Calendar of Literary Facts
2001
- Peter Carey receives the Man Booker Prize for True History of the Kelly Gang
- Richard Russo publishes Empire Falls
- Carl Dennis publishes Practical Gods
- DNA mapping of the human genome advances, as scientists identify the 3.12 billion “base pairs” of DNA that form the foundation of human genes
- David Auburn receives the Pultizer Prize in drama for Proof
- Stephen Dunn receives the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for Different Hours
- Michael Chabon receives the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
- Mordecai Richler dies (July 3)
- Juan José Arreola dies (December 3)
- Jorge Amado dies (August 6)
- An American-led military coalition commences an air-war against Taliban and Al-Quaeda forces in Afghanistan, the first stage in Operation Enduring Freedom (October 7)
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh dies (February 7)
- Mongo Beti dies (October 8)
- Ken Kesey dies (November 10)
- Members of the Al-Quaeda terrorist network commandeer and crash four commercial airliners, destroying New York’s World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 American citizens (September 11)
- Douglas Adams dies (May 11)
- Robert Ludlum dies (March 12)
- Jason Miller dies (May 13)
- R. K. Narayan dies (May 13)
- Auberon Waugh dies (January 16)
- Gregory Corso dies (January 17)
- Leopold Sedar Senghor dies (December 20)
- Eudora Welty dies (July 23)
- A. R. Ammons dies (February 25)
- Arturo Uslar Pietri dies (February 26)
- Mortimer Adler dies (June 28)
- William X. Kienzle dies (December 28)
- John Knowles dies (November 30)
- Poul (William) Anderson dies (July 31)
