2013 in literature

Events

• 21 January – An annual Orwell Day is instituted.
• 26 January – Fleeing Islamist insurgents set fire to library buildings in Timbuktu containing manuscripts, mostly in Arabic, dating back to 1204.
• 28 January – Pride and Prejudice was published 200 years ago, in 1813.
• 7 March – World Book Day becomes a UNESCO-designated event marked in more than 100 countries.
• April – J. K. Rowling publishes a detective novel, The Cuckoo's Calling, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, with the U.K. publisher Sphere Books. The author's identity is revealed by the media in July.
• 23 April – World Book Night.
• 28 April – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Simon Stephens' stage adaptation of a novel by Mark Haddon, wins a record seven awards at the 2013 Laurence Olivier Awards in London.
• 1 July – Publisher Penguin Random House is created by a merger.
• 3 September – The new Library of Birmingham, the largest public library in the U.K., is opened by Malala Yousafzai. Its public spaces are integrated with those of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
• October – Jo Nesbø reveals himself as Tom Johansen, author of three forthcoming novels.
• 28 November – Three unpublished works by J. D. Salinger, including "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls", are leaked onto the internet.

  Anniversaries

• 11 February
• *50th anniversary of the death of Sylvia Plath in 1963
• *200th anniversary of the birth of Harriet Jacobs in 1813
• 5 May – 200th anniversary of the birth of Søren Kierkegaard in 1813
• 2 June – 100th anniversary of the birth of Barbara Pym
• 29 June – 400th anniversary of the burning of the Globe Theatre during a production of Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII in 1613
• 2 August – 25th anniversary of the death of US short story writer Raymond Carver He was 50 years old and born 75 years before, 25 May 1938).
• 7 November – 100th anniversary of the birth of Albert Camus
• 22 November – 50th anniversary of the death of Aldous Huxley

  New books

Fiction

• José Eduardo Agualusa – A General Theory of Oblivion
• Jacob M. Appel – The Biology of Luck
• Kate Atkinson – Life After Life
• Dan Brown – Inferno
• Adam Christopher – The Burning Dark
• J. M. Coetzee – The Childhood of Jesus
• Troy Denning – Crucible
• Doug Dorst – S.
• Richard Flanagan – The Narrow Road to the Deep North
• Aminatta Forna – The Hired Man
• Frederick Forsyth – The Kill List
• Neil Gaiman – The Ocean at the End of the Lane
• Elizabeth Graver – The End of the Point
• David G. Hartwell – Year's best SF 18
• Neamat Imam – The Black Coat
• Reinhard Jirgl – Nichts von euch auf Erden
• Stephen King – Doctor Sleep
• Rachel Kushner – The Flamethrowers
• Pierre Lemaitre – :fr:Au revoir là-haut|Au revoir là-haut
• Eimear McBride – A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing
• Alex Miller – Coal Creek
• Haruki Murakami – Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
• Adam Nevill – House of Small Shadows
• Nnedi Okorafor – Kabu-kabu: stories
• Chuck Palahniuk – Doomed
• Rick Riordan – The House of Hades
• Veronica Roth – Allegiant
• J. K. Rowling – The Cuckoo's Calling
• Ahmed Saadawi – Frankenstein in Baghdad
• M. G. Sanchez – The Escape Artist: a Gibraltarian novel
• George Saunders –
• John Scalzi – The Human Division
• Sjón – Moonstone – The Boy Who Never Was
• Robert Stone – Death of the Black-Haired Girl
• Donna Tartt – The Goldfinch
• Zlatko Topčić – Dagmar
• Laura van den Berg – The Isle of Youth
• Peter Watts – Beyond the Rift
• Tim Winton – Eyrie

  Children's and young people

• David Almond – Mouse Bird Snake Wolf
• Laura Dockrill – Darcy Burdock
• John Hornor Jacobs – The Twelve-Fingered Boy
• Patricia MacLachlan – Cat Talk
• Chris Raschka – Daisy Gets Lost
• Rainbow Rowell
• *Eleanor & Park
• *Fangirl
• Maggie Stiefvater – The Dream Thieves

  Drama

• Annie Baker – The Flick
• Lucy Kirkwood – Chimerica
• Edward Petherbridge and Kathryn Hunter – My Perfect Mind

  Poetry

Non-fiction

• Saroo Brierley – A Long Way Home
• Kate Christensen –
• Pat Conroy – The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son
• Jared Diamond – The World Until Yesterday
• Craig Dworkin – No Medium
• Peter Freeman – The Wallpapered Manse
• Malcolm Gladwell – David and Goliath
• Ben Goldacre – Bad Pharma
• Temple Grandin – The Autistic Brain
• Michael Kimmel – Angry White Men
• Mark Levin – The Liberty Amendments
• Peter H. Maguire - Thai Stick
• Diane Muldrow – Everything I Need To Know I Learned From A Little Golden Book
• Thomas Piketty – Capital in the Twenty-First Century
• Lisa Randall – Higgs Discovery
• Sheryl Sandberg – Lean In
• Jeff VanderMeer – The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction

  Deaths

• January 2
• *Alexei Rudeanu, Romanian writer
• *Teresa Torańska, Polish journalist and writer
• January 7 – Maruša Krese, Slovene poet, writer and journalist
• January 10 – Evan S. Connell, American novelist, poet and short story writer
• January 11 – Robert Kee, English writer, journalist and broadcaster
• January 18 – Jacques Sadoul, French novelist, book editor and non-fiction writer
• January 20
• *Yemi Ajibade, Nigerian playwright and actor
• *Dolores Prida, Cuban-American journalist and playwright
• *Toyo Shibata, Japanese poet
• January 24 – Richard G. Stern, American novelist and educator
• February 2 – Sirajul Haq Memon, Pakistani author, journalist and scholar in Sindhi
• February 3 – Robert Anthony Welch, Irish author and academic
• February 4 – Margaret Frazer, American historical novelist
• February 5 – Leda Mileva, Bulgarian writer, translator, and diplomat
• February 7
• *Niki Marangou, Cypriot writer and painter
• *Jonathan Rendall, English author
• February 8 – Alan Sharp, Scottish-American screenwriter and author
• February 10 – W. Watts Biggers, American novelist
• February 12 – Barnaby Conrad, American author
• February 13 – Oswald LeWinter, Austrian-born American writer
• February 14
• *Glenn Boyer, American author
• *Mary Brave Bird, American Lakota writer and activist
• *Friedrich Neznansky, Russian writer
• February 17
• *William Bridges, American author and business consultant
• *Manoranjan Das, Indian playwright
• *Debbie Ford, American motivational author
• February 23
• *Maurice Rosy, Belgian comics writer
• *Sylvia Smith, English writer
• February 24 – Mahmoud Salem, Egyptian author
• February 26
• *Jan Howard Finder, American science fiction writer
• *Stéphane Hessel, German-born French author and diplomat
• February 27
• *Molly Lefebure, English writer
• *Imants Ziedonis, Latvian poet
• March 10 – Robert Chrisman, American poet, scholar, and critic, co-founder of The Black Scholar
• March 30 – Daniel Hoffmann, American poet and essayist
• April 1 – Kildare Dobbs, Canadian author
• April 11 – Adam Galos, Polish historian
• April 13 – Nick Pollotta, American science fiction author
• April 20
• *Jocasta Innes, China-born English non-fiction writer
• *E. L. Konigsburg, American children's novelist and illustrator
• April 22 – Clément Marchand, Canadian poet and journalist
• May 1 – Gregory Rogers, Australian children's author and illustrator
• May 12 – Per Maurseth, Norwegian historian
• May 23 – William Demby, American author
• June 6 – Tom Sharpe, English comic novelist
• June 9 – Iain Banks, Scottish novelist
• June 23 – Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter
• July 12 – Elaine Morgan, Welsh writer on anthropology
• September 2 – Frederik Pohl, American science fiction writer
• September 18 – Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Polish-born German literary critic
• September 21 – Kofi Awoonor, Ghanaian poet
• September 23
• *Christopher Koch, Australian novelist
• *Álvaro Mutis, Colombian poet, novelist and essayist
• *Luciano Vincenzoni, Italian screenwriter
• October 1 – Tom Clancy, American thriller writer
• November 25 – Joel Lane, English author, poet, and critic
• December 11 – Barbara Branden, Canadian-American author

  Awards

• Akutagawa Prize : Kaori Fujino for Tsume to Me "Nails and Eyes"
• Caine Prize for African Writing: Tope Folarin, "Miracle"
• Camões Prize: Mia Couto
• Danuta Gleed Literary Award: '
• David Cohen Prize: Hilary Mantel
• Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Main award, C. E. Gatchalian; honours of distinction, Anand Mahadevan, Barry Webster
• Dylan Thomas Prize: Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins
• German Book Prize: Das Ungeheuer by Terézia Mora
• Goldsmiths Prize: A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride
• Gordon Burn Prize: Pig Iron by Ben Myers
• Governor General's Award for English-language fiction: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
• Governor General's Award for French-language fiction: Quand les guêpes se taisent by Stéphanie Pelletier
• Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française: Plonger by Christophe Ono-dit-Biot
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: John Scalzi for Redshirts
• International Dublin Literary Award: City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
• International Prize for Arabic Fiction: The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Alsanousi
• Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2013 Lambda Literary Awards
• Man Booker Prize: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
• Miles Franklin Award: Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser
• National Biography Award : The Two Frank Thrings by Peter Fitzpatrick
• National Book Award for Fiction: The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
• National Book Critics Circle Award: to Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Nobel Prize in Literature: Alice Munro
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
• Premio Planeta de Novela: El cielo ha vuelto by Clara Sánchez
• Premio Strega: Resistere non serve a niente by Walter Siti
• Pritzker Military Library Literature Award: to Tim O'Brien
• Prix Goncourt: Au revoir là-haut by Pierre Lemaitre
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds
• Russian Booker Prize: Возвращение в Панджруд by Andrei Volos
• SAARC Literary Award: Suman Pokhrel, Abhay K, Daya Dissanayake, Farheen Chaudhary, Abdul Khaliq Rashid
• Samuel Johnson Prize: ' The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
• Scotiabank Giller Prize: Lynn Coady, Hellgoing
• Whiting Awards: Fiction: Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams, Amanda Coplin, Jennifer duBois, C.E. Morgan, Stephanie Powell Watts; Nonfiction: Morgan Meis, Clifford Thompson; Plays: Virginia Grise; Poetry: Ishion Hutchinson, Rowan Ricardo Phillips
• Women's Prize for Fiction: May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes
• Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award: W.S. Merwin