1981 in literature
|
|
See also: 1980 in literature, other events of 1981, 1982 in literature, list of years in literature.
| Contents |
Events
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction given for the first time
- John Gardner successfully revives the James Bond novel series originated by Ian Fleming with Licence Renewed. The revived Bond book series would run uninterrupted until 2002.
New books
- Ill Seen Ill Said - Samuel Beckett
- Arabian Nights and Days - Naguib Mahfouz
- La Bicyclette Bleue (The Blue Bicycle) - Régine Deforges
- Bliss - Peter Carey
- Creation - Gore Vidal
- Cujo - Stephen King
- Distant Star - Samuel R. Delany
- Famous Last Words - Timothy Findley
- Flames Across the Border - Pierre Berton
- Giants of the Ottawa Valley - Joan Finnegan
- The Glitter Dome - Joseph Wambaugh
- The Golden Age of Science Fiction - Kingsley Amis
- Goodbye, Janette - Harold Robbins
- Gorky Park - Martin Cruz Smith
- Hotel New Hampshire - John Irving
- An Indecent Obsession - Colleen McCullough
- Masquerade - Kit Williams
- Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
- No Time for Tears - Cynthia Freeman
- Noble House - James Clavell
- Other People: A Mystery Story - Martin Amis
- Red Dragon - Thomas Harris
- Strata - Terry Pratchett
- Tar Baby - Toni Morrison
- The Third Deadly Sin - Lawrence Sanders
Births
Deaths
- January 9 - A.J. Cronin, writer
Awards
- Booker Prize: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children
- See 1981 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
- Nebula Award: Gene Wolfe, The Claw of the Conciliator
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved
- Nobel Prize for Literature: Elias Canetti
- Prix Goncourt: Lucien Bodard, Anne Marie
- Prix Médicis French: François-Olivier Rousseau, L'Enfant d'Édouard
- Prix Médicis International: David Shahar, Le Jour de la comtesse
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Beth Henley, Crimes of the Heart
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Schuyler: The Morning of the Poem
- Whitbread Best Book Award: William Boyd, A Good Man in Africa