The year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• 400th anniversary of Cervantes' publication of the first part of Don Quixote.
• February 25 - Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation.

New books

• Avi - Never Mind
• John Banville - The Sea
• Sebastian Barry - A Long Long Way
• Nelson Bond - Other Worlds Than Ours
• Orson Scott Card - Magic Street and Shadow of the Giant
• Wendy Coakley-Thompson - What You Won't Do For Love
• Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception
• Bernard Cornwell - The Pale Horseman
• Colin Cotterill - Thirty-Three Teeth
• Lindsey Davis - See Delphi and Die
• Abha Dawesar - Babyji
• L. Sprague de Camp - Years in the Making: the Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp
• Troy Denning - The Joiner King, The Swarm War and The Unseen Queen
• Bret Easton Ellis - Lunar Park
• Alicia Erian - Towelhead
• Sebastian Faulks - Human Traces
• Amanda Filipacchi - Love Creeps
• Nicci French - Catch Me When I Fall
• Gayleen Froese - Touch
• David Gibbins - Atlantis
• Joanne Harris - Gentlemen & Players
• Carl Hiaasen - Flush
• Charlie Higson - SilverFin
• John Irving - Until I Find You
• Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go
• Uzodinma Iweala - Beasts of No Nation
• Dean Koontz - Velocity
• James Luceno - Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader and Labyrinth of Evil
• Ian McEwan - Saturday
• Gregory Maguire - Son of a Witch
• David Michaels - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda
• Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted
• Christopher Paolini - Eldest
• Robert B. Parker - School Days
• Ruth Rendell - End in Tears
• J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Darren Shan - Lord Loss (first of The Demonata series)
• Michael Slade - Swastika
• Lemony Snicket - The Penultimate Peril
• David Southwell - Secrets and L ies (book)
• Olen Steinhauer - 36 Yalta Boulevard
• Matthew Stover - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
• Thomas Sullivan - Second Soul
• Jean-François Susbielle - La Morsure du dragon
• Rupert Thomson - Divided Kingdom
• Harry Turtledove, editor - The Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de Camp
• Andrew Vachss - Two Trains Running
• David Weber - At All Costs
• Samantha Weinberg - The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel
• Garth Nix - Drowned Wednesday
• Kirby Wright - Punahou Blues
• Doctor Charles Goodwin - Scout Shorts

New drama

• Catherine Filloux - Lemkin's House
• Oleg Kagan - The Black Hat
• The Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble - Wounded

Non-fiction

• Joan Didion - The Year of Magical Thinking
• Tony Judt - Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
• Jung Chang & Jon Halliday - Mao: The Unknown Story
• John Grogan - Marley & Me
• Alexander Masters - Stuart: A Life Backwards
• Azadeh Moaveni - Lipstick Jihad
• Peter C. Newman - The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister
• Masamune Shirow - Ghost in the Shell 2: Man/Machine Interface
• James B. Stewart - DisneyWar
• Jane Smiley - Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
• Binod Bihari Verma - Vedmurti Taponishth SriRam Sharma Acharya Biography of Shriram Sharma Acharya

Deaths

• January 7 - Pierre Daninos, French novelist (b. 1913)
• January 14 - Charlotte MacLeod, American mystery writer (b. 1922)
• January 15 - Elizabeth Janeway, American feminist author (b. 1913)
• January 15 - Walter Ernsting, German science fiction author (b. 1920)
• January 19 - K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (b. 1974)
• January 21 - Theun de Vries, Dutch writer and poet (b. 1907)
• January 24 - Vladimir Savchenko, Ukrainian science fiction writer (b. 1933)
• January 25 - Max Velthuijs, Dutch writer and illustrator
• January 29 - Ephraim Kishon, Israeli satirist, dramatist, and screenwriter. (b. 1924)
• February 10 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (b. 1915)
• February 11 - Jack L. Chalker, American science fiction writer (b. 1944)
• February 21 - Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (b. 1929)
• February 25 - Phoebe Hesketh, British poet (b. 1909)
• March 7 - Willis Hall, English playwright (b. 1929)
• March 8 - Anna Haycraft, English novelist (b. 1932)
• March 17 - Andre Norton, American science fiction writer (b. 1912)
• March 22 - Anthony Creighton, English playwright (b. 1922)
• March 30 - Robert Creeley, American poet (b. 1926)
• April 7 - Yvonne Vera, Zimbabwean novelist (b. 1964)
• April 26 - Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan novelist (b. 1917)
• May 7 - Tristan Egolf, American novelist (b. 1971)
• June 9 - Hovis Presley, English poet (b. 1960)
• June 14 - Norman Levine, Canadian short story writer (b. 1923)
• June 16 - Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican novelist (b. 1905)
• June 20 - Larry Collins American novelist (b. 1929)
• June 22 - William Donaldson, English satirist (b. 1935)
• June 27 - Shelby Foote, American novelist (b. 1916)
• June 28 - Philip Hobsbaum, Scottish poet and critic (b. 1932)
• June 30 - Christopher Fry, English dramatist (b. 1907)
• July 6

* Claude Simon, French Nobel laureate in literature (b. 1913)

*Evan Hunter, American novelist (b. 1926)

• July 7 - Gustaf Sobin, American poet (b. 1935)
• July 17 - Gavin Lambert, English novelist and biographer (b. 1924)
• July 19 - Edward Bunker, American crime writer (b. 1933)
• August 9 - Judith Rossner, American novelist (b. 1935)
• August 21 - Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (b. 1936)
• August 29 - Sybil Marshall, English novelist (b. 1913)
• September 3 - R.S.R. Fitter, English nature writer (b. 1913)
• September 26 - Helen Cresswell, English children's writer (b. 1934)
• September 27:

*Mary Lee Settle, American novelist (b. 1918)

*Ronald Pearsall, English writer (b. 1927)

• October 2 - August Wilson, American playwright (b. 1945)
• October 17 - Ba Jin, Chinese novelist (b. 1904)
• November 1 - Michael Thwaites, Australian poet (b. 1915)
• November 2 - Gordon A. Craig, Scottish historian
• November 3 - Robert Waller, English poet, (b. 1913)
• November 4 - Michael G. Coney, Canadian science-fiction writer (b. 1932)
• November 26 - Stan Berenstain, American children's writer and illustrator (b. 1923)
• December 1 - Mary Hayley Bell, dramatist
• December 2 - Christine Pullein-Thompson, English novelist (b. 1925)
• December 9 - Robert Sheckley, American short story writer (b. 1928)
• December 15 - Julián Marías, Spanish philosopher and author (b. 1914)
• December 16 - Kenneth Bulmer, English novelist and short story writer (b. 1921)

Awards

• Nobel Prize in Literature: Harold Pinter

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Andrew T. O'Connor, Tuvalu
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: M. T. C. Cronin, 1-100
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Samuel Wagan Watson, Smoke Encrypted Whispers
• Miles Franklin Award: Andrew McGahan, The White Earth

Canada

• Governor General's Award for English language fiction: David Gilmour - A Perfect Night to Go to China
• Griffin Poetry Prize: Roo Borson, Short Journey Upriver Towards Oishida and Charles Simic, Selected Poems: 1963-2003
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
• Scotiabank Giller Prize: David Bergen - The Time in Between

United Kingdom

• Cholmondeley Award: Jane Duran, Christopher Logue, M.R. Peacocke, Neil Rollinson
• Commonwealth Writers Prize: Andrea Levy - Small Island
• Dagger of Daggers: John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)
• Eric Gregory Award: Melanie Challenger, Carolyn Jess, Luke Kennard, Jaim Smith
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Sue Prideaux, Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Ian McEwan, Saturday
• Man Booker International Prize: Ismail Kadare
• Man Booker Prize: John Banville - The Sea
• Samuel Johnson Prize: Jonathan Coe - Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of BS Johnson
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Lionel Shriver - We Need to Talk About Kevin
• Somerset Maugham Award: Justin Hill - Passing Under Heaven; Maggie O'Farrell - The Distance Between Us
• Whitbread Book of the Year Award: Hilary Spurling - Matisse the Master: The Conquest of Colour 1909-1954

United States

• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry - B.H. Fairchild
• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Rick Hilles for Brother Salvage: Poems
• Arthur Rense Prize awarded to Daniel Hoffman by the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• Bollingen Prize for Poetry, Jay Wright
• Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Susanna Childress, Jagged with Love
• Compton Crook Award: Tamara Siler Jones, Ghosts in the Snow
• Frost Medal: Marie Ponsot
• Hugo Award: Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
• National Book Award for Poetry: W.S. Merwin: Migration: New and Selected Poems
• Newbery Medal: Cynthia Kadohata - Kira-Kira
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: John Patrick Shanley - Doubt: A Parable
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Marilynne Robinson - Gilead
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Ted Kooser - Delights & Shadows
• Wallace Stevens Award: Gerald Stern
• Whiting Writers' Awards:

Fiction: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Nell Freudenberger, Seth Kantner, John Keene (fiction/poetry)

Plays: Rinne Groff

Poetry: Thomas Sayers Ellis, Ilya Kaminsky, John Keene (fiction/poetry), Dana Levin, Spencer Reece, Tracy K. Smith

• Wordcraft Writer of the Year Award for Poetry: Allison Hedge Coke, (poetry) Off-Season City Pipe

Elsewhere

• International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Edward P. Jones - The Known World
• Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres: Patti Smith

See also

• List of years in literature
• Literature
• Poetry
• List of literary awards
• List of poetry awards