1975–2000

The Contemporary Era

The world republic of letters. Postmodern play, postcolonial reckonings, autofiction, and translation's golden age make literature genuinely global for the first time.

Reading path

The Contemporary Era

For the first time, literature stops being a conversation the West has mostly with itself.

8 steps

Movements of this era

Literary Speculation

Science fiction and fable are admitted to the literary canon.

American Postmodernism

Pynchon, DeLillo, Vonnegut: paranoia, systems, and black comedy in the age of the bomb.

The Native American Renaissance

Momaday's Pulitzer opens a literature where oral tradition and ceremony become the novel's own form.

After the Boom

A generation writes against magical realism's long shadow.

Modern Korean Fiction

Park Wan-suh, Hwang Sok-yong: division, war, and rapid modernization tested in fiction.

The Contemporary British Novel

The British novel goes historical, multicultural, and formally restless.

Contemporary World Fiction

Sebald, Bolaño, Ferrante, Han Kang: the novel now, borderless and restless.

The New Japanese Voice

A cooler, stranger, more global Japanese fiction after the postwar masters.

Authors of this era

1884–1937Yevgeny ZamyatinRussia 1894–1963Aldous HuxleyEngland 1899–1977Vladimir NabokovRussia / USA 1903–1950George OrwellEngland 1920–1978Paul ScottEngland 1922–2007Kurt VonnegutUSA 1922–1998William GaddisUnited States 1923–1999Joseph HellerUSA 1923–1985Italo CalvinoItaly 1923–2014Nadine GordimerSouth Africa 1927–2010Harry MulischNetherlands 1928–1982Philip K. DickUnited States 1928–1983Jorge IbargüengoitiaMexico 1928–2016Anita BrooknerEngland 1929–2018Ursula K. Le GuinUnited States 1929–2008Hugo ClausBelgium 1929–2023Milan KunderaCzechia / France 1930–2024John BarthUSA 1930–2012Barry UnsworthEngland 1931–2015E. L. DoctorowUnited States 1931–1989Donald BarthelmeUSA 1931–2011Park Wan-suhSouth Korea 1931–2019Toni MorrisonUSA 1932–2024Robert CooverUSA 1932–1990Manuel PuigArgentina b. 1932Elena PoniatowskaMexico 1933–2004Susan SontagUnited States 1933–2018Sergio PitolMexico 1933–2017David StoreyEngland b. 1933Penelope LivelyEngland b. 1933Cees NooteboomNetherlands 1933–2023Cormac McCarthyUSA 1934–2024N. Scott MomadayUnited States 1935–2018Fernando del PasoMexico 1935–1979J. G. FarrellEngland b. 1935Thomas KeneallyAustralia b. 1936Don DeLilloUSA 1936–2023A. S. ByattEngland b. 1937Thomas PynchonUSA 1937–2015Robert StoneUnited States b. 1938Joyce Carol OatesUnited States b. 1939Margaret AtwoodCanada 1940–1992Angela CarterEngland b. 1940J. M. G. Le ClézioFrance b. 1940J. M. CoetzeeSouth Africa / Australia b. 1942Howard JacobsonEngland b. 1942Peter HandkeAustria b. 1942António Lobo AntunesPortugal b. 1943Steven MillhauserUSA 1943–1990Reinaldo ArenasCuba b. 1943Hwang Sok-yongSouth Korea b. 1943Pat BarkerEngland b. 1943Rose TremainEngland b. 1943Elena FerranteItaly 1943–2012Antonio TabucchiItaly b. 1943Ludmila UlitskayaRussia b. 1943Peter CareyAustralia / United States 1944–2001W. G. SebaldGermany / England b. 1944Richard FordUnited States b. 1945Patrick ModianoFrance b. 1946Tim O'BrienUnited States b. 1946Julian BarnesEngland b. 1946Elfriede JelinekAustria 1947–2006Octavia ButlerUnited States 1947–2024Paul AusterUnited States b. 1948Leslie Marmon SilkoUnited States b. 1948Yi Mun-yolSouth Korea b. 1948Ian McEwanEngland b. 1948Svetlana AlexievichBelarus b. 1948Charles JohnsonUnited States b. 1948Banu MushtaqIndia (Karnataka)1949–2023Martin AmisEngland b. 1949Graham SwiftEngland b. 1949Haruki MurakamiJapan b. 1951Linda GrantEngland 1951–2022Javier MaríasSpain b. 1952Michael CunninghamUnited States 1952–2022Hilary MantelEngland 1952–2017Helen DunmoreEngland b. 1952Bảo NinhVietnam b. 1952Orhan PamukTurkey 1953–2003Roberto BolañoChile / Mexico / Spain b. 1954Louise ErdrichUnited States b. 1954Kazuo IshiguroEngland / Japan b. 1954Alan HollinghurstEngland b. 1954László KrasznahorkaiHungary b. 1955Vladimir SorokinRussia 1956–2019Andrea LevyEngland b. 1956Michel HouellebecqFrance b. 1956Mircea CărtărescuRomania b. 1956Percival EverettUnited States b. 1956Ha JinChina / United States b. 1957Richard PowersUnited States b. 1957Geetanjali ShreeIndia b. 1957Alaa Al AswanyEgypt b. 1959William T. VollmannUnited States b. 1959Bernardine EvaristoEngland b. 1959Jon FosseNorway b. 1959Jonathan FranzenUnited States b. 1960Jeffrey EugenidesUnited States b. 1961Richard FlanaganAustralia b. 1961DBC PierreAustralia 1962–2008David Foster WallaceUnited States b. 1962Ali SmithScotland b. 1962Olga TokarczukPoland b. 1962Viktor PelevinRussia b. 1962Jennifer EganUnited States b. 1962Paul BeattyUnited States b. 1962Yōko OgawaJapan b. 1963Liu CixinChina b. 1963Michael ChabonUnited States b. 1963Damon GalgutSouth Africa b. 1964Banana YoshimotoJapan b. 1967Ted ChiangUSA b. 1967Rachel CuskUnited Kingdom / Canada b. 1967Jenny ErpenbeckGermany b. 1967Jhumpa LahiriUnited States b. 1967Paul HardingUSA b. 1967Adam JohnsonUSA b. 1968Georgi GospodinovBulgaria b. 1968Junot DíazDominican Republic / United States b. 1970Marlon JamesJamaica b. 1970Han KangSouth Korea b. 1971Mohsin HamidPakistan b. 1971Kiran DesaiIndia / United States b. 1971Elif ShafakTurkey / UK b. 1972Maggie O'FarrellUnited Kingdom b. 1973Hernán DiazArgentina / United States b. 1973Juan Gabriel VásquezColombia b. 1974Naomi AldermanEngland b. 1974Aravind AdigaIndia b. 1975Zadie SmithEngland b. 1975Samantha HarveyEngland b. 1976Mieko KawakamiJapan b. 1977Paul LynchIreland b. 1977Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieNigeria b. 1978Samanta SchweblinArgentina b. 1978Jokha AlharthiOman b. 1979Sayaka MurataJapan b. 1980Joshua CohenUSA b. 1985Eleanor CattonNew Zealand