2012 in literature

The year 2012 will involve some significant events and new books.

Events

• January – British novelist Salman Rushdie cancels an appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India, and four other writers leave the city after reading excerpts from The Satanic Verses, which is banned in the country.^[1]
• April – While attending the London Book Fair, exiled Chinese writer Ma Jian uses red paint to smear a cross over his face and a copy of his banned book Beijing Coma and calls Chinese publishers a "mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party" after being "manhandled" while attempting to present the book to Liu Binjie at the fair.^[2]

Forthcoming

Crime and thriller

• Matthew Reilly – Scarecrow Returns (January 3,)
• Elmore Leonard – Raylan (January 17,)
• Robert Crais – Taken (January 24,)
• William Landay – Defending Jacob (January 31,)
• Tom Knox – The Lost Goddess (February 2,)
• Vince Flynn – Kill Shot (February 7,)
• Michael Palmer – Oath of Office (February 14,)
• Alex Berenson – The Shadow Patrol (February 21,)
• Matthew Pearl – The Technologists (February 21,)
• Clive Cussler and Justin Scott (March 6,)
• Ted Bell – Phantom (March 20,)
• Harlen Coben – Stay Close (March 20,)
• Joseph Wambaugh – Harbor Nocturne (April 3,)
• John Grisham – Calico Joe (April 10,)
• Philip Kerr – Prague Fatale (April 17,)
• Ace Atkins – Lullaby (continuing Robert B. Parker's Spenser) (May 1,)
• John Sandford – Stolen Prey (May 15,)
• Steve Berry – The Columbus Affair (May 15,)
• Jeremy Robinson – SecondWorld (May 22,)
• Greg Rucka – Alpha (May 22,)
• James Swain – Dark Magic (May 22,)
• Robert R. McCammon – The Providence Rider (May 31,)
• Clive Cussler and Graham Brown – The Storm (June 5,)
• Lincoln Child – The Third Gate (June 12,)
• Ridley Pearson – The Risk Agent (June 19,)
• James Rollins – Bloodline (June 26,)
• James Lee Burke – Creole Belle (July 17,)
• Daniel Silva – The Fallen Angel (July 17,)
• Dean Koontz – Odd Apocalypse (July 31,)
• Brad Thor – Black List (July 31,)
• Lee Child – A Wanted Man (September 25,)
• Dennis Lehane – Live by Night (October 2,)
• Jo Nesbo – Phantom (October 2,)
• Nelson DeMille – The Panther (October 16,)
• Michael Connelly – The Black Box (November 26,)

Horror

• Scott Sigler – Nocturnal (April 3,)
• Seth Grahame-Smith – Unholy Night (April 10,)
• David Wellington – 32 Fangs (April 24,)
• Laird Barron – The Croning (May 1,)
• F. Paul Wilson – Nightworld (May 22,)
• Justin Cronin – The Twelve (October 16,)
• Stephen King – Dr. Sleep (unknown in 2012)

Literature and fiction

• Adam Johnson – The Orphan Master's Son (January 10,)
• Ben Marcus – The Flame Alphabet (January 17,)
• Edmund White – Jack Holmes and His Friend (January 25,)
• Dan Chaon – Stay Awake (February 7,)
• Alex George – A Good American (February 7,)
• Carol Anshaw – Carry the One (March 6,)
• Lauren Groff – Arcadia (March 13,)
• Adam Levin – Hot Pink (March 13,)
• Anne Tyler – The Beginner's Goodbye (April 3,)
• Ron Rash – The Cove (April 10,)
• David Vann – Dirt (April 24,)
• Ben Fountain – Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (May 1,)
• Simon Mawer – Trapeze (May 1,)
• Elizabeth Percer – An Uncommon Education (May 1,)
• John Irving – In One Person (May 8,)
• Toni Morrison – Home (May 8,)^[3]
• Peter Carey – The Chemistry of Tears (May 15,)
• Richard Ford – Canada (May 22,)
• Mark Haddon – The Red House (June 12,)
• Marisha Pessl – Night Film (August 21,)
• J. K. Rowling – The Casual Vacancy (September 27,)
• Neeta Shah – Bollywood Striptease

Non-fiction

• Michael Hastings – The Operators (January 10,)
• Lawrence M. Krauss – A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing (January 10,)
• Susan Cain — Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (January 24,)
• Alec Wilkinson – The Ice Balloon (January 24,)
• Katherine Boo – Behind the Beautiful Forevers (February 7,)
• David Wolman – The End of Money (February 14,)
• Charles Duhigg – The Power of Habit (February 28,)
• Masha Gessen – The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (March 1,)
• Jonah Lehrer – Imagine: How Creativity Works (March 19,)
• Rachel Maddow – Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power (March 27,)
• Marilynne Robinson – When I Was a Child I Read Books (March 27,)
• Jonathan Haidt – The Righteous Mind – (April 2,)
• E.O. Wilson – The Social Conquest of Earth (April 9,)
• Nancy Gibbs & Michael Duffy – The President's Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity (April 19,)
• Edward Humes – Garbology (April 19,)
• Peter Bergen – Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--from 9/11 to Abbottabad (May 1,)
• Steve Coll – Private Empire (May 1,)
• Robert A. Caro – The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (May 1,)
• Warren Littlefield and T.R. Pearson – Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV (May 1,)
• Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein – It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism (May 1,)^[4]
• Marty Appel – Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss (May 8,)
• Tom Holland – In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire (May 15,)
• Patrisha McLean – All Fall Down, The Brandon deWilde Story (May 15,)
• Douglas Brinkley – Cronkite (May 29,)
• Amity Shlaes – Coolidge (June 26,)

Poetry

See 2012 in poetry

• D. A. Powell – Useless Landscape, or a Guide for Boys (February)
• Jack Gilbert – Collected Poems (March)
• Paige Ackerson-Kiely – My Love Is a Dead Arctic Explorer (March)
• David Wagoner – After the Point of No Return (March)
• Paul Hoover – Desolation: Souvenir
• Eileen Myles – Snowflake; Different Streets (April)
• W.G. Sebald – Across the Land and the Water: Selected Poems 1964–2001 (April)
• Liu Xiaobo – June Fourth Elegies; trans. from the Chinese by Jeffrey Yang (April)
• Marilyn Buck – Inside/Out: Selected Poems, foreword by David Meltzer
• Lucia Perillo On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths (May)
• Cathy Park Hong – Engine Empire (May)
• Lew Welch – Ring of Bone: Collected Poems (June)

Science fiction and fantasy

• Orson Scott Card – Shadows in Flight (January 17,)
• Michael F. Flynn – In the Lion's Mouth (January 17,)
• Saladin Ahmed – Throne of the Crescent Moon (February 7,)
• Robin Hobb – City of Dragons (February 7,)
• Karl Schroeder – Ashes of Candesce (February 14,)
• John Barrowman and Carole Barrowman – Hollow Earth
• Tobias Buckell – Arctic Rising (February 28,)
• Tim Powers – Hide Me Among the Graves (March 13,)
• Jon Courtenay Grimwood – The Outcast Blade (March 26,)
• Robert J. Sawyer – Triggers (April 3,)
• John Birmingham – Angels of Vengeance (April 10,)
• Brian Evenson – Immobility (April 10,)
• Brian Francis Slattery – Lost Everything (April 10,)
• Mary Robinette Kowal – Glamour in Glass (April 10,)
• Stephen King – The Wind Through the Keyhole (April 24,)
• N. K. Jemisin – The Killing Moon (May 1,)
• China Mieville – Railsea (May 15,)
• Daniel Abraham – The King's Blood (May 22,)
• Ian C. Esslemont – Orb Sceptre Throne (May 22,)
• Mira Grant – Blackout (May 22,)
• Kim Stanley Robinson – 2312 (May 22,)
• Paul Melko – Broken Universe (June 5,)
• John Scalzi – Redshirts (June 5,)
• Daniel Abraham (writing as James S.A. Corey) – Caliban's War (June 26,)
• David Brin – Existence
• Alex Bledsoe – Wake of the Bloody Angel (July 3,)
• Jay Lake – Calamity of So Long a Life
• Michael Moorcock – The Whispering Swarm
• Gene Wolfe – The Land Across

Young adult

• John Green – The Fault in Our Stars (January 10, 2012)
• Rick Riordan – The Mark of Athena (October 2, 2012)

Deaths

• January 19, – On Sarig, Israeli children's author, 85
• February 1, – Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet, 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature, 88^[5]
• February 3, – Samuel Youd (AKA John Christopher) (b. April 16, 1922), English science fiction novelist
• February 4, – Irene McKinney, American poet, 72^[6]
• March 21, – Christine Brooke-Rose, British novelist, 89
• March 25, – Antonio Tabucchi, Italian writer, 68^[7]
• March 27, – Adrienne Rich, American writer, 82^[8]
• March 28, – John Arden, English writer, 81^[9][10]
• April 2, – Sarah Dreher, American novelist and playwright, 75^[11]
• April 7, – Miss Read, English novelist, 98^[12]
• April 17, – Leila Berg, British children's author, 94^[13]
• April 26, – Ardian Klosi, Albanian political analyst, publicist, and writer, 55 (suicide)^[14]

References

See also

• List of literary awards
• List of poetry awards