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The year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. (both part of Pearson Education), giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a four-year book/multimedia deal. Clancy follows this up with an agreement with Berkley Books for 24 paperbacks to tie in with the an ABC television miniseries in an agreement worth US$22 million bringing the total value of the package to US$97 million.
• 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, because it "portrays white people as being horrible, nasty, stupid people" [CNN].^[1]
• Jacket online literary magazine founded.

New books

• Ben Aaronovitch & Kate Orman - So Vile a Sin
• Mitch Albom - Tuesdays With Morrie
• Martin Amis - Night Train
• John Banville - The Untouchable
• Marie Bashkirtseff - I Am the Most Interesting Book of All (Translation)
• Raymond Benson - Tomorrow Never Dies and Zero Minus Ten
• Jonathan Blum & Kate Orman - Vampire Science
• 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
• Agatha Christie
  • The Harlequin Tea Set
  • While the Light Lasts and Other Stories
• Mary Higgins Clark - Pretend You Don't See Her
• Warwick Collins - Gents
• Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Tiger and Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur
• Patricia Cornwell - Hornet's Nest and Unnatural Exposure
• Paul Cornell - Oh No It Isn't!
• Robert Crais - Indigo Slam
• Ann C. Crispin - The Hutt Gambit and The Paradise Snare
• Don DeLillo - Underworld
• Anita Diamant - The Red Tent
• Terrance Dicks - The Eight Doctors and Mean Streets
• Alan Downs -"Beyond the Looking Glass: Overcoming the Seductive Culture of Corporate Narcissism"
• Fernanda Eberstadt - When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of the Earth
• Charles Frazier - Cold Mountain
• Anthony Frewin - London Blues
• John Grisham - The Partner
• Barbara Hambly - Planet of Twilight
• Allison Hedge Coke - Dog Road Woman American Book Award winner 1998
• Nancy Huston - Instruments of Darkness
• Matt Jones - Beyond the Sun
• Sebastian Junger - The Perfect Storm
• Winona LaDuke - Last Standing Woman
• Paul Leonard - Genocide
• Ann-Marie MacDonald - Fall on Your Knees
• Ian R. MacLeod - Voyages by Starlight
• Norman Mailer - The Gospel According to the Son
• David A. McIntee - The Dark Path
• Lawrence Miles - Alien Bodies and Down
• Mark Morris - The Bodysnatchers
• Jim Mortimore - Eternity Weeps
• Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum - The Room With No Doors, So Vile a Sin and Vampire Science
• Lance Parkin - The Dying Days
• James Patterson - Cat and Mouse
• Cyril Pearl - Morisson of Peking
• John Peel - War of the Daleks
• Marc Platt - Lungbarrow
• Terry Pratchett - Jingo
• Philip Pullman - The Subtle Knife
• Thomas Pynchon - Mason & Dixon
• Kathy Reichs - Déjà Dead
• Justin Richards - Dragons' Wrath
• Mordecai Richler - Barney's Version
• Gareth Roberts - The Well-Mannered War
• Philip Roth - American Pastoral
• J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things
• Gary Russell - Deadfall
• Sarah Ferguson - Budgie the Little Helicopter
• Will Self - Great Apes
• Carol Shields - Larry's Party
• Sidney Sheldon - The Best Laid Plans
• Michael Stackpole - The Bacta War
• Danielle Steel - The Ghost, The Ranch and Special Delivery
• Dave Stone - Burning Heart and Ship of Fools
• William Sutcliffe - Are You Experienced?
• Kurt Vonnegut - Timequake
• Timothy Zahn - Specter of the Past
• Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold - Donnerjack
• Binod Bihari Verma - Nayanmani Maithili Novel

New drama

• Thomas Kilroy - The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde
• Peter Whelan - The Herbal Bed

Poetry

• Ted Hughes - Tales from Ovid

Non-fiction

• Karen Armstrong - Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
• Dave Barry - Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs
• Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Cari Beauchamp - Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood
• Bill Bryson - A Walk in the Woods
• Iris Chang - The Rape of Nanking
• Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs and Steel
• Michael Drosnin - The Bible Code
• Gerina Dunwich - A Wiccan's Guide to Prophecy and Divination
• Stephen Fry - Moab Is My Washpot (autobiography)
• Reinhold Heller - Toulouse-Lautrec: The Soul of Montmartre
• James McBride - The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
• Maria Todorova - Imagining the Balkans
• Jesse Lee Kercheval - Building Fiction

Births

Deaths

• January 19 - James Dickey, poet, novelist
• February 3 - Bohumil Hrabal, author
• April 5 - Allen Ginsberg, poet
• August 2 - William S. Burroughs, novelist
• August 27 - Johannes Edfelt, poet, translator and critic
• October 14 - Harold Robbins, novelist
• October 16 - James A. Michener, novelist and historian

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Dario Fo

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Eva Sallis, Hiam
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Les Murray, Subhuman Redneck Poems
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Anthony Lawrence, The Viewfinder
• Mary Gilmore Prize: Morgan Yasbincek, Night Reversing

Canada

• Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award: Rachel Rose
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Mordecai Richler: - Barney's Version
• See 1997 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

• Prix Goncourt: Patrick Rambaud, La Bataille
• Prix Décembre: Lydie Salvayre, La Compagnie des spectres
• Prix Médicis International: T. Coraghessan Boyle, America
• Prix Médicis French: Les Sept Noms du peintre - Philippe Le Guillou

Spain

• Premio Miguel de Cervantes: Guillermo Cabrera Infante

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Andrew Miller, Ingenious Pain
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: R. F. Foster, William Butler Yeats: A Life, Volume 1 - The Apprentice Mage 1965-1914
• Cholmondeley Award: Alison Brackenbury, Gillian Clarke, Tony Curtis, Anne Stevenson
• Eric Gregory Award: Matthew Clegg, Sarah Corbett, Polly Clark, Tim Kendall, Graham Nelson, Matthew Welton
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Richard Blanco, City of a Hundred Fires
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Fred Chappell
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, John Ashbery
• Compton Crook Award: Richard Garfinkle, Celestial Matters
• Hugo Award: Kim Stanley Robinson, Blue Mars
• Nebula Award: Vonda McIntyre, The Moon and the Sun
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: E. L. Konigsburg, The View from Saturday
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Steven Millhauser - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Lisel Mueller: Alive Together: New and Selected Poems
• Wallace Stevens Award: Anthony Hecht

Elsewhere

• IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Javier Marias, A Heart So White
• Premio Nadal: Carlos Cañeque, Quién

Notes

1. ^ "CNN.com: Harry Potter, 'Huckleberry Finn' among controversial.." webpage: CNN-banned-books.