1981 in literature
See also: 1980 in literature, other events of 1981, 1982 in literature, list of years in literature.
Events
- February 24 - Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower, the author of the bestselling The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet
New Books
- Hotel New Hampshire - John Irving
- La Bicyclette Bleue (The Blue Bicycle) - Régine Deforges
- Nobel House - James Clavell
- Cujo - Stephen King
- An Indecent Obsession - Colleen McCullough
- Gorky Park - Martin Cruz Smith
- Masquerade - Kit Williams
- The Third Deadly Sin - Lawrence Sanders
- Goodbye, Janette - Harold Robbins
- The Glitter Dome - Joseph Wambaugh
- No Time for Tears - Cynthia Freeman
Births
Deaths
- January 6 - A.J. Cronin, writer
Awards
- Elias Canetti won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Schuyler: The Morning of the Poem