1996 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1996.

Events

• July 1 - German orthography reform of 1996 agreed internationally.
• July 8 - Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, along with 30 other books, are removed from an advanced placement English reading list in Lindale, Texas, because they "conflicted with the values of the community".
• July 11 - At the special request of Nelson Mandela, Benjamin Zephaniah hosts the president's Two Nations Concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.
• October 3 - First performance of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues.
• date unknown
  • In the United Kingdom, the first Orange Prize for Fiction for female novelists is awarded to Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter.
  • Peter O'Donnell publishes Cobra Trap, his final volume of adventures featuring Modesty Blaise; the first book in the series was published in 1965.
  • Margaret Mitchell's long-lost first novella, Lost Laysen, is published 80 years after it was written.
  • Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Romance Writings, including first publication of her novel Princess Docile, are first published 234 years after her death.

New Fiction

• Stephen Ambrose - Undaunted Courage
• Anonymous (Joe Klein) - Primary Colors: a novel of politics
• Jeffrey Archer - The Fourth Estate
• Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
• Beryl Bainbridge - Every Man for Himself
• David Baldacci - Absolute Power
• Iain M. Banks - Excession
• Thomas Berger - Suspects
• Harold Bloom - Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection
• Dionne Brand - In Another Place, Not Here
• Brett Butler - Knee Deep in Paradise
• Ann Chamberlin - Sofia; The Sultan's Daughter
• Tom Clancy - Executive Orders
• Mary Higgins Clark - Moonlight Becomes You
• Joseph Connolly - This Is It
• Bernard Cornwell - The Bloody Ground and Enemy of God
• Douglas Coupland - Polaroids from the Dead
• Amanda Craig - A Vicious Circle
• Robert Crais - Sunset Express
• John Darnton - Neanderthal
• Donald Davidson - The Big Ballad Jamboree
• Fabrizio De André - Un destino ridicolo
• Seamus Deane - Reading in the Dark
• Michel Déon - La Cour des grands
• Stephen R. Donaldson - The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die
• Ben Elton - Popcorn
• Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones' Diary
• Mavis Gallant - Selected Stories
• John Gardner - COLD
• Richard Garfinkle - Celestial Matters
• Alex Garland - The Beach
• William Golding - The Double Tongue
• John Grisham - The Runaway Jury and Hackers (short story collection)
• James L. Halperin - The Truth Machine
• Colin Harrison - Manhattan Nocturne
• Elisabeth Harvor - Let Me Be the One, stories
• Nancy Huston - The Goldberg Variations
• Tama Janowitz - By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee
• Matt Jones - Bad Therapy
• Stephen King - Desperation, The Green Mile and The Regulators
• Dean R. Koontz - Intensity (novel)
• Michael P. Kube-McDowell - Before the Storm, Shield of Lies and Tyrant's Test
• Caroline Lamarche - Le Jour du chien
• Hugh Laurie - The Gun Seller
• John le Carré - The Tailor of Panama
• Paul Leonard - Speed of Flight
• Steve Lyons - Killing Ground
• George R. R. Martin - A Game of Thrones
• David A. McIntee - The Shadow of Weng-Chiang
• Terry McMillan - How Stella Got Her Groove Back
• Javier Marías - When I Was Mortal (Cuando fui mortal, short stories)
• Vladimir Megre - Anastasiya
• Lawrence Miles - Christmas on a Rational Planet
• Rohinton Mistry - A Fine Balance
• Shani Mootoo - Cereus Blooms at Night
• Joyce Carol Oates - We Were the Mulvaneys
• Daniel O'Mahony - The Man in the Velvet Mask
• Kate Orman - Return of the Living Dad and SLEEPY
• Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club
• Lance Parkin - Cold Fusion and Just War
• Marc Platt - Downtime
• Terry Pratchett - Feet of Clay and Hogfather
• Qiu Miaojin (posthumous) - Last Words from Montmartre
• James Redfield - The Tenth Insight
• Justin Richards - The Sands of Time
• Gareth Roberts - The English Way of Death and The Plotters
• Mary Rosenblum - Synthesis & Other Virtual Realities
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch - The New Rebellion
• Gary Russell - The Scales of Injustice
• Al-Tayyib Salih - Bandarshah
• Jeff Shaara - Gods and Generals
• Michael Slade - Zombie aka Evil Eye
• Michael Stackpole - The Krytos Trap, Rogue Squadron and Wedge's Gamble
• Dave Stone - Death and Diplomacy
• Graham Swift - Last Orders
• Guy Vanderhaeghe - The Englishman's Boy
• David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest

New drama

• Jeff Baron - Visiting Mr. Green
• Nick Enright - Blackrock
• Eve Ensler - The Vagina Monologues
• Pam Gems - Stanley
• Ayub Khan-Din - East is East
• Martin McDonagh - The Beauty Queen of Leenane
• Mark Ravenhill - Shopping and Fucking
• Wallace Shawn - The Designated Mourner
• Joshua Sobol - Alma

Poetry

Main article: 1996 in poetry

Non-Fiction

• John Berendt - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
• Norman Davies - Europe: A History
• Richard Dawkins - Climbing Mount Improbable
• Alan Downs - Corporate Executions: the Ugly Truth about Downsizing – How Corporate Greed is Shattering Lives, Companies, and Communities
• Gabriel García Márquez - News of a Kidnapping (Noticia de un secuestro)
• Daniel Goleman - Emotional Intelligence
• Howard Marks - Mr Nice
• Anne Mullens - Timely Death

Deaths

• January 5 – Lincoln Kirstein, American writer and impresario (born 1907)
• January 16 – Kaye Webb, English publisher and journalist (born 1914)
• January 21 – Efua Sutherland, Ghanaian dramatist, poet and children's author (born 1924)
• January 28
  • Jerry Siegel, American cartoonist (born 1914)
  • Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet and essayist, Nobel laureate (myocardial infarction, born 1940)
• February 11
  • Bob Shaw, Northern Irish science fiction writer (born 1931)
  • Amelia Rosselli, Italian poet (born 1930)
• February 18 – Cathal Ó Sándair, Irish-language novelist (born 1922)
• March 3 – Marguerite Duras, French dramatist and film director (born 1914)
• March 15 – Wolfgang Koeppen, German novelist (born 1906)
• March 18 – Odysseas Elytis, Greek writer and Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)
• March 22 – Ian Stephens, Canadian poet (year of birth not known)
• March 29 – Frank Daniel, Czech-born screenwriter, director, producer and teacher (born 1926)
• March 31 – Dario Bellezza, Italian poet and dramatist (HIV, born 1944)
• April 16 – Leila Mackinlay, British romantic novelist (born 1910)
• April 20 – Christopher Robin Milne, English writer and bookseller (born 1920)
• April 22 – Erma Bombeck, American humorist and writer (born 1927)
• April 23 – P. L. Travers, Australian-born children's writer (born 1899)
• May 8 – Larry Levis, American poet, author, and critic (b. 1946)
• May 24 – Joseph Mitchell, American journalist (born 1908)
• May 26
  • Ovidiu Papadima, Romanian critic and essayist (born 1909)
  • Margaret Douglas-Home, English writer and musician (born 1906)
• May 31 – Timothy Leary, American writer (born 1920)
• June 2 – Leon Garfield, English children's author (born 1921)
• June 14 – Gesualdo Bufalino, Italian novelist (born 1920)
• June 15 – Fitzroy Maclean, Scottish political writer, autobiographer and diplomat (born 1911)
• June 26 – Veronica Guerin, Irish crime reporter (murdered, born 1958)
• July 10 – Eno Raud, Estonian children's author (born 1928)
• July 22 – Jessica Mitford, Anglo-American author, journalist and campaigner (born 1917)
• October 16 – Eric Malpass, English novelist (born 1910)
• October 24 – Sorley Maclean, Gaelic poet (born 1911)
• December 9 – Diana Morgan, Welsh playwright and screenwriter (born 1908)
• December 12 – Vance Packard, American journalist and social critic (born 1914)
• December 16 – Quentin Bell, English biographer and art historian (born 1910)
• December 20 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist and writer (born 1934)

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Wislawa Szymborska
• Camões Prize: Eduardo Lourenço

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Bernard Cohen, The Blindman's Hat
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Peter Bakowski, In the Human Night
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Eric Beach, Weeping for Lost Babylon
• Mary Gilmore Prize: Jordie Albiston, Nervous Arcs
• Miles Franklin Award: Christopher Koch, Highways to a War

Canada

• Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Margaret Atwood: - Alias Grace
• See 1996 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: George G. Blackburn, The Guns of Normandy

France

• Prix Goncourt: Pascale Roze, Le Chasseur Zéro
• Prix Décembre: Régis Debray, Loués soient nos seigneurs: une éducation politique
• Prix Médicis French: Orlanda - Jacqueline Harpman and L'Organisation - Jean Rolin
• Prix Médicis International: Himmelfarb - Michael Kruger, Germany and Sonietchka - Ludmila Oulitskaïa, Russia

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Graham Swift, Last Orders
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Melvin Burgess, Junk
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Graham Swift, Last Orders, and Alice Thompson, Justine
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life
• Cholmondeley Award: Elizabeth Bartlett, Dorothy Nimmo, Peter Scupham, Iain Crichton Smith
• Eric Gregory Award: Sue Butler, Cathy Cullis, Jane Griffiths, Jane Holland, Chris Jones, Sinéad Morrissey, Kate Thomas
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Helen Dunmore, A Spell of Winter
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Peter Redgrove
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Helen Conkling, Red Peony Night
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: John Voiklis, "The Princeling's Apology", and (separately) Sarah Arvio, "Visits from the Seventh"
• Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Kenneth Koch, One Train
• Compton Crook Award: Daniel Graham Jr., The Gatekeepers
• Hugo Award: Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
• Nebula Award: Nicola Griffith, Slow River
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Karen Cushman, The Midwife's Apprentice
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Jonathan Larson, Rent
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Richard Ford - Independence Day
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Jorie Graham: The Dream of the Unified Field
• Wallace Stevens Award: Adrienne Rich
• Whiting Awards:

Fiction: Anderson Ferrell, Cristina García, Molly Gloss, Brian Kiteley, Chris Offutt (fiction/nonfiction), Judy Troy, A.J. Verdelle

Nonfiction: Patricia Storace (nonfiction/poetry)

Poetry: Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Elizabeth Spires

Elsewhere

• IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: David Malouf, Remembering Babylon
• Premio Nadal: Pedro Maestre, Matando dinosaurios con tirachinas