See also: 2003 in literature, other events of 2004, 2005 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation.
• June 1 - Sasebo - Controversy briefly surrounded Koushun Takami's Battle Royale, when an 11-year-old fan of the story (known on the internet as Nevada-Tan) murdered her classmate, 12-year-old Satomi Mitarai , in a way that mimicked a scene from the story. [1] [2]

New books

• The Rocklopedia Fakebandica - T. Mike Childs
• A Year in the Merde - Stephen Clarke
• The Hanging of Angelique - Afua Cooper
• Eastern Standard Tribe - Cory Doctorow
• Past Mortem - Ben Elton
• Ten Men - Alexandra Gray
• In the Place of Last Things - Michael Helm
• The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
• Song of Susannah - Stephen King
• Free Culture - Lawrence Lessig
• Author, Author - David Lodge
• Origins of the Crash - Roger Lowenstein
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - David Michaels
• Runaway - Alice Munro
• Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories - Chuck Palahniuk
• The Plot Against America - Philip Roth
• Edenborn - Nick Sagan
• - Miranda Seymour
• How to Ruin Your Financial Life - Ben Stein
• Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, The Truth, and What to Do About It - Ben Stein
• The Confession - Olen Steinhauer
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents: America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction - Jon Stewart and writers of The Daily Show
• My Name Is Legion - A. N. Wilson
• The Big Why - Michael Winter

Deaths

January-February

• January 4, John Toland, author and historian
• January 4, Joan Aiken, author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
• January 4, Jeff Nuttall, poet, publisher, and author of Bomb Culture
• January 10, Alexandra Ripley, author of Scarlett
• January 10/11 ?, Spalding Gray, actor and author
• January 13, Zeno Vendler , philosopher and linguist
• January 14, Jack Cady , science fiction author
• January 15, Olivia Goldsmith, author
• January 15, Alex Barris, Canadian actor and writer
• January 22, George Woodbridge, illustrator
• January 29, M. M. Kaye, author of The Far Pavilions
• 29 January, Janet Frame, New Zealand author
• February 2, Alan Bullock, historian
• February 4, Hilda Hilst, Brazilian novelist
• February 5, Frances Partridge , last surviving member of the Bloomsbury group
• February 7, Norman Thelwell, cartoonist
• February 8, Julius Schwartz, comic book and pulp magazine editor
• February 16, Bill Oakley, comic book letterer
• February 19, Hermann Krings , German philosopher
• February 27, Paul Sweezy, economist and founding editor of the Monthly Review
• February 28, Daniel J. Boorstin, historian
• February 29, Jerome Lawrence, playwright

March-December

• March 9, Albert Mol, author, actor, and dancer
• March 30, Dr Michael King OBE New Zealand historian, author and biographer
• May 2, Paul Guimard, French writer
• April 26, Hubert Selby, Jr., American author
• July 1, Peter Barnes, playwright
• October 16, Vincent Brome, English biographer and novellist
• October 20, Anthony Hecht, American poet
• November 24, Arthur Hailey, Canadian author
• December 8, Jackson Mac Low, American poet
• December 12, Phaswane Mpe, South African novelist (b. 1970)
• December 28, Susan Sontag, American novelist (b. 1933)

Awards

• Giller Prize: Alice Munro, Runaway
• Governor General's Awards: See 2004 Governor General's Awards
• Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Simpson , Loop and August Kleinzahler , The Strange Hours Travelers Keep
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Elfriede Jelinek
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Andrea Levy, Small Island