This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2008.

• January 1 – In the UK's 2008 New Year Honours List, Hanif Kureishi (CBE), Jenny Uglow (OBE), Peter Vansittart (OBE) and Debjani Chatterjee (MBE) are all rewarded for "services to literature."
• February 29 – Belgian-born "Misha Defonseca" admits that her bestselling Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years (1997) is a literary forgery.
• April – Signet Books announce they will cease to publish the American historical romance novelist Cassie Edwards after a dispute over plagiarism.
• April 25 – The first Twitter novel, Small Places by Nicholas Belardes, is launched.^[1]
• May 7–11 – The first Palestine Festival of Literature is held.
• June 15 – Gore Vidal, asked in a New York Times interview how he felt about the death of his rival William F. Buckley, Jr., replies: "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred."
• July – Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981) is the winner of a poll to select the "Best of the Booker".

• Aravind Adiga
  • The White Tiger^[2]
  • Between the Assassinations (November 1)
• Uwem Akpan – Say You're One of Them
• Paul Auster – Man in the Dark
• Sebastian Barry – The Secret Scripture (September 29)
• Henry Bauchau – Le Boulevard périphérique^[3]
• John Berger – From A to X
• Charles Bock – Beautiful Children (January 22)
• Roberto Bolaño – 2666: A Novel (November 11)
• Xurxo Borrazás – Costa norte/ZFK
• Christopher Buckley – Supreme Courtship (September 3)
• Alastair Campbell – All in the Mind (October 30)
• Martín Caparrós – A quien corresponda
• Eleanor Catton – The Rehearsal
• Wendy Coakley-Thompson – Triptych (December 18)
• Robert Crais – Chasing Darkness
• Debra Dean – Confessions of a Falling Woman
• Klaus Ebner – Hominid (October 1)
• Ralph Ellison (posthumous, ed. John F. Callahan) – Three Days Before the Shooting...
• Mathias Énard – Zone (August 15)
• Sebastian Faulks – Devil May Care (James Bond continuation novel)
• Keith Gessen – All the Sad Young Literary Men (April 10)
• Shanta Gokhale – Tyā varshī (Crowfall)
• Juan Goytisolo – Exiled from Almost Everywhere
• Paul Griffiths – let me tell you
• Lauren Groff – The Monsters of Templeton (February 5)
• Peter Handke – The Moravian Night (January 12, Germany)
• Johan Harstad – DARLAH
• Zoë Heller – The Believers (September 24)
• Aleksandar Hemon – The Lazarus Project (May 1)
• M. H. Herlong – The Great Wide Sea (October 2)
• Samantha Hunt – The Invention of Everything Else (February 7)
• Siri Hustvedt – The Sorrows of an American (April 1)
• Karl Iagnemma – The Expeditions (January 15)
• Robert Juan-Cantavella – El Dorado
• Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs (posthumous) – And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (November 1; written 1945)
• Christian Kracht – Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten (September)
• László Krasznahorkai – Seiobo There Below
• Jhumpa Lahiri – Unaccustomed Earth (April 1)
• Kelly Link – Pretty Monsters (October 2)
• David Lodge – Deaf Sentence (May 1)
• James McBride – Song Yet Sung (February 5)
• Joe McGinniss Jr. – The Delivery Man (January 15)
• Ronit Matalon – The Sound of Our Steps (Kol Tsa'adenu)
• Lydia Millet – How the Dead Dream (January 25)
• Toni Morrison – A Mercy (November 11)
• Nunoe Mura – GeGeGe no Nyōbō (ゲゲゲの女房)
• Joyce Carol Oates – My Sister, My Love (June 24)
• Sofi Oksanen – Puhdistus^[4]
• Chuck Palahniuk – Snuff (May 20)
• Arturo Perez-Reverte – The Painter of Battles (January 8)
• Jodi Picoult – Change of Heart (March 4)
• José Luis Rodríguez Pittí – Sueños urbanos
• Richard Price – Lush Life (March 4)
• Ruth Rendell – Portobello (November 20)
• Nina Revoyr – The Age of Dreaming
• Nathaniel Rich – The Mayor's Tongue (April 8)
• Marilynne Robinson – Home (September 2)
• Charlotte Roche – Feuchtgebiete (February 25)
• Mary Ann Rodman – Jimmy's Stars
• Philip Roth – Indignation (September 16)
• Salman Rushdie – The Enchantress of Florence (June 3)
• Will Self – The Butt
• Curtis Sittenfeld – American Wife (September 2)
• Sjón – Rökkurbýsnir^[5]
• Elizabeth Strout – Olive Kitteridge (March 25)
• Tom Rob Smith – Child 44
• Joan Thomas – Reading by Lightning
• David Turashvili – Flight from the USSR
• John Updike – The Widows of Eastwick (October 28)
• Tobias Wolff – Our Story Begins (March 25)

• Jim Butcher – Small Favor (April 1) (Harry Dresden #10)
• Matthew J. Costello – Doom 3: Worlds on Fire (February 26)
• Ursula K. Le Guin – Lavinia^[6]
• Stephen King – Duma Key (January 22)
• Patricia A. McKillip – The Bell at Sealey Head (September 2)
• Stephenie Meyer – Breaking Dawn (August 2)
• Douglas Preston – Blasphemy (January 8)
• Matthew Stover – Caine Black Knife (October 14)
• Brent Weeks – The Way of Shadows

• David Almond
  • The Savage^[7]
  • Jackdaw Summer
• Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson – Science Fair
• Nick Bland – The Very Cranky Bear^[8]
• Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (July 15)
• Frank Cottrell-Boyce – Desirable
• Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games (September 14)
• John Fardell – Manfred the Baddie
• Mem Fox – Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
• Cornelia Funke – Inkdeath (October 7)
• John Green – Paper Towns (October 16)
• Brian Greene – Icarus At The Edge Of Time
• Charlie Higson – Young Bond: By Royal Command (September 3)
• Minoru Kawakami and Satoyasu – Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere
• D. J. MacHale – Raven Rise (May 20)
• Patricia Martin - Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love (January 8)
• Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock (June 1)
• Garth Nix – Superior Saturday (May 5)
• Arielle North Olson – More Bones: Scary Stories From Around The World
• Christopher Paolini – Brisingr (September 2)
• Ridley Pearson - Steel Trapp: The Challenge
• Amjed Qamar – Beneath My Mother's Feet
• Rick Riordan – The Maze of Bones^[9]
• Angie Sage – Queste (April 8)
• Michael Salzhauer – My Beautiful Mommy⁶

• Salvatore Antonio – In Gabriel's Kitchen
• Howard Brenton – Never So Good
• Mary Higgins Clark – Where Are You Now?
• Paul Dwyer – The Bougainville Photoplay Project
• Nicholas de Jongh – Plague Over England
• Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels – The Broken Circle Breakdown featuring the cover-ups of Alabama
• Ella Hickson – Eight
• Sam Holcroft – Cockroach
• Elaine Murphy – Little Gem
• Lynn Nottage – Ruined
• Tyler Perry – The Marriage Counselor
• Taavi Vartia – Kaikkien aikojen Pertsa ja Kilu

• The Academi – Encyclopaedia of Wales (Gwyddoniadur Cymru) (January)
• Julie Andrews – Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (April 1)
• Kwame Anthony Appiah – Experiments in Ethics
• Dan Ariely – Predictably Irrational (February 19)
• Margaret Atwood – Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (October 1)
• Mary Beard – Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town
• Dionne Brand – A Kind of Perfect Speech (Ralph Gustafson Lecture)
• Augusten Burroughs – A Wolf at the Table (April 29)
• Michael Chabon – Maps and Legends (May 1)
• D. K. Chakrabarti – The Battle for Ancient India: An essay in the sociopolitics of Indian archaeology
• Sloane Crosley – I Was Told There'd Be Cake (April 1)
• John Duignan – The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology (October 7)
• Eminem – The Way I Am (October 21)
• Richard Florida – Who's Your City? (March)
• Raymond Geuss – Philosophy and Real Politics
• Philip Hoare – Leviathan, or The Whale (September 16)
• Jim Holt – Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes
• Chloe Hooper – The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island
• B. B. Lal – Rāma, His Historicity, Mandir, and Setu: Evidence of Literature, Archaeology, and Other Sciences
• Thomas Cairns Livingstone – Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913–1918
• Minae Mizumura – The Fall of Language in the Age of English
• Scholastique Mukasonga – La femme aux pieds nus (The Barefoot Woman)
• Haruki Murakami (translated by Philip Gabriel) – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (July 29)
• Shuja Nawaz – Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within
• Frances Osborne – The Bolter: Idina Sackville
• Chris Pash – The Last Whale
• Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow – Last Lecture
• Peter Rees – The Other ANZACs
• David Sedaris – When You Are Engulfed in Flames (June 3)
• Tore Skeie – Alv Erlingsson: fortellingen om en adelsmanns undergang
• Vaclav Smil – Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems
• Chunghee Sarah Soh – The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan
• Shreve Stockton - The Daily Coyote
• Jane Straus – The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
• Kate Summerscale – The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, or The Murder at Road Hill House (April)
• Ronnie Thompson (pseudonym) – Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer (January 24)
• Bjørn Christian Tørrissen – One for the Road (January 31; translation of I pose og sekk!, 2005)
• Barbara Walters – Audition: A Memoir (May 6)
• Russell Wangersky – Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself^[10]
• Meralda Warren and others – Mi Base side orn Pitcairn (My Favourite Place on Pitcairn, first book published in Pitkern creole)
• Dagmar S. Wodtko, Britta Irslinger and Carolin Schneider (eds.) – Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon

• January 2 – George MacDonald Fraser, Scottish novelist and screenplay writer (born 1925)
• January 3 – Henri Chopin, French poet (born 1922)^[11]
• January 11 – Nancy Phelan, Australian writer (born 1913)
• January 13 – Patricia Verdugo, Chilean journalist and writer (born 1947)
• January 16 – Hone Tuwhare, New Zealand poet (born 1922)
• January 17 – Edward D. Hoch, American detective fiction writer (born 1930)
• January 26
  • John Ardagh, Nyasaland-born English journalist and writer (born 1928)
  • Abraham Brumberg, American writer and editor (born 1926)
• January 29 – Margaret Truman, American crime novelist and singer (born 1924)
• January 30 – Miles Kington, Northern Irish-born English journalist and writer (born 1941)

• February 4 – Rose Hacker, English writer and journalist (born 1906)
• February 7 – Richard Altick, American literary historian (born 1915)
• February 8 – Phyllis A. Whitney, Japan-born American mystery writer (born 1903)
• February 10 – Steve Gerber, American comic book writer (born 1947)
• February 18 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French novelist (born 1922)^[12]
• February 21
  • Archie Hind, Scottish novelist (born 1928)
  • Robin Moore, American novelist and memoirist (born 1925)
• February 22 – Stephen Marlowe, American science fiction and crime writer (born 1928)
• February 28 – Julian Rathbone, English novelist (born 1935)^[13]
• February 29 – Val Plumwood (Val Routley), Australian philosopher (born 1939)

• March 16 – Jonathan Williams, American poet (born 1929)
• March 19
  • Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer and futurologist (born 1917)
  • Hugo Claus, Belgian writer in Flemish and English (born 1929)^[14]
• March 23 – E. A. Markham, Montserrat poet, writer and activist (born 1939)
• April 3 – Andrew Crozier, English poet and scholar (born 1943)
• April 7 – Ludu Daw Amar, Burmese writer and journalist (born 1915)
• April 13 – Robert Greacen, Irish poet (born 1920)
• April 17
  • Aimé Césaire, Martinique poet and writer in French (born 1913)
  • Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Russian writer and editor (born 1929)
• April 18
  • Michael de Larrabeiti, English young-adult novelist and travel writer (born 1934)
  • William W. Warner, American biologist and Pulitzer Prize writer (born 1920)
• May 1 – Elaine Dundy, American novelist, biographer and playwright (born 1921)
• May 9 – Nuala O'Faolain, Irish critic and writer (born 1940)
• May 11 – Jeff Torrington, Scottish novelist (born 1935)
• May 12 – Oakley Hall, American novelist (born 1920)
• May 14 – Roy Heath, Guyanese novelist (born 1926)
• May 15 – Muhyi al-Din Faris, Sudanese poet (born 1936)^[15]
• May 19 – Vijay Tendulkar, Indian playwright (born 1928)
• May 22 – Robert Asprin, American science fiction writer (born 1946)^[16][17]
• May 23 – Alan Brien, English journalist and novelist (born 1925)
• May 28 – Elinor Lyon, British children's writer (born 1921)

• June 2 – Ferenc Fejtő, Hungarian-born French historian and journalist (born 1909)
• June 4 – Matthew Bruccoli, American biographer and scholar (born 1931)
• June 5 – Angus Calder, British writer and scholar (born 1942)
• June 8 – Peter Rühmkorf, German poet and writer (born 1929)
• June 9 – Algis Budrys (John A. Sentry), American science fiction writer of Lithuanian origin (born 1931)^[18]
• June 10
  • Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyz writer in Kyrgyz and Russian (born 1928)^[19]
  • Eliot Asinof, American novelist and baseball writer (born 1919)^[20]
• June 16 – Mario Rigoni Stern, Italian novelist (born 1921)
• June 18 – Tasha Tudor, American children's writer and illustrator (born 1915)
• June 22 – Albert Cossery, Egyptian-born French novelist (born 1913)
• June 24 – Ruth Cardoso, Brazilian anthropologist and writer (born 1930)
• June 25 – Lyall Watson, South African scientist and new age writer (born 1939)
• June 27 – Lenka Reinerová, Czech writer in German (born 1916)

• July 1
  • Clay Felker, American magazine editor and journalist (born 1925)
  • Robert Harling, English typographer and novelist (born 1910)
• July 2 – Simone Ortega, Spanish cookery writer (born 1919)
• July 4
  • Thomas M. Disch, American science fiction author and poet. (born 1940)
  • Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch novelist and writer in Dutch and English (born 1931)
• July 20 – Roger Wolcott Hall, American memoirist and novelist (born 1919)
• July 27 – Bob Crampsey, Scottish writer (born 1930)
• July 30 – Peter Coke, English playwright (born 1913)

• August 3 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Nobel laureate (born 1918)^[21]
• August 7 – Simon Gray, English playwright and memoirist (born 1936)
• August 9 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (born 1942)
• August 11 – George Furth, American playwright (born 1932)
• August 17 – Dave Freeman, American writer and advertising executive (born 1961)
• August 23 – John Russell, English art critic (born 1919)
• August 25 – Ahmed Faraz (Syed Akhmad Shah), Pakistani poet in Urdu (born 1931)
• August 31 – Ken Campbell, English novelist and playwright (born 1941)

• September 5 – Robert Giroux, American editor and publisher (born 1914)
• September 7 – Gregory Mcdonald, American mystery writer (born 1937)
• September 12 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist (born 1962)^[22]
• September 17 – James Crumley, American crime writer (born 1939)^[23]
• September 20 – Duncan Glen, Scottish poet, critic and literary historian (born 1933)
• September 23 – William Woodruff, English historian and autobiographer (born 1916)
• September 24 – Bengt Anderberg, Swedish poet, novelist and children's writer (born 1920)
• September 29 – Hayden Carruth, American poet and literary critic (born 1921)
• October 4 – Peter Vansittart, English novelist and historical writer (born 1920)
• October 10 – Ilie Purcaru, Romanian journalist and poet (born 1933)
• October 14 – Barrington J. Bayley, English science fiction writer (born 1937)
• October 26 – Tony Hillerman, American mystery writer (born 1925)
• October 27 – Es'kia Mphahlele, South African writer in English (born 1919)
• October 29 – William Wharton (Albert William Du Aime), American novelist (born 1925)
• October 31 – Studs Terkel, American historian and broadcaster (born 1912)
• November 4 – Michael Crichton, American writer and scholar (born 1942)
• November 13 – Jules Archer, American historian and author (born 1915)
• November 14 – Kristin Hunter, American author and academic (born 1931)
• December 1 – Dorothy Sterling, American non-fiction writer for children and historian (born 1913)^[24]
• December 4 – Forrest J Ackerman, American magazine editor, science fiction writer, and literary agent (born 1916)^[25]
• December 15 – Anne-Catharina Vestly, Norwegian children's book author (born 1920)^[26]
• December 20 – Adrian Mitchell, English poet, playwright and fiction writer (born 1932)
• December 24 – Harold Pinter, English playwright and screenwriter (born 1930)^[27]
• December 31 – Donald E. Westlake, American novelist (born 1933)^[28]

• Camões Prize: João Ubaldo Ribeiro
• Europe Theatre Prize: Patrice Chéreau
• European Book Prize: Tony Judt, Postwar
• International Dublin Literary Award: Rawi Hage, De Niro's Game
• International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Bahaa Taher, Sunset Oasis
• Nobel Prize in Literature: J. M. G. Le Clézio

• Miles Franklin Award: Steven Carroll, The Time We Have Taken

• Canada Reads: Paul Quarrington, King Leary
• Dayne Ogilvie Prize: Main award, Zoe Whittall; honours of distinction, Brian Francis, John Miller.
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Bruce Serafin, Stardust^[29]
• Governor General's Awards: Multiple categories; see 2008 Governor General's Awards.
• Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction: Taras Grescoe, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood
• Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Miriam Toews, The Flying Troutmans
• Scotiabank Giller Prize: Joseph Boyden, Through Black Spruce
• Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award: Michael Winter

• Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Sonya Hartnett^[30]

• Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year: The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais, Philip M. Parker
• Caine Prize for African Writing: Henrietta Rose-Innes, "Poison"
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Philip Reeve, Here Lies Arthur^[31]
• Man Booker Prize: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
• Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction: to The Road Home by Rose Tremain

• Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2008 Lambda Literary Awards.
• National Book Award for Fiction: to Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
• National Book Critics Circle Award: to 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Laura Amy Schlitz, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village^[32]
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Kate Christensen, The Great Man
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Junot Diaz, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• Whiting Awards:

Fiction: Mischa Berlinski, Laleh Khadivi, Manuel Muñoz, Benjamin Percy, Lysley Tenorio

Nonfiction: Donovan Hohn

Plays: Dael Orlandersmith

Poetry: Rick Hilles, Douglas Kearney, Julie Sheehan

• Premio de la Crítica de Galicia (category Ensayo y Pensamiento): Xurxo Borrazás, Arte e parte

• Hahn, Daniel (2015). The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (2nd ed.). Oxford. University Press. ISBN 9780198715542.

• List of literary awards
• List of poetry awards
• 2008 in comics
• 2008 in Australian literature