2017 in literature

• March – Emulating Kerouac's On the Road, Ross Goodwin drives from New York to New Orleans with an artificial intelligence device in a laptop hooked up to various sensors, whose output it turns into words printed on rolls of thermal paper; the result is published unedited as 1 the Road in 2018.
• August – The Chinese crime novelist Liu Yongbiao is arrested and eventually sentenced to death for four murders committed 22 years before.[1]
• August 30 – A hard disk drive containing unfinished work by the English comic fantasy novelist Sir Terry Pratchett (died 2015) is crushed by a steamroller on his instructions.[2]
• October 5 - The Swedish Academy announce that the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro.[3]
• October – Tianjin Binhai Library opens in China.[4]
• December – Kristen Roupenian's short story "Cat Person" is published in The New Yorker and becomes a viral phenomenon online, with more than 2.6 million hits.[5][6]

• Tercentenary of the Aberbaijani poet Molla Panah Vagif's birth in 1717[7]
• 600th anniversary of the death of the Turkic mystical poet Imadaddin Nasimi in 1417[7]
• March 19 – Bicentenary of the Slovak writer Jozef Miloslav Hurban's birth[7]
• May 8 – The American novelist Thomas Pynchon turns 80.[8]
• June 18 – Centenary of the death of the Romanian literary critic and former prime minister Titu Maiorescu[7]
• June 26 – 20th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (U.K. edition)[9]
• July 12 – 200th birthday of Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden
• July 14 – Bicentenary of the early French salonnière Madame de Staël's death[7]
• July 18 – Bicentenary of the novelist Jane Austen's death in 1817[10]
• Nov 30 – 350th anniversary of the Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift's birth in 1667[11]
• December 4 – Bicentenary of the birth of Nikoloz Baratashvili's in 1817, who introduced European style into Georgian literature.[7]

Dates after each title indicate U.S. publication, unless otherwise indicated.

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in literature" article:

• January 2 – John Berger, English novelist, painter, art critic and poet, 90 (born 1926)[13]
• January 12 – William Peter Blatty, American author (The Exorcist), 89 (born 1928)[14]
• January 25:
  • Buchi Emecheta, Nigerian novelist and children's writer (The Bride Price, The Joys of Motherhood), 72 (born 1944)[15]
  • Harry Mathews, American novelist and poet, 86 (born 1930)[16]
• January 29 – Howard Frank Mosher, American novelist (Where the Rivers Flow North), 74 (born 1942)
• January 30 - Teresa Amy, Uruguayan poet and translator, 66 (born 1950)[17]
• February 1 – William Melvin Kelley, African-American novelist, 79 (born 1937)[18]
• February 8 – Tom Raworth, English poet, 78 (born 1938)
• March 10 – Robert James Waller, American novelist (The Bridges of Madison County), 77 (b. 1939)[19]
• March 16 – Torgny Lindgren, Swedish writer, 78 (born 1938)[20]
• March 17 – Derek Walcott, Saint Lucian poet and playwright, Nobel Laureate in 1992, 87 (b. 1930)[21]
• April 1 – Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet, 84 (b. 1933)[22]
• May 1:
  • Anatoly Aleksin, Russian writer and poet, 92[23]
  • Mohamed Talbi, Tunisian historian, 95[24]
• May 24 – Denis Johnson, American poet, novelist (Tree of Smoke), and short story writer (Jesus' Son), 67 (born 1949).[25]
• June 2
  • Jaroslav Kořán, Czech translator, writer and politician, 77[26]
  • Barrie Pettman, English author, publisher and philanthropist, 73[27]
  • S. Abdul Rahman, Indian poet, 79[28]
• June 4
  • Juan Goytisolo, Spanish essayist, poet and novelist, 86[29]
  • Jack Trout, American marketer and author, 82[30]
• June 5
  • Helen Dunmore, English poet, novelist and children's writer, 64 (born 1952)
  • Anna Jókai, Hungarian writer, 84[31]
• June 8 – Naseem Khan, British journalist, 77[32]
• June 12 – C. Narayana Reddy, Indian poet and writer, Jnanpith Awardee, 85[33]
• June 27 – Michael Bond, English author (Paddington Bear), 91 (born 1926)[34]
• June 28 – Bruce Stewart, New Zealand author and playwright, 80[35]
• July 2
  • Tony Bianchi, Welsh-language author, 65[36]
  • Jack Collom, American poet, essayist and poetry teacher, 85[37]
  • Abiola Irele, Nigerian literary critic, 81[38]
  • Fay Zwicky, Australian poet, 83[39]
• July 5 – Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian poet, 63 (cancer)[40]
• July 9
  • Miep Diekmann, Dutch writer of children's literature, 92 (born 1925)[41]
  • Anton Nossik, Russian writer and internet entrepreneur, 51 (heart attack)[42]
• July 10 – Peter Härtling, German writer and poet, 83[43]
• September 23 – Harvey Jacobs, American author, 87[44]
• November 20 – Amir Hamed, Uruguayan writer, essayist and translator, 55 (born 1962)[45]
• November 23 – Božena Mačingová, Slovak writer, author of books for children and young adults (born 1922)[46]
• December 28 – Sue Grafton, American mystery author, 77[47]

In alphabetical order of prize names:

• Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction: Naomi Alderman for The Power[48]
• Baillie Gifford Prize: David France for How to Survive a Plague[49]
• Booker Prize: George Saunders for Lincoln in the Bardo[50]
• Caine Prize for African Writing: Bushra Elfadil, "The Story of the Girl Whose Bird Flew Away"
• Camões Prize: Manuel Alegre[51]
• Costa Book Awards: Helen Dunmore (died June 5) for Inside the Wave (poetry)[52]
• Danuta Gleed Literary Award: Kris Bertin, Bad Things Happen
• David Cohen Prize: Tom Stoppard
• Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Kai Cheng Thom[53]
• Desmond Elliott Prize: Francis Spufford, Golden Hill[54]
• DSC Prize for South Asian Literature:
• Dylan Thomas Prize: Fiona McFarlane for The High Places[55]
• European Book Prize: David Van Reybrouck, Zink and, Raffaele Simone, Si la démocratie fait faillite
• Folio Prize: Hisham Matar for The Return[56]
• German Book Prize: Robert Menasse for Die Hauptstadt[57]
• Goldsmiths Prize: Nicola Barker for H(a)ppy[58]
• Gordon Burn Prize: Denise Mina for The Long Drop[59]
• Governor General's Award for English-language fiction: Joel Thomas Hynes, We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night[60]
• Governor General's Award for French-language fiction: Christian Guay-Poliquin, Le Poids de la neige[60]
• Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française:
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: N. K. Jemisin for The Obelisk Gate[61]
• International Booker Prize: David Grossman for A Horse Walks Into a Bar[62]
• International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Mohammed Hasan Alwan for A Small Death[63]
• International Dublin Literary Award: José Eduardo Agualusa for A General Theory of Oblivion[64]
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction:
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography:
• Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award:
• Lambda Literary Awards: Various categories, see 29th Lambda Literary Awards
• Miguel de Cervantes Prize:
• Miles Franklin Award: Josephine Wilson for Extinctions[65]
• National Biography Award:
• National Book Award for Fiction:
• National Book Critics Circle Award:
• Newdigate Prize: Dominic Hand[66]
• Nike Award:
• Nobel Prize in Literature: Kazuo Ishiguro
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Imbolo Mbue for Behold the Dreamers[67]
• PEN Center USA Fiction Award:
• Premio Planeta de Novela:
• Premio Strega:
• Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing:
• Prix Goncourt:
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Colson Whitehead for The Underground Railroad[68]
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Tyehimba Jess for Olio[68]
• RBC Taylor Prize: Ross King for Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies[69]
• Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: David Chariandy, Brother[70]
• Russian Booker Prize:
• Scotiabank Giller Prize: Michael Redhill, Bellevue Square[71]
• Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings:
• Walter Scott Prize: Sebastian Barry for Days Without End[72]
• W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction:
• Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award: Breyten Breytenbach[73]