This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2004.
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Quick Facts List of years in literature (table) ...
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- January
- February – Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation.[4]
- February 16 – Edwin Morgan becomes Scotland's first official national poet, the Scots Makar, appointed by the Scottish Parliament.[5][6]
- May 23 – Seattle Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, opens to the public.[7]
- 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.[8][9]
- October 14 – Edinburgh becomes UNESCO's first City of Literature.[10]
- 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
Children and young people
- January 3 – Lillian Beckwith, English novelist (born 1916)[33]
- January 4
- January 10
- January 13 – Zeno Vendler, American philosopher and linguist (born 1921)
- January 14 – Jack Cady, American fantasy and horror novelist (born 1932)
- January 15
- January 24 – Abdul Rahman Munif, Arab writer (born 1933)[41]
- January 29
- February 2 – Alan Bullock, English historian (born 1914)
- February 4 – Hilda Hilst, Brazilian poet, playwright and novelist (born 1930)[42]
- February 5 – Frances Partridge, English diarist (born 1900)[43]
- February 7 – Norman Thelwell, English cartoonist (born 1923)[44]
- February 17 – Bruce Beaver, Australian poet and novelist (born 1928)[45]
- February 27 – Paul Sweezy, American economist and editor (born 1910)[46]
- February 28 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian (born 1914)[47]
- 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)[48]
- March 30
- April 19
- April 25 – Thom Gunn, English poet (born 1929)[52]
- April 26 – Hubert Selby, Jr., American author (born 1928)[53]
- May 2 – Paul Guimard, French writer (born 1921)[54]
- May 12
- May 31 – Lionel Abrahams, South African novelist, poet and essayist (born 1928)[57]
- July 1 – Peter Barnes, English playwright (born 1931)
- July 8 – Paula Danziger, American children's and young adult novelist (born 1945)[58]
- August 8 – Farida Diouri, Moroccan novelist (born 1953)[citation needed]
- August 12 – Humayun Azad, Bangladeshi author, poet, scholar and linguist (born 1947)[59]
- August 14 – Czesław Miłosz, Polish writer and Nobel laureate (born 1911)[60]
- August 30 – Mario Levrero, Uruguayan novelist (born 1940)[61]
- September 18 – Norman Cantor, Canadian historian (born 1929)[62]
- September 24 – Françoise Sagan, French novelist (born 1935)[63]
- September 28 – Mulk Raj Anand, Indian novelist in English (born 1905)[64]
- October – Natalya Baranskaya, Russian short-story writer (born 1908)
- October 8 – Jacques Derrida, Algerian-born French literary critic (born 1930)[65]
- October 13 – Bernice Rubens, Welsh-born novelist (born 1928)[66]
- October 16
- October 20 – Anthony Hecht, American poet (born 1923)[68]
- November 9 – Stieg Larsson, Swedish journalist and crime novelist (heart attack, born 1954)[69]
- November 24 – Arthur Hailey, Canadian novelist (born 1920)[70]
- December 2 – Mona Van Duyn, American poet (born 1921)[71]
- December 8 – Jackson Mac Low, American poet (born 1922)[72]
- December 12 – Phaswane Mpe, South African novelist (born 1970)[73]
- December 13 – Jón frá Pálmholti (Jón Kjartansson), Icelandic writer and journalist (born 1930)[74]
- December 18 – Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (born 1926)[75]
- December 28 – Susan Sontag, American novelist (born 1933)[76]
United Kingdom
- Caine Prize for African Writing: Brian Chikwava, "Seventh Street Alchemy"
- Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions[80]
- 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
- Hahn, Daniel (2015). The Oxford companion to children's literature (Second ed.). Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-871554-2.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Scottish Government (16 February 2004). "The Scots Makar". www.scotland.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
Miller, Laura (14 September 2004). "Cloud Atlas Review". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
"Joan Aiken". The Telegraph. 7 January 2004. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
"Dorota TERAKOWSKA". Polscy pisarze i badacze literatury przełomu XX i XXI wieku. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
Bernard Le Nail (2010). Dictionnaire biographique de Nantes et de Loire-Atlantique. Le Temps. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-2-363-12000-7.
Christopher Hawtree (9 July 2004). "Syd Hoff". Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
Sarah Jardine-Willoughby (23 November 2004). "Vincent Brome". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
Liz McGregor (22 December 2004). "Phaswane Mpe". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 January 2022.