22 Famous Writers Who Died In 2017

Writers Write is a comprehensive writing resource. In this post, we share the names of famous writers who died in 2017.

The world lost many literary greats, including a Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, last year.

Writers Who Died in 2017:

1. Brian Aldiss – English author, vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society
2. Buchi Emecheta – Nigerian novelist
3. Colin Dexter – English author of the Inspector Morse series
4. Denis Johnson – American writer of Jesus’ Son: Stories
5. Derek Walcott – Saint Lucian poet and playwright who received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature
6. Harry Mathews – American writer of novels, poetry, short fiction, and essays
7. Helen Dunmore – British poet, novelist, and children’s writer
8. Howard Frank Mosher – American novelist
9. Janusz Glowacki – Polish-U.S. playwright and screenwriter
10. John Ashbery – American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
11. John Berger – English art critic, novelist, painter, and poet
12. Michael Bond – English writer, creator of Paddington Bear
13. Miriam Tlali – South African novelist, the first black woman in South Africa to publish a novel
14. Paula Fox – American award-winning children’s author
15. Peter Abrahams – South African novelist, journalist, and political commentator
16. Robert James Waller – American author of The Bridges of Madison County
17. Robert M. Pirsig  – American writer and philosopher, and the author of  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
18. Sam Shepard – American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
19. Sue Grafton – American crime writer, author of the ‘alphabet series’, starting with “A” is for Alibi
20. William H. Gass – American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic
21. William Melvin Kelley – African-American novelist
22. William Peter Blatty – American writer and filmmaker, famous for The Exorcist

Other literary figures who died:

Liu Xiaobo  (Chinese literary critic, poet, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate) Abiola Irele (Nigerian literary critic), Judith Jones (editor of The Diary of Anne Frank), Bette Howland (American writer and literary critic), Lillian Ross (journalist for The New Yorker), Robert B. Silvers (founding editor of The New York Review of Books), Heathcote Williams (playwright), Bruce Stewart, (New Zealand author and playwright), Jack Collom (American poet, essayist and poetry teacher), Richard Wilbur (American poet and literary translator), and Fay Zwicky (Australian poet).

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