Notable Literary Deaths in 2023

To the members of the literary community we lost this year, we say a last thank you, and goodbye. You will be missed.

*

“Belated literary star” Edith Pearlman, who broke out with Binocular Vision at the age of 74, died on January 1. She was 86.

Suzy McKee Charnas, award-winning author of feminist science fiction, died on January 2 at the age of 83.

British writer Fay Weldon, who “charted lives shaped by class and the sexual revolution in more than 30 novels,” died on January 4 at the age of 91.

Novelist and civil rights activist Norm Fructer, who worked tirelessly to ensure equal access to education for children, died on January 4 at the age of 85.

Award-winning writer Russell Banks, author of Cloudsplitter, died on January 7 at the age of 82.

Self-taught American poet Naomi Replansky died on January 7. She was 104.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Serbian-American poet Charles Simic, who was named poet laureate of the United States in 2007, died on January 9 at the age of 84.

English writer Ronald Blythe, author of Akenfield: Portrait of an English Country Village, died on January 14. He was 100.

British writer Jonathan Raban, who refused the term “travel writer,” died on January 17 at the age of 80.

Reality-bending novelist Paul La Farge, author of The Facts of Winter, Luminous Airplanes, and The Night Ocean, died on January 18 at the age of 52.

Celebrated book cover designer Carin Goldberg died on January 19 at the age of 69.

Ted Bell, bestselling author of spy thrillers, died on January 20 at the age of 76.

Marianne Mantell, who co-founded a record company that helped kickstart the audiobook industry, died on January 22. She was 93.

Poet Linda Pastan died on January 30 at the age of 90.

Groundbreaking publisher John Macrae III died on February 1 at the age of 91.

The prolific cookbook author Jean Anderson, author of The Doubleday Cookbook, died on February 9 at the age of 93.

Prolific biographer Donald Spoto died on February 11 at the age of 81.

Linda King Newell, feminist scholar of Mormon history, died on February 12 at the age of 82.

John E. Woods, award-winning translator of the books of Thomas Mann, died on February 15 at the age of 80.

Translator Duong Tuong, who introduced Western classics to Vietnamese readers, died on February 24 at the age of 90.

Children’s book author Amy Schwartz died on February 26 at the age of 68.

British Beat poet Royston Ellis, purveyor of “rocketry,” died on February 26 at the age of 82.

Japanese novelist Kenzaburo Oe, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1994, died on March 3 at the age of 88.

Ian Falconer, author of beloved children’s book Olivia, died on March 7 at the age of 63.

Bestselling historical novelist John Jakes died on March 11. He was 90.

Historian and biographer Patrick French died on March 16 at the age of 56.

Celebrated Yugoslav-Croatian and Dutch writer Dubravka Ugresic died on March 17 at the age of 73.

Julie Anne Peters, whose 2004 book Luna was the first traditionally published YA novel with a transgender character, died on March 21 at the age of 71.

English novelist D.M. Thomas, author of The White Hotel, died on March 26 at the age of 88.

Writer and translator María Kodama, the widow of Jorge Luis Borges and the guardian of his legacy, died on March 26 at the age of 86.

Helen Barolini, chronicler of the experiences of Italian American women, died on March 29 at the age of 97.

Transgender activist and writer Rachel Pollack, who created the first transgender superheroine for DC Comics, died on April 7 at the age of 77.

Prolific crime writer Anne Perry died on April 10 at the age of 84.

Satirical Israeli novelist Meir Shalev died on April 11 at the age of 74.

Feminist playwright Megan Terry died on April 12 at the age of 90.

Editor Michael Denneny, who opened doors for for LGBTQ writers and literature, died on April 15 at the age of 80.

Double heart transplant recipient and writer Amy Silverstein, author of Sick Girl, died on May 5. She was 49.

Martin Amis, “the erstwhile Mick Jagger of British letters,” died on May 19. He was 73.

Robert J. Zimmer, who promoted diversity and free expression on campus as the president of the University of Chicago, died on May 23 at the age of 75.

Feminist Ghanaian playwright, author, and activist Ama Ata Aidoo died on May 31. She was 81.

Richard E. Snyder, longtime publishing executive known for his successful tenure at Simon & Schuster, died on June 6 at the age of 90.

Poet Saskia Hamilton, also known for her scholarship of Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell, died on June 7 at the age of 56.

Bestselling romance novelist Julia Garwood died on June 8 at the age of 78.

Influential comic book artist John Romita Sr. died on June 12. He was 93.

Mystery writer Carol Higgins Clark, daughter of Mary Higgins Clark, died on June 12 at the age of 66.

Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning genius behind such indelible American novels as Suttree, Blood Meridian, and The Road, died on June 13. He was 89.

Superstar book editor Robert Gottlieb, who worked with writers from John le Carré to Toni Morrison to John Cheever to Doris Lessing to Ray Bradbury, died on June 14 at the age of 92.

Feminist poet and essayist Minnie Bruce Pratt, who was married to the queer author Leslie Feinberg, died on July 2. She was 76.

Children’s author Mary Ann Hoberman, who “had a gift for finding the extraordinary in everyday things,” died on July 7 at the age of 92.

Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Likeness of Being and “one of the great horny novelists of the 20th century,” died on July 11 at the age of 94.

Harry G. Frankfurt, author of the surprise bestseller On Bullshit, died on July 16 at the age of 94.

Historian Martha Saxton, who wrote about the lives of women, including Louisa May Alcott, Jane Mansfield, and Mary Washington, died on July 18. She was 77.

Memoirist and longtime editor of Modern Photography Julia Scully died on July 18 at the age of 94.

Novelist and historian James Reston Jr., who wrote a 96-page “interrogation” memo for David Frost’s Nixon interviews, died on July 19 at the age of 82.

Historian Jean Fagan Yellin, who uncovered the true authorship of Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, died on July 19 at the age of 92.

Psychologist and psychotherapist Alice K. Ladas, the author of The G Spot: And Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality, died on July 29 at the age of 102.

National Book Award-winning poet Keith Waldrop died on July 27 at the age of 90.

Dorothy Casterline, who helped write the first comprehensive dictionary of American Sign Language, died on August 8 at the age of 95.

Acclaimed playwright Nathan Louis Jackson died on August 22. He was 44.

Comic novelist Robert Klane, who also wrote the screenplay for Weekend at Bernie’s, died on August 29 at the age of 81.

Edith Grossman, the author of Why Translation Matters, who translated works by Gabriel García Márquez, Miguel de Cervantes, and Mario Vargas Llosa into English, died on September 4 at the age of 87.

Performer and YA author Echo Brown, known for her one-woman show “Black Virgins Are Not for Hipsters,” died on September 16 at the age of 39.

Gita Mehta, who wrote books about the intersections between Western culture and modern India, and who was married to Sonny Mehta, died on September 16 at the age of 80.

Syrian author Khaled Khalifa, “widely regarded as one of the most important writers in contemporary Arabic literature,” died on September 30 at the age of 59.

Caldecott Medal-winning children’s author Eve Bunting died on October 1 at the age of 94.

Vincent Patrick, best known for his first novel, The Pope of Greenwich Village, died on October 6 at the age of 88.

Accidental (and controversial) biographer of the royal family Anthony Holden died on October 7 at the age of 76.

Celebrated comic book artist Keith Giffen died on October 9 at the age of 70.

Louise Meriwether, known for her 1970 novel Daddy Was a Number Runner, died on October 10. She was 100.

Longtime Knopf editor Jane Garrett died on October 12 at the age of 88.

Legendary poet and Nobel Laureate Louise Glück died on October 13 at the age of 80.

Stephen Rubin, publisher of The Da Vinci Code (among many other bestsellers), died on October 13 at the age of 81.

Palestinian novelist, poet, and educator Heba Abu Nada died on October 20. She was 32.

Peter S. Fischer, a creator, writer, and producer of Murder, She Wrote (as well as a mystery novelist himself), died on October 30 at the age of 88.

Henri Lopes, a prime minister of the Republic of Congo whose 1982 novel Le Pleurer-Rire (The Laughing Cry) is “regarded as a foundational work in African literature,” died on November 2 at the age of 86.

National Book Award-winning poet and translator David Ferry died on November 5 at the age of 99.

Bob Contant, longtime owner of the St. Mark’s Bookshop, died on November 6 at the age of 80.

Betty Rollin, who wrote two memoirs about grief and illness, died on November 7 at the age of 87.

Celebrated British author A.S. Byatt, a scholar and novelist whose 1990 novel, Possession, won the Booker Prize and brought her international renown, died on November 16 at the age of 87.

American novelist Herbert Gold died on November 19. He was 99.

French historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie died on November 22 at the age of 94.

American writer Gabe Hudson died on November 23 at the age of 52.

John Nichols, best known for his novel The Milagro Beanfield War, died on November 27 at the age of 83.

Author, professor and poet Benjamin Zephaniah died on December 7. He was 65.

Palestinian poet, writer, literature professor, and activist Refaat Alareer died on December 7 at the age of 44.

Novelist and teacher David Burr Gerrard died on December 8 at the age of 42.