1933 in literature

• Tawfiq al-Hakim – Ahl el-Kahf
• Jean Anouilh – Mandarine
• Anthony Armstrong
• * Ten Minute Alibi
• * Without Witness
• Clifford Bax – The Rose Without a Thorn
• Ferdinand Bruckner – Die Rassen
• Gordon Daviot – Richard of Bordeaux
• Selli Engler – Heil Hitler
• Walter Hackett – Afterwards
• Ian Hay – A Present from Margate
• Hanns Johst – Schlageter
• Sidney Kingsley – Men in White
• Samuil Lehtțir – Biruința
• Federico García Lorca – Blood Wedding
• W. Somerset Maugham – Sheppey
• R. J. Minney – Clive of India
• Ivor Novello – Fresh Fields
• Eugene O'Neill – Ah, Wilderness!
• J. B. Priestley – Laburnum Grove
• Lennox Robinson – Drama at Inish
• Mordaunt Shairp – The Green Bay Tree
• John Van Druten – The Distaff Side
• Maxim Ziese – Siebenstein

Poetry

• Edwin James Brady – Wardens of the Seas
• Benjamin Fondane – Ulysse
• Mascha Kaléko – Das Lyrische Stenogrammheft: Verse vom Alltag
• Osip Mandelstam – "Stalin Epigram"
• Vita Sackville-West – Collected Poems
• Filip Shiroka – Zâni i zêmrës
• J. Slauerhoff – Soleares
• W. B. Yeats – ''The Winding Stair and Other Poems''

Non-fiction

• Vera Brittain – Testament of Youth
• Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud – Warum Krieg?
• Benjamin Fondane – Rimbaud le voyou
• Ionel Gherea – Le Moi el le monde. Essai d'une cosmogonie anthropomorphique
• Carl Jung – Modern Man in Search of a Soul
• Agnes Mure Mackenzie – An Historical Survey of Scottish Literature to 1714
• George Orwell – Down and Out in Paris and London
• Wilhelm Reich – The Mass Psychology of Fascism
• Upton Sinclair – Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox
• Muiris Ó Súilleabháin – Fiche Bliain ag Fás
• Jun'ichirō Tanizaki – ''In Praise of Shadows''

Births

• January 1 – Joe Orton, English playwright
• January 2 – Seiichi Morimura, Japanese author
• January 4 – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, American children's and adult novelist
• January 9 – Wilbur Smith, South African historical novelist
• January 13 – Shahnon Ahmad, Malaysian writer and politician
• January 16 – Susan Sontag, American novelist
• January 25 – Alden Nowlan, Canadian poet and novelist
• February 1 – Reynolds Price, American novelist and literary scholar
• February 5 – B. S. Johnson, English novelist
• February 12 – Costa-Gavras, Greek-French film director and writer
• February 20 – Zamenga Batukezanga, Congolese francophone writer and philanthropist
• February 22 – Christopher Ondaatje, Ceylonese-born English travel writer, biographer and philanthropist
• February 27 – Edward Lucie-Smith, Jamaican-born English writer, critic and broadcaster
• March 17 – Penelope Lively, Egyptian-born English novelist
• March 18 – Sergio Pitol, Mexican fiction writer, translator and diplomat
• March 19 – Philip Roth, American novelist
• April 2 – György Konrád, Hungarian novelist, essayist, political dissident and President of PEN International
• April 7 – Cong Weixi, Chinese author
• April 14 – Boris Strugatsky, Russian sci-fi writer
• April 24 – Patricia Bosworth, American writer/biographer
• May 9 – Jessica Steele, English romance novelist
• May 10 – Barbara Taylor Bradford, English-born American novelist
• May 12 – Stephen Vizinczey, Hungarian-born writer
• May 22 – Arnold Lobel, American children's writer and illustrator
• May 29
• * Abdul Rahman Munif, Arab writer
• * Edward Whittemore, American novelist
• June 9 – Vicente Leñero, Mexican novelist and playwright
• June 11 – Martti Soosaar, Estonian journalist and author
• June 20 – Claire Tomalin, English journalist and biographer
• June 25 – James Meredith, African-American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser and Air Force veteran
• June 30 – Mauricio Rosencof, Uruguayan playwright, poet and journalist
• July 2 – John Antrobus, English playwright and scriptwriter
• July 4 – David Littman, English historian
• July 10 – Kevin Gilbert, Australian writer and artist
• July 13 – David Storey, English novelist and playwright
• July 14 – Solange Fasquelle, French novelist
• July 15 – M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Indian novelist
• July 20 – Cormac McCarthy, American novelist, playwright and screenwriter
• July 21
• *John Gardner, American novelist
• *Brigitte Reimann, German novelist
• August 1 – Ko Un, South Korean poet
• August 2 – Michel del Castillo, Spanish-born French writer
• August 7 – Jerry Pournelle, American science fiction writer
• August 13 – Madhur Jaffrey, Indian actress and food writer
• August 16 – Tom Maschler, Austrian-born English literary publisher
• September 8 – Michael Frayn, English playwright and novelist
• September 9 – Michael Novak, American philosopher and author
• September 19 – Gilles Archambault, French Canadian novelist
• September 27 – Paul Goble, English-American author and illustrator
• October 11 – David Daniels, American visual poet
• October 21 – Maureen Duffy, English poet, playwright, author and activist
• October 24 – Norman Rush, American writer
• November 1
• * Viačasłaŭ Adamčyk, Belarusian journalist, writer, playwright and screenwriter
• * Huub Oosterhuis, Dutch poet, theologian and liturgy reformer
• * Samir Roychoudhury, Indian Bengali poet and philosopher
• November 5 – Ilie Purcaru, Romanian journalist and poet
• November 13 – Peter Härtling, German novelist and poet
• November 23 – Daniel Chavarría, Uruguayan writer and translator
• December 2 – Kent Andersson, Swedish dramatist
• December 22 – Jim Barnes, Native American poet and translator
• December 31 – Edward Bunker, American crime novelist

Deaths

• January 5 – J. M. Robertson, British Liberal Party politician, writer and journalist, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade
• January 11 – Hugo Zöller, German explorer and journalist
• January 21 – George Moore, Irish poet and novelist
• January 29 – Sara Teasdale, American poet
• January 31 – John Galsworthy, English novelist and dramatist
• February 20 – Takiji Kobayashi, Japanese writer
• April 5 – Earl Derr Biggers, American novelist and playwright
• April 19 – E. W. Hobson, English writer on mathematics
• April 24 – Janet Milne Rae, Scottish novelist
• April 29 – Constantine Cavafy, Greek Alexandrine poet
• April 30 – Anna de Noailles, French writer
• May 2 – Leonard Huxley, British writer
• May 16 – John Henry Mackay, Scottish-born German anarchist writer and philosopher
• May 26 – Horatio Bottomley, English journalist and fraudster
• June 7 – Dragutin Domjanić, Croatian poet
• June 27 – Jennie M. Bingham, American author
• July 8 – Anthony Hope, English adventure novelist
• August 12 – Alexandru Philippide, Romanian linguist and polemicist
• September 20 – Annie Besant, English Theosophist writer
• September 22 – György Almásy, Hungarian travel writer
• September 25
• *Ring Lardner, American writer
• *Pascal Poirier, Canadian historian
• September 28 – G. R. S. Mead, British writer
• October 30 – Herminie Templeton Kavanagh, Anglo-Irish-American short story writer
• November 12 – F. Holland Day, American publisher
• November 20 – Augustine Birrell, English politician and author
• November 28 – Minnie Earl Sears, American librarian
• November 30 – Annie Armitt, English novelist and poet
• December 4 – Stefan George, German poet and translator
• December 16 – Robert W. Chambers, American writer
• December 27 – Georgina Castle Smith, English children's writer

Awards

• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: A. G. Macdonell, England, Their England
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Violet Clifton, The Book of Talbot
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth Foreman Lewis, Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
• Nobel Prize in Literature: Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Maxwell Anderson, Both Your Houses
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Archibald MacLeish, Conquistador
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: T. S. Stribling, ''The Store''