# 2008 in literature

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2008.

## Events

* 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."
* February 29 – Belgian-born "Misha Defonseca" admits that her bestselling Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years (1997) is a literary forgery.
* April – Signet Books announce they will cease to publish the American historical romance novelist Cassie Edwards after a dispute over plagiarism.
* April 25 – The first Twitter novel, Small Places by Nicholas Belardes, is launched.
* 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 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 (1981) is the winner of a poll to select the "Best of the Booker".

## New books
### Fiction

* Aravind Adiga
** The White Tiger
** Between the Assassinations (November 1)
* Uwem Akpan – Say You're One of Them
* Paul Auster – Man in the Dark
* Sebastian Barry – The Secret Scripture (September 29)
* Henry Bauchau – Le Boulevard périphérique
* John Berger – From A to X
* Charles Bock – Beautiful Children (January 22)
* Roberto Bolaño – 2666: A Novel (November 11)
* Xurxo Borrazás – Costa norte/ZFK
* 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)
* M. H. Herlong – The Great Wide Sea (October 2)
* 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)
* 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)
* Sofi Oksanen – Puhdistus
* 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)
* Mary Ann Rodman – Jimmy's Stars
* 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
* Elizabeth Strout – Olive Kitteridge (March 25)
* Tom Rob Smith – Child 44
* Joan Thomas – Reading by Lightning
* David Turashvili – Flight from the USSR
* John Updike – The Widows of Eastwick (October 28)
* Tobias Wolff – Our Story Begins (March 25)

### Genre fiction

* Jim Butcher – Small Favor (April 1) (Harry Dresden #10)
* Matthew J. Costello – Doom 3: Worlds on Fire (February 26)
* Ursula K. Le Guin – Lavinia
* 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

* David Almond
** The Savage
** Jackdaw Summer
* Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson – Science Fair
* Nick Bland – The Very Cranky Bear
* Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (July 15)
* Frank Cottrell-Boyce – Desirable
* Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games (September 14)
* John Fardell – Manfred the Baddie
* Mem Fox – Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
* Cornelia Funke – Inkdeath (October 7)
* 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)
* Patricia Martin - Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love (January 8)
* Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock (June 1)
* Garth Nix – Superior Saturday (May 5)
* Arielle North Olson – More Bones: Scary Stories From Around The World
* Christopher Paolini – Brisingr (September 2)
* Ridley Pearson - Steel Trapp: The Challenge
* Amjed Qamar – Beneath My Mother's Feet
* Rick Riordan – The Maze of Bones
* Angie Sage – Queste (April 8)
* Michael Salzhauer – My Beautiful Mommy⁶

### Drama

* 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

### Non-fiction

* 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)
* Jim Holt – Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes
* 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
* Thomas Cairns Livingstone – Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913–1918
* Minae Mizumura – The Fall of Language in the Age of English
* Scholastique Mukasonga – La femme aux pieds nus (The Barefoot Woman)
* 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
* Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow – Last Lecture
* Peter Rees – The Other ANZACs
* David Sedaris – When You Are Engulfed in Flames (June 3)
* Tore Skeie – Alv Erlingsson: fortellingen om en adelsmanns undergang
* 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
* Shreve Stockton - The Daily Coyote
* Jane Straus – The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
* 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
* 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

* 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)
* 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)
* 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 15 – Muhyi al-Din Faris, Sudanese poet (born 1936)
* May 19 – Vijay Tendulkar, Indian playwright (born 1928)
* May 22 – Robert Asprin, American science fiction writer (born 1946)
* May 23 – Alan Brien, English journalist and novelist (born 1925)
* May 28 – Elinor Lyon, British children's writer (born 1921)
* 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)
* 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)
* 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)
* 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 24 – Bengt Anderberg, Swedish poet, novelist and children's writer (born 1920)
* September 29 – Hayden Carruth, American poet and literary critic (born 1921)
* October 4 – Peter Vansittart, English novelist and historical writer (born 1920)
* October 10 – Ilie Purcaru, Romanian journalist and poet (born 1933)
* 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)
* December 4 – Forrest J Ackerman, American magazine editor, science fiction writer, and literary agent (born 1916)
* December 15 – Anne-Catharina Vestly, Norwegian children's book author (born 1920)
* December 20 – Adrian Mitchell, English poet, playwright and fiction writer (born 1932)
* December 24 – Harold Pinter, English playwright and screenwriter (born 1930)
* December 31 – Donald E. Westlake, American novelist (born 1933)

## Awards and honors

* Camões Prize: João Ubaldo Ribeiro
* Europe Theatre Prize: Patrice Chéreau
* European Book Prize: Tony Judt, Postwar
* 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

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

### Canada

* 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
* 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

### Sweden

* Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Sonya Hartnett

### United Kingdom

* Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year: The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais, Philip M. Parker
* Caine Prize for African Writing: Henrietta Rose-Innes, "Poison"
* 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

* 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

### Other

* Premio de la Crítica de Galicia (category Ensayo y Pensamiento): Xurxo Borrazás, Arte e parte