Obits

Alice Munro, 92, Canadian short story writer and winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature, died on Monday night at her care home in Ontario. Munro was born in 1931 and published her first short story collection, Dance of the Happy Shades, in 1968. She was awarded the Man Booker International Prize in 2009 for her lifetime body of work. Penguin Random House Canada issued this statement. CEO of Penguin Random House Canada Kristin Cochrane said, “Alice Munro is a national treasure—a writer of enormous depth, empathy, and humanity whose work is read, admired, and cherished by readers throughout […]

EVP and director of Business Affairs at Writers House Al Araneo, 53, died suddenly and unexpectedly on Saturday from natural causes. “A treasured and invaluable colleague, Al’s absolute professionalism, deep kindness, and generous and insightful counsel helped make Writers House a joy to work at,” said agency president Simon Lipskar. “He was a dear friend to everyone who worked with him, and we are all grief-struck by this terrible loss.” Araneo started the contracts department at Writers House in 2006 after working for 13 years at Penguin, Doubleday, and Bookspan, and oversaw the department’s growth. In 2020, he became director […]

Paul Auster, 77, died on April 30 of complications from lung cancer. He is the author of 34 books, including The New York Trilogy and 4321, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His most recent book, Baumgartner, was published in November.

Literary agent Richard Parks, 83, died of complications from dementia on April 23. Parks was the founder of The Richard Parks Agency and previously worked at Curtis Brown.

CJ Sansom, 71, author of Dissolution, Winter in Madrid and Dominion, died on April 27 of multiple myeloma.

Philosopher Daniel C. Dennett, 82, died on April 19 at Maine Medical Center of complications of interstitial lung disease. He was the author of Brainstorms and From Bacteria to Bach and Back, among other titles.