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