Events
- April 21 – UNESCO launches the World Digital Library. [1]
- May 1 – Carol Ann Duffy is appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, the first woman in the position; [2] she is also the first Scot and the first openly gay occupant of the post. [3]
- May 5 – J. R. R. Tolkien's narrative poem The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún in alliterative verse, based on the 13th century Poetic Edda and probably written in the 1930s, is published posthumously.
- May 16–25 – Ruth Padel becomes the first woman ever elected Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford [4] but resigns nine days later after it is alleged she was involved in what some sources call as a smear campaign against Derek Walcott, a rival for the post. [5] [6]
- June 25 – American pop singer Michael Jackson dies of an acute propofol intoxication at the age of 50.
- August 10 – Standard orthography for the Silesian language is adopted in Cieszyn, at a meeting of the Standardization Committee of the Silesian Language. [7]
- October 8 – Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller wins the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature.
- October 12 – Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm-Zentrum Library opens at Humboldt University of Berlin. [8]
- November 10 – Linden MacIntyre wins the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel The Bishop's Man .
- unknown date – Australian publisher Allen & Unwin suspends its annual Iremonger Award, stating that no manuscript of sufficient merit has been submitted. [9]
