2025 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2025.

Anniversaries

• 14 January – Yukio Mishima was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 18 January – Gilles Deleuze was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 20 January – Ernesto Cardenal was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 20 January – Eugen Gomringer was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 1 February – Alfred Grosser was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 4 February – Russell Hoban was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 6 February – Pramoedya Ananta Toer was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 22 February – Edward Gorey was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 24 February – Etel Adnan was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 10 March – Manolis Anagnostakis was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 12 March – Harry Harrison was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 21 March – Peter Brook was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 25 March – Flannery O'Connor was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 11 May – Rubem Fonseca was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 27 May – Jean-Paul Aron was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 27 May – Tony Hillerman was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 6 June – Thomas Mann was born in 1875 (150th Anniversary).
• 10 June – James Salter was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 30 June – Philippe Jaccottet was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 19 July – Jean-Pierre Faye was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 20 July – Frantz Fanon was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 26 July – Ana María Matute was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 1 August – Ernst Jandl was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 18 August – Brian Aldiss was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 25 August – Thea Astley was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 27 August – Saiichi Maruya was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 6 September – Andrea Camilleri was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 15 September – Giuseppe Fava was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 19 September – Tatsuhiro Ōshiro was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 24 September – Kunio Tsuji was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 3 October – Gore Vidal was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 11 October – Elmore Leonard was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 13 October – Frank D. Gilroy was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 20 October – Art Buchwald was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 2 November – Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered in 1975 (50th Anniversary).
• 14 November – Jean Paul died in 1825 (200th Anniversary).
• 8 December – Carmen Martín Gaite was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 12 December – Ahmad Shamlou was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).
• 19 December – Tankred Dorst was born in 1925 (100th Anniversary).

New books

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

Fiction

New adult fiction, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date of pub.	Ref.
Aria Aber	Good Girl	January 14	[1]
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	Dream Count	March 4	[2]
Amal El-Mohtar	The River Has Roots		[3]
David Szalay	Flesh	March 11	[4]
Suzanne Collins	Sunrise on the Reaping	March 18	[5]
Abdulrazak Gurnah	Theft		[6]
Ben Okri	Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Brokenhearted		[7]
John Scalzi	When the Moon Hits Your Eye	March 25	[8]
Lindsey Davis	There Will Be Bodies	April 3	[9]
Katie Kitamura	Audition	April 8	[10]
Isabel Allende	My Name Is Emilia del Valle	May 6	[11]
Ocean Vuong	The Emperor of Gladness	May 13	[12]
Jessie Elland	The Ladie Upstairs	May 22	[13]
Stephen King	Never Flinch	May 27	[14]
Katie Yee	Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar	July 22	[15]
Ian McEwan	What We Can Know	September 18	[16]
Lily King	Heart the Lover	October 7	[17]
Salman Rushdie	The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories	November 4	[18]

Children and young adults

New nonfiction, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date of pub.	Ref.

Poetry

New nonfiction, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date of pub.	Ref.
Robbie Coburn	The Foal in the Wire	May 28

Nonfiction

New nonfiction, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date of pub.	Ref.

Biography and memoirs

New biographies and memoirs, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date of pub.	Ref.
Helen Garner	How to end a story: collected diaries, 1978–1998	March 13	[19]

Deaths

2025 deaths, sorted by date of death

Individual	Background	Date of death	Age	Cause of death	Ref.
David Lodge	British author and critic ( Small World: An Academic Romance , Changing Places , The Picturegoers )	January 1	89		[20]
Joseph Monninger	American novelist and academic ( The Letters )		71	lung cancer.	[21]
Tidiane Diakité	Malian-born French historian and academic	January 2	80		[22]
Noreen Riols	British novelist and essayist		98		[23]
Howard Buten	American author and clown	January 3	74		[24]
Andrew Pyper	Canadian novelist		56	Cancer	[25]
Peter Schaap	Dutch singer-songwriter and author		78		[26]
José Claer	Canadian novelist and poet	January 4	61		[27]
Richard Foreman	American playwright ( Rhoda in Potatoland )		87	pneumonia	[28]
Na D'Souza	Indian novelist and short story writer	January 5	87		[29]
Lee Hoesung	Japanese-South Korean novelist		89		[30]
František Šmahel	Czech historian and academic		90		[31]
Henry Beissel	Canadian poet, playwright and editor	January 9	95		[32]
Mukhtar Magauin	Kazakh writer, translator and publicist		84		[33]
Stephan Krasovitsky	Russian poet, translator, and priest	January 10	89		[34]
Keith Dewhurst	English playwright and scriptwriter	January 11	93		[35]
Paul Benacerraf	French-American philosopher	January 13	94		[36]
André Sollie	Belgian author and illustrator		77		[37]
Kjell Gjerseth	Norwegian novelist and journalist	January 14	78		[38]
Li Kuei-hsien	Taiwanese poet and translator	January 15	87		[39]
Geneviève Callerot	French novelist and resistance fighter	January 16	108		[40]
Howard Andrew Jones	American author and editor		56	brain cancer	[41]
Ridley Wills II	American author and historian		90		[42]
Jules Feiffer	American cartoonist, playwright ( Knock Knock ), and screenwriter ( Popeye , Munro ), Pulitzer Prize winner (1986)	January 17	95	heart failure	[43]
Kulanthai Shanmugalingam	Sri Lankan playwright		93		[44]
Don Cupitt	English philosopher	January 18	90		[45]
Jalal Matini	Iranian writer and scholar	January 19	96		[46]
Michael Longley	Northern Irish poet ( The Weather in Japan )	January 22	85	complications from surgery	[47]
Tabish Mehdi	Indian poet and literary critic		73		[48]
Esther Jansma	Dutch writer and poet	January 23	66	cancer	[49]
Joseph A. Amato	American historian and writer	January 24	86		[50]
Suzanne Massie	American historian and academic	January 26	94		[51]
Maung Khin Min	Burmese writer and linguist	January 27	83		[52]
Marina Colasanti	Italian-Brazilian writer, translator and journalist	January 28	87		[53]
Mahmoud Saeed	Iraqi-born American novelist and short story writer		86		[54]
Tom Robbins	American novelist	February 9	92		[55]
Antonine Maillet	Canadian novelist and playwright	February 17	95		[56]
Joseph Wambaugh	American novelist	February 28	88	esophageal cancer	[57]
Alex Wheatle	British novelist	March 16	62	prostate cancer	[58]
Denise Boucher	Canadian poet and playwright	March 18	89		[59]
Alastair Niven	British literary scholar and author	March 26	81		[60]
Mario Vargas Llosa	Peruvian novelist, Nobel Prize laureate (2010)	April 13	89		[61]
Judith Copithorne	Canadian poet and playwright	May 15	85		[62]
Edmund White	American novelist	June 3	85		[63]
Victor-Lévy Beaulieu	Canadian playwright	June 9	79		[64]
Denys Chabot	Canadian novelist and journalist	June 24	80		[65]
Anne Walmsley	British editor, scholar, critic and author	July 12	93		[66]

Awards

2025 literary award winners, sorted alphabetically by award

Award	Category	Author	Title	Ref.
Amazon.ca First Novel Award		Valérie Bah	Subterrane	[67]
Booker Prize		David Szalay	Flesh	[68]
Carol Shields Prize for Fiction		Canisia Lubrin	Code Noir	[69]
Governor General's Awards	English Fiction	Kyle Edwards	Small Ceremonies	[70]
	English Non-Fiction	Claire Cameron	How to Survive a Bear Attack
	English Poetry	Karen Solie	Wellwater
	English Drama	Tara Beagan	Rise, Red River
	English Children's Literature	Heather Smith	Tig
	English Children's Illustration	Tonya Simpson, Delreé Dumont	This Land Is a Lullaby
	French to English Translation	Jessica Moore	Uiesh/Somewhere
	French Fiction	Katia Belkhodja	Les déterrées	[71]
	French Non-Fiction	Ouanessa Younsi	Soigner, écrire
	French Poetry	Paul Chanel Malenfant	Au passage du fleuve
	French Drama	Éric Noël	Ces regards amoureux de garçons altérés
	French Children's literature	Laurie Léveillé	Coup bas
	French Children's illustration	Stéphane Laporte, Jacques Goldstyn	Un cadeau de Noël en novembre
	English to French translation	Sylvie Bérard, Suzanne Grenier	Les soeurs de la Muée
League of Canadian Poets	Gerald Lampert Award	Marc Perez	Dayo	[72]
	Pat Lowther Award	Bren Simmers	The Work
	Raymond Souster Award	Chimwemwe Undi	Scientific Marvel
Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour		Natalie Sue	I Hope This Finds You Well	[73]
Trillium Book Award	English Prose	Maurice Vellekoop	I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together	[74]
	English Poetry	Jake Byrne	DADDY
	French Prose	Aristote Kavungu	Céline au Congo
	French Poetry or Children's	Mireille Messier	Le bonnet magique
Writers' Trust of Canada	Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize	Maria Reva	Endling	[75]
	Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction	Leanne Betasamosake Simpson	Theory of Water
	Dayne Ogilvie Prize	Roza Nozari	All the Parts We Exile
	Latner Griffin Writers' Trust Poetry Prize	Bren Simmers
	Matt Cohen Award	Sheree Fitch
	Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People	Julie Flett
	Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award	Kim Thúy
	Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing	Raymond B. Blake	Canada's Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity	[76]
	Balsillie Prize for Public Policy	TBA November 25
	RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, Poetry	Dora Prieto	"Loose Threads"	[77]
	RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, Short Fiction	Jess Goldman	"Tombstone of a Tsaddik"
	RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, Creative Non-fiction	Phillip Dwight Morgan	"White Trucks and Mergansers"

Notable new movies and TV series based on books

Below are some of the most prominent film and television productions expected to premiere/broadcast during 2025:

Title	The book on which the movie/TV series is based	Type	Genre	Premiere date	Distribution company / original broadcasting network
"Dog Man"	"Dog Man" by Dav Pilkey	Movie	Superhero film, comedy	January 15, 2025	Universal Pictures
"The Monkey"	"The Monkey" by Stephen King	Movie	Comedy, horror	February 21, 2025	Neon
"Mickey 17"	"Mickey7" by Edward Ashton	Movie	Science fiction	March 7, 2025	Warner Bros.
"Snow White"	"Snow White" by the Brothers Grimm	Movie	Musical, Fantasy	March 21, 2025	Walt Disney
"The Bad Guys 2"	"The Bad Guys" by Aaron Blabey	Movie	Animation, Heist film, comedy	August 1, 2025	Universal Pictures
"Freakier Friday"	"Freaky Friday" by Mary Rodgers	Movie	Comic fantasy	August 8, 2025	Walt Disney
"Fear Street: Prom Queen"	"The Prom Queen" by R. L. Stine	Movie	Horror	TBD	Netflix
"The Running Man"	"The Running Man" by Stephen King	Movie	Science fiction, action	November 7, 2025	Paramount Pictures
The Dead Girls	Las muertas by Jorge Ibargüengoitia	Limited TV series	Drama	September 2025	Netflix

References

1. Aber, Aria (2025). Good girl. New York, NY: Hogarth. ISBN   978-0-593-73111-6.
2. Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (4 March 2025). Dream Count. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. ISBN   978-0-00-872514-3.
3. El-Mohtar, Amal (4 March 2025). The River Has Roots. Quercus. ISBN   978-1-5294-4337-0.
4. Szalay, David (11 March 2025). Flesh: A Novel. Random House. ISBN   978-0-7710-7803-3.
5. "Sunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel) | the Scholastic Parent Store" . Retrieved 14 March 2025.
6. "Theft: By the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Abdulrazak Gurnah". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
7. Okri, Ben (18 March 2025). Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Brokenhearted. Other Press LLC. ISBN   978-1-63542-528-4.
8. Review in Publishers Weekly, November 27, 2025.
9. "There Will Be Bodies [publisher's announcement]". Macmillan. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
10. Kitamura, Katie (2025-04-08). Audition. Riverhead Books. ISBN   978-0593852323.
11. "My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende". Penguin Random House.
12. "Jonathan Cape to publish Ocean Vuong's 'breathtaking' new novel". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
13. "Baskerville pre-empts 'Emmerdale' actress Jessie Elland's haunted house debut". The Bookseller . Retrieved December 30, 2024.
14. King, Stephen (May 27, 2025). Never Flinch. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-6680-8933-0.
15. "Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar". Kirkus Reviews . 2025-05-04. Retrieved 2025-09-02.
16. Ellah Creamer (7 February 2025). "Ian McEwan novel What We Can Know to be published this year". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 February 2025.
17. "Heart the Lover". Kirkus Reviews . 2025-08-01. Retrieved 2025-10-17.
18. "The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories". Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved 30 October 2025.
19. Saunders, Emma (2025-11-05). "'Addictive' diaries win prestigious non-fiction prize". BBC News. Retrieved 2025-11-06.
20. "David Lodge, 1935–2025". Penguin Random House. 3 January 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
21. Author Joseph Monninger Dies at 71
22. L'historien malien et breton d'adoption, Tidiane Diakité, est décédé à 81 ans (in French)
23. Noreen Riols obituary
24. Howard Buten, alias le clown Buffo, auteur de « Quand j’avais cinq ans, je m’ai tué », est mort (in French)
25. Stoffman, Judy (January 17, 2025). "Prolific novelist Andrew Pyper captured readers with tales of monsters and demons". The Globe and Mail .
26. Groningse zanger Peter Schaap ('Adem mijn adem') overleden (in Dutch)
27. L'auteur et poète trans José Claer est décédé (in French)
28. Richard Foreman, Iconoclastic Playwright and Impresario, Dies at 87 (registration required)
29. Well-known writer Na. D’Souza passes away
30. 李恢成さん死去　89歳　芥川賞作家、北海道新聞文学賞選考委員 (in Japanese)
31. Zemřel historik Šmahel, znalec Lucemburků, husitství či reformace (in Czech)
32. Henry Beissel (in German)
33. Известный казахстанский писатель Мухтар Магауин умер в США (in Kazakh)
34. Умер поэт, священник, религиозный деятель Станислав Красовицкий (in Russian)
35. Keith Dewhurst obituary: prolific playwright and scriptwriter (subscription required)
36. Paul Benacerraf (1930-2025)
37. Bekroonde jeugdschrijver en illustrator André Sollie (77) overleden (in Flemish)
38. Kjell Gjerseth er død (in Nynorsk)
39. Veteran Taiwanese poet Lee Kuei-shien dies at 87
40. Mort de Geneviève Callerot, l’une des plus anciennes résistantes françaises, à l’âge de 108 ans (in French)
41. Howard Andrew Jones Obituary
42. Nashville historian, Vanderbilt benefactor Ridley Wills II dies at 90
43. Jules Feiffer, Famed Cartoonist and ‘Carnal Knowledge’ Screenwriter, Dies at 95
44. Sri Lankan Tamil Playwright Kulanthai M. Shanmugalingam, Creator of “Mansumantha Manier,” Passes Away at 93
45. Don Cupitt 1934-2025
46. دکتر جلال متینی ، رئیس سابق دانشگاه فردوسی درگذشت  (in Persian)
47. Poet Michael Longley dies aged 85
48. Obituary: Famous Urdu writer, poet, Dr Tabish Mehdi is no more
49. Dichter Esther Jansma (66) overleden (in Dutch)
50. ‘Generous with his wisdom’
51. Suzanne Massie, former Reagan advisor known as ‘the woman who ended the Cold War,’ dies at 94
52. မြန်မာစာပေလောကမှာ ထင်ရှားတဲ့ မောင်ခင်မင် (ဓနုဖြူ) ကွယ်လွန် (in Burmese)
53. Escritora Marina Colasanti morre aos 87 anos no Rio (in Portuguese)
54. Novelist Mahmoud Saeed dies at age 86
55. Bestselling novelist Tom Robbins dies at 92
56. Léger, Isabelle (February 17, 2025). "'It's a very sad day': N.B. mourns loss of novelist, playwright Antonine Maillet". CBC News .
57. Joseph Wambaugh Dead: Creator of 'Police Story' Was 88
58. Carpenter, Caroline (20 March 2025). "'Beloved' author Alex Wheatle MBE dies aged 62". The Bookseller .
59. Laila Maalouf and Jean Siag (March 18, 2025). "La femme de lettres qui avait soif d'émancipation". La Presse .
60. Tonkin, Boyd (10 April 2025). "Alastair Niven obituary". The Guardian.
61. Muere el escritor peruano Mario Vargas Llosa. Tenía 89 años (in Spanish)
62. Eric Schmaltz, "Judith Copithorne, creator of ‘poem-drawings,’ helped redefine what literature could be". The Globe and Mail , June 4, 2025.
63. Cain, Sian (June 4, 2025). "Edmund White, novelist and great chronicler of gay life, dies aged 85". The Guardian.
64. Marie-Christine Rioux, "Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, écrivain et éditeur, est décédé à 79 ans". Ici Radio-Canada, June 9, 2025. (in French)
65. Marie-Hélène Paquin, "Décès du journaliste et auteur valdorien Denys Chabot". Ici Radio-Canada, June 25, 2025. (in French)
66. Brown, Stewart (2025-07-16). "A memory of THE Anne Walmsley". Peepal Tree Press.
67. Nicole Thompson, "Valérie Bah wins Amazon Canada First Novel Award for 'Subterrane'". Victoria Times-Colonist , June 6, 2025.
68. Marshall, David (10 November 2025). "David Szalay's 'Flesh' Wins 2025 Booker Prize". The New York Times .
69. "Canisia Lubrin wins Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for ‘Code Noir’". Toronto Star , May 1, 2025.
70. Nicole Thompson, "Kyle Edwards wins Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction". Toronto Star , November 6, 2025.
71. Laila Maalouf, "Katia Belkhodja l’emporte dans la catégorie Romans et nouvelles". La Presse , November 6, 2025.
72. "Marc Perez, Bren Simmers and Chimwemwe Undi win 2025 League of Canadian Poets prizes". CBC Books, May 20, 2025.
73. David Friend, "Natalie Sue wins Leacock Medal for Humour for novel ‘I Hope This Finds You Well’". Toronto Star , June 21, 2025.
74. "Maurice Vellekoop and Jake Byrne win 2025 Trillium Book Awards". CBC Books, June 18, 2025.
75. Cassandra Drudi, "Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Maria Reva, Roza Nozari among Writers’ Trust award winners". Quill & Quire , November 13, 2025.
76. Bailey, Ian (24 September 2025). "Raymond Blake wins political writing prize for book on Canada's postwar prime ministers". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 25 September 2025.
77. Cassandra Drudi, "Jess Goldman, Phillip Dwight Morgan, and Dora Prieto named 2025 Bronwen Wallace Award winners". Quill & Quire , June 2, 2025.