See also: 1972 in literature, other events of 1973, 1974 in literature, list of years in literature.
Events
New books
Births
Deaths
- February 22 - Elizabeth Bowen, novelist
- March 6 - Pearl S. Buck
- March 26 - Sir Noel Coward, dramatist and humorist
- April 9 - Warren Lewis, author, Inkling, and brother of C. S. Lewis
- April 28 - Jacques Maritain, philosopher
- June 30 - Nancy Mitford, English novelist and biographer
- July 29 - Henri Charrière, Papillon author
- September 2 - J. R. R. Tolkien, fantasy writer
- September 23 - Pablo Neruda, poet
- September 29 - W. H. Auden, poet
- October 28 - Sergio Tofano, dramatist
- December 9 - Anthony Gilbert, crime writer
Awards
- Booker Prize: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
- See 1973 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
- Hugo Award: Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves
- Nebula Award: Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Jean Craighead George, Julie of the Wolves
- Nobel Prize for Literature: Patrick White
- Prix Goncourt: Jacques Chessex, L'Ogre
- Prix Médicis French: Tony Duvert, Paysage de fantaisie
- Prix Médicis International: Milan Kundera, Life Is Elsewhere
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Jason Miller, That Championship Season
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Eudora Welty, The Optimists Daughter
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Maxine Kumin, Up Country*Viareggio Prize: Achille Campanile, Manuale di conversazione
