 1939)

Arthur C. Clarke

• 
  March 16 – Jonathan Williams, American poet (born 1929)


• 
  March 19
  
  
  
  • 
    Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer and futurologist (born 1917)
  
  
  • 
    Hugo Claus, Belgian writer in Flemish and English (born 1929)
  
  
  
  


• 
  March 23 – E. A. Markham, Montserrat poet, writer and activist (born 1939)


• 
  April 3 – Andrew Crozier, English poet and scholar (born 1943)


• 
  April 7 – Ludu Daw Amar, Burmese writer and journalist (born 1915)


• 
  April 13 – Robert Greacen, Irish poet (born 1920)


• 
  April 17
  
  
  
  • 
    Aimé Césaire, Martinique poet and writer in French (born 1913)
  
  
  • 
    Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Russian writer and editor (born 1929)
  
  
  
  


• 
  April 18
  
  
  
  • 
    Michael de Larrabeiti, English young-adult novelist and travel writer (born 1934)
  
  
  • 
    William W. Warner, American biologist and Pulitzer Prize writer (born 1920)
  
  
  
  


• 
  May 1 – Elaine Dundy, American novelist, biographer and playwright (born 1921)


• 
  May 9 – Nuala O'Faolain, Irish critic and writer (born 1940)


• 
  May 11 – Jeff Torrington, Scottish novelist (born 1935)


• 
  May 12 – Oakley Hall, American novelist (born 1920)


• 
  May 14 – Roy Heath, Guyanese novelist (born 1926)


• 
  May 19 – Vijay Tendulkar, Indian playwright (born 1928)


• 
  May 23 – Alan Brien, English journalist and novelist (born 1925)


• 
  May 28 – Elinor Lyon, British children's writer (born 1921)

Chinghiz Aitmatov

• 
  June 2 – Ferenc Fejtő, Hungarian-born French historian and journalist (born 1909)


• 
  June 4 – Matthew Bruccoli, American biographer and scholar (born 1931)


• 
  June 5 – Angus Calder, British writer and scholar (born 1942)


• 
  June 8 – Peter Rühmkorf, German poet and writer (born 1929)


• 
  June 9 – Algis Budrys (John A. Sentry), American science fiction writer of Lithuanian origin (born 1931)


• 
  June 10
  
  
  
  • 
    Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyz writer in Kyrgyz and Russian (born 1928)
  
  
  • 
    Eliot Asinof, American novelist and baseball writer (born 1919)
  
  
  
  


• 
  June 16 – Mario Rigoni Stern, Italian novelist (born 1921)


• 
  June 18 – Tasha Tudor, American children's writer and illustrator (born 1915)


• 
  June 22 – Albert Cossery, Egyptian-born French novelist (born 1913)


• 
  June 24 – Ruth Cardoso, Brazilian anthropologist and writer (born 1930)


• 
  June 25 – Lyall Watson, South African scientist and new age writer (born 1939)


• 
  June 27 – Lenka Reinerová, Czech writer in German (born 1916)

Thomas M. Disch

• 
  July 1
  
  
  
  • 
    Clay Felker, American magazine editor and journalist (born 1925)
  
  
  • 
    Robert Harling, English typographer and novelist (born 1910)
  
  
  
  


• 
  July 2 – Simone Ortega, Spanish cookery writer (born 1919)


• 
  July 4
  
  
  
  • 
    Thomas M. Disch, American science fiction author and poet. (born 1940)
  
  
  • 
    Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch novelist and writer in Dutch and English (born 1931)
  
  
  
  


• 
  July 20 – Roger Wolcott Hall, American memoirist and novelist (born 1919)


• 
  July 27 – Bob Crampsey, Scottish writer (born 1930)


• 
  July 30 – Peter Coke, English playwright (born 1913)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

• 
  August 3 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Nobel laureate (born 1918)


• 
  August 7 – Simon Gray, English playwright and memoirist (born 1936)


• 
  August 9 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (born 1942)


• 
  August 11 – George Furth, American playwright (born 1932)


• 
  August 17 – Dave Freeman, American writer and advertising executive (born 1961)


• 
  August 23 – John Russell, English art critic (born 1919)


• 
  August 25 – Ahmed Faraz (Syed Akhmad Shah), Pakistani poet in Urdu (born 1931)


• 
  August 31 – Ken Campbell, English novelist and playwright (born 1941)

David Foster Wallace

• 
  September 5 – Robert Giroux, American editor and publisher (born 1914)


• 
  September 7 – Gregory Mcdonald, American mystery writer (born 1937)


• 
  September 12 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist (born 1962)


• 
  September 17 – James Crumley, American crime writer (born 1939)


• 
  September 20 – Duncan Glen, Scottish poet, critic and literary historian (born 1933)


• 
  September 23 – William Woodruff, English historian and autobiographer (born 1916)


• 
  September 29 – Hayden Carruth, American poet and literary critic (born 1921)


• 
  October 4 – Peter Vansittart, English novelist and historical writer (born 1920)


• 
  October 14 – Barrington J. Bayley, English science fiction writer (born 1937)


• 
  October 26 – Tony Hillerman, American mystery writer (born 1925)


• 
  October 27 – Es'kia Mphahlele, South African writer in English (born 1919)


• 
  October 29 – William Wharton (Albert William Du Aime), American novelist (born 1925)


• 
  October 31 – Studs Terkel, American historian and broadcaster (born 1912)


• 
  November 4 – Michael Crichton, American writer and scholar (born 1942)


• 
  November 13 – Jules Archer, American historian and author (born 1915)


• 
  November 14 – Kristin Hunter, American author and academic (born 1931)


• 
  December 1 – Dorothy Sterling, American non-fiction writer for children and historian (born 1913)^[2]
  


• 
  December 15 – Anne-Catharina Vestly, Norwegian children's book author (born 1920)^[3]
  


• 
  December 24 – Harold Pinter, English playwright and screenwriter (born 1930).


• 
  December 31 – Donald E. Westlake, American novelist (born 1933)^[4]
  

Awards and honors[edit]

• 
  Camões Prize: João Ubaldo Ribeiro
  


• 
  Europe Theatre Prize: Patrice Chéreau
  


• 
  International Dublin Literary Award: Rawi Hage, De Niro's Game
  


• 
  International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Bahaa Taher, Sunset Oasis
  


• 
  Nobel Prize in Literature: J. M. G. Le Clézio
  

Australia[edit]

• 
  Miles Franklin Award: Steven Carroll, The Time We Have Taken
  

Canada[edit]

• 
  Canada Reads: Paul Quarrington, King Leary
  


• 
  Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Main award, Zoe Whittall; honours of distinction, Brian Francis, John Miller.


• 
  Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Bruce Serafin, Stardust^[5]
  


• 
  Governor General's Awards: Multiple categories; see 2008 Governor General's Awards.


• 
  Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction: Taras Grescoe, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood
  


• 
  Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Miriam Toews, The Flying Troutmans
  


• 
  Scotiabank Giller Prize: Joseph Boyden, Through Black Spruce
  


• 
  Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award: Michael Winter
  

United Kingdom[edit]

• 
  Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year: The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais, Philip M. Parker
  


• 
  Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Philip Reeve, Here Lies Arthur
  


• 
  Man Booker Prize: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
  


• 
  Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction: to The Road Home by Rose Tremain
  

United States[edit]

• 
  Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2008 Lambda Literary Awards.


• 
  National Book Award for Fiction: to Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
  


• 
  National Book Critics Circle Award: to 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
  


• 
  Newbery Medal for children's literature: Laura Amy Schlitz, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
  


• 
  PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Kate Christensen, The Great Man
  


• 
  Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Junot Diaz, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
  


• 
  Whiting Awards:

Fiction: Mischa Berlinski, Laleh Khadivi, Manuel Muñoz, Benjamin Percy, Lysley Tenorio

Nonfiction: Donovan Hohn

Plays: Dael Orlandersmith

Poetry: Rick Hilles, Douglas Kearney, Julie Sheehan

References[edit]

See also[edit]

• List of literary awards


• List of poetry awards


• 2008 in comics


• 2008 in Australian literature