Louise Glück, an American poet whose searing, deeply personal work, often filtered through themes of classical mythology, religion and the natural world, won her practically every honor available, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and, in 2020, the Nobel Prize for Literature, died on Friday at her home in Cambridge, Mass. She was 80. Read more
Category: Obituaries
Milan Kundera, Czech Literary Star and Communist Party Outcast, Dies at 94
The author of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” he was known for sexually charged novels that captured the suffocating absurdity of life in his native Czechoslovakia. Read more
Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89
Cormac McCarthy, the formidable and reclusive writer of Appalachia and the American Southwest, whose raggedly ornate early novels about misfits and grotesques gave way to the lush taciturnity of “All the Pretty Horses” and the apocalyptic minimalism of “The Road,” died on Tuesday at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 89. Read more
Anne Perry, Crime Writer With Her Own Dark Tale, Dies at 84
She was well into her career as a prolific author of historical crime fiction when a murderous past was publicly revealed and dramatized in a 1994 movie. Read more
John Jakes, Whose Historical Novels Hit the Jackpot, Dies at 90
His sagas of the Revolution and the Civil War sold tens of millions of copies, were adapted for TV and put him in the pantheon of big-name authors. Read more
Kenzaburo Oe, Nobel Prize-Winning Japanese Writer, Dies Aged 88
Spanning fiction and essays, Oe’s work tackled a wide range of subjects from militarism and nuclear disarmament to innocence and trauma, and he became an outspoken champion for the voiceless in the face of what he regarded as his country’s failures. Regarded by some in Japan as distinctly western, Oe’s style was often likened to William Faulkner; in his own words, in his writing he would “start from my personal matters and then link it up with society, the state and the world” Read more
Russell Banks, Novelist Steeped in the Working Class, Dies at 82
He brought his own sometimes painful blue-collar experiences to bear in acclaimed stories exploring issues of race, class and power in American life. Read more
Fay Weldon, British Novelist Who Challenged Feminist Orthodoxy, Dies at 91
By turns elusive and confessional in public, she used dark satire to explore the divides between men and women. Read more
Sci-Fi Novelist Greg Bear Has Passed Away
Beginning in 1979 with Hegira and the aforementioned Psychlone, Bear would go on to write over 50 books and win five Nebula awards. Read more
Hilary Mantel, Prize-Winning Author of Historical Fiction, Dies at 70
The two-time Booker Prize-winning author was known for “Wolf Hall” and two other novels based on the life of Thomas Cromwell. Read more
