1997 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1997.

Events

February 20 – Allen Ginsberg makes a final public appearance at the NYU Poetry Slam.<ref name=NYTObit/> He continues to write through his final illness, his last poem being "Things I'll Not Do (Nostalgias)" written on March 30.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
May 27 – Shakespeare's Globe in London, a reconstruction of the Elizabethan Globe Theatre, opens with a production of Shakespeare's Henry V.
June 3 – The supposed climax of Max Beerbohm's 1916 short story Enoch Soames occurs at the old British Museum Reading Room in London.
June 26 – J. K. Rowling's first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, is published in London by Bloomsbury Publishing, in an edition of 500 copies.
July 13 – The release occurs in Ireland of the film of Patrick McCabe's 1992 novel The Butcher Boy. The author plays Jimmy The Skite, the town drunk.
September 1 – The Adventures of Captain Underpants, the first in Dav Pilkey's series of children's novels, is published by Scholastic in the United States.
October – The online literary magazine Jacket is founded.
November 24 – The new British Library building in London designed by Colin St John Wilson opens to readers.
December 30 – The memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is removed from the ninth-grade English curriculum in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, for portraying "white people as being horrible, nasty, stupid people".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Uncertain dates

Tom Clancy signs a deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. giving him US $50 million for the world English rights to two new books. A second agreement pays another $25 million for a four-year book/multimedia deal, and a third, with Berkley Books for 24 paperbacks to tie in with an ABC television miniseries for $22 million.
Janet Dailey admits to plagiarism of the novels of the fellow American bestselling romance writer Nora Roberts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

New books

Fiction

Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman – So Vile a Sin
Mitch Albom – Tuesdays With Morrie
Martin Amis – Night Train
Iain Banks – A Song of Stone
John Banville – The Untouchable
Hazel Barnes – The Story I Tell Myself
Marie Bashkirtseff (died 1884) – I Am the Most Interesting Book of All (translation)
Raymond Benson
- Tomorrow Never Dies
- Zero Minus Ten
Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman – Vampire Science
Roberto Bolaño – Last Evenings on Earth (Llamadas Telefonicas)
Pascal Bruckner – Les Voleurs de beauté
Simon Bucher-Jones – Ghost Devices
Christopher Bulis – A Device of Death
Tim Burton – The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories
Candace Bushnell – Sex and the City
Peter Carey – Jack Maggs
Caleb Carr – The Angel of Darkness
Agatha Christie (died 1976) – collected short stories
- The Harlequin Tea Set
- While the Light Lasts and Other Stories
Daniel Clowes – Ghost World (graphic novel)
Warwick Collins – Gents
Bernard Cornwell
- Sharpe's Tiger
- Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur
Patricia Cornwell
- Hornet's Nest
- Unnatural Exposure
Paul Cornell – Oh No It Isn't!
Jim Crace – Quarantine
Robert Crais – Indigo Slam
Ann C. Crispin
- The Hutt Gambit
- The Paradise Snare
'Misha Defonseca' – Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years (published as non-fiction)
Don DeLillo – Underworld
Anita Diamant – The Red Tent
Terrance Dicks
- The Eight Doctors
- Mean Streets
Fernanda Eberstadt – When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of the Earth
Bernardine Evaristo – Lara
Charles Frazier – Cold Mountain
Anthony Frewin – London Blues
Anastasia Gosteva – Дочь самурая (The Samurai's Daughter)
John Grisham – The Partner
Barbara Hambly – Planet of Twilight
Allison Hedge Coke – Dog Road Woman
Matt Jones – Beyond the Sun
Sebastian Junger – The Perfect Storm
Winona LaDuke – Last Standing Woman
Joe R. Lansdale – Bad Chili
Paul Leonard – Genocide
Melissa Lucashenko – Steam Pigs
Ann-Marie MacDonald – Fall on Your Knees
Bernard MacLaverty – Grace Notes
Ian R. MacLeod – Voyages by Starlight
Norman Mailer – The Gospel According to the Son
Ian McEwan – Enduring Love
David A. McIntee – The Dark Path
Lawrence Miles
- Down
Mark Morris – The Bodysnatchers
Toni Morrison – Paradise
Jim Mortimore – Eternity Weeps
Herta Müller – The Appointment
Ryū Murakami (村上龍) – In the Miso Soup (インザ・ミソスープ, English translation 2005)
Courttia Newland – The Scholar
Kate Orman – The Room with No Doors
Hanne Ørstavik – Kjærlighet (Love)
Lance Parkin – The Dying Days
James Patterson – Cat and Mouse
Cyril Pearl – Morisson of Peking
John Peel – War of the Daleks
Pepetela – A Gloriosa Família
Marc Platt – Lungbarrow
Terry Pratchett – Jingo
Annie Proulx – "Brokeback Mountain" (short story)
Thomas Pynchon – Mason & Dixon
Kathy Reichs – Déjà Dead
Nina Revoyr – The Necessary Hunger
Justin Richards – Dragons' Wrath
Mordecai Richler – Barney's Version
Gareth Roberts – The Well-Mannered War
Philip Roth – American Pastoral
Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things
Don Miguel Ruiz – The Four Agreements
Gary Russell
- Deadfall
- Instruments of Darkness
Will Self – Great Apes
Carol Shields – Larry's Party<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Sidney Sheldon – The Best Laid Plans
Michael Stackpole – The Bacta War
Danielle Steel
- The Ghost
- The Ranch
- Special Delivery
Dave Stone
- Burning Heart
- Ship of Fools
William Sutcliffe – Are You Experienced?
Antonio Tabucchi – The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro (La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro)
Kaoru Takamura – Template:Nihongo3 (book publication completed)
Eckhart Tolle – The Power of Now
Zlatko Topčić – Nightmare
Kurt Vonnegut – Timequake
Lulu Wang – Het Lelietheater (The Lily Theatre)
Niall Williams – Four Letters of Love
Connie Willis – To Say Nothing of the Dog
Timothy Zahn – Specter of the Past
Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold – Donnerjack

Children and young people

Lloyd Alexander – The Iron Ring<ref>Hahn 2015, p. 14</ref>
Lynne Reid Banks – Harry the Poisonous Centipede: A Story to Make You Squirm (first in the Harry the Poisonous Centipede trilogy)
'Asta Bowen – Wolf: A Journey Home
Nancy Butts - The Door in the Lake
Cao Wenxuan (曹文軒) – The Grass House (草房子)
Sarah Ferguson – Budgie the Little Helicopter (first in an eponymous series of 5 books)
Mem Fox – Whoever You Are
Cornelia Funke – Dragon Rider
Virginia Hamilton (with Barry Moser) – A Ring of Tricksters: Animal Tales from America, the West Indies, and Africa
Mark Helprin (with Chris Van Allsburg) – The Veil of Snows
William Mayne – Lady Muck (illustrated by Jonathan Heale)
Eloise Jarvis McGraw – The Moorchild
Junko Morimoto – The Two Bullies
Barbara Nichol (with Barry Moser) – Dippers
Mary Pope Osborne (with Ned Bittinger) – Rocking Horse Christmas
Dav Pilkey – The Adventures of Captain Underpants<ref>Hahn 2015, p.106</ref> (first in the Captain Underpants series of 12 books)
Philip Pullman – The Subtle Knife<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Rick Riordan – Big Red Tequila
J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone<ref>Hahn 2015, pp. 264-265</ref> (first book in the Harry Potter series)
Ron Roy – The Absent Author (first in the A to Z Mysteries series of 26 books)
Simms Taback – There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly
Vivian Walsh – Olive, the Other Reindeer
Jacqueline Wilson – Girls in Love<ref>Hahn 2015, p. 631</ref>

Births

February 12 – Alexander Nikolov, Bulgarian poet
June 22 – Aqiil Gopee, Mauritian writer and poet
November 28 – Franz Mherryon Robles, Filipino novelist and aphorist

Deaths

January 19 – James Dickey, American poet and novelist (born 1923)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
February 3 – Bohumil Hrabal, Czech novelist (born 1914)
February 18 – Emily Hahn, American journalist and author (born 1905)
March 21 - Wilbert Awdry, British Anglican reverend and author (born 1911)
April 5 – Allen Ginsberg, American poet (liver cancer, born 1926)<ref name=NYTObit>Template:Cite news</ref>
May 9 – Rina Lasnier, Canadian poet (born 1915)
May 23 – Alison Adburgham, English social historian and journalist (born 1912)
June 8 – George Turner, Australian novelist and critic (born 1916)
June 11 – Susanna Roth, Swiss bohemist and literary translator (born 1950)
July 26 – Joseph Henry Reason, American librarian (born 1905)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
August 2 – William S. Burroughs, American novelist (born 1914<ref>2003 Penguin Modern Classics edition of Junky.</ref>
August 16 – Gerard McLarnon, Irish actor and playwright (born 1915)
August 27 – Johannes Edfelt, Swedish poet, translator and critic (born 1904)
October 14 – Harold Robbins, American novelist (born 1916)
October 16 – James A. Michener, American novelist and historian (born 1907)
November 6 – Leon Forrest, African American novelist and essayist (cancer, born 1937)<ref>Onishi, Norimitsu. "Leon Forrest, 60, a Novelist Who Explored Black History", The New York Times, November 10, 1997.</ref>
November 30 – Kathy Acker, American novelist and poet (breast cancer, born 1947)<ref>Kathy Acker and Transnationalism, ed. Polina Mackay and Kathryn Nicol (Cambridge Scholars, 2009)</ref>
December 14 – Owen Barfield, British philosopher, author and poet (born 1898)