Puneet Varma (Editor)

1981 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1981.

Contents

Events

  • May 31 – Burning of Jaffna library: An organized mob of police and government-sponsored paramilitias began burning the public library in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, destroying over 97,000 volumes in one of the most violent examples of ethnic book burning in the modern era.
  • 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 in consequence of his position at the centre of a much publicised dispute within the Faculty of English concerning the teaching of structuralism.
  • PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction given for the first time.

    • Fiction

  • Kingsley Amis – 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
  • Simon Bond – 101 Uses for a Dead Cat
  • 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
  • L. Sprague de Camp – The Hand of Zei
  • L. Sprague de Camp & 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
  • Alan Judd – A Breed of Heroes
  • Ismail Kadare – The File on H (Dosja J)
  • Stephen King – Cujo
  • 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")
  • Jean Raspail – Moi, Antoine de Tounens, roi de Patagonie
  • Alain Robbe-Grillet – Djinn
  • Harold Robbins – Goodbye, Janette
  • Lawrence Sanders – The Third Deadly Sin
  • Martin Cruz Smith – Gorky Park
  • Anja Snellman – Sonja O. kävi täällä
  • Muriel Spark – Loitering with Intent
  • Botho Strauß – Couples, Passersby (Paare, Passanten)
  • Paul Theroux – The Mosquito Coast
  • D. M. Thomas – The White Hotel
  • Jack Vance – The Book of Dreams
  • Mario Vargas Llosa – The War of the End of the World (La guerra del fin del mundo)
  • 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
  • Judy Blume – Tiger Eyes
  • 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)
  • 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
  • Uri Orlev – The Island on Bird Street (האי ברחוב הציפורים)
  • Ruth Park – The Muddle-Headed Wombat is Very Bad
  • Alvin Schwartz – Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
  • Maurice Sendak – Outside Over There
  • Bill Peet - Encore for Eleanor
  • Robert Westall – The Scarecrows

    • Drama

  • Samuel Beckett – Rockaby
  • Edward Bond – Restoration
  • John Krizanc – Tamara
  • Larry Shue – The Nerd
  • Barney Simon – Woza Albert!
  • Botho Strauß – Kalldewey, Farce
  • Patrick Süskind – Der Kontrabaß
  • Tennessee Williams – The Notebook of Trigorin

    • 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
  • Mary Chesnut – Mary Chesnut's Civil War
  • Hugo Brandt Corstius – Opperlandse taal- & letterkunde
  • Daniel Dennett – Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology
  • Timothy Findley – Famous Last Words
  • Stephen Jay Gould – The Mismeasure of Man
  • Dumas Malone – The Sage of Monticello
  • Anne Scott-James – The Cottage Garden
  • Ian Smith – The Great Betrayal
  • Viktor Suvorov – The Liberators

    • Births

  • July 10 – Karen Russell, American novelist
  • December 10 – NoViolet Bulawayo (Elizabeth Zandile Tshele), Zimbabwe-born novelist
  • September 30 – Cecelia Ahern, Irish novelist
  • Unknown dates
  • Amy Sackville, English novelist
  • Sunjeev Sahota, English novelist

    • Deaths

  • January 9 – A. J. Cronin, Scottish novelist (born 1896)
  • 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 20 – Pedro García Cabrera, Spanish poet (born 1905)
  • March 29 – Clive Sansom, English-born Tasmanian poet and playwright (born 1910)
  • 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 30 – Gwendolyn B. Bennett, African American writer and artist (born 1902)
  • June 15 – Philip Toynbee, English novelist and journalist (born 1916)
  • September 3 – Alec Waugh, English novelist (born 1898)
  • September 12 – Eugenio Montale, Italian poet (born 1896)
  • 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

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

    • References

    1981 in literature Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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