# 2004 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2004.

## Events

* January
** The poet Jang Jin-sung, in trouble with the North Korean authorities, defects to South Korea.
** The Richard & Judy Book Club is launched on UK daytime television.
* February – Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation.
* February 16 – Edwin Morgan becomes Scotland's first official national poet, the Scots Makar, appointed by the Scottish Parliament.
* May 23 – Seattle Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, opens to the public.
* June 1 – Controversy surrounds Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (高見広春), when an 11-year-old fan of the story in Sasebo, Nagasaki, murders her classmate, 12-year-old Satomi Mitarai, in a way that mimics a scene from the story.
* October 14 – Edinburgh becomes UNESCO's first City of Literature.
* October 31 – Denoël in Paris publishes Irène Némirovsky's Suite française, consisting of two novellas, Tempête en juin and Dolce, written and set in 1940–1941, from a sequence left unfinished on the author's death in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.
* December 18 – The première of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's play Behzti (Dishonour) at England's Birmingham Repertory Theatre is cancelled after violent protests by members of the Sikh community.
* unknown dates
** Kansas City Public Library's Community Bookshelf is built.
** The typeface Calibri, designed by Luc(as) de Groot, is introduced.

## New books
### Fiction

* Cecelia Ahern – PS, I Love You
* Blue Balliett – Chasing Vermeer
* Iain M. Banks – The Algebraist
* Steven Barnes – The Cestus Deception
* Alistair Beaton – A Planet for the President
* Thomas Berger – Adventures of the Artificial Woman
* Roberto Bolaño (posthumous) – 2666
* Xurxo Borrazás – Ser ou non
* T. C. Boyle – The Inner Circle
* Gennifer Choldenko – Al Capone Does My Shirts
* Kate Christensen – The Epicure's Lament: A Novel
* Stephen Clarke – A Year in the Merde
* Susanna Clarke – Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
* Wendy Coakley-Thompson – Back to Life
* Suzanne Collins – Gregor the Overlander
* J. J. Connolly – Layer Cake
* Afua Cooper – The Hanging of Angelique
* Bernard Cornwell
** Sharpe's Escape
** The Last Kingdom
* Douglas Coupland – Eleanor Rigby
* Stevie Davies – Kith & Kin
* L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg – Sagas of Conan
* Michel Déon – Your Father's Room
* Cory Doctorow – Eastern Standard Tribe
* Saken Omur – Joyful Road
* Ben Elton – Past Mortem
* Gustav Ernst – Grado. Süße Nacht
* Giorgio Faletti – Niente di vero tranne gli occhi
* Jon Fosse – Det er Ales (Aliss at the Fire)
* Karen Joy Fowler – The Jane Austen Book Club
* Ge Fei (格非) – 人面桃花 (Renmian Taohua, Peach Blossom Beauty)
* Robert Goddard – Play to the End
* Adrien Goetz – La Dormeuse de Naples
* Helon Habila – Waiting for an Angel
* Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Brave
* Elisabeth Harvor, All Times Have Been Modern (Canada)
* Michael Helm – In the Place of Last Things
* Carl Hiaasen – Skinny Dip
* Alan Hollinghurst – The Line of Beauty
* Jiang Rong – Wolf Totem
* Cynthia Kadohata – Kira-Kira
* Mitsuyo Kakuta (角田 光代) – Woman on the Other Shore
* Peg Kehret – Escaping the Giant Wave
* Thomas Keneally – The Tyrant's Novel
* Stephen King
** The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
** The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
* John Kiriamiti – My Life in Prison
* Karl Ove Knausgård – A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven (En tid for alt)
* László Krasznahorkai – Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens (Rombolás és bánat az Ég alatt)
* Thor Kunkel – Endstufe
* David Leavitt – The Body of Jonah Boyd
* Tanith Lee – Piratica
* David Lodge – Author, Author
* Andreï Makine – The Woman Who Waited (La femme qui attendait)
* Henning Mankell – Depths (Djup)
* David Michaels – Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
* David Mitchell – Cloud Atlas
* Aka Morchiladze – Santa Esperanza
* Bharati Mukherjee – The Tree Bride
* Alice Munro – Runaway
* V. S. Naipaul – Magic Seeds
* Garth Nix – Grim Tuesday
* Cees Nooteboom – Lost Paradise (Paradijs verloren)
* Linda Sue Park – When My Name Was Keoko
* Jodi Picoult – My Sister's Keeper
* Terry Pratchett
** A Hat Full of Sky
** Going Postal
* Michael Reaves and Steve Perry – MedStar I: Battle Surgeons and MedStar II: Jedi Healer
* Marilynne Robinson – Gilead
* Philip Roth – The Plot Against America
* Edward Rutherfurd – Dublin: Foundation
* Nick Sagan – Edenborn
* Andrzej Sapkowski – Warriors of God
* David Sherman and Dan Cragg – Jedi Trial
* Kyle Smith – Love Monkey
* David Southwell – Conspiracy Files
* Muriel Spark – The Finishing School
* Olen Steinhauer – The Confession
* Neal Stephenson
** The Confusion (Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle)
** The System of the World (Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle)
* Sean Stewart – Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
* Michel Thaler – Le Train de Nulle Part
* Colm Tóibín – The Master
* Zlatko Topčić – Bare Skin
* Karen Traviss – Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact
* Jonathan Trigell – Boy A
* Andrew Vachss – Down Here
* Vivian Vande Velde – Heir Apparent
* Bob Weltlich – Crooked Zebra
* A. N. Wilson – My Name Is Legion
* Carlos Ruiz Zafon – The Shadow of the Wind
* Juli Zeh – Gaming Instinct
* Florian Zeller – La Fascination du pire (The Fascination of Evil)

### Children and young people

* David Almond – Kate, the Cat and the Moon
* Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson - Peter and the Starcatchers
* Mary Bartek – Funerals and Fly Fishing
* John Fardell – The Seven Professors of the Far North
* Mem Fox – Where Is the Green Sheep?
* Cornelia Funke – When Santa Fell to Earth
* Virginia Hamilton (with Barry Moser) – Wee Winnie Witch's Skinny: An Original African American Scare Tale
* E. L. Konigsburg - The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
* J. Patrick Lewis (with Gary Kelley) – The Stolen Smile
* Robert Muchamore – The Recruit (first in the CHERUB series)
* Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Blue Boa
* Liz Pichon – My Big Brother, Boris
* Carlos Cuauhtémoc Sánchez – The Eyes of My Princess
* Lemony Snicket – The Grim Grotto
* Dugald Steer (with Nghiem Ta, etc.) – Egyptology: Search for the Tomb of Osiris

### Drama

* Alan Bennett – The History Boys
* Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti – Behzti
* Neil Brand – Stan (radio)
* Bryony Lavery – Frozen
* Brent Hartinger – Geography Club
* Louis Nowra – The Woman with Dog's Eyes
* John Patrick Shanley – Doubt
* Florian Zeller – L'Autre (The Other)

### Poetry

* Seamus Heaney – Beacons at Bealtaine

### Non-fiction

* Steve Almond – Candyfreak
* Thomas P.M. Barnett – The Pentagon's New Map
* Ingmar and Ingrid Bergman and Maria von Rosen – Tre dagböcker (Three diaries)
* T. Mike Childs – The Rocklopedia Fakebandica
* Richard A. Clarke – Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror
* Jonathan Coe – Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson
* Allison Hedge Coke – Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer
* Anne Coleman – I'll Tell You a Secret
* Flora Fraser – Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III
* Leonie Frieda – Catherine de' Medici
* Sheila Hancock – The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw
* Gareth Stedman Jones – An End to Poverty?
* Pedro Lemebel – Adiós mariquita linda
* Doris Lessing – Time Bites: Views and Reviews
* Lawrence Lessig – Free Culture
* Mario Vargas Llosa – The Temptation of the Impossible
* Roger Lowenstein – Origins of the Crash
* Hugh Masekela – Still Grazing (autobiography)
* Predrag Miletić – Biciklom do Hilandara
* Farah Pahlavi – An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah
* Chuck Palahniuk – Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories
* Michael Palin – Himalaya
* Sethy Regenvanu – Laef blong mi (From village to nation: an autobiography)
* Anita Roddick – Take it Personally: How globalization affects you and powerful ways to challenge it
* Miranda Seymour – The Bugatti Queen: In Search of a Motor-Racing Legend
* Owen Sheers – The Dust Diaries
* Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark
* Ben Stein – Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, The Truth, and What to Do About It
* Jon Stewart and writers of The Daily Show – America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction
* Milt Thomas – Cave of a Thousand Tales
* J. Maarten Troost – The Sex Lives of Cannibals
* United Kingdom Government – Delivering Security in a Changing World
* Francis Wheen – How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World (also Idiot Proof: A Short History of Modern Delusions)
* Alford A. Young Jr. – The Minds of Marginalized Black Men

## Films

* 2046 - inspired by Liu Yichang's "The Drunkard"
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
* The Phantom of the Opera

## Deaths

* January 3 – Lillian Beckwith, English novelist (born 1916)
* January 4
** Joan Aiken, English novelist and children's writer (born 1924)
** Jeff Nuttall, English poet, artist and activist (born 1933)
** Dorota Terakowska, Polish writer and journalist, author of fantasy books for children and young adults (born 1938)
** John Toland, American author and historian (born 1912)
* January 10
** Alexandra Ripley, American novelist (born 1934)
** (or January 11) Spalding Gray, American writer and actor (born 1942)
* January 13 – Zeno Vendler, American philosopher and linguist (born 1921)
* January 14 – Jack Cady, American fantasy and horror novelist (born 1932)
* January 15
** Alex Barris, Canadian actor and writer (born 1922)
** Olivia Goldsmith, American novelist (complications from cosmetic surgery, born 1949)
* January 24 – Abdul Rahman Munif, Arab writer (born 1933)
* January 29
** Janet Frame, New Zealand novelist, poet and short story writer (born 1924)
** M. M. Kaye, Indian-born English novelist (born 1908)
* February 2 – Alan Bullock, English historian (born 1914)
* February 4 – Hilda Hilst, Brazilian poet, playwright and novelist (born 1930)
* February 5 – Frances Partridge, English diarist (born 1900)
* February 7 – Norman Thelwell, English cartoonist (born 1923)
* February 17 – Bruce Beaver, Australian poet and novelist (born 1928)
* February 27 – Paul Sweezy, American economist and editor (born 1910)
* February 28 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian (born 1914)
* February 29 – Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (born 1915)
* March 9 – Albert Mol, Dutch author, actor and dancer (born 1917)
* March 27 – Robert Merle, French novelist (born 1908)
* March 29 – Peter Ustinov, English actor, dramatist and memoirist (born 1921)
* March 30
** Alistair Cooke, English-born American journalist and broadcaster (born 1908)
** Michael King OBE, New Zealand historian, author and biographer (born 1945)
* April 19
** Norris McWhirter, English writer and activist (born 1925)
** John Maynard Smith, English evolutionary biologist and writer (born 1920)
* April 25 – Thom Gunn, English poet (born 1929)
* April 26 – Hubert Selby, Jr., American author (born 1928)
* May 2 – Paul Guimard, French writer (born 1921)
* May 12
** Syd Hoff, American author and illustrator (born 1912)
** Alexander Skutch, American scientific writer and naturalist (born 1904)
* May 31 – Lionel Abrahams, South African novelist, poet and essayist (born 1928)
* July 1 – Peter Barnes, English playwright (born 1931)
* July 8 – Paula Danziger, American children's and young adult novelist (born 1945)
* August 8 – Farida Diouri, Moroccan novelist (born 1953)
* August 12 – Humayun Azad, Bangladeshi author, poet, scholar and linguist (born 1947)
* August 14 – Czesław Miłosz, Polish writer and Nobel laureate (born 1911)
* August 30 – Mario Levrero, Uruguayan novelist (born 1940)
* September 18 – Norman Cantor, Canadian historian (born 1929)
* September 24 – Françoise Sagan, French novelist (born 1935)
* September 28 – Mulk Raj Anand, Indian novelist in English (born 1905)
* October – Natalya Baranskaya, Russian short-story writer (born 1908)
* October 8 – Jacques Derrida, Algerian-born French literary critic (born 1930)
* October 13 – Bernice Rubens, Welsh-born novelist (born 1928)
* October 16
** Vincent Brome, English biographer and novelist (born 1910)
** Harold Perkin, English social historian (born 1926)
* October 20 – Anthony Hecht, American poet (born 1923)
* November 9 – Stieg Larsson, Swedish journalist and crime novelist (heart attack, born 1954)
* November 24 – Arthur Hailey, Canadian novelist (born 1920)
* December 2 – Mona Van Duyn, American poet (born 1921)
* December 8 – Jackson Mac Low, American poet (born 1922)
* December 12 – Phaswane Mpe, South African novelist (born 1970)
* December 13 – Jón frá Pálmholti (Jón Kjartansson), Icelandic writer and journalist (born 1930)
* December 18 – Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (born 1926)
* December 28 – Susan Sontag, American novelist (born 1933)

## Awards

* Nobel Prize for Literature: Elfriede Jelinek
* Camões Prize: Agustina Bessa-Luís

### Australia

* The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Julienne van Loon, Road Story
* Victorian Premier's Literary Award C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Judith Beveridge, Wolf Notes
* Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Pam Brown, Dear Deliria: New & Selected Poems
* Mary Gilmore Prize: David McCooey, Blister Pack; Michael Brennan, Imageless World
* Miles Franklin Award: Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire
* Victorian Premier's Literary Award Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction: Annamarie Jagose, Slow Water

### Canada

* Giller Prize: Alice Munro, Runaway
* Governor General's Awards: See 2004 Governor General's Awards
* Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Simpson, Loop and August Kleinzahler, The Strange Hours Travelers Keep
* Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Andrea Curtis, Into the Blue

### Sweden

* Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Lygia Bojunga Nunes

### United Kingdom

* Caine Prize for African Writing: Brian Chikwava, "Seventh Street Alchemy"
* Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions
* Cholmondeley Award: John Agard, Ruth Padel Lawrence Sail, Eva Salzman
* Eric Gregory Award: Nick Laird, Elizabeth Manuel, Abi Curtis, Sophie Levy, Saradha Soobrayen
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Jonathan Bate, John Clare: A Biography
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: David Peace, GB84
* Man Booker Prize: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
* Orange Prize for Fiction: Andrea Levy, Small Island
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Hugo Williams
* Whitbread Best Book Award: Andrea Levy, Small Island

### United States

* Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Henry Taylor
* Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Aaron Smith, Blue on Blue Ground
* Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Jeremy Glazier, "Conversations with the Sidereal Messenger"
* Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: B.H. Fairchild, Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest
* Brittingham Prize in Poetry: John Brehm, Sea of Faith
* Compton Crook Award: E. E. Knight, Way of the Wolf
* Frost Medal: Richard Howard
* Hugo Award for Best Novel: Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls
* Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2004 Lambda Literary Awards.
* National Book Award for Fiction: to The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
* National Book Critics Circle Award: to Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
* PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to The Early Stories: 1953–1975 by John Updike
* Wallace Stevens Award: Mark Strand
* Whiting Awards:
    Fiction: Daniel Alarcón, Kirsten Bakis, Victor LaValle
    Nonfiction: Allison Glock, John Jeremiah Sullivan
    Plays: Elana Greenfield, Tracey Scott Wilson
    Poetry: Catherine Barnett, Dan Chiasson, A. Van Jordan

### Elsewhere

* Premio Nadal: Antonio Soler, El camino de los ingleses