# 2021 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2021.

## Events

* January 1 – British writer and illustrator Anthony Browne is appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to literature.
* September 7 – A Radio-Canada article reveals that 5,000 books from 30 French-language school libraries in Southwestern Ontario were destroyed by the Conseil scolaire catholique Providence because they included racial stereotypes relating to Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Although intended as a "gesture of reconciliation", the action meets with widespread condemnation.
* October 6 – The National Assembly of France adopts new legislation mandating a minimum price on book deliveries to protect independent bookstores from e-commerce giants including Amazon and Fnac, who have circumvented a 2014 law banning the free delivery of books by offering discounted shipping at €0.01.

## New books
### Fiction

New adult fiction, sorted by author's last name :
| Author | Title | Date of Pub. |
| Anuk Arudpragasam | A Passage North | July 13 |
| S.A Cosby | Razorblade Tears | July 6 |
| Rachel Cusk | Second Place | May 4 |
| Claire Fuller | Unsettled Ground | March 25 |
| Damon Galgut | The Promise | May |
| Lauren Groff | Matrix | September 7 |
| Jakob Guanzon | Abundance | March 2 |
| Nathan Harris | The Sweetness of Water | June 15 |
| Zakiya Dalila Harris | The Other Black Girl | June 1 |
| Kazuo Ishiguro | Klara and the Sun | March 2 |
| Stephen Graham Jones | My Heart Is a Chainsaw | August 31 |
| Caroline Kepnes | You Love Me | April 6 |
| Stephen King | Billy Summers | August 3 |
| Stephen King | Later | March 2 |
| John le Carré | Silverview | October 12 |
| Jamie Marina Lau | Gunk Baby | April 28 |
| Patricia Lockwood | No One Is Talking About This | February 16 |
| Nadifa Mohamed | The Fortune Men | May 27 |
| Ewan Morrison | How to Survive Everything | March 1 |
| Jason Mott | Hell of a Book | June 28 |
| Caleb Azumah Nelson | Open Water | February 4 |
| Viet Thanh Nguyen | The Committed | March 2 |
| Anna North | Outlawed | January 5 |
| Nnedi Okorafor | Remote Control | January 19 |
| Helen Oyeyemi | Peaces | April 6 |
| Lauren Oyler | Fake Accounts | February 2 |
| Lindsay Pereira | Gods and Ends | March 22 |
| Richard Powers | Bewilderment | September 21 |
| Sally Rooney | Beautiful World, Where Are You | September 7 |
| Mohamed Mbougar Sarr | La plus secrète mémoire des hommes | August 19 |
| Maggie Shipstead | Great Circle | May 4 |
| Michael Farris Smith | Nick | January 5 |
| Wole Soyinka | Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth | September 28 |
| Francis Spufford | Light Perpetual | May 18 |
| Elizabeth Strout | Oh William! | October 19 |
| Colson Whitehead | Harlem Shuffle | September 14 |
| Joy Williams | Harrow | September 14 |

### Children and young adults

New books for children and young adults, sorted by date of publication :
| Author | Title | Date of Pub. |
| Joanna Ho | Eyes That Kiss in the Corners | January 5 |
| Bassem Yousef and Catherine R. Daly | The Magical Reality of Nadia | January 5 |
| Corey R. Tabor | Mel Fell | February 2 |
| Carole Boston Weatherford | Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre | February 2 |
| Rose Szabo | What Big Teeth | February 2 |
| Philippa Dowding | Firefly | February 6 |
| Angeline Boulley | Firekeeper's Daughter | March 16 |
| Jory John | Something's Wrong!: A Bear, a Hare, and Some Underwear | March 23 |
| Matt Walsh | Johnny the Walrus | March 29 |
| Andrea Wang | Watercress | March 30 |
| Micha Archer | Wonder Walkers | March 30 |
| Roshani Chokshi | Aru Shah and the City of Gold | April 6 |
| Charlie Jane Anders | Victories Greater Than Death | April 13 |
| Kyle Lukoff | Too Bright to See | April 20 |
| Shawn Harris | Have You Ever Seen a Flower? | May 4 |
| Dawn Quigley | Jo Jo Makoons | May 11 |
| Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds | Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You | May 11 |
| Adiba Jaigirdar | Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating | May 25 |
| Ashley Herring Blake | Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea | May 25 |
| Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé | Ace of Spades | June 1 |
| Meghan Markle | The Bench | June 8 |
| Joy Keller | Frankenslime | July 13 |
| Crystal Frasier | Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms | August 10 |
| Amber McBride | Me (Moth) | August 17 |
| Jordan Ifueko | Redemptor | August 27 |
| Michael G. Long | Three Lines in a Circle | August 31 |
| Ayana Gray | Beasts of Prey | September 28 |
| Benjamin Alire Sáenz | Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World | October 12 |
| J. K. Rowling | The Christmas Pig | October 12 |
| Donna Barba Higuera | The Last Cuentista | October 12 |
| Naseem Hrab | The Sour Cherry Tree | October 15 |
| Eoin Colfer | The Fowl Twins Get What They Deserve | October 19 |
| Rick Riordan | Daughter of the Deep | October 26 |
| Jeff Kinney | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot | October 26 |
| Roseanne A. Brown | A Psalm of Storms and Silence | November 2 |
| Natasha Bowen | Skin of the Sea | November 2 |
| Harmony Becker | Himawari House | November 9 |
| Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson | The 1619 Project: Born on the Water | November 16 |
| Charlotte Sullivan Wild | Love, Violet | November 16 |
| Mac Barnett | What Is Love? | December 28 |

### Poetry

New poetry books, sorted by date of publication :
| Author | Title | Date of pub. |
| Amanda Gorman | The Hill We Climb: Poems | March 30, US |
| Hannah Lowe | The Kids | September 16, US |
| Amanda Gorman | Call Us What We Carry | December 7, US |

### Drama

* Giles Terera – The Meaning of Zong

### Non-fiction

New nonfiction books, sorted by date of publication :
| Author | Title | Date of pub. |
| Joan Didion | Let Me Tell You What I Mean | January 26 |
| Elizabeth Kolbert | Under a White Sky | February 9 |
| Heather McGhee | The Sum of Us | February 9 |
| Bill Gates | How to Avoid a Climate Disaster | February 16 |
| Jordan Peterson | Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life | March 2 |
| Julia Galef | The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't | April 13 |
| Patrick Radden Keefe | Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty | April 13 |
| Sasha Issenberg | The Engagement: America's Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage | June 1 |
| Lawrence Wright | The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid | June 8 |
| Michael Holding | Why We Kneel, How We Rise | June 24 |
| Sam Kean | The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science | July 13 |
| Sarah Gristwood | The Tudors in Love: Passion and Politics in the Age of England's Most Famous Dynasty | September 23 |
| Sanjay Gupta | World War C: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic and How to Prepare for the Next One | October 5 |
| Paul McCartney and Paul Muldoon | The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present | November 2 |
| Zoë Playdon | The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: The Transgender Trial That Threatened to Upend the British Establishment | November 11 |
| Brené Brown | Atlas of the Heart | November 30 |

### Biography and memoirs

New biographies and memoirs, sorted by last name :
| Author | Title | Date of pub. |
| Blake Bailey | Philip Roth: The Biography | May 26 |
| Hunter Biden | Beautiful Things | April 6 |
| Brian Broome | Punch Me Up to the Gods | May 18 |
| Walter Isaacson | The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race | March 9 |
| Sinéad O'Connor | Rememberings | June 1 |
| Nadia Owusu | Aftershocks: A Memoir | January 12 |
| Michelle Zauner | Crying in H Mart | April 20 |
* The Family Roe: An American Story, Joshua Prager, September 14, 2021

## Deaths

Deaths sorted by date of death :
| Individual | Background | Date of Death | Age | Cause of Death |
| Mary Catherine Bateson | Daughter of Margaret Mead, American author and anthropologist | January 2 | 81 | Brain damage |
| Eric Jerome Dickey | American novelist | January 3 | 59 | Cancer |
| Neil Sheehan | American journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author | January 7 | 84 | Complications from Parkinson's disease |
| Christopher Little | J. K. Rowling's literary agent | January 7 | 79 | Cancer |
| Ved Mehta | MacArthur Fellow, New Yorker writer, influential mentor, and chronicler of India | January 9 | 87 | Complications from Parkinson's disease |
| Vassilis Alexakis | Greek-born French writer and translator | January 11 | 77 | |
| Sharon Kay Penman | American historian and novelist | January 22 | 75 | Pneumonia |
| Martha Madrigal | Mexican poet | January 23 | 92 | COVID-19 |
| Lars Norén | Swedish playwright, novelist and poet | January 26 | 77 | COVID-19 |
| Maria Guarnaschelli | American cookbook editor | February 6 | 79 | Heart disease |
| Jean-Claude Carrière | French novelist, screenwriter and actor | February 8 | 89 | |
| Lawrence Otis Graham | American essayist and cultural critic | February 19 | 59 | |
| Lawrence Ferlinghetti | American beat poet, publisher, and co-founder of City Lights Bookstore | February 22 | 101 | Interstitial lung disease |
| Enrique González Rojo, Jr. | Mexican writer and philosopher | March 5 | 92 | |
| N. S. Lakshminarayan Bhat | Indian poet | March 6 | 84 | |
| Valentin Kurbatov | Russian literary critic and writer | March 6 | 81 | |
| Djibril Tamsir Niane | Guinean writer and historian | March 8 | 89 | COVID-19 |
| Norton Juster | American writer | March 8 | 91 | Complication from a stroke |
| Joan Walsh Anglund | American poet and children's book author and illustrator | March 9 | 95 | Heart failure |
| Robert Middlekauff | American historian | March 10 | 91 | Complication from a stroke |
| Nawal El Saadawi | Egyptian feminist and writer | March 21 | 89 | |
| Adam Zagajewski | Polish poet | March 21 | 75 | |
| Morris Dickstein | American literary critic and cultural historian | March 24 | 81 | Complications from Parkinson's disease |
| Beverly Cleary | Children's book writer | March 25 | 104 | |
| Larry McMurtry | American novelist | March 25 | 84 | |
| Giancarlo DiTrapano | Founder of Tyrant Books | March 30 | 47 | |
| Arthur Kopit | American playwright | April 2 | 83 | |
| Denis Donoghue | Irish academic and literary critic | April 6 | 92 | |
| Vartan Gregorian | Saved the New York Public Library | April 15 | 87 | |
| Anthony Thwaite | English poet and editor | April 22 | 90 | |
| Pieter Aspe | Belgian writer | May 2 | 68 | |
| Jesús Hilario Tundidor | Spanish poet | May 2 | 85 | |
| Lucinda Franks | Journalist and memoirist, first women to win a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting | May 5 | 74 | |
| Kentaro Miura | Japanese manga artist | May 6 | 54 | Acute aortic dissection |
| Eric Carle | American children's book writer and illustrator | May 23 | 91 | Kidney failure |
| Dan Frank | Editorial director of Pantheon Books | May 24 | 67 | |
| Friederike Mayröcker | Austrian poet and writer | June 4 | 96 | |
| Richard Robinson | Turned Scholastic into a major children's book publisher | June 5 | 84 | |
| Janet Malcolm | American journalist, biographer, and writer for The New Yorker | June 16 | 86 | Lung cancer |
| Stephen Dunn | American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet | June 24 | 82 | Complications from Parkinson's disease |
| Elizabeth Martinez | American author who jumpstarted the Chicana movement | June 29 | 95 | |
| Athan Theoharis | American historian | July 3 | 84 | Pneumonia |
| Roberto Calasso | Italian novelist, critic, scholar, and publisher | July 28 | 80 | |
| Jean Breeze | Jamaican dub poet and storyteller | August 4 | 65 | Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) |
| Donald Kagan | American historian | August 6 | 89 | |
| Jill Murphy | British children's author and illustrator | August 18 | 72 | Cancer |
| James W. Loewen | American sociologist and author | August 19 | 79 | Bladder cancer |
| David Roberts | American adventure writer | August 20 | 78 | |
| Russ Kick | American writer and editor | September 12 | 52 | |
| Charles W. Mills | American philosopher | September 20 | 70 | Cancer |
| Takao Saito | Japanese manga artist | September 24 | 84 | Pancreatic cancer |
| Gary Paulsen | American author | October 13 | 82 | Cardiac arrest |
| Máire Mhac an tSaoi | Irish language scholar and poet | October 16 | 99 | |
| Brendan Kennelly | Irish poet | October 17 | 85 | |
| Jerry Pinkney | American children's book writer and illustrator | October 20 | 81 | Heart attack |
| Raúl Rivero | Cuban poet | November 6 | 75 | |
| Sylvère Lotringer | French literary critic and founder of Semiotexte(e) | November 8 | 83 | |
| Jakucho Setouchi | Japanese feminist writer | November 9 | 99 | Heart failure |
| Petra Mayer | American book editor | November 13 | 46 | Pulmonary embolism |
| Etel Adnan | Lebanese-American novelist | November 14 | 96 | |
| Robert Bly | American poet, translator, and author | November 21 | 96 | Complications of Alzheimer's disease |
| Almudena Grandes | Spanish novelist | November 21 | 94 | Cancer |
| Andrew Vachss | American crime writer | November 23 | 79 | Coronary artery disease |
| Marie-Claire Blais | Canadian writer | November 30 | 82 | |
| Miroslav Zikmund | Czech adventurer, travel writer and film director | December 1 | 102 | |
| Greg Tate | American journalist and cultural critic | December 7 | 64 | |
| Anne Rice | American author | December 12 | 80 | Complications from a stroke |
| bell hooks | American author and feminist | December 15 | 69 | Kidney failure |
| Madhur Kapila | Indian journalist, novelist, art critic, and reviewer of Hindi literature | December 19 | 79 | Cardiac arrest |
| Myrna Manzanares | Belizean writer and activist | December 21 | 75 | Complications from a stroke |
| Joan Didion | American author and memoirist | December 23 | 87 | Complications from Parkinson's disease |
| Keri Hulme | New Zealand writer (The Bone People) and poet | December 25 | 74 | Chronic medical issues |

## Awards

2021 literary award winners, sorted alphabetically by award :
| Award | Category | Author | Title |
| Akutagawa Prize | Akutagawa Prize | Kotomi Li | Higanbana ga saku shima |
| Akutagawa Prize | Akutagawa Prize | Mai Ishizawa | Kai ni tsudzuku basho nite |
| Akutagawa Prize | Akutagawa Prize | Bunji Sunakawa | Black Box |
| America Award in Literature | America Award in Literature | Rosmarie Waldrop | — |
| Andre Norton Award | Andre Norton Award | Ursula Vernon | A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking |
| Anisfield-Wolf Book Award | Fiction | James McBride | Deacon King Kong |
| Anisfield-Wolf Book Award | Nonfiction | Vincent Brown | Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War |
| Anisfield-Wolf Book Award | Nonfiction | Natasha Trethewey | Memorial Drive |
| Anisfield-Wolf Book Award | Poetry | Victoria Chang | OBIT |
| Anisfield-Wolf Book Award | Lifetime Achievement | Samuel R. Delany | — |
| Arthur C. Clarke Award | Arthur C. Clarke Award | Laura Jean McKay | The Animals in That Country |
| Baillie Gifford Prize | Baillie Gifford Prize | Patrick Radden Keefe | Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty |
| BBC National Short Story Award | BBC National Short Story Award | Lucy Caldwell | All the People Were Mean and Bad |
| Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year | Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year | Roy Schwartz | Is Superman Circumcised? |
| Booker Prize | Booker Prize | Damon Galgut | The Promise |
| Booker Prize | International Booker Prize | David Diop with Anna Moschovakis (trans.) | At Night All Blood Is Black |
| Bram Stoker Award | BSA–Best (Horror) Novel | Stephen Graham Jones | My Heart is a Chainsaw |
| British Book Awards | Author of the Year | Marian Keyes | — |
| British Book Awards | Book of the Year | Marcus Rashford | You Are a Champion: How To Be the Best You Can Be |
| British Book Awards | Children's Book of the Year | Phil Earle | When The Sky Falls |
| British Book Awards | Fiction Book of the Year | Meg Mason | Sorrow and Bliss |
| British Book Awards | Crime & Thriller | William McIlvanney; Ian Rankin | The Dark Remains |
| British Book Awards | Nonfiction Narrative | Sathnam Sanghera | Empireland |
| British Fantasy Award | Fantasy Novel (Robert Holdstock Award) | Alix E. Harrow | The Once and Future Witches |
| British Fantasy Award | Horror Novel (August Derleth Award) | Silvia Moreno-Garcia | Mexican Gothic |
| British Fantasy Award | Novella | P. Djèlí Clark | Ring Shout |
| British Fantasy Award | Short Story | Ida Keogh | “Infinite Tea in the Demara Café” |
| British Fantasy Award | Collection | Charlotte Bond | The Watcher in the Woods |
| British Fantasy Award | Anthology | Zelda Knight & Oghenechovwe | Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora |
| British Fantasy Award | Non-fiction | Alison Peirse, ed. | Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre |
| Caine Prize for African Writing | Caine Prize for African Writing | Meron Hadero | "The Street Sweep" |
| Camões Prize | Camões Prize | Paulina Chiziane | — |
| Carl Zuckmayer Medal | Carl Zuckmayer Medal | Nora Gomringer | — |
| Carnegie Medal | Carnegie Medal | Jason Reynolds | Look Both Ways |
| Center for Fiction First Novel Prize | Center for Fiction First Novel Prize | Kirstin Valdez Quade | The Five Wounds |
| Costa Book Awards | Costa Book of the Year | Claire Fuller | Unsettled Ground |
| Costa Book Awards | Costa–Novel | Claire Fuller | Unsettled Ground |
| Costa Book Awards | Costa–Biography | John Preston | Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell |
| Costa Book Awards | Costa–Children's Book | Manjeet Mann | The Crossing |
| Costa Book Awards | Costa–First Novel | Caleb Azumah Nelson | Open Water |
| Costa Book Awards | Costa–Poetry | Hannah Lowe | The Kids |
| Danuta Gleed Literary Award | Danuta Gleed Literary Award | Jack Wang | We Two Alone |
| David Cohen Prize | David Cohen Prize | Colm Tóibín | — |
| Desmond Elliott Prize | Desmond Elliott Prize | A.K. Blakemore | The Manningtree Witches |
| Dylan Thomas Prize | Dylan Thomas Prize | Raven Leilani | Luster |
| Edgar Awards | Best Novel | Deepa Anappara | Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line |
| Edgar Awards | Raven Award | Malice Domestic | — |
| Edgar Awards | Ellery Queen Award | Reagan Arthur | — |
| Edgar Awards | Robert L. Fish Memorial Award | Colette Bancroft | "The Bite" |
| Edgar Awards | Mary Higgins Clark | Elsa Hart | The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne |
| Edgar Awards | Sue Grafton Memorial Award | Rosalie Knecht | Vera Kelly is Not a Mystery |
| Edgar Awards | Grand Master | Charlaine Harris | — |
| Edgar Awards | Grand Master | Jeffery Deaver | — |
| Eugie Award | Eugie Award | Elaine Cuyegkeng | "The Genetic Alchemist's Daughter" |
| European Book Prize | European Book Prize (Novel) | Christos Chomenidis | Νίκη |
| Folio Prize | Folio Prize | Carmen Maria Machado | In the Dream House |
| Franz Kafka Prize | Franz Kafka Prize | Ivan Vyskočil | — |
| Giller Prize | Giller Prize | Omar El Akkad | What Strange Paradise |
| Goldsmiths Prize | Goldsmiths Prize | Isabel Waidner | Sterling Karat Gold |
| Gordon Burn Prize | Gordon Burn Prize | Hanif Abdurraqib | A Little Devil in America |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for English-language fiction | Norma Dunning | Tainna |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction | Sadiqa de Meijer | alfabet/alphabet: a memoir of a first language |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for English-language drama | Hannah Moscovitch | Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for English-language poetry | Tolu Oloruntoba | The Junta of Happenstance |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature | Philippa Dowding | Firefly |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for English-language children's illustration | David A. Robertson, Julie Flett | On the Trapline |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for French to English translation | Erín Moure | This Radiant Life |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for French-language fiction | Fanny Britt | Faire les sucres |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for French-language non-fiction | Serge Bouchard, Mark Fortier | Du diesel dans les veines |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for French-language drama | Mishka Lavigne | Copeaux |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for French-language poetry | Tania Langlais | Pendant que Perceval tombait |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for French-language children's literature | Jean-François Sénéchal | Les Avenues |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for French-language children's illustration | Mario Brassard, Gérard DuBois | À qui appartiennent les nuages ? |
| Governor General's Awards | Governor General's Award for English to French translation | Marie Frankland | Poèmes 1938-1984 |
| Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française | Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française | François-Henri Désérable | Mon maître et mon vainqueur |
| Holberg Prize | Holberg Prize | Martha Nussbaum | — |
| Hugo Award | Best Novel | Martha Wells | Network Effect |
| Hugo Award | Best Novella | Nghi Vo | The Empress of Salt and Fortune |
| Hugo Award | Best Novelette | Sarah Pinsker | "Two Truths and a Lie" |
| Hugo Award | Best Short Story | Ursula Vernon | "Metal Like Blood in the Dark" |
| Hugo Award | Lodestar Award | Ursula Vernon | A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking |
| Hugo Award | Astounding Award | Emily Tesh | Silver in the Wood |
| Hurston/Wright Legacy Award | Fiction | Percival Everett | Telephone |
| Hurston/Wright Legacy Award | Nonfiction | Marcia Chatelain | Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America |
| Hurston/Wright Legacy Award | Debut | Rita Woods | Remembrance |
| Hurston/Wright Legacy Award | Poetry | Rachel Eliza Griffiths | Seeing the Body |
| International Dublin Literary Award | International Dublin Literary Award | Valeria Luiselli | Lost Children Archive |
| International Thriller Writers Award | Best Hard Cover Novel | S. A. Cosby | Blacktop Wasteland |
| International Thriller Writers Award | Best Paperback Original Novel | John Marrs | What Lies Between Us |
| International Thriller Writers Award | e-Book Original Novel | Jeff Buick | A Killing Game |
| International Thriller Writers Award | Best First Novel | David Heska Wanbli Weiden | Winter Counts |
| International Thriller Writers Award | Best Young Adult Novel | Andrea Contos | Throwaway Girls |
| International Thriller Writers Award | Best Short Story | Alan Orloff | "Rent Due" |
| Jerusalem Prize | Jerusalem Prize | Julian Barnes | — |
| Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award | Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award | Anakana Schofield | BINA |
| Miguel de Cervantes Prize | Miguel de Cervantes Prize | Cristina Peri Rossi | — |
| Miles Franklin Award | Miles Franklin Award | Amanda Lohrey | The Labyrinth |
| National Biography Award | National Biography Award | Cassandra Pybus | Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse |
| National Book Award | National Book Award–Fiction | Jason Mott | Hell of a Book |
| National Book Award | National Book Award–Nonfiction | Tiya Miles | All That She Carried |
| National Book Award | National Book Award–Poetry | Martín Espada | Floaters |
| National Book Award | National Book Award–Translated Literature | Elisa Shua Dusapin with Aneesa Abbas Higgins (trans.) | Winter in Sokcho |
| National Book Award | National Book Award–Young People's Literature | Malinda Lo | Last Night at the Telegraph Club |
| National Book Critics Circle Award | National Book Critics–Fiction | Honorée Fanonne Jeffers | The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois |
| National Book Critics Circle Award | National Book Critics–Nonfiction | Clint Smith | How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America |
| National Book Critics Circle Award | National Book Critics–Biography | Rebecca Donner | All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days |
| National Book Critics Circle Award | National Book Critics–Criticism | Melissa Febos | Girlhood |
| Nebula Award | Best Novel | Martha Wells | Network Effect |
| Nebula Award | Best Novella | P. Djèlí Clark | Ring Shout |
| Nebula Award | Best Novelette | Sarah Pinsker | "Two Truths and a Lie" |
| Nebula Award | Best Short Story | John Wiswell | "Open House on Haunted Hill" |
| Newbery Medal | Newbery Medal | Tae Keller | When You Trap a Tiger |
| Nike Award | Jury Award | Zbigniew Rokita | Kajś. Opowieść o Górnym Śląsku |
| Nike Award | Audience Award | Zbigniew Rokita | Kajś. Opowieść o Górnym Śląsku |
| Nobel Prize in Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Abdulrazak Gurnah | — |
| Orwell Prize | Political Fiction | Ali Smith | Summer |
| Orwell Prize | Political Writing | Joshua Yaffa | Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin's Russia |
| PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction | PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction | Deesha Philyaw | The Secret Lives of Church Ladies |
| Philip K. Dick Award | Winner | Kali Wallace | Dead Space |
| Philip K. Dick Award | Special Citation | Lavie Tidhar | The Escapement |
| Premio Planeta de Novela | Premio Planeta de Novela | Carmen Mola | La bestia |
| Premio Strega Prize | Premio Strega Prize | Emanuele Trevi | Due vite |
| Pritzker Literature Award | Pritzker Literature Award | Margaret MacMillan | — |
| Prix Femina | Prix Femina | Clara Dupont-Monod | S'adapter |
| Prix Femina | Prix Femina étranger | Ahmet Altan | Hayat Hanım |
| Prix Femina | Prix Femina essai | Annie Cohen-Solal | Un étranger nommé Picasso |
| Prix Femina | Prix Femina des lycéens | Ananda Devi | Le rire des déesses |
| Prix Goncourt | Prix Goncourt | Mohamed Mbougar Sarr | La plus secrète mémoire des hommes |
| Prix Médicis | Prix Médicis | Christine Angot | Le Voyage dans l'Est |
| Prix Renaudot | Prix Renaudot | Amélie Nothomb | Premier sang |
| Pulitzer Prize | Pulitzer Prize for Fiction | Louise Erdrich | The Night Watchman |
| Pulitzer Prize | Pulitzer Prize for Drama | Katori Hall | The Hot Wing King |
| Pulitzer Prize | Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction | David Zucchino | Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy |
| Pulitzer Prize | Pulitzer Prize for History | Marcia Chatelain | Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America |
| Pulitzer Prize | Pulitzer Prize for Biography | Les Payne and Tamara Payne | The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X |
| Struga Poetry Evenings | Golden Wreath laureate | Carol Ann Duffy | — |
| Struga Poetry Evenings | Bridges of Struga laureate | Vladan Kreckovic | — |
| Walter Scott Prize | Walter Scott Prize | Hilary Mantel | The Mirror and the Light |
| Whiting Awards | Whiting Award for Fiction | Claire Boyles | — |
| Whiting Awards | Whiting Award for Fiction | Rita Bullwinkel | — |
| Whiting Awards | Whiting Award for Fiction | Megha Majumdar | — |
| Whiting Awards | Whiting Award for Fiction | Nana Nkweti | — |
| Women's Prize for Fiction | Women's Prize for Fiction | Susanna Clarke | Piranesi |
| World Fantasy Award | Novel | Alaya Dawn Johnson | Trouble the Saints |
| World Fantasy Award | Novella | Tochi Onyebuchi | Riot Baby |
| World Fantasy Award | Short Fiction | Celeste Rita Baker | "Glass Bottle Dancer" |
| World Fantasy Award | Collection | Aoko Matsuda | Where the Wild Ladies Are |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing | Ronald Deibert | Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers | Anna Ling Kaye | "East City" |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers | Zehra Naqvi | "The Knot of My Tongue" |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | Dayne Ogilvie Prize | Jillian Christmas | Jillian Christmas |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize | Katherena Vermette | The Strangers |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction | Tomson Highway | Permanent Astonishment |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize | Weyman Chan | Weyman Chan |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | Matt Cohen Award | Frances Itani | Frances Itani |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People | Linda Bailey | Linda Bailey |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award | Cherie Dimaline | Cherie Dimaline |
| Writers' Trust of Canada | Balsillie Prize for Public Policy | Dan Breznitz | Innovation in Real Places: Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World |
| W. Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction | W. Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction | Mark Treanor | A Quiet Cadence: A Novel |
| Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award | Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award | Yusef Komunyakaa | — |