2026 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2026.

Anniversaries

• 12 January
  • Jack London was born in 1876 (150th Anniversary).
  • Agatha Christie died in 1976 (50th Anniversary).
• 13 January – Michael Bond was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
• 3 February – Richard Yates was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
• 8 February – Neal Cassady was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
• 20 February
  • Richard Matheson was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
  • Alfonso Sastre was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
• 24 February – Erich Loest was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
• 17 March – Siegfried Lenz was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
• 24 March – Dario Fo was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
• 27 March – Frank O'Hara was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
• 31 March – John Fowles was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
• 1 April – Anne McCaffrey was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).
• 28 April – Harper Lee was born in 1926 (100th Anniversary).

New books

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

Children's and young adults

New children's and young adult, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date of pub.	Ref.

Fiction

New adult fiction, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date of pub.	Ref.

Poetry

New poetry, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date of pub.	Ref.

Drama

New drama, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date of pub.	Ref.

Nonfiction

New nonfiction, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date of pub.	Ref.
Jacob Soboroff	Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America's New Age of Disaster	January 6	[1]

Biography and memoir

New biography and memoir, sorted by date of publication

Author	Title	Date	Ref.

Deaths

Individual	Background	Date of death	Age	Cause of death	Ref.
Brian Doyle	Canadian writer	January 1	90		[2]
James Grauerholz	American writer and book editor		73	Complications of pneumonia	[3]
Franz Herre	German biographer	January 3	99		[4]
Renee Good	American writer and poet	January 7	37	Shot by law enforcement	[5] [6]
Astrid Roemer	Surinamese-Dutch writer	January 8	78		[7]
Erich von Däniken	Swiss author	January 10	90		[8]
Sukumar Barua	Bangladeshi poet	January 2	87		[9]

References

1. Salazar, Miguel; Thompson, Laura (2026-01-07). "The Nonfiction Everyone Will Be Talking About in 2026". New York Times . Archived from the original on 2026-01-12. Retrieved 2026-01-11.
2. Saxberg, Lynn (2 January 2026). "Brian Doyle, celebrated Ottawa author, dies at age 90". Ottawa Citizen . Archived from the original on 2 January 2026. Retrieved 2 January 2026.
3. "Obituary #8: James Grauerholz". Rock and Beat Generation. 2 January 2026. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
4. "Franz Herre". trauer.merkur.de (in German). 2026-01-05. Retrieved 2026-01-12.
5. "Renee Nicole Good: Who was the woman killed by ICE in Minneapolis?". BBC . 2026-01-09. Archived from the original on 2026-01-09. Retrieved 2026-01-10.
6. Powell, Tori (2026-01-09). "January 9, 2026 — Minneapolis shooting, ICE agent's cellphone captures confrontation". CNN. Retrieved 2026-01-10.
7. "Starnieuws - Schrijfster Astrid Roemer overleden". Starnieuws (in Dutch). Retrieved 2026-01-12.
8. "Schweizer Autor und Publizist Erich von Däniken ist gestorben". Tages Anzeiger. 11 January 2026. Archived from the original on 11 January 2026. Retrieved 12 January 2026.
9. "Sukumar Barua, whose rhymes shaped the childhoods of generations, dies at 87". The Financial Express. 2 January 2026. Archived from the original on 4 January 2026. Retrieved 2 January 2026.