2008 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2008.

Events

January 1 – In the UK's 2008 New Year Honours List, Hanif Kureishi (CBE), Jenny Uglow (OBE), Peter Vansittart (OBE) and Debjani Chatterjee (MBE) are all rewarded for "services to literature".
February 29 – Belgian-born "Misha Defonseca" admits that her bestselling Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years (1997) is a literary forgery.
April – Signet Books announce they will cease to publish the American historical romance novelist Cassie Edwards after a dispute over plagiarism.
April 25 – The first Twitter novel, Small Places by Nicholas Belardes, is launched.^[1]
May 7–11 – The first Palestine Festival of Literature is held.
June 15 – Gore Vidal, asked in a New York Times interview how he felt about the death of his rival William F. Buckley, Jr., replies: "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred."
July – Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981) is the winner of a poll to select the "Best of the Booker".

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New books

Poetry

Non-fiction

The Academi – Encyclopaedia of Wales (Gwyddoniadur Cymru) (January)
Julie Andrews – Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (April 1)
Kwame Anthony Appiah – Experiments in Ethics
Dan Ariely – Predictably Irrational (February 19)
Margaret Atwood – Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (October 1)
Mary Beard – Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town
Dionne Brand – A Kind of Perfect Speech (Ralph Gustafson Lecture)
Augusten Burroughs – A Wolf at the Table (April 29)
Michael Chabon – Maps and Legends (May 1)
D. K. Chakrabarti – The Battle for Ancient India: An essay in the sociopolitics of Indian archaeology
Rob Christensen – The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics
Sloane Crosley – I Was Told There'd Be Cake (April 1)
John Duignan – The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology (October 7)
Eminem – The Way I Am (October 21)
Richard Florida – Who's Your City? (March)
Raymond Geuss – Philosophy and Real Politics
Philip Hoare – Leviathan, or The Whale (September 16)
Jim Holt – Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes
Chloe Hooper – The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island
B. B. Lal – Rāma, His Historicity, Mandir, and Setu: Evidence of Literature, Archaeology, and Other Sciences
Thomas Cairns Livingstone – Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913–1918
Minae Mizumura – The Fall of Language in the Age of English
Scholastique Mukasonga – La femme aux pieds nus (The Barefoot Woman)
Haruki Murakami (translated by Philip Gabriel) – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (July 29)
Shuja Nawaz – Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within
Frances Osborne – The Bolter: Idina Sackville
Chris Pash – The Last Whale
Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow – Last Lecture
Peter Rees – The Other ANZACs
David Sedaris – When You Are Engulfed in Flames (June 3)
Tore Skeie – Alv Erlingsson: fortellingen om en adelsmanns undergang
Vaclav Smil – Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems
Chunghee Sarah Soh – The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan
Shreve Stockton - The Daily Coyote
Jane Straus – The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Kate Summerscale – The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, or The Murder at Road Hill House (April)
Ronnie Thompson (pseudonym) – Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer (January 24)
Bjørn Christian Tørrissen – One for the Road (January 31; translation of I pose og sekk!, 2005)
Barbara Walters – Audition: A Memoir (May 6)
Russell Wangersky – Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself^[10]
Meralda Warren and others – Mi Base side orn Pitcairn (My Favourite Place on Pitcairn, first book published in Pitkern creole)
Dagmar S. Wodtko, Britta Irslinger and Carolin Schneider (eds.) – Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon

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Deaths

January 2 – George MacDonald Fraser, Scottish novelist and screenplay writer (born 1925)
January 3 – Henri Chopin, French poet (born 1922)^[11]
January 11 – Nancy Phelan, Australian writer (born 1913)
January 13 – Patricia Verdugo, Chilean journalist and writer (born 1947)
January 16 – Hone Tuwhare, New Zealand poet (born 1922)
January 17 – Edward D. Hoch, American detective fiction writer (born 1930)
January 26
- John Ardagh, Nyasaland-born English journalist and writer (born 1928)
- Abraham Brumberg, American writer and editor (born 1926)
January 29 – Margaret Truman, American crime novelist and singer (born 1924)
January 30 – Miles Kington, Northern Irish-born English journalist and writer (born 1941)

February 4 – Rose Hacker, English writer and journalist (born 1906)
February 7 – Richard Altick, American literary historian (born 1915)
February 8 – Phyllis A. Whitney, Japan-born American mystery writer (born 1903)
February 10 – Steve Gerber, American comic book writer (born 1947)
February 18 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French novelist (born 1922)^[12]
February 21
- Archie Hind, Scottish novelist (born 1928)
- Robin Moore, American novelist and memoirist (born 1925)
February 22 – Stephen Marlowe, American science fiction and crime writer (born 1928)
February 28 – Julian Rathbone, English novelist (born 1935)^[13]
February 29 – Val Plumwood (Val Routley), Australian philosopher (born 1939)

March 16 – Jonathan Williams, American poet (born 1929)
March 19
- Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer and futurologist (born 1917)
- Hugo Claus, Belgian writer in Flemish and English (born 1929)^[14]
March 23 – E. A. Markham, Montserrat poet, writer and activist (born 1939)
April 3 – Andrew Crozier, English poet and scholar (born 1943)
April 7 – Ludu Daw Amar, Burmese writer and journalist (born 1915)
April 13 – Robert Greacen, Irish poet (born 1920)
April 17
- Aimé Césaire, Martinique poet and writer in French (born 1913)
- Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Russian writer and editor (born 1929)
April 18
- Michael de Larrabeiti, English young-adult novelist and travel writer (born 1934)
- William W. Warner, American biologist and Pulitzer Prize writer (born 1920)
May 1 – Elaine Dundy, American novelist, biographer and playwright (born 1921)
May 9 – Nuala O'Faolain, Irish critic and writer (born 1940)
May 11 – Jeff Torrington, Scottish novelist (born 1935)
May 12 – Oakley Hall, American novelist (born 1920)
May 14 – Roy Heath, Guyanese novelist (born 1926)
May 15 – Muhyi al-Din Faris, Sudanese poet (born 1936)^[15]
May 19 – Vijay Tendulkar, Indian playwright (born 1928)
May 22 – Robert Asprin, American science fiction writer (born 1946)^[16]^[17]
May 23 – Alan Brien, English journalist and novelist (born 1925)
May 28 – Elinor Lyon, British children's writer (born 1921)

June 2 – Ferenc Fejtő, Hungarian-born French historian and journalist (born 1909)
June 4 – Matthew Bruccoli, American biographer and scholar (born 1931)
June 5 – Angus Calder, British writer and scholar (born 1942)
June 8 – Peter Rühmkorf, German poet and writer (born 1929)
June 9 – Algis Budrys (John A. Sentry), American science fiction writer of Lithuanian origin (born 1931)^[18]
June 10
- Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyz writer in Kyrgyz and Russian (born 1928)^[19]
- Eliot Asinof, American novelist and baseball writer (born 1919)^[20]
June 16 – Mario Rigoni Stern, Italian novelist (born 1921)
June 18 – Tasha Tudor, American children's writer and illustrator (born 1915)
June 22 – Albert Cossery, Egyptian-born French novelist (born 1913)
June 24 – Ruth Cardoso, Brazilian anthropologist and writer (born 1930)
June 25 – Lyall Watson, South African scientist and new age writer (born 1939)
June 27 – Lenka Reinerová, Czech writer in German (born 1916)

July 1
- Clay Felker, American magazine editor and journalist (born 1925)
- Robert Harling, English typographer and novelist (born 1910)
July 2 – Simone Ortega, Spanish cookery writer (born 1919)
July 4
- Thomas M. Disch, American science fiction author and poet. (born 1940)
- Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch novelist and writer in Dutch and English (born 1931)
July 20 – Roger Wolcott Hall, American memoirist and novelist (born 1919)
July 27 – Bob Crampsey, Scottish writer (born 1930)
July 30 – Peter Coke, English playwright (born 1913)

August 3 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Nobel laureate (born 1918)^[21]
August 7 – Simon Gray, English playwright and memoirist (born 1936)
August 9 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (born 1942)
August 11 – George Furth, American playwright (born 1932)
August 17 – Dave Freeman, American writer and advertising executive (born 1961)
August 23 – John Russell, English art critic (born 1919)
August 25 – Ahmed Faraz (Syed Akhmad Shah), Pakistani poet in Urdu (born 1931)
August 31 – Ken Campbell, English novelist and playwright (born 1941)

September 5 – Robert Giroux, American editor and publisher (born 1914)
September 7 – Gregory Mcdonald, American mystery writer (born 1937)
September 12 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist (born 1962)^[22]
September 17 – James Crumley, American crime writer (born 1939)^[23]
September 20 – Duncan Glen, Scottish poet, critic and literary historian (born 1933)
September 23 – William Woodruff, English historian and autobiographer (born 1916)
September 24 – Bengt Anderberg, Swedish poet, novelist and children's writer (born 1920)
September 29 – Hayden Carruth, American poet and literary critic (born 1921)
October 4 – Peter Vansittart, English novelist and historical writer (born 1920)
October 10 – Ilie Purcaru, Romanian journalist and poet (born 1933)
October 14 – Barrington J. Bayley, English science fiction writer (born 1937)
October 26 – Tony Hillerman, American mystery writer (born 1925)
October 27 – Es'kia Mphahlele, South African writer in English (born 1919)
October 29 – William Wharton (Albert William Du Aime), American novelist (born 1925)
October 31 – Studs Terkel, American historian and broadcaster (born 1912)
November 4 – Michael Crichton, American writer and scholar (born 1942)
November 13 – Jules Archer, American historian and author (born 1915)
November 14 – Kristin Hunter, American author and academic (born 1931)
December 1 – Dorothy Sterling, American non-fiction writer for children and historian (born 1913)^[24]
December 4 – Forrest J Ackerman, American magazine editor, science fiction writer, and literary agent (born 1916)^[25]
December 15 – Anne-Catharina Vestly, Norwegian children's book author (born 1920)^[26]
December 20 – Adrian Mitchell, English poet, playwright and fiction writer (born 1932)
December 24 – Harold Pinter, English playwright and screenwriter (born 1930)^[27]
December 31 – Donald E. Westlake, American novelist (born 1933)^[28]