1981 in literature

Events

• May 31 – The burning of Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka is begun by a mob of police and government-sponsored paramilitaries. They destroy over 97,000 volumes in one of the worst examples of ethnic book burning in the modern era.
• August – Sefer ve Sefel opens as an English used bookstore in Jerusalem.
• unknown dates
  • John Gardner successfully revives the James Bond novel series originated by Ian Fleming with Licence Renewed (not counting a faux biography of Bond and a pair of film novelizations, the first original Bond novel since 1968's Colonel Sun). The revived Bond book series will run uninterrupted until 2002.
  • Colin MacCabe is denied tenure at the University of Cambridge, apparently because of a dispute within the English Faculty about the teaching of structuralism.
  • The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is given for the first time.

New books

Fiction

• Eric Ambler – The Care of Time
• Kingsley Amis (ed.) – The Golden Age of Science Fiction
• Martin Amis – Other People
• V. C. Andrews – If There Be Thorns
• Louis Auchincloss – The Cat and the King
• René Barjavel – Une rose au paradis
• Samuel Beckett – Ill Seen Ill Said
• Thomas Berger – Reinhart's Women
• Pierre Berton – Flames Across the Border
• William Boyd – A Good Man in Africa
• Pascal Bruckner – Evil Angels
• William S. Burroughs – Cities of the Red Night
• Robert Olen Butler – The Alleys of Eden
• Peter Carey – Bliss
• Raymond Carver – What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
• David Case – The Third Grave
• James Clavell – Noble House
• Bernard Cornwell
  • Sharpe's Eagle
  • Sharpe's Gold
• John Crowley – Little, Big
• L. Sprague de Camp – The Hand of Zei
• L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp – Footprints on Sand
• Régine Deforges – La Bicyclette bleue (The Blue Bicycle)
• Samuel R. Delany – Distant Star
• Michel Déon – Where Are You Dying Tonight? (Un déjeuner de soleil)
• Cynthia Freeman – No Time for Tears
• Gabriel García Márquez – Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Crónica de una muerte anunciada)
• John Gardner – Licence Renewed
• Charles L. Grant – Tales from the Nightside
• Alasdair Gray – Lanark
• Jan Guillou – Ondskan
• Thomas Harris – Red Dragon
• Frank Herbert – God Emperor of Dune
• Douglas Hill – Planet of the Warlord
• Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp – The Flame Knife
• John Irving – The Hotel New Hampshire
• Rona Jaffe – Mazes and Monsters
• Alan Judd – A Breed of Heroes
• Ismail Kadare – The File on H (Dosja J)
• Stephen King – Cujo
• Dean Koontz (as Leigh Nichols) – The Eyes of Darkness
• Chart Korbjitti – Khamphiphaksa (The Judgment)
• Joe R. Lansdale – Act of Love
• Stanisław Lem – Golem XIV
• Colleen McCullough – An Indecent Obsession
• Elliot S! Maggin – Miracle Monday
• Naguib Mahfouz – Arabian Nights and Days (ليالي ألف ليلة)
• Ian McEwan – The Comfort of Strangers
• Toni Morrison – Tar Baby
• Robert B. Parker
  • A Savage Place
  • Early Autumn
• Ellis Peters
  • Saint Peter's Fair
  • The Leper of Saint Giles
• Terry Pratchett – Strata
• Bano Qudsia – Raja Gidh ("King Vulture")
• Alain Robbe-Grillet – Djinn
• Harold Robbins – Goodbye, Janette
• Salman Rushdie – Midnight's Children
• Lawrence Sanders – The Third Deadly Sin
• Martin Cruz Smith – Gorky Park
• Muriel Spark – Loitering with Intent
• Botho Strauß – Couples, Passersby (Paare, Passanten) (stories)
• Paul Theroux – The Mosquito Coast
• D. M. Thomas – The White Hotel
• John Updike – Rabbit Is Rich
• Jack Vance – The Book of Dreams
• Gore Vidal – Creation
• Joseph Wambaugh – The Glitter Dome
• Kit Williams – Masquerade
• Gene Wolfe
  • The Claw of the Conciliator
  • The Sword of the Lictor
• Roger Zelazny
  • The Changing Land
  • Madwand

Children and young people

• Chris Van Allsburg – Jumanji
• Hans Christian Andersen (with Jane S. Woodward and Michael Hague) – Michael Hague's Favourite Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales
• Judy Blume – Tiger Eyes
• Beverly Cleary – Ramona Quimby, Age 8
• Eth Clifford – The Dastardly Murder of Dirty Pete
• Roald Dahl – George's Marvellous Medicine
• Rumer Godden – The Dragon of Og'
• Roger Hargreaves – Little Miss (first 13 books in the Little Miss series of 21)
• Florence Parry Heide – Treehorn's Treasure
• Gordon Korman – I Want to Go Home!
• Harold Lamb (with George Barr and Alicia Austin) – Durandal
• Michael de Larrabeiti – The Borribles Go for Broke
• Janet Lunn – The Root Cellar
• Patricia Lynch – The Turf-Cutter's Donkey
• Michelle Magorian – Goodnight Mister Tom
• C. L. Moore (with Alicia Austin) - Scarlet Dream
• Uri Orlev – The Island on Bird Street (האי ברחוב הציפורים)
• Ruth Park – The Muddle-Headed Wombat is Very Bad
• Bill Peet – Encore for Eleanor
• Alvin Schwartz – Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
• Maurice Sendak – Outside Over There
• Jan Wahl – The Cucumber Princess
• Robert Westall – The Scarecrows

Drama

• Samuel Beckett – Rockaby
• Edward Bond – Restoration
• Tankred Dorst – Merlin oder das wüste Land
• John Krizanc – Tamara
• Larry Shue – The Nerd
• Barney Simon – Woza Albert!
• Botho Strauß – Kalldewey, Farce
• Patrick Süskind – Der Kontrabaß
• Peter Whelan – The Accrington Pals
• Tennessee Williams – The Notebook of Trigorin

Poetry

Main article: 1981 in poetry

• L. Sprague de Camp – Heroes and Hobgoblins
• Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi – Rang-o-Noor (The Colour and the Light)
• Norman Nicholson – Sea to the West
• Sylvia Plath (posthumous) – Collected Poems, edited by Ted Hughes
• Kathleen Raine – Collected Poems, 1935–1980
• Richard L. Tierney – Collected Poems

Non-fiction

• Maya Angelou – The Heart of a Woman
• Colin Robert Chase – The Dating of Beowulf
• Mary Chesnut – Mary Chesnut's Civil War
• Hugo Brandt Corstius – Opperlandse taal- & letterkunde
• Daniel Dennett – Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology
• Nancy Dorian – Language Death: The Life Cycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect
• Timothy Findley – Famous Last Words
• Stephen Jay Gould – The Mismeasure of Man
• Dumas Malone – The Sage of Monticello
• V. S. Naipaul – Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey
• Giovanni Pettinato – The Archives of Ebla: An Empire Inscribed in Clay
• Anne Scott-James – The Cottage Garden
• Viktor Suvorov – The Liberators

Births

• Jan 4 – Sarah Crossan, Irish young-adult writer
• April 7 – Lili Wilkinson, Australian young-adult writer
• April 13 – Rebecca Yarros, American fantasy author
• May 19 – Kiera Cass, American young-adult writer
• May 20 – Ottessa Moshfegh, American novelist
• June 10 – Juno Dawson, born James Dawson, English young-adult LGBT writer
• July 10 – Karen Russell, American novelist
• July 27 – Dan Jones, British historian and TV presenter
• September 30 – Cecelia Ahern, Irish novelist
• October 3 – Leïla Slimani, Franco-Moroccan novelist
• October 12 – NoViolet Bulawayo (Elizabeth Zandile Tshele), Zimbabwe-born novelist
• October 31 – Irina Denezhkina, Russian writer
• December 11 – Hamish Blake, Australian comedian, actor and author
• December 13 – Mathis Bailey, American-Canadian novelist and fiction writer
• unknown dates
  • Amy Sackville, English novelist
  • Sunjeev Sahota, English novelist
  • Saud Alsanousi, Kuwaiti novelist
  • Olesya Mamchich, Ukrainian poet and children's writer

Deaths

• January 5 – Lanza del Vasto, Italian-born philosopher, poet and activist (born 1901)
• January 6 – A. J. Cronin, Scottish novelist (born 1896)
• January 7 – John Pascal, American playwright, screenwriter, author and journalist (born 1932)
• January 23 – Lobsang Rampa (Cyril Henry Hoskin), English author (born 1910)
• February 3 – Normand Poirier, American newspaper editor, journalist and essayist (born 1928)
• February 17 – David Garnett, English novelist (born 1892)
• February 23 – Nan Shepherd, Scottish novelist and poet (born 1893)
• March 7 – Bosley Crowther, American film critic (born 1905)
• March 14 – Eleanor Perry, American screenwriter and author (born 1914)
• March 20 – Pedro García Cabrera, Spanish poet (born 1905)
• March 29 – Clive Sansom, English-born Tasmanian poet and playwright (born 1910)
• March 31 – Enid Bagnold, English writer and playwright (born 1889)
• April 1 – D. F. Jones, English science fiction writer (born 1918)
• April 13 – Gwyn Thomas, Welsh novelist and broadcaster (born 1913)
• April 23 – Josep Pla, Catalan Spanish journalist and writer (born 1897)
• April 26 – Robert Garioch, Scottish poet (born 1909)
• May 8 – Uri Zvi Grinberg, Israeli poet writing in Hebrew and Yiddish (born 1896)
• May 9 – Nelson Algren, American novelist (born 1909)
• May 18 – William Saroyan, American novelist and dramatist (born 1908)
• May 23 – Rayner Heppenstall, English writer and poet (born 1911)
• May 30 – Gwendolyn B. Bennett, African-American writer and artist (born 1902)
• June 15 – Philip Toynbee, English novelist and journalist (born 1916)
• June 17 – Zerna Sharp, American writer and educator (born 1889)
• June 18 – Pamela Hansford Johnson, English poet, novelist, playwright, literary and social critic (born 1912)
• August 15 – Carol Ryrie Brink, American author (born 1895)
• September 3 – Alec Waugh, English novelist (born 1898)
• September 7 – Christy Brown, Irish writer and painter (born 1932)
• September 12 – Eugenio Montale, Italian poet (born 1896)
• October 20 – Mary Coyle Chase, American playwright (born 1906)
• October 25 – Cynthia Harnett, English children's writer (born 1893)
• October 30 – Denys Rhodes, English novelist (born 1919)
• November 6 – Digby George Gerahty, English novelist (born 1898)
• November 30 – Charles Eric Maine, English science fiction writer (born 1921)
• December 9 – C. P. Taylor, Scottish playwright (born 1929)
• December 26 – Amber Reeves, New Zealand-born English scholar, feminist and novelist (born 1887)

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Elias Canetti

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Chris Matthews, Al Jazzar; Tim Winton, An Open Swimmer
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Alan Gould, Astral Sea
• Miles Franklin Award: Peter Carey, Bliss

Canada

• See 1981 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

• 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

Spain

• Miguel de Cervantes Prize: Octavio Paz

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Robert Westall, The Scarecrows
• Cholmondeley Award: Roy Fisher, Robert Garioch, Charles Boyle
• Eric Gregory Award: Alan Jenkins, Simon Rae, Marion Lomax, Philip Gross, Kathleen Jamie, Mark Abley, Roger Crowley, Ian Gregson
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children, and Paul Theroux, The Mosquito Coast
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Victoria Glendinning, *Edith Sitwell: Unicorn Among Lions *
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: D. J. Enright
• Whitbread Best Book Award: William Boyd, A Good Man in Africa

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Kathy Calloway, Heart of the Garfish
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Belles Lettres: Malcolm Cowley
• Dos Passos Prize: Gilbert Sorrentino
• Nebula Award: Gene Wolfe, The Claw of the Conciliator
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved
• 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

Elsewhere

• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Lev Kopelev
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
• Premio Nadal: Carmen Gómez Ojea, Cantiga de aguero

Notes

References

References

1. Tassie Seneviratne. (June 1, 2014). "Burning Of The Jaffna Public Library: Whodunit?".
2. ''[[Newsweek]]'', 16 February 1981, p. 95; see also Philip Lewis, "The Post-Structuralist Condition", ''Diacritics'' 12:1 (1982): 2–24, p. 2.
3. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. (1979). "Reports of the President and the Treasurer - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
4. Brian M. Stableford. (2004). "Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Literature". Scarecrow Press.
5. (1990). "Sequels: An Annotated Guide to Novels in Series". American Library Association.
6. (1983). "Where are You Dying Tonight?". H. Hamilton.
7. Stephen M. Hart. (2005). "Gabriel García Márquez: Crónica de Una Muerte Anunciada". Grant & Cutler.
8. "1981 - Alasdair Gray's Lanark".
9. Michael Tapper. (2014). "Swedish Cops: From Sjöwall and Wahlöö to Stieg Larsson". Intellect Books.
10. Charles A. Carpenter. (1997). "Modern Drama Scholarship and Criticism 1981-1990: An International Bibliography". Modern drama by University of Toronto Press.
11. Hahn 2015, p. 609
12. (8 June 2013). "How is 'Tiger Eyes' the First Movie Based on a Judy Blume Book?".
13. (1982). "Book reMarks: A Personal View of Current Juvenile Literature". Language Arts.
14. Hahn 2015, p. 227
15. Hahn 2015, p. 236
16. Hahn 2015, pp. 526-527
17. (1982). "Literature for Children". The Reading Teacher.
18. Hahn 2015, p. 620
19. (12 April 1981). "STAGE: WORLD PREMIERE OF SAMUEL BECKETT'S 'ROCKABY' AT STATE U.".
20. Howard Frederic Vos. (1985). "Genesis and Archaeology". Academic Books.
21. "Rebecca Yarros {{!}} Books, Husband, Fourth Wing Series, Kids, & Facts {{!}} Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica.
22. Schwartzbrod, Alexandra. (29 September 2014). "Leïla Slimani. "Madame Bovary X"". Liberation.
23. "NoViolet Bulawayo [real name Elizabeth Zandile Tshele] (1981 -)".
24. (2010). "The Still Point by Amy Sackville". Orange Prize for Fiction.
25. "Sunjeev Sahota".
26. (2022-02-26). "UKRAIŃSKIE POETKI O WOJNIE".
27. Galiana, Ismael. (1 July 1981). "Murió en Murcia el poeta y pacifista Lanza del Vasto: Apóstol de la no violencia". [[ABC (newspaper).
28. Mitgang, Herbert. (10 January 1981). "A. J. Cronin, author of 'Citadel' and 'Keys of the Kingdom', dies".
29. (1981). "The New York Times Biographical Service". New York Times & Arno Press.
30. [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/04/obituaries/normand-poirier.html "Normand Poirier."] ''[[New York Times]]''. February 4, 1981
31. Palmer, Alan. (1987). "Who's who in Bloomsbury". Harvester Press.
32. McFadden, Robert D.. (March 8, 1981). "Bosley Crowther, 27 Years a Critic of Film for Times, is Dead at 75". [[The New York Times]].
33. Willis, John A.. (1982). "Screen World". Crown Publishers.
34. Sobrer, Josep Miquel. (1992). "Catalonia, a Self-portrait". Indiana University Press.
35. (10 May 1981). "Uri Zvi Greenberg, 83; Hebrew and Yiddish Poet". The New York Times.
36. Hamalian, Leo. (1987). "William Saroyan: The Man and the Writer Remembered". Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press.
37. Ohles, Frederik. (1997). "Biographical Dictionary of Modern American Educators". Greenwood Publishing Group.
38. David, Deirdre. (2017). "Pamela Hansford Johnson : a writing life". Oxford University Press.
39. (2005). "The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature". Continuum.
40. Peterkin, Tom. (6 November 2007). "Christy Brown 'neglected by ex-prostitute wife'". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
41. Robinson, Alice M.. (1989). "Notable Women in the American Theatre: A Biographical Dictionary". Greenwood Press.
42. (12 August 2022). "Who is Salman Rushdie? The writer who emerged from hiding".
43. Hahn 2015, p. 660
44. Hahn 2015, p. 657