# 1997 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1997.

## Events

* February 20 – Allen Ginsberg makes a final public appearance at the NYU Poetry Slam. He continues to write through his final illness, his last poem being "Things I'll Not Do (Nostalgias)" written on March 30.
* May 27 – Shakespeare's Globe in London, a reconstruction of the Elizabethan Globe Theatre, opens with a production of Shakespeare's Henry V.
* June 3 – The supposed climax of Max Beerbohm's 1916 short story Enoch Soames occurs at the old British Museum Reading Room in London.
* June 26 – J. K. Rowling's first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, is published in London by Bloomsbury Publishing, in an edition of 500 copies.
* July 13 – The release occurs in Ireland of the film of Patrick McCabe's 1992 novel The Butcher Boy. The author plays Jimmy The Skite, the town drunk.
* September 1 – The Adventures of Captain Underpants, the first in Dav Pilkey's series of children's novels, is published by Scholastic in the United States.
* October – The online literary magazine Jacket is founded.
* November 24 – The new British Library building in London designed by Colin St John Wilson opens to readers.
* December 30 – The memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is removed from the ninth-grade English curriculum in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, for portraying "white people as being horrible, nasty, stupid people".
Uncertain dates
* Tom Clancy signs a deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. giving him US $50 million for the world English rights to two new books. A second agreement pays another $25 million for a four-year book/multimedia deal, and a third, with Berkley Books for 24 paperbacks to tie in with an ABC television miniseries for $22 million.
* Janet Dailey admits to plagiarism of the novels of the fellow American bestselling romance writer Nora Roberts.

## New books
### Fiction

* Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman – So Vile a Sin
* Mitch Albom – Tuesdays With Morrie
* Martin Amis – Night Train
* Iain Banks – A Song of Stone
* John Banville – The Untouchable
* Hazel Barnes – The Story I Tell Myself
* Marie Bashkirtseff (died 1884) – I Am the Most Interesting Book of All (translation)
* Raymond Benson
** Tomorrow Never Dies
** Zero Minus Ten
* Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman – Vampire Science
* Roberto Bolaño – Last Evenings on Earth (Llamadas Telefonicas)
* Pascal Bruckner – Les Voleurs de beauté
* Simon Bucher-Jones – Ghost Devices
* Christopher Bulis – A Device of Death
* Tim Burton – The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories
* Candace Bushnell – Sex and the City
* Peter Carey – Jack Maggs
* Caleb Carr – The Angel of Darkness
* Agatha Christie (died 1976) – collected short stories
** The Harlequin Tea Set
** While the Light Lasts and Other Stories
* Daniel Clowes – Ghost World (graphic novel)
* Warwick Collins – Gents
* Bernard Cornwell
** Sharpe's Tiger
** Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur
* Patricia Cornwell
** Hornet's Nest
** Unnatural Exposure
* Paul Cornell – Oh No It Isn't!
* Jim Crace – Quarantine
* Robert Crais – Indigo Slam
* Ann C. Crispin
** The Hutt Gambit
** The Paradise Snare
* 'Misha Defonseca' – Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years (published as non-fiction)
* Don DeLillo – Underworld
* Anita Diamant – The Red Tent
* Terrance Dicks
** The Eight Doctors
** Mean Streets
* Fernanda Eberstadt – When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of the Earth
* Bernardine Evaristo – Lara
* Charles Frazier – Cold Mountain
* Anthony Frewin – London Blues
* Anastasia Gosteva – Дочь самурая (The Samurai's Daughter)
* John Grisham – The Partner
* Barbara Hambly – Planet of Twilight
* Allison Hedge Coke – Dog Road Woman
* Matt Jones – Beyond the Sun
* Sebastian Junger – The Perfect Storm
* Winona LaDuke – Last Standing Woman
* Joe R. Lansdale – Bad Chili
* Paul Leonard – Genocide
* Melissa Lucashenko – Steam Pigs
* Ann-Marie MacDonald – Fall on Your Knees
* Bernard MacLaverty – Grace Notes
* Ian R. MacLeod – Voyages by Starlight
* Norman Mailer – The Gospel According to the Son
* Ian McEwan – Enduring Love
* David A. McIntee – The Dark Path
* Lawrence Miles
** Down
* Mark Morris – The Bodysnatchers
* Toni Morrison – Paradise
* Jim Mortimore – Eternity Weeps
* Herta Müller – The Appointment
* Ryū Murakami (村上 龍) – In the Miso Soup (イン ザ・ミソスープ, English translation 2005)
* Courttia Newland – The Scholar
* Kate Orman – The Room with No Doors
* Hanne Ørstavik – Kjærlighet (Love)
* Lance Parkin – The Dying Days
* James Patterson – Cat and Mouse
* Cyril Pearl – Morisson of Peking
* John Peel – War of the Daleks
* Pepetela – A Gloriosa Família
* Marc Platt – Lungbarrow
* Terry Pratchett – Jingo
* Annie Proulx – "Brokeback Mountain" (short story)
* Thomas Pynchon – Mason & Dixon
* Kathy Reichs – Déjà Dead
* Nina Revoyr – The Necessary Hunger
* Justin Richards – Dragons' Wrath
* Mordecai Richler – Barney's Version
* Gareth Roberts – The Well-Mannered War
* Philip Roth – American Pastoral
* Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things
* Don Miguel Ruiz – The Four Agreements
* Gary Russell
** Deadfall
** Instruments of Darkness
* Will Self – Great Apes
* Carol Shields – Larry's Party
* Sidney Sheldon – The Best Laid Plans
* Michael Stackpole – The Bacta War
* Danielle Steel
** The Ghost
** The Ranch
** Special Delivery
* Dave Stone
** Burning Heart
** Ship of Fools
* William Sutcliffe – Are You Experienced?
* Antonio Tabucchi – The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro (La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro)
* Kaoru Takamura – Redi joka (レディ・ジョーカー, Lady Joker) (book publication completed)
* Eckhart Tolle – The Power of Now
* Zlatko Topčić – Nightmare
* Kurt Vonnegut – Timequake
* Lulu Wang – Het Lelietheater (The Lily Theatre)
* Niall Williams – Four Letters of Love
* Connie Willis – To Say Nothing of the Dog
* Timothy Zahn – Specter of the Past
* Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold – Donnerjack

### Children and young people

* Lloyd Alexander – The Iron Ring
* Lynne Reid Banks – Harry the Poisonous Centipede: A Story to Make You Squirm (first in the Harry the Poisonous Centipede trilogy)
* 'Asta Bowen – Wolf: A Journey Home
* Nancy Butts - The Door in the Lake
* Cao Wenxuan (曹文軒) – The Grass House (草房子)
* Sarah Ferguson – Budgie the Little Helicopter (first in an eponymous series of 5 books)
* Mem Fox – Whoever You Are
* Cornelia Funke – Dragon Rider
* Virginia Hamilton (with Barry Moser) – A Ring of Tricksters: Animal Tales from America, the West Indies, and Africa
* Mark Helprin (with Chris Van Allsburg) – The Veil of Snows
* William Mayne – Lady Muck (illustrated by Jonathan Heale)
* Eloise Jarvis McGraw – The Moorchild
* Junko Morimoto – The Two Bullies
* Barbara Nichol (with Barry Moser) – Dippers
* Mary Pope Osborne (with Ned Bittinger) – Rocking Horse Christmas
* Dav Pilkey – The Adventures of Captain Underpants (first in the Captain Underpants series of 12 books)
* Philip Pullman – The Subtle Knife
* Rick Riordan – Big Red Tequila
* J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (first book in the Harry Potter series)
* Ron Roy – The Absent Author (first in the A to Z Mysteries series of 26 books)
* Simms Taback – There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly
* Vivian Walsh – Olive, the Other Reindeer
* Jacqueline Wilson – Girls in Love

### Drama

* Jon Fosse – Nightsongs
* Lee Hall – Spoonface Steinberg (radio monologue)
* Moisés Kaufman – Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
* Thomas Kilroy – The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde
* Conor McPherson – The Weir
* Patrick Marber – Closer
* Richard Nelson – Goodnight Children Everywhere
* Peter Whelan – The Herbal Bed

### Poetry

* Ted Hughes – Tales from Ovid

### Non-fiction

* Dave Barry – Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs
* Jean-Dominique Bauby – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le papillon)
* Cari Beauchamp – Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood
* Jan Bondeson – A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities
* Bill Bryson – A Walk in the Woods
* D. K. Chakrabarti – Colonial Indology : sociopolitics of the ancient Indian past
* Iris Chang – The Rape of Nanking
* Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs and Steel
* Jenny Diski – Skating to Antarctica
* Michael Drosnin – The Bible Code
* Gerina Dunwich – A Wiccan's Guide to Prophecy and Divination
* Geoff Dyer – Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of D. H. Lawrence
* Timothy Ferris – The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report
* Benjamin Fondane (died 1944) – Le Voyageur n'a pas fini de voyager
* Stephen Fry – Moab Is My Washpot (autobiography)
* Charlotte Gray – Mrs. King
* Alan Guth – The Inflationary Universe
* Robert Hughes – American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America
* Jesse Lee Kercheval – Building Fiction
* Betty Kobayashi Issenman – Sinews of Survival
* Geneviève Lacambre – Gustave Moreau : Maître sorcier
* B. B. Lal – The Earliest civilization of South Asia: rise, maturity, and decline
* Peter Maas – Underboss
* Deborah Madison – Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
* James McBride – The Color of Water
* Adele Morales – The Last Party: Scenes From My Life with Norman Mailer
* Penguin Random House – Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
* E. Wayne Ross – The Social Studies Curriculum
* Ian Smith – The Great Betrayal
* Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont – Fashionable Nonsense
* Maria Todorova – Imagining the Balkans
* Larry Trask – The Penguin Guide to Punctuation
* Kevin Warwick – March of the Machines
* Thierry Zéphir – Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia

## Births

* February 12 – Alexander Nikolov, Bulgarian poet
* June 22 – Aqiil Gopee, Mauritian writer and poet
* November 28 – Franz Mherryon Robles, Filipino novelist and aphorist

## Deaths

* January 19 – James Dickey, American poet and novelist (born 1923)
* February 3 – Bohumil Hrabal, Czech novelist (born 1914)
* February 18 – Emily Hahn, American journalist and author (born 1905)
* March 21 - Wilbert Awdry, British Anglican reverend and author (born 1911)
* April 5 – Allen Ginsberg, American poet (liver cancer, born 1926)
* May 9 – Rina Lasnier, Canadian poet (born 1915)
* May 23 – Alison Adburgham, English social historian and journalist (born 1912)
* June 8 – George Turner, Australian novelist and critic (born 1916)
* June 11 – Susanna Roth, Swiss bohemist and literary translator (born 1950)
* July 26 – Joseph Henry Reason, American librarian (born 1905)
* August 2 – William S. Burroughs, American novelist (born 1914
* August 16 – Gerard McLarnon, Irish actor and playwright (born 1915)
* August 27 – Johannes Edfelt, Swedish poet, translator and critic (born 1904)
* October 14 – Harold Robbins, American novelist (born 1916)
* October 16 – James A. Michener, American novelist and historian (born 1907)
* November 6 – Leon Forrest, African American novelist and essayist (cancer, born 1937)
* November 30 – Kathy Acker, American novelist and poet (breast cancer, born 1947)
* December 14 – Owen Barfield, British philosopher, author and poet (born 1898)

## Awards

* Nobel Prize for Literature: Dario Fo
* Europe Theatre Prize: Robert Wilson
* Camões Prize: Pepetela

### Australia

* The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Eva Sallis, Hiam
* C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Les Murray, Subhuman Redneck Poems
* Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Anthony Lawrence, The Viewfinder
* Mary Gilmore Prize: Morgan Yasbincek, Night Reversing
* Miles Franklin Award: David Foster, The Glade Within the Grove

### Canada

* Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award: Rachel Rose
* Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version
* See 1997 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
* Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Anne Mullens, Timely Death

### France

* Prix Goncourt: Patrick Rambaud, La Bataille
* Prix Décembre: Lydie Salvayre, La Compagnie des spectres
* Prix Médicis International: T. Coraghessan Boyle, America
* Prix Médicis French: Les Sept Noms du peintre – Philippe Le Guillou

### Spain

* Premio Miguel de Cervantes: Guillermo Cabrera Infante

### United Kingdom

* Booker Prize: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
* Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Tim Bowler, River Boy
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Andrew Miller, Ingenious Pain
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: R. F. Foster, William Butler Yeats: A Life, Volume 1 – The Apprentice Mage 1965-1914
* Cholmondeley Award: Alison Brackenbury, Gillian Clarke, Tony Curtis, Anne Stevenson
* Eric Gregory Award: Matthew Clegg, Sarah Corbett, Polly Clark, Tim Kendall, Graham Nelson, Matthew Welton
* Orange Prize for Fiction: Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
* Whitbread Best Book Award: Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid

### United States

* Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Richard Blanco, City of a Hundred Fires
* Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Fred Chappell
* American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, John Ashbery
* Compton Crook Award: Richard Garfinkle, Celestial Matters
* Hugo Award: Kim Stanley Robinson, Blue Mars
* Nebula Award: Vonda McIntyre, The Moon and the Sun
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: E. L. Konigsburg, The View from Saturday
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Steven Millhauser – Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Lisel Mueller: Alive Together: New and Selected Poems
* Wallace Stevens Award: Anthony Hecht
* Whiting Awards:
    Fiction: Josip Novakovich (fiction/nonfiction), Melanie Rae Thon
    Nonfiction: Jo Ann Beard, Suketu Mehta (fiction/nonfiction), Ellen Meloy
    Plays: Erik Ehn
    Poetry: Connie Deanovich, Forrest Gander, Jody Gladding, Mark Turpin

### Elsewhere

* International Dublin Literary Award: Javier Marías, A Heart So White
* Premio Nadal: Carlos Cañeque, Quién