1976 in literature

Events

• June 21 – The Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, is opened as a multiracial venue by Barney Simon.
• September 3 – Novelist Antonio di Benedetto is released from prison after 18 months of imprisonment and torture under the National Reorganization Process in Argentina.
• September 9 – The Royal Shakespeare Company starts a noted production of Shakespeare's Macbeth at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, England, with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench in the leading roles, directed by Trevor Nunn.
• October 25 – The Royal National Theatre on London's South Bank opens in premises designed by Sir Denys Lasdun, with a performance of Goldoni's 18th-century comedy Il Campiello.
• unknown dates
• *Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers is established in new premises at Nanterre.
• *Mary Ronnie became the world's first female national librarian, at the National Library of New Zealand.

New books

Fiction

• Brian Aldiss – The Malacia Tapestry
• Kingsley Amis – The Alteration
• Isaac Asimov – The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories
• Margaret Atwood – Lady Oracle
• Elliott Baker – Klynt's Law
• Nina Bawden – Afternoon of a Good Woman
• Martin Bax – The Hospital Ship.
• Ann Beattie – Chilly Scenes of Winter
• Peter Benchley – The Deep
• Jack M. Bickham – Twister
• Michael Bishop – And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees
• John Blackburn – The Face of the Lion
• Lady Caroline Blackwood – The Stepdaughter
• Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac – La lèpre
• Ben Bova
• * City of Darkness
• * The Multiple Man
• Ray Bradbury – Long After Midnight
• Marion Zimmer Bradley
• * Drums of Darkness
• * The Shattered Chain
• John Braine – Waiting for Sheila
• William F. Buckley – Saving the Queen
• Eleanor Alice Burford
• * The Passionate Enemies
• * The Plantagenet Prelude
• * The Pride of the Peacock
• * Saraband for Two Sisters
• Anthony Burgess – Beard's Roman Women
• Taylor Caldwell – Ceremony of the Innocent
• Ramsey Campbell – The Height of the Scream
• Rosemary Carter
• * Forests of the Dragon
• * Man of the Wild
• Jack L. Chalker – A Jungle of Stars
• Vera Chapman – The King's Damosel
• James Hadley Chase – Do Me a Favour, Drop Dead
• C. J. Cherryh
• * Brothers of Earth
• * Gate of Ivrel
• Agatha Christie – Sleeping Murder
• Arthur C. Clarke – The Best of Arthur C. Clarke 1937 – 1955
• Jon Cleary – A Sound of Lightning
• Theodore R. Cogswell – Spock, Messiah!
• Michael Collins – The Blood-Red Dream
• Catherine Cookson
• * The Slow Awakening
• * The Tide of Life
• Michael Crichton – Eaters of the Dead
• Clive Cussler – Raise the Titanic!
• Lionel Davidson – The Sun Chemist
• Dorothy Salisbury Davis – A Death in the Life
• Len Deighton – Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy
• Samuel R. Delany – Triton
• Colin Dexter – Last Seen Wearing
• Philip K. Dick – Deus Irae
• Peter Dickinson – King and Joker
• Gordon R. Dickson – The Dragon and the George
• Jane Donnelly
• * Dark Pursuer
• * The Intruder
• * The Silver Cage
• Rosalyn Drexler
• * Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway
• * Rocky
• Michel Droit – La Mort du connétable
• Allen Drury – A God Against the Gods
• Lois Duncan – Summer of Fear
• Allan W. Eckert – The HAB Theory
• Clive Egleton – State Visit
• Charles Einstein – The Blackjack Hijack
• Buchi Emecheta – The Bride Price
• Marian Engel – Bear
• Paul Erdman – The Crash of '79
• John Farris – The Fury
• Dick Francis – In the Frame
• Brian Freemantle – The November Man
• Alan Dean Foster – Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker
• Paula Fox – The Widow's Children
• Dick Francis – In the Frame
• Christopher Frank – The Dream of the Mad Monkey
• Morton Freedgood – The Talisman
• John Gardner
• * Moriarty
• * To Run a Little Faster
• Brian Garfield – Gundown
• Hugh Garner – The Intruders
• Romain Gary – Hocus Bogus
• Noel Gerson
• * Neptune
• * Special Agent
• William Goldman – Magic
• Richard Gordon – Doctor on the Job
• Winston Graham – The Four Swans
• Gerald Green – The Hostage Heart
• Peter Van Greenaway – Suffer! Little Children
• Sam Greenlee – Baghdad Blues
• Judith Guest – Ordinary People
• Joe Haldeman – Mindbridge
• Alex Haley – Roots: The Saga of an American Family
• Donald Hamilton – The Retaliators
• Harry Harrison – Skyfall
• Sterling Hayden – Voyage: A Novel of 1896
• Marcy Heidish – A Woman Called Moses
• Frank Herbert – Children of Dune
• James Herbert – The Survivor
• James Herriot – Vets Might Fly
• George V. Higgins – The Judgment of Deke Hunter
• Jack Higgins – Storm Warning
• Reginald Hill – Another Death in Venice
• Helen Hodgman – Blue Skies
• Robert Holdstock
• * Eye Among the Blind
• * The Graveyard Cross
• * Magic Man
• * On the Inside
• * The Time Beyond Age
• * Travellers
• Cecelia Holland
• * Floating Worlds
• Velda Johnston
• * Deveron Hall
• * The Frenchman
• Gayl Jones – Eva's Man
• Thomas Keneally – Season in Purgatory
• Warren Kiefer – The Pontius Pilate Papers
• Dean Koontz
• * Prison of Ice
• * Night Chills
• William Kotzwinkle – Doctor Rat
• Michael Kurland – Tomorrow Knight
• Derek Lambert – Blackstone Underground
• Louis L'Amour
• * The Rider of Lost Creek
• * To the Far Blue Mountains
• * Where the Long Grass Blows
• Ursula K. Le Guin – Orsinian Tales
• Elsie Lee
• * The Nabob's Widow
• * Roommates
• John Lee – The Ninth Man
• Tanith Lee – Don't Bite the Sun
• Stanisław Lem – The Chain of Chance
• Elmore Leonard – Swag
• Rhoda Lerman – The Girl That He Marries
• Ira Levin – The Boys from Brazil
• Roger Longrigg – The Babe in the Wood
• Robert Ludlum – The Gemini Contenders
• Richard A. Lupoff
• * The Crack in the Sky
• * Lisa Kane
• * Sandworld
• * The Triune Man
• Ross Macdonald – The Blue Hammer
• Alistair MacLean – The Golden Gate
• George R. R. Martin – A Song for Lya
• Eugene McCabe – Victims: A Tale from Fermanagh
• Helen McCloy – The Changeling Conspiracy
• Barbara Mertz
• * Legend in Green Velvet
• * Patriot's Dream
• Nicholas Meyer – The West End Horror
• James Mills – The Seventh Power
• Thomas F. Monteleone – The Time Connection
• Robin Moore
• * Dubai
• * The Establishment
• * Hotel Tomayne
• * The Kaufman Snatch
• * The Pearl Harbor Cover-Up
• * The Season
• * The Terminal Connection
• * Valency Girl
• Michael Moorcock
• * The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the 20th Century
• * The End of All Songs
• * Moorcock's Book of Martyrs
• * The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
• * The Time of the Hawklords
• Ryū Murakami – Almost Transparent Blue
• Fănuș Neagu – Frumoșii nebuni ai marilor orașe
• Christopher Nicole
• * Dark Passage
• * Mistress of Darkness
• * Guillotine
• * Tricolour
• Larry Niven
• * The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton
• * A World Out of Time
• Frederick Nolan – The Mittenwald Syndicate
• Andrew J. Offutt
• * Beautiful Bitch
• * Chieftain of Andor
• * Disciplined!
• * The Erogenous Zone
• * Succulent Line-Up
• * Serena, Darling
• * The Submission of Claudine
• * Triple Play!
• * The Undying Wizard
• Timothy Powers – The Skies Discrowned
• Terry Pratchett – The Dark Side of the Sun
• Richard Price – Bloodbrothers
• Christopher Priest – The Space Machine
• Bill Pronzini
• * Freebooty
• * Games
• * The Running of Beasts
• Manuel Puig – Kiss of the Spider Woman
• Simon Raven – The Survivors
• Piers Paul Read – Polonaise
• Ishmael Reed – Flight to Canada
• Douglas Reeman
• * Passage to Mutiny
• * Surface with Daring
• Ruth Rendell
• * A Demon in My View
• * The Fallen Curtain
• Anne Rice – Interview with the Vampire
• Harold Robbins – The Lonely Lady
• Tom Robbins – Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
• Rosemary Rogers – Wicked Loving Lies
• William Rotsler – Futureworld
• Lawrence Sanders
• * The Tangent Factor
• * The Tangent Objective
• Pamela Sargent – Cloned Lives
• Elizabeth Savage – The Girls from the Five Great Valleys
• Hubert Selby Jr. – The Demon
• David Seltzer – The Omen
• Tom Sharpe – Wilt
• Bob Shaw
• * Cosmic Kaleidoscope
• * A Wreath of Stars
• Sidney Sheldon – A Stranger in the Mirror
• Anne Rivers Siddons – Heartbreak Hotel
• Alan Sillitoe – The Widower's Son
• Robert Silverberg – Shadrach in the Furnace
• Clifford D. Simak – Shakespeare's Planet
• George Frederick Sims – The End of the Web
• Upton Sinclair – The Coal War
• Carolyn Slaughter – The Story of the Weasel
• Guy N. Smith
• * The Ghoul
• * Night of the Crabs
• * Return of the Werewolf
• Wilbur Smith – Cry Wolf
• Jerry Sohl
• * Blow-Dry
• * I, Aleppo
• Muriel Spark – The Takeover
• Judith St. George – The Secret in the Old House
• Brian Stableford
• * The Face of Heaven
• * The Florians
• * The Mind-Riders
• Christina Stead – Miss Herbert (The Suburban Wife)
• John Steinbeck – The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
• Fred Mustard Stewart – Six Weeks
• Mary Stewart – Touch Not the Cat
• David Storey – Saville
• Jacqueline Susann – Dolores
• Rosemary Sutcliff – Blood Feud
• Douglas Sutherland – Strike!
• Bernard Taylor – The Godsend
• Elizabeth Taylor – Blaming
• Mildred D. Taylor – Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
• Emma Tennant – Hotel de Dream
• Paul Theroux – The Family Arsenal
• Craig Thomas – Rat Trap
• Arthur Tofte – The Day the Earth Stood Still
• Glen Tomasetti – Thoroughly Decent People: An Australian Folktale
• Elleston Trevor – The Kobra Manifesto
• William Trevor – The Children of Dynmouth
• Leon Uris – Trinity
• Jack Vance – Maske: Thaery
• Gore Vidal – 1876
• Kurt Vonnegut – Slapstick
• Frank Waldman – The Pink Panther Strikes Again
• Alice Walker – Meridian
• Irving Wallace – The R Document
• Ian Watson – Orgasmachine
• Alec Waugh – Married to a Spy
• Angus Wells
• * The Burning Man
• * Death Wears Grey
• * The Golden Dead
• * The Land of Mist
• * The Return of a Man Called Horse
• * Vengeance Hunt
• Morris West – The Navigator
• Donald E. Westlake – Dancing Aztecs
• Lionel White – Jailbreak
• Patrick White – A Fringe of Leaves
• Christopher Wood
• * The Further Adventures of Barry Lyndon by Himself
• * Seven Nights in Japan
• Richard Woodley – The Bad News Bears
• Colin Wilson – The Space Vampires
• Gene Wolfe – The Devil in a Forest
• Roger Zelazny
• * Bridge of Ashes
• * Doorways in the Sand
• * The Hand of Oberon
• * ''My Name Is Legion''

Children and young people

• Raymond Abrashkin – Danny Dunn Scientific Detective
• Richard Adams – The Tyger Voyage
• Lynne Reid Banks
• * The Adventures of King Midas
• * The Farthest-Away Mountain
• Marc Brown – Arthur's Nose
• Mary Virginia Carey – The Mystery of Death Trap Mine
• Betty Cavanna – Mystery of the Emerald Buddha
• Michael Collins – The Mystery of the Dancing Devil
• Helen Cresswell – The Winter of the Birds
• Vic Crume – The Shaggy D.A.
• Peter Dickinson – The Blue Hawk
• Jack Gantos – Rotten Ralph
• Roger Hargreaves
• * Mr. Bounce
• * Mr. Chatterbox
• * Mr. Dizzy
• * Mr. Impossible
• * Mr. Jelly
• * Mr. Funny
• * Mr. Fussy
• * Mr. Lazy
• * Mr. Mean
• * Mr. Muddle
• * Mr. Noisy
• Janet Quin-Harkin – Peter Penny's Dance
• Marguerite Henry – A Pictorial Life Story of Misty
• Diana Wynne Jones – Power of Three
• Judith Kerr – Mog's Christmas
• Alexander Key – Jagger, the Dog from Elsewhere
• E. L. Konigsburg – Father's Arcane Daughter
• Richard Peck – Are You in the House Alone?
• Florence Engel Randall – A Watcher in the Woods
• William Rawls – Summer of the Monkeys
• Maurice Sendak – Some Swell Pup or Are You Sure You Want a Dog?
• William Steig
• * Abel's Island
• * The Amazing Bone
• Dr. Seuss
• * The Cat's Quizzer
• * Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him!
• Ruth Plumly Thompson – The Enchanted Island of Oz
• Eve Titus – Basil in Mexico
• Gertrude Chandler Warner – Benny Uncovers a Mystery
• Robert Westall – The Wind Eye
• Paul Zindel – ''Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball!''

Drama

• Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Mugo – The Trial of Dedan Kimathi
• Neil Simon – ''California Suite''

Non-fiction

• Bruce Bahrenburg – The Creation of Dino De Laurentiis' King Kong
• James Herbert Brennan – An Occult History of the World
• Lothar-Günther Buchheim – U-Boot-Krieg
• Richard Dawkins – The Selfish Gene
• Leonard Gribble
• * Famous Mysteries of Detection
• * Famous Mysteries of Modern Times
• Tony Hillerman – The Spell of New Mexico
• Christopher Keane – The Hunter
• Arthur Koestler – The Thirteenth Tribe
• Ron Kovic – Born on the Fourth of July
• Daniel P. Mannix – We Who Are Not as Others
• James A. Michener – Sports in America
• Arthur Ransome – The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome
• Teddy Stauffer – Forever is a Hell of a Long Time: An Autobiography
• William Stevenson – A Man Called Intrepid
• Bob Woodward – ''The Final Days''

Births

• August 29 - Mieko Kawakami, Japanese novelist and poet
• October 31 – Seth Abramson, American journalist and poet
• unknown dates
• *Bora Chung, Korean short story writer and novelist

Deaths

• January 12 – Agatha Christie, English crime writer
• January 25 – Victor Ehrenberg, German historian
• February 2 – Barbara Euphan Todd, English children's writer
• February 12 – John Lewis, Welsh philosopher
• March 5 – Charles Lederer, American screenwriter and film director
• March 7 – Tove Ditlevsen, Danish poet and fiction writer
• March 13 – Sergiu Dan, Romanian novelist and journalist
• April 2 – Taos Amrouche, Algerian novelist
• April 28 – Richard Hughes, British novelist
• May 7 – Alison Uttley, English writer of children's books
• July 3 – Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Austrian poet, dramatist and fiction writer
• July 15 – Paul Gallico, American novelist, short story and sports writer
• August 9 – José Lezama Lima, Cuban writer and poet
• August 29 – Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bengali poet
• September 10 – Dalton Trumbo, American novelist and screenwriter
• October 30 – Barbu Solacolu, Romanian poet, translator and economist
• November 4 – Robert Speaight, English actor, biographer and essayist
• November 6 – Patrick Dennis, American novelist
• November 23 – André Malraux, French novelist
• December 21 – Munro Leaf, American children's author
• December 22 – Martín Luis Guzmán, Mexican novelist and journalist
• December 26 – Yashpal, Hindi novelist
• December 29 – G. B. Edwards, Guernsey-born writer

Awards

• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Max Frisch