1996 In Literature

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Events

July 8 – Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and 30 other books are struck from an English reading list in Lindale, Texas, as they "conflict with the values of the community."
July 11 – As requested by Nelson Mandela, Benjamin Zephaniah hosts the President's Two Nations Concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.
October 3 – The first performance is held in New York of Eve Ensler's episodic feminist play The Vagina Monologues.
unknown dates
- In the UK, the first Orange Prize for Fiction for female novelists goes to Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter.
- Peter O'Donnell publishes Cobra Trap, a final volume featuring Modesty Blaise. The first appeared in 1965.
- Margaret Mitchell's lost first novella, Lost Laysen, is published, 80 years after it was written.
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Romance Writings, including her novel Princess Docile, are first published 234 years after her death.

New books

Poetry

Non-fiction

Nelson Algren (posthumous) – Nonconformity (essay, written 1953)
Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Carlos Alberto Montaner and Álvaro Vargas Llosa – Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot (essay)
Stephen Ambrose – Undaunted Courage
Bruce Bawer (editor) – Beyond Queer
John Berendt – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
David Chalmers – The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory
Norman Davies – Europe: A History
Richard Dawkins – Climbing Mount Improbable
David Denby – Great Books
Antonia Fraser – The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605
Daniel Goleman – Emotional Intelligence
Denis Guedj – Numbers: The Universal Language
Jennifer Hanson – The Real Freshman Handbook
Samuel P. Huntington – The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Richard Mabey – Flora Britannica
Howard Marks – Mr Nice
Dylan Morgan – The Principles of Hypnotherapy
Anne Mullens – Timely Death
Denise Schmandt-Besserat – How Writing Came About
Arun Shourie – Missionaries in India
Alexander Skutch – The Minds of Birds
Alessandro Vezzosi – Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Births

May 29 - R. F. Kuang, American fantasy and contemporary fiction writer
November 13 - Zeki Majed, Kurdish filmmaker and poet
December 25 - Elvira Natali, Indonesian author and actress

Deaths

January 5 – Lincoln Kirstein, American writer and impresario (born 1907)
January 8 – Howard Taubman, American author and critic (born 1907)
January 11 – Harold Walter Bailey, English linguistics scholar (born 1899)
January 16 – Kaye Webb, English publisher and journalist (born 1914)
January 21 – Efua Sutherland, Ghanaian dramatist, poet and children's author (born 1924)
January 27 – Barbara Skelton, English fiction writer, memoirist and literary figure (born 1916)
January 28
- Jerry Siegel, American cartoonist (born 1914)
- Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (myocardial infarction, born 1940)
February 11
- Bob Shaw, Northern Irish science fiction writer (born 1931)
- Amelia Rosselli, Italian poet (born 1930)
February 12 – Ryōtarō Shiba, Japanese novelist (born 1923)
February 18 – Cathal Ó Sándair, Irish-language novelist (born 1922)
March 3
- Marguerite Duras, French dramatist and film director (born 1914)
- Léo Malet, French crime novelist and surrealist (born 1909)
March 15 – Wolfgang Koeppen, German novelist (born 1906)
March 18
- Jacquetta Hawkes (née Hopkins), English writer and archeologist (born 1910)
- Odysseas Elytis, Greek writer and Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)
March 22
- Claude Mauriac, French novelist and journalist (born 1914)
- Ian Stephens, Canadian poet (year of birth not known)
March 29 – Frank Daniel, Czech-born screenwriter, director, and teacher (born 1926)
March 31 – Dario Bellezza, Italian poet and dramatist (HIV, born 1944)
April 16 – Leila Mackinlay, British romantic novelist (born 1910)
April 18 – Kalim Siddiqui, Pakistani-born English writer and Islamic activist (born 1931)
April 20 – Christopher Robin Milne, English writer and bookseller (born 1920)
April 22 – Erma Bombeck, American humorist and writer (born 1927)
April 23 – P. L. Travers, Australian-born children's writer (born 1899)
May 2 – Emile Habibi, Palestinian Israeli writer and politician (born 1922)
May 8 – Larry Levis, American poet, author, and critic (born 1946)
May 24 – Joseph Mitchell, American journalist (born 1908)
May 26
- Ovidiu Papadima, Romanian critic and essayist (born 1909)
- Margaret Douglas-Home, English writer and musician (born 1906)
May 31 – Timothy Leary, American psychologist and writer (born 1920)
June 2 – Leon Garfield, English children's author (born 1921)
June 14 – Gesualdo Bufalino, Italian novelist (born 1920)
June 15 – Fitzroy Maclean, Scottish political writer, autobiographer and diplomat (born 1911)
July 10 – Eno Raud, Estonian children's author (born 1928)
July 22 – Jessica Mitford, English author, journalist and campaigner (born 1917)
September 21 – Henri Nouwen, Dutch priest, theologian and author (born 1932)
September 29 – Shusaku Endo (遠藤周作), Japanese novelist (born 1923)
October 16 – Eric Malpass, English novelist (born 1910)
October 24 – Sorley Maclean, Gaelic poet (born 1911)
November 27 – Lili Berger, Yiddish writer, antifascist militant and literary critic (born 1916)
December 7 – José Donoso, Chilean writer (born 1924)
December 9 – Diana Morgan, Welsh playwright and screenwriter (born 1908)
December 12 – Vance Packard, American journalist and social critic (born 1914)
December 16 – Quentin Bell, English biographer and art historian (born 1910)
December 20 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist and writer (born 1934)
December 21 – Margret Rey, American author and illustrator (born 1906)

Awards

Australia

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Bernard Cohen, The Blindman's Hat
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Peter Bakowski, In the Human Night
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Eric Beach, Weeping for Lost Babylon
Mary Gilmore Prize: Jordie Albiston, Nervous Arcs
Miles Franklin Award: Christopher Koch, Highways to a War

Canada

Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award
Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Margaret Atwood: – Alias Grace
See 1996 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: George G. Blackburn, The Guns of Normandy

United Kingdom

Booker Prize: Graham Swift, Last Orders
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Melvin Burgess, Junk
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Graham Swift, Last Orders, and Alice Thompson, Justine
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life
Cholmondeley Award: Elizabeth Bartlett, Dorothy Nimmo, Peter Scupham, Iain Crichton Smith
Eric Gregory Award: Sue Butler, Cathy Cullis, Jane Griffiths, Jane Holland, Chris Jones, Sinéad Morrissey, Kate Thomas
Orange Prize for Fiction: Helen Dunmore, A Spell of Winter
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Peter Redgrove
Whitbread Best Book Award: Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level

United States

Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Helen Conkling, Red Peony Night
Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: John Voiklis, "The Princeling's Apology", and (separately) Sarah Arvio, "Visits from the Seventh"
Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Kenneth Koch, One Train
Compton Crook Award: Daniel Graham Jr., The Gatekeepers
Hugo Award: Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
National Book Award: Andrea Barrett, Ship Fever and Other Stories
National Book Critics Circle Award: for Fiction Gina Berriault, Women in Their Beds
National Book Critics Circle Award: for Poetry William Matthews, Time and Money
National Book Critics Circle Award: for General nonfiction Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action
National Book Critics Circle Award: for Biography Robert Polito, Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson
Nebula Award: Nicola Griffith, Slow River
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Karen Cushman, The Midwife's Apprentice
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Richard Ford, Independence Day
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Jonathan Larson, Rent
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Richard Ford – Independence Day
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Jorie Graham: The Dream of the Unified Field
Wallace Stevens Award: Adrienne Rich
Whiting Awards: Fiction: Anderson Ferrell, Cristina García, Molly Gloss, Brian Kiteley, Chris Offutt (fiction/nonfiction), Judy Troy, A.J. Verdelle. Nonfiction: Patricia Storace (nonfiction/poetry). Poetry: Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Elizabeth Spires

Elsewhere

International Dublin Literary Award: David Malouf, Remembering Babylon
Premio Nadal: Pedro Maestre, Matando dinosaurios con tirachinas

References

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