1981 in literature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
See also: 1980 in literature, other events of 1981, 1982 in literature, list of years in literature.
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2 New Books 3 Births 4 Deaths 5 Awards |
Events
- February 24 - Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower, the author of the bestselling The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction given for the first time
New Books
- Ill Seen Ill Said - Samuel Beckett
- Arabian Nights and Days - Naguib Mahfouz
- La Bicyclette Bleue (The Blue Bicycle) - Regine 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
- The Glitter Dome - Joseph Wambaugh
- 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
- Nobel House - James Clavell
- Red Dragon - Thomas Harris
- Strata - Terry Pratchett
- Tar Baby - Toni Morrison
- The Third Deadly Sin - Lawrence Sanders
Births
Deaths
- January 6 - A.J. Cronin, writer
Awards
- Booker Prize: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Chidlren
- 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 Medicis French: Francois-Olivier Rousseau , L'Enfant d'Edouard
- Prix Medicis 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