See also: 1976 in literature, other events of 1977, 1978 in literature, list of years in literature.
Events
New books
Births
Deaths
- January 14 - Anaïs Nin, novelist and diarist
- February 27 - John Dickson Carr, crime novelist
- April 7 - Jim Thompson, pulp fiction author
- April 11 - Jacques Prévert, poet
- July 2 - Vladimir Nabokov, Russian/American novelist
- September 4 - E. F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful author
- September 12 - Robert Lowell, poet
- October 27 - James M. Cain, novelist, newspaperman
- November 10 - Dennis Wheatley, occult novelist
- November 30 - Terence Rattigan, dramatist
- December 22 - Frank Thiess, German writer
Awards
- Booker Prize: Paul Scott, Staying On
- Nebula Award: Frederik Pohl, Gateway
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Mildred Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
- Nobel Prize for Literature: Vicente Aleixandre
- Prix Goncourt: Didier Decoin, John l'enfer
- Prix Médicis French: Michel Butel, L'Autre Amour
- Prix Médicis International: Hector Bianciotti, Le Traité des saisons - Argentina
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Michael Cristofer, The Shadow Box
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Merrill, Divine Comedies
- Viareggio Prize: Davide Lajolo, Veder l'erba dalla parte delle radici
- 1977 Governor General's Awards
