This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1995.
Events January 12 – The première of Sarah Kane's complete Blasted at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London provokes outrage. February 28 – The Diary of Bridget Jones column first appears in The Independent newspaper (London). March 1 – The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter. April 23 – World Book Day is first celebrated. July 16 – Amazon.com, incorporated a year earlier by Jeff Bezos in Washington (state) as an online bookstore, sells its first book: Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought. August – Blackwell UK becomes the first British bookseller to offer online purchasing. December 13 – The released film of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility has an Academy Award-winning screenplay by Emma Thompson.
Uncertain dates Simon & Schuster pays US$4.2 million for hardcover publishing rights to The Christmas Box, self-published by Richard Paul Evans, which has appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. Fjærland in Norway becomes a book town.
New books
Fiction Ben Aaronovitch – The Also People Louisa May Alcott (posthumous) – A Long Fatal Love Chase Roger MacBride Allen Ambush at Corellia Assault at Selonia Showdown at Centerpoint Julia Alvarez – In the Time of the Butterflies Martin Amis – The Information Kevin J. Anderson – Darksaber Iain Banks – Whit Pat Barker – The Ghost Road Daniel Blythe – Infinite Requiem Thomas Brussig – Helden wie wir (Heroes Like Us) Christopher Bulis – The Sorcerer's Apprentice Edgar Rice Burroughs and Joe R. Lansdale – Tarzan: the Lost Adventure T. C. Boyle – The Tortilla Curtain Albert Camus (posthumous) – The First Man (Le Premier Homme, unfinished) Andrew Cartmel – Warlock Mary Higgins Clark – Silent Night Michael Connelly – The Last Coyote Paul Cornell – Human Nature Bernard Cornwell Sharpe's Battle Battle Flag The Winter King Douglas Coupland – Microserfs Robert Crais – Voodoo River Michael Crichton – The Lost World Maurice G. Dantec – Les Racines du mal Martin Day – The Menagerie L. Sprague de Camp and Christopher Stasheff – The Exotic Enchanter Samuel Delany – Hogg Terrance Dicks – Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans Umberto Eco – The Island of the Day Before Stanley Elkin – Mrs. Ted Bliss Kirill Eskov – The Gospel of Afranius («Евангелие от Афрания») Nicholas Evans – The Horse Whisperer Timothy Findley – The Piano Man's Daughter Richard Ford – Independence Day Jon Fosse – Melancholy (Melancholia I) Carlos Fuentes – The Crystal Frontier (La frontera de cristal) John Gardner – GoldenEye William H. Gass - The Tunnel John Grisham – The Rainmaker Barbara Hambly – Children of the Jedi Craig Hinton – Millennial Rites Nick Hornby – High Fidelity Kazuo Ishiguro – The Unconsoled Elfriede Jelinek – The Children of the Dead Jo Jung-rae – Arirang Welwyn Wilton Katz – Out of the Dark Stephen King – Rose Madder Joe R. Lansdale – The Two-Bear Mambo John le Carré – Our Game Andy Lane The Empire of Glass Original Sin Paul Leonard Dancing the Code Toy Soldiers Jonathan Lethem – Amnesia Moon Barry Letts – The Ghosts of N-Space Robert Ludlum – The Apocalypse Watch Steve Lyons Head Games Time of Your Life Frank McCourt – Angela's Ashes (semi-autobiographical) Val McDermid – The Mermaids Singing David A. McIntee Lords of the Storm Sanctuary Andreï Makine – Dreams of My Russian Summers (Le Testament français) Henning Mankell – Chronicler of the Winds (Comédia infantil) Stephen Marley – Managra Zakes Mda – Ways of Dying James A. Michener – Miracle in Seville Rohinton Mistry – A Fine Balance Mary McGarry Morris – Songs in Ordinary Time Kate Orman – Set Piece Terry Pratchett – Maskerade Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child Relic Mount Dragon Christoph Ransmayr – The Dog King (Morbus Kitahara) Jean Raspail – L'Anneau du pêcheur Justin Richards – System Shock Andrew Roberts – The Aachen Memorandum Gareth Roberts The Romance of Crime Zamper J. Jill Robinson – Eggplant Wife Philip Roth – Sabbath's Theater Salman Rushdie – The Moor's Last Sigh Gary Russell – Invasion of the Cat-People Josè Saramago – Blindness (Ensaio sobre a cegueira) Bernhard Schlink – The Reader W. G. Sebald – Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt (The Rings of Saturn: An English Pilgrimage) Sidney Sheldon – Morning, Noon and Night Jane Smiley - Moo Danielle Steel – Five Days In Paris Neal Stephenson – The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer James B. Stewart – Blood Sport Dave Stone – Sky Pirates! Olga Tokarczuk – E.E. Jim Turner, editor – Cthulhu 2000: A Lovecraftian Anthology Andrew Vachss – Footsteps of the Hawk Robert James Waller – Puerto Vallarta Squeeze Dave Wolverton – The Courtship of Princess Leia
Children and young people Chris Van Allsburg – Bad Day at Riverbend Elizabeth Arnold – The Parsley Parcel Marion Zimmer Bradley (with Rosemary Edghill) – Ghostlight Jimmy Carter (illustrated by Amy Carter) – The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer Donald Hall (with Barry Moser) – The Pageant Virginia Hamilton (with Leo and Diane Dillon) – Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales Joe R. Lansdale – Tarzan: the Lost Adventure Fran Manushkin (with Ned Bittinger) – The Matzah That Papa Brought Home Jim Murphy – The Great FireHahn 2015, p. 408 Alison Prince – The Sherwood Hero Philip Pullman – Northern Lights (in US as The Golden Compass)Hahn 2015, p. 275 Diana Pullein-Thompson – I Wanted a Pony Josephine Pullein-Thompson – Six Ponies Mario Vargas Llosa (with Willi Glasauer) – Hitos y Mitos Literarios (The Milestones and the Stories of Greatest Literary Works) Judith Viorst – Alexander, Who Is Not (Do You Hear Me? I Mean It!) Going to MoveHahn 2015, p. 14 Jacqueline Wilson – Double ActHahn 2015, p. 361
Drama Parv Bancil – Papa Was A Bus Conductor Jez Butterworth – Mojo Margaret Edson – Wit Horton Foote – The Young Man From Atlanta Jon Fosse – The Name (Namnet) Ronald Harwood – Taking Sides Sarah Kane – Blasted Terrence McNally – Master Class Lynn Nottage Crumbs from the Table of Joy Por'Knockers Yasmina Reza – The Unexpected Man (L'homme du hasard) Tom Stoppard – Indian Ink
Poetry
Mark Doty – Atlantis: Poems
Non-fiction André Aciman – Out of Egypt Jean Baudrillard – The Gulf War Did Not Take Place John G. Bennett (posthumously) – The Masters of Wisdom George G. Blackburn – The Guns of Normandy Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams – The Craft of Research Pascal Bruckner – The Temptation of Innocence L. Sprague de Camp – The Ape-Man Within Tim Cornell – The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars Paul Davies – About Time Robin Dunbar – The Trouble with Science Mark Epstein – Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective Bill Gates – The Road Ahead Doris Kearns Goodwin – No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II Richard Hoffman – Half the House: A Memoir Nelson Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom Leonard Nimoy – I Am Spock Leslie and Les Parrott – Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts Man Ray and André Breton – Man Ray, 1890–1976 Condoleezza Rice and Philip Zelikow – Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft Oliver Sacks – An Anthropologist on Mars Simon Schama – Landscape and Memory Sterling Seagrave – Lords of the Rim Miranda Seymour – Robert Graves: Life on the Edge Howard Stern – Miss America Ibn Warraq – Why I Am Not a Muslim Jane Wesman – Dive Right In: The Sharks Won't Bite Jane Wilson-Howarth – Bugs, Bites & Bowels (later editions as The Essential Guide to Travel Health)
Films Sense and Sensibility
Births June 7 - Beth Reekles, Welsh author of young adult fiction June 13 - S. C. Megale, American novelist and screenwriter
Deaths January 9 – Peter Cook, English writer, comedian and satirist (born 1937) January 30 – Gerald Durrell, English nature writer and naturalist (born 1925) January 31 – George Abbott, American writer, director and producer (born 1887) February 4 – Patricia Highsmith, American crime novelist (born 1921) February 6 James Merrill, American poet (born 1926) Xia Yan (夏衍), Chinese playwright and screenwriter, (born 1900) February 14 – Mary Paik Lee, Korean-American writer (born 1900) February 20 – Robert Bolt, English dramatist (born 1924) February 21 – Calder Willingham, American writer (born 1922) February 23 – James Herriot, English veterinary novelist (born 1916) March 9 – Ian Ballantine, American publisher (born 1916) March 20 – Sidney Kingsley, American dramatist (born 1906) April 14 – Brian Coffey, Irish poet (born 1905) April 27 – Willem Frederik Hermans, Dutch writer (born 1921)Otterspeer, Willem (in Dutch) (2013). De mislukkingskunstenaar: Willem Frederik Hermans. Biografie, deel 1 (1921–1952), De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam. [The Artist of Failure: Willem Frederik Hermans. A Biography, Vol. 1, (1921–1952)] May 30 or May 31 – Ștefana Velisar Teodoreanu, Romanian novelist, memoirist and poet (born 1897) June 14 – Roger Zelazny, American fantasy and science fiction writer (born 1937)"...And Call Me Roger": The Literary Life of Roger Zelazny, Part 6, by Christopher S. Kovacs. In: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume 6: The Road to Amber, NESFA Press, 2009. June 15 – Charles Bennett, English screenwriter (born 1899) June 20 – Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (born 1911) June 21– Katarína Lazarová, Slovak novelist and translator (born 1914) June 25 – Qiu Miaojin (邱妙津), Taiwanese Chinese novelist (suicide, born 1969) July 6 – Aziz Nesin, Turkish writer (born 1915) July 13 – Ashapoorna Devi, Indian author and poet (born 1908) July 16 May Sarton, Belgian-born American poet, novelist and memoirist (born 1912) Stephen Spender, English poet (born 1909) July 25 – Janice Elliott, English novelist and children's writer (born 1931) August 3 – Edward Whittemore, American novelist, (born 1933) August 17 – Howard Koch, American screenwriter (born 1901) August 19 – Pierre Schaeffer, French composer and writer (born 1910) August 29 – Michael Ende, German fantasy novelist (born 1929) September 8 – Eileen Chang, Chinese writer (born 1920) October 13 – Henry Roth, Austrian-born American novelist and short story writer (born 1906) October 22 – Kingsley Amis, English novelist (born 1922) October 29 – Terry Southern, American screenwriter (born 1924) November 4 – Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (born 1925) November 10 – Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian writer (executed, born 1941) November 13 – Mary Elizabeth Counselman, American author and poet (born 1911) November 16 – Robert H. Adleman, American novelist and historian (born 1919) November 17 – Marguerite Young, American novelist, poet and biographer (born 1908) November 20 – Robie Macauley, American writer and literary critic (born 1919)Pace, Eric, "Robie Macauley, 76, Editor, Educator And Fiction Writer" (Obituary), The New York Times, November 23, 1995 November 22 – Margaret St. Clair, American science fiction writer (born 1911) December 2 – Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (born 1913) December 9 – Toni Cade Bambara, American writer (born 1939) December 30 – Heiner Müller, German dramatist (born 1929)
Awards Nobel Prize for Literature: Seamus Heaney Camões Prize: José Saramago
Australia The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Richard King, Kindling Does For Firewood C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Bruce Beaver, Anima and Other Poems Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Peter Boyle, Coming Home From the World Mary Gilmore Prize: Aileen Kelly, Coming Up for Light Miles Franklin Award: Helen Demidenko, The Hand That Signed the Paper
Canada Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance See 1995 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.