1995 in literature

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The year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter.
• Simon & Schuster paid US$4.2 million for the hardcover publishing rights for The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans after the self-published book appeared on The New York Times bestseller list.

New books

• Ben Aaronovitch - The Also People
• Louisa May Alcott - A Long Fatal Love Chase (previously unpublished manuscript)
• Roger MacBride Allen - Ambush at Corellia, Assault at Selonia and Showdown at Centerpoint
• Julia Alvarez - In the Time of the Butterflies
• Martin Amis - The Information
• Kevin J. Anderson - Darksaber
• Iain Banks - Whit
• Pat Barker - The Ghost Road
• Daniel Blythe - Infinite Requiem
• Christopher Bulis - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Edgar Rice Burroughs and Joe R. Lansdale - Tarzan: the Lost Adventure
• T. C. Boyle - The Tortilla Curtain
• Albert Camus - The First Man (Le premier homme) (unfinished novel, published posthumously)
• Andrew Cartmel - Warlock
• Mary Higgins Clark - Silent Night
• Michael Connelly - The Last Coyote
• Paul Cornell - Human Nature
• Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Battle, Battle Flag and The Winter King
• Douglas Coupland - Microserfs
• Robert Crais - Voodoo River
• Michael Crichton - The Lost World
• Martin Day - The Menagerie
• L. Sprague de Camp and Christopher Stasheff - The Exotic Enchanter
• Terrance Dicks - Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
• Umberto Eco - The Island of the Day Before
• Nicholas Evans - The Horse Whisperer
• Timothy Findley - The Piano Man's Daughter
• Richard Ford - Independence Day
• John Gardner -GoldenEye
• John Grisham - The Rainmaker
• Barbara Hambly - Children of the Jedi
• Craig Hinton - Millennial Rites
• Nick Hornby - High Fidelity
• Robert Hughes (as R.U. Slime) - Gooflumps two-part series
• Kazuo Ishiguro - The Unconsoled
• Welwyn Wilton Katz - Out of the Dark
• Stephen King - Rose Madder
• John le Carré - Our Game
• Andy Lane - The Empire of Glass and Original Sin
• Paul Leonard - Dancing the Code and Toy Soldiers
• Jonathan Lethem - Amnesia Moon
• Barry Letts - The Ghosts of N-Space
• Robert Ludlum - The Apocalypse Watch
• Steve Lyons - Head Games and Time of Your Life
• Stephen Marley - Managra
• Frank McCourt - Angela's Ashes
• Val McDermid - The Mermaids Singing
• David A. McIntee - Lords of the Storm and Sanctuary
• James A. Michener - Miracle in Seville
• Mary McGarry Morris - Songs in Ordinary Time
• Phil O'Brien - Memories of the Irish-Israeli War
• Kate Orman - Set Piece
• Terry Pratchett - Maskerade
• Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child - Relic (novel) and Mount Dragon
• Philip Pullman - Northern Lights (published in North America as The Golden Compass)
• Justin Richards - System Shock
• Gareth Roberts - The Romance of Crime and Zamper
• J. Jill Robinson - Eggplant Wife
• Salman Rushdie - The Moor's Last Sigh
• Gary Russell - Invasion of the Cat-People
• Josè Saramago - Blindness
• Sidney Sheldon - Morning, Noon, & Night
• Danielle Steel - Five Days In Paris
• Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
• James B. Stewart - Blood Sport
• Dave Stone - Sky Pirates!
• Jim Turner, editor - Cthulhu 2000: A Lovecraftian Anthology
• Andrew Vachss - Footsteps of the Hawk
• Robert James Waller - Puerto Vallarta Squeeze
• Dave Wolverton - The Courtship of Princess Leia

New drama

• Horton Foote - The Young Man From Atlanta
• Terrence McNally - Master Class
• Yasmina Reza - The Unexpected Man
• Tom Stoppard - Indian Ink
• Sarah Kane - Blasted

Poetry

• Mark Doty - Atlantis: Poems

Non-fiction

• Jean Baudrillard - The Gulf War Did Not Take Place
• L. Sprague de Camp - The Ape-Man Within
• Paul Davies - About Time
• Mark Epstein - Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective
• Bill Gates - The Road Ahead
• Nelson Mandela - Long Walk to Freedom
• Leonard Nimoy - I Am Spock
• Man Ray, André Breton - Man Ray, 1890-1976
• Condoleezza Rice & Philip Zelikow - Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft
• Oliver Sacks - An Anthropologist on Mars
• Simon Schama - Landscape and Memory
• Sterling Seagrave - The Lords of the Rim
• Miranda Seymour - Robert Graves: Life on the Edge
• Howard Stern - Miss America
• Tim Cornell - The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars.
• Binod Bihari Verma - Tapasa vai Ganga Maithili, biography
• Ibn Warraq - Why I Am Not a Muslim

Deaths

• January 9 - Peter Cook, comedian, satirist and writer
• January 30 Gerald Durrell, British naturalist, writer
• January 31 - George Abbott, writer, director, producer
• February 4 - Patricia Highsmith, author
• February 12 - Robert Bolt, writer
• February 21 - Calder Willingham, writer
• February 23 - James Herriot, author
• April 14 - Brian Coffey, poet
• June 14 - Roger Zelazny, American writer of fantasy and science fiction
• July 16
  • May Sarton - American writer
  • Stephen Spender, poet
• August 3 - Edward Whittemore, writer
• August 19 - Pierre Schaeffer, French composer and writer
• August 29 - Michael Ende, fantasy novelist
• October 13 - Henry Roth, novelist and short story writer
• October 22 - Kingsley Amis, author
• November 13 - Mary Elizabeth Counselman - American author and poet
• November 16 - Robert H. Adleman, American novelist and historian
• November 22 - Margaret St. Clair, science fiction writer
• December 2 - Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist
• December 30 - Heiner Müller, dramatist

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Seamus Heaney

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Richard King, Kindling Does For Firewood
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Bruce Beaver - Anima and Other Poems
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Peter Boyle, Coming Home From the World
• Mary Gilmore Prize: Aileen Kelly, Coming Up for Light

Canada

• Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance
• See 1995 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

• Prix Goncourt: Andreï Makine, Le Testament français
• Prix Décembre: Jean Échenoz, Les Grandes Blondes
• Prix Médicis French: Vassilis Alexakis, La Langue maternelle and Andreï Makine, Le testament français
• Prix Médicis International: Alessandro Baricco, Châteaux de la colère

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Philip Pullman, Northern Lights
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Christopher Priest, The Prestige
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle with the Truth
• Cholmondeley Award: U.A. Fanthorpe, Christopher Reid, C. H. Sisson, Kit Wright
• Eric Gregory Award: Colette Bryce, Sophie Hannah, Tobias Hill, Mark Wormald
• Newdigate prize: Antony Dunn
• Whitbread Book of the Year Award: Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Sandy Solomon, Pears, Lake, Sun
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Maxine Kumin
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction, William Maxwell
• Carnegie Medal: Philip Pullman, Northern Lights
• Compton Crook Award: Doranna Durgin, Dun Lady's Jess
• Hugo Award: Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance
• Nebula Award: Robert Sawyer, The Terminal Experiment
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Sharon Creech, Walk Two Moons
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Horton Foote, The Young Man From Atlanta
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Philip Levine, The Simple Truth
• Wallace Stevens Award: James Tate

Elsewhere

• New Zealand Book Award for Poetry: Michele Leggott, Dia
• Montana Book Award for Poetry: Michael Jackson, Pieces of Music
• Premio Nadal: Ignacio Carrión Hernández, Cruzar el Danubio