# 2001 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2001.

## Events

* February 15 – The author Michael Crichton signs a new deal with HarperCollins Publishers that reportedly earns him $40 million for two books.
* April 1 – The BookCrossing scheme for leaving books for strangers to find is launched.
* April 13 – The film version of Helen Fielding's 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary has uncredited cameo roles as themselves for Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes and Jeffrey Archer, at a literary party.
* July 19 – The English popular novelist and politician Jeffrey Archer, having been found guilty of perjury in a libel trial, is sentenced to imprisonment.
* September 19 – Amiri Baraka reads his poem "Somebody Blew Up America?" at a poetry festival in New Jersey, eight days after the September 11 attacks.
* November 4 – Film premiere of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, first in the commercially successful Harry Potter film series based on the novels of J. K. Rowling.
* December 10 – The live-action film version of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, directed by Peter Jackson, opens in London. Its appearance has a strong impact on readership of the trilogy.

## New books
### Fiction

* Niccolò Ammaniti – Io non ho paura
* Hiromu Arakawa – Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, manga series, begins publication)
* Tahar Ben Jelloun – Cette aveuglante absence de lumière (This Blinding Absence of Light)
* Raymond Benson – Never Dream of Dying
* Dennis Bock – The Ash Garden
* Ben Bova – The Precipice
* Geraldine Brooks – Year of Wonders
* Lois McMaster Bujold – The Curse of Chalion
* Javier Cercas – Soldiers of Salamis (Soldados de Salamina)
* Joseph Connolly – S.O.S.
* Bernard Cornwell
** Sharpe's Trafalgar
** Gallows Thief
* Douglas Coupland – All Families Are Psychotic
* Achmat Dangor – Bitter Fruit
* Helen Dunmore – The Siege
* Umberto Eco – Baudolino
* James Ellroy – The Cold Six Thousand
* Leif Enger – Peace Like a River
* Sebastian Faulks – On Green Dolphin Street
* Ken Follett – Jackdaws
* Leon Forrest – Meteor in the Madhouse
* Jonathan Franzen – The Corrections
* Rodrigo Fresán – Mantra
* Diana Gabaldon – The Fiery Cross
* Neil Gaiman – American Gods
* Kate Grenville – The Idea of Perfection
* John Grisham
** A Painted House
** Skipping Christmas
* Abdulrazak Gurnah – By the Sea
* Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Impostors
* Joanne Harris – Five Quarters of the Orange
* Vigdis Hjorth – Om bare (If only)
* Nick Hornby – How to Be Good
* Silas House – Clay's Quilt
* Nancy Huston – Dolce Agonia
* John Irving – The Fourth Hand
* Fleur Jaeggy – Proleterka
* P. D. James – Death in Holy Orders
* Greg Keyes
* Edge of Victory: Conquest
* Edge of Victory: Rebirth
* Stephen King
** Black House
** Dreamcatcher
* Christian Kracht – 1979
* Hanif Kureishi – Gabriel's Gift
* Joe R. Lansdale – Captains Outrageous
* John le Carré – The Constant Gardener
* Ursula K. Le Guin – The Birthday of the World, and Other Stories
* Pedro Lemebel – Tengo miedo torero (My Tender Matador)
* Mario Vargas Llosa – The Feast of the Goat (La fiesta del chivo)
* David Lodge – Thinks ...
* James Luceno – Cloak of Deception
* Ian McEwan – Atonement
* Andreï Makine – Music of a Life (La Musique d'une vie)
* Juliet Marillier – Child of the Prophecy
* Yann Martel – Life of Pi
* Alice Munro – Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (short stories)
* V S Naipaul – Half a Life
* R. K. Narayan – Under the Banyan Tree
* Joyce Carol Oates – Middle Age: A Romance
* Chuck Palahniuk – Choke
* Noni Power – Crawling at Night
* Terry Pratchett
** The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
** Thief of Time
** The Last Hero
* Sven Regener – Herr Lehmann
* Kathy Reichs – Fatal Voyage
* Alain Robbe-Grillet – La Reprise
* Jean-Christophe Rufin – Rouge Brésil
* Salman Rushdie – Fury
* Richard Russo – Empire Falls
* W. G. Sebald – Austerlitz
* Nava Semel – And the Rat Laughed (ואת צחוק של עכברוש)
* Olga Slavnikova – Bessmertniy (The Immortal)
* Danielle Steel – Leap of Faith
* Antonio Tabucchi – It's Getting Later All the Time
* Amy Tan – The Bonesetter's Daughter
* Timothy Taylor – Stanley Park
* Anne Tyler – Back When We Were Grownups
* Jane Urquhart – The Stone Carvers
* Andrew Vachss – Pain Management
* Tim Winton – Dirt Music
* Carlos Ruiz Zafón – La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind; first in El cementerio de los libros olvidados (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books) series)
* Juli Zeh – Eagles and Angels

### Children and young people

* David Almond – Secret Heart
* Malorie Blackman – Noughts and Crosses (first in the Noughts and Crosses series of five books)
* Ann Brashare – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
* Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl (first in the eponymous series of eight books)
* Eva Ibbotson – Journey to the River Sea
* Brian Jacques – Castaways of the Flying Dutchman
* David Klass – You Don't Know Me
* Hilary McKay – Saffy's Angel
* Patricia McKissack – Goin' Someplace Special
* Michael Morpurgo
** More Muck and Magic
** Out of the Ashes
** Toro! Toro!
* Lesléa Newman – Cats, Cats, Cats!
* Linda Sue Park – A Single Shard
* Philip Reeve – Mortal Engines (November 16)
* J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Lemony Snicket
** The Ersatz Elevator
** The Vile Village
** The Hostile Hospital
* Jacqueline Wilson – Sleepovers

### Drama

* Richard Alfieri – Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks
* Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti – Behsharam (Shameless)
* Abdelkader Benali – Yasser
* Jon Fosse – Dødsvariasjonar (Death Variations)
* Neil LaBute – The Shape of Things
* Lynn Manning – Weights
* Peter Morris – The Age of Consent
* Zlatko Topčić – Time Out

### Poetry

* Anne Carson – The Beauty of the Husband

### Non-fiction

* David Allen – Getting Things Done
* Tom Allen – Rolling Home
* Jan Bondeson – Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear
* Dionne Brand – A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging
* Edwin Bryant – The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture
* Joan Didion – Political Fictions
* Eamon Duffy – The Voices of Morebath. Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village
* Barbara Ehrenreich – Nickel and Dimed
* Koenraad Elst – The Saffron Swastika
* Mem Fox – Reading Magic
* Antonia Fraser – Marie Antoinette: The Journey
* Dorothy Gallagher – How I Came Into My Inheritance and Other True Stories
* Stephen Hawking – The Universe in a Nutshell
* Laura Hillenbrand – Seabiscuit: An American Legend
* Christopher Hitchens – The Trial of Henry Kissinger
* Gary Lachman – Turn Off Your Mind
* Lawrence Lessig – The Future of Ideas
* Normand Lester – Le Livre noir du Canada Anglais (The Black Book of English Canada)
* Steven Levy – Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government—Saving Privacy in the Digital Age
* Margaret MacMillan – Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War
* Michael Moore – Stupid White Men
* Mumtaz Mufti – Ali Pur Ka Aeeli
* Pavel Polian – Against Their Will... A History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR
* E. Hoffmann Price – Book of the Dead
* Eric Schlosser – Fast Food Nation
* Miranda Seymour – Mary Shelley
* Andrew Solomon – The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
* Ben Thompson - Ways of Hearing
* Türkmenbaşy – Ruhnama (The Book of the Soul, first part)
* Ivan Vladislavic – The Restless Supermarket
* Frans de Waal – The Ape and the Sushi Master
* Benjamin Woolley – The Queen's Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr. Dee

## Deaths

* January 5 – G. E. M. Anscombe, English analytic philosopher (died 2001)
* January 8 – Catherine Storr, English children's writer (born 1913)
* January 11 – Lorna Sage, English scholar (born 1943)
* January 31 – Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian-born American science fiction writer (born 1923)
* February 7 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and aviator (born 1906)
* February 14
** Alan Ross, Indian-born English poet and editor (born 1922)
** Richard Laymon, American horror fiction writer (born 1947)
* March 1 – Mahmud Arif, Saudi Arabian poet (born 1909)
* March 12 – Robert Ludlum, American novelist (born 1927)
* May 11 – Douglas Adams, English writer, humorist and dramatist (born 1952)
* May 13
** Jason Miller, American actor and playwright (born 1939)
** R. K. Narayan, Indian novelist writing in English (born 1906)
* June 1 – Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist (born 1920)
* June 27 – Tove Jansson, Finnish children's author writing in Swedish (born 1914)
* July 3 – Mordecai Richler, Canadian author, screenwriter and essayist (born 1931)
* July 18 – James Hatfield, American author (born 1958)
* July 31 – Poul Anderson, American fantasy and sci-fi author (born 1926)
* August 6 – Jorge Amado, Brazilian writer (born 1912)
* August 20 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and science fiction writer (born 1915)
* November 10 – Ken Kesey, American author (born 1935)
* November 25 – David Gascoyne, English surrealist poet (born 1916)
* December 21 – Dick Schaap, American journalist and author (born 1934)
* December 14 – W. G. Sebald, German novelist and academic (born 1944)

## Awards

* Nobel Prize for Literature: V.S. Naipaul

### Australia

* Miles Franklin Award: Frank Moorhouse, Dark Palace

### Canada

* Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Richard B. Wright – Clara Callan
* See 2001 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
* Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Taras Grescoe – Sacré Blues

### France

* Prix Décembre: Chloé Delaume, Le Cri du sablier
* Prix Femina: Marie Ndiaye, Rosie Carpe
* Prix Goncourt: Jean-Christophe Rufin, Rouge Brésil
* Prix Médicis French: Edwy Plenel, Secrets de jeunesse
* Prix Médicis Non-Fiction: Le Loup mongol
* Prix Médicis International: Antonio Skarmeta, La noce du poète

### United Kingdom

* Booker Prize: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang
* Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Sid Smith, Something Like a House
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: Volume 3 – Fighting for Britain 1937–1946
* Caine Prize for African Writing: Helon Habila, "Love Poems"
* Cholmondeley Award: Ian Duhig, Paul Durcan, Kathleen Jamie, Grace Nichols
* Eric Gregory Award: Leontia Flynn, Thomas Warner, Tishani Doshi, Patrick Mackie, Kathryn Gray, Sally Read
* Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Carson, Men in the Off Hours and Nikolai Popov and Heather McHugh, translation of Glottal Stop: 101 Poems by Paul Celan
* Hugo Award: J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Samuel Johnson Prize: Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Michael Longley
* Orange Prize for Fiction: Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection
* Whitbread Best Book Award: Patrick Neate, Twelve Bar Blues

### United States

* Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Gabriel Gudding for A Defense of Poetry
* Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, Frederick Morgan
* Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, “Circus Fire, 1944”
* Bollingen Prize for Poetry, Louise Glück
* Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Robin Behn, Horizon Note
* Compton Crook Award: Syne Mitchell, Murphy's Gambit
* Frost Medal: Sonia Sanchez
* Hugo Award: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Richard Peck, A Year Down Yonder
* National Book Award for Fiction: to The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
* National Book Critics Circle Award: to Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
* PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Philip Roth for The Human Stain
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: David Auburn, Proof
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Stephen Dunn, Different Hours
* Wallace Stevens Award: John Ashbery
* Whiting Awards:
    Fiction: Emily Carter, Matthew Klam, Akhil Sharma, Samrat Upadhyay, John Wray
    Nonfiction: Judy Blunt, Kathleen Finneran
    Plays: Brighde Mullins
    Poetry: Joel Brouwer, Jason Sommer

### Other

* Camões Prize: Eugénio de Andrade
* Europe Theatre Prize: Lev Dodin, Michel Piccoli
* Finlandia Prize: Hannu Raittila, Canal Grande
* International Dublin Literary Award: Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief
* Premio Nadal: Fernando Marías, El Niño de los Coroneles
* Premio Strega: Domenico Starnone, Via Gemito
* Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja (first award): Javier Reverte, La Noche Detenida
* Premio Antón Losada Diéguez (category Creación literaria): Xurxo Borrazás, Na maleta
* SAARC Literary Award: Ganesh Narayandas Devy, Shamsur Rahman
* Viareggio Prize: Niccolò Ammaniti, Io non ho paura, Michele Ranchetti, Verbale, and Giorgio Pestelli, Canti del destino