Franz Wright, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose work explored addiction, mental illness and spirituality, died at age 62 on May 14.
Award-winning Uruguayan writer and thinker Eduardo Galeano, considered a leading voice of Latin America's left died at 74 succumbing to lung cancer.
Michael Blake, the writer whose novel "Dances With Wolves" became a major hit movie and earned him an Academy Award for the screenplay.
Ruth Rendell was best known for psychological thrillers delving into the criminal mind as well as the successful television adaptation "The Ruth Rendell Mysteries".
Philip Levine was a former United States poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner whose work reflected the voice and soul of 20th century blue-collar America died at age 87. The cause of death was widely reported as pancreatic cancer.
British fantasy author Terry Pratchett wrote more than 70 books, including those in his "Discworld" series, had been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease in 2007.
Nobel literature laureate Guenter Grass, best known around the world for his novel "The Tin Drum". He was 87 when he breathed his last.