1997 in literature

Table of contents

1 Events
2 New Books
3 Births
4 Deaths
5 Awards

Events

Tom Clancy signed a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc (both part of Pearson Education), that paid him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . He then signed a second agreement for another US$25 million for a four-year book/multimedia deal. Clancy followed 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.
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."

Booker Prize: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
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.
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Javier Marias, A Heart So White
Nebula Award: Vonda McIntyre, The Moon and the Sun
Newbery Medal for children's literature: E. L. Konigsburg, The View from Saturday
Nobel Prize for Literature: Dario Fo
Orange Prize for Fiction: Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
Prix Goncourt: Patrick Rambaud, La Bataille
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: Live Together: New and Selected Poems
Whitbread Best Book Award: Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid