1980 in literature

Events

• March 6 – Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman elected to the Académie française.
• June 5
• *The Royal Shakespeare Company opens a production at the Aldwych Theatre, London, of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, adapted from Charles Dickens's novel by David Edgar.
• *Willy Russell's comedy Educating Rita opens in a Royal Shakespeare Company production with Julie Walters in the title rôle, at The Warehouse in London.
• September – A production of Shakespeare's Macbeth with Peter O'Toole in the lead opens at the Old Vic Theatre, London. It is often seen one of the disasters in theatre history.
• September 23 – The Field Day Theatre Company presents its first production, the première of Brian Friel's Translations, at the Guildhall, Derry, Northern Ireland.
• November 27 – The English playwright Harold Pinter marries the biographer and novelist Lady Antonia Fraser after divorcing the actress Vivien Merchant.
• December 8 – Mark David Chapman shoots John Lennon to death in New York City while carrying a copy of J. D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, which he claims "is my statement."
• December 19 – Guatemalan poet Alaíde Foppa is abducted and never seen again.
• unknown dates
• *Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer, tops The [New York Times Best Seller list|The New York Times Best Seller list].
• *Vasily Grossman's novel Life and Fate is published for the first time, in Switzerland.
• *The first Tibetan-language literature journal, Tibetan Literature and Art, is published by the Tibet Autonomous Region Writers Association ; it features short stories.
• *The novella "An Old Song", published anonymously in 1877 in the magazine London, is identified as Robert Louis Stevenson's first published work of fiction.

  New books

Fiction

• Douglas Adams – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
• Woody Allen – Side Effects
• V. C. Andrews – Petals on the Wind
• Jean M. Auel – The Clan of the Cave Bear
• Thomas Berger – Neighbors
• Gary Brandner – Walkers
• Anthony Burgess – Earthly Powers
• Ramsey Campbell, editor – New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
• Jack L. Chalker
• * The Return of Nathan Brazil
• * Twilight at the Well of Souls
• Bruce Chatwin – The Viceroy of Ouidah
• Mary Higgins Clark – The Cradle Will Fall
• J. M. Coetzee – Waiting for the Barbarians
• Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre – The Fifth Horseman
• Pat Conroy – The Lords of Discipline
• Basil Copper – Necropolis
• Michael Crichton – Congo
• L. Sprague de Camp
• * Conan and the Spider God
• * The Purple Pterodactyls
• Brian Daley – Han Solo and the Lost Legacy
• E. L. Doctorow – Loon Lake
• Allan W. Eckert – Song of the Wild
• Umberto Eco – The Name of the Rose
• Dennis Etchison
• * The Fog
• * The Shudder
• Ken Follett – The Key to Rebecca
• John M. Ford – Web of Angels
• Frederick Forsyth – The Devil's Alternative
• George Gipe
• * Melvin and Howard
• * Resurrection
• Donald F. Glut – The Empire Strikes Back
• Mary Jayne Gold – Crossroads Marseilles 1940
• William Golding – Rites of Passage
• Graham Greene – Dr. Fischer of Geneva
• Robert A. Heinlein – The [Number of the Beast (novel)|The Number of the Beast]
• James Herbert – The Dark
• Douglas Hill
• * Day of the Starwind
• * Deathwing Over Veynaa
• Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp – The Treasure of Tranicos
• Hammond Innes – Solomon's Seal
• P. D. James – Innocent Blood
• Stephen King – Firestarter
• Dean Koontz
• * The Funhouse
• * The Voice of the Night
• * Whispers
• Judith Krantz – Princess Daisy
• Björn Kurtén – Dance of the Tiger
• Manuel Mujica Láinez – El gran teatro
• Derek Lambert – I, Said the Spy
• John le Carré – Smiley's People
• Madeleine L'Engle – A Ring of Endless Light
• Robert Ludlum – The Bourne Identity
• Eric Van Lustbader – The Ninja
• Ngaio Marsh – Photo Finish
• Mike McQuay – Lifekeeper
• James A. Michener – The Covenant
• William F. Nolan – Logan's Search
• Cees Nooteboom – Rituals
• Robert B. Parker – Looking for Rachel Wallace
• Pepetela – Mayombe
• Ellis Peters – Monk's Hood
• Tom Phillips – A Humument: a treated Victorian novel
• Belva Plain – Random Winds
• Paulette Poujol-Oriol – Le Creuset
• Marin Preda – Cel mai iubit dintre pământeni
• Barbara Pym – Crampton Hodnet
• A. J. Quinnell – Man on Fire
• Herman Raucher – There Should Have Been Castles
• Mordecai Richler – Joshua Then and Now
• Marilynne Robinson – Housekeeping
• Sidney Sheldon – Rage of Angels
• Clifford D. Simak – The Visitors
• Julian Symons – Sweet Adelaide
• Gay Talese – Thy Neighbor's Wife
• Walter Tevis – Mockingbird
• John Kennedy Toole – A Confederacy of Dunces
• Colin Wilson – Starseekers
• Gene Wolfe – The Shadow of the Torturer
• Roger Zelazny
• * Changeling
• * ''The Last Defender of Camelot''

  Children and young people

• Richard Adams
• *The [Girl in a Swing (novel)|The Girl in a Swing]
• *The Iron Wolf and Other Stories
• Vivien Alcock – The Haunting of Cassie Palmer
• Pamela Allen – Mr Archimedes' Bath
• Lynne Reid Banks – The Indian in the Cupboard
• Jill Barklem – Brambly Hedge series:
• *Spring Story
• *Summer Story
• *Autumn Story
• *Winter Story
• Ruskin Bond – The Cherry Tree
• Matt Christopher – Wild Pitch
• Roald Dahl – The Twits
• David Mckee - Not Now, Bernard
• Thomas M. Disch – The Brave Little Toaster
• Buchi Emecheta – Titch the Cat
• Gordon Korman - Beware the Fish
• Ruth Manning-Sanders – A Book of Spooks and Spectres
• Thomas Meehan – Annie: An old-fashioned story
• Robert Munsch – The Paper Bag Princess
• Susan Musgrave
• *Gullband
• *Hag Head
• Ruth Park – Playing Beatie Bow
• Marjorie W. Sharmat – Gila Monsters Meet you at the Airport
• Mary Stewart – A Walk in Wolf Wood
• Eric Hill – Where's Spot?
• Janet and Allan Ahlberg – Funnybones
• Pam Adams – ''Mrs Honey's Hat''

  Drama

• Howard Brenton – The Romans in Britain
• Andrea Dunbar – The Arbor
• David Edgar – The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
• Ronald Harwood – The Dresser
• Ron Hutchinson – The Irish Play
• Kenneth Ross – Breaker Morant
• Willy Russell – Educating Rita
• Sam Shepard – ''True West''

  Poetry

• Valerio Magrelli – Ora serrata retinae
• ''Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse''

  Non-fiction

• Tony Benn – Arguments for Socialism
• Pierre Berton – The Invasion of Canada
• Maryanne Blacker and Pamela Clark – Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book
• David Bohm – Wholeness and the Implicate Order
• L. Sprague de Camp – The Ragged Edge of Science
• L. Sprague de Camp – The Spell of Conan
• Graham Chapman et al. – A Liar's Autobiography
• Marilyn Ferguson – The Aquarian Conspiracy
• Stanley Fish – Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities
• Julien Gracq – Reading Writing
• Graham Greene – Ways of Escape
• Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman – No One Here Gets Out Alive
• Pauline Kael – When the Lights Go Down
• János Kornai – Economics of Shortage
• Paul H. Lewis – Paraguay Under Stroessner
• Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers – Grimoire of Armadel translation from French
• Michael Medved and Harry Medved – The Golden Turkey Awards
• Tom O'Carroll – Paedophilia: The Radical Case
• Carl Sagan – Cosmos
• Anastasio Somoza Debayle and Jack Cox – Nicaragua Betrayed
• D. I. Suchianu – Nestemate cinematografice
• Ram Swarup – The Word as Revelation: Names of Gods
• Alvin Toffler – The Third Wave
• Bertram Myron Gross – Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America

  Births

• January 1 – Satya Vyas, Indian writer
• May 1 – Jacek Dehnel, Polish poet, writer and translator
• May 10 – Cristina Nemerovschi, Romanian writer
• May 27 – Majlinda Nana Rama, Albanian pedagogue, writer and researcher
• June 5 – Nestan Kvinikadze, Georgian writer, scriptwriter and journalist
• September 11 – Dawit Kebede, Ethiopian journalist and publisher
• October 29 – Louie Jon Agustin Sanchez, Philippine poet, fiction writer, critic and journalist
• November 23 – Ishmael Beah, Siera Leonean author and human rights activist

  Deaths

• January 3
• *Joy Adamson, Silesian-born conservationist and writer living in Kenya
• *George Sutherland Fraser, Scottish poet and critic
• January 11 – Barbara Pym, English novelist
• January 21 – Irene Rathbone, English novelist
• February 25 – Caradog Prichard, Welsh poet and novelist in Welsh
• March 12 – Eugeniu Ștefănescu-Est, Romanian poet, novelist and cartoonist
• March 17 – P. M. Hubbard, English crime writer
• March 25 – James Wright, American poet
• March 26 – Roland Barthes, French literary theorist
• March 27 – Idris Jamma', Sudanese poet
• April 6 – John Collier, English-born American short story writer
• April 15 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, novelist and dramatist
• April 24 – Alejo Carpentier, French Cuban novelist and writer
• May 7 – Margaret Cole, English political writer, biographer and activist
• May 16 – Marin Preda, Romanian novelist
• June 7
• * Salvator Gotta, Italian writer
• * Henry Miller, American novelist
• June 20 – Amy Key Clarke, English mystical poet
• June 27 – Carey McWilliams, American author, editor and lawyer
• July 1 – C. P. Snow, English novelist and scientist
• July 6 – Mart Raud, Estonian poet, playwright and writer
• July 9 – Vinicius de Moraes, Brazilian poet and songwriter
• July 17 – Traian Herseni, Romanian social scientist and journalist
• July 23 – Olivia Manning, English novelist and poet
• July 26 – Kenneth Tynan, English-born theater critic
• August 8 – David Mercer, English dramatist
• August 10 – Gareth Evans, British philosopher
• September 18 – Katherine Anne Porter, American novelist and essayist
• September 19 – Jacky Gillott, English novelist
• October 26 – Sam Cree, Northern Irish playwright
• November 9 – Patrick Campbell, Irish journalist and wit
• December 2 – Romain Gary, French novelist
• December 8 – John Lennon, English musician, songwriter and author
• December 12 – Ben Travers, English playwright, screenwriter and novelist
• December 14 – Nichita Smochină, Transnistrian Romanian ethnographer and journalist
• December 21
• * Marc Connelly, American playwright
• * Nelson Rodrigues, Brazilian playwright, journalist and novelist
• December 27 – Todhunter Ballard, American genre novelist
• December 31 – Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher

  Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Czesław Miłosz

  Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Inaugural award to Archie Weller, The Day Of The Dog; the award is initially given to Paul Radley, who, in 1996, admits that his manuscript was actually written by his uncle.
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: David Campbell, Man in the Honeysuckle
• Miles Franklin Award: Jessica Anderson, ''The Impersonators''

  Canada

• See 1980 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

  France

• Prix Goncourt: Yves Navarre, Le Jardin d'acclimatation
• Prix Médicis French: Jean-Luc Benoziglio, Cabinet-portrait who refused the prize, thus it was given to Jean Lahougue's Comptine des Height
• Prix Médicis International: Andre Brink, ''Une saison blanche et sèche''

  United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: William Golding, Rites of Passage
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Peter Dickinson, City of Gold
• Cholmondeley Award: George Barker, Terence Tiller, Roy Fuller
• Eric Gregory Award: Robert Minhinnick, Michael Hulse, Blake Morrison, Medbh McGuckian
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Robert B. Martin, Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Tennyson]: The Unquiet Heart
• Whitbread Best Book Award: David Lodge, ''How Far Can You Go?''

  United States

• American [Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medals#Drama|American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama]: Edward Albee
• Caldecott Medal: Barbara Cooney, Ox-Cart Man
• Dos Passos Prize: Graham Greene
• Nebula Award: Gregory Benford, Timescape
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Joan Blos, A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Lanford Wilson, Talley's Folly
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Norman Mailer, The Executioner's Song
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Donald Justice, ''Selected Poems''

  Elsewhere

• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Ernesto Cardenal
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise
• Premio Cervantes : Juan Carlos Onetti
• Premio Nadal: Juan Ramón Zaragoza, ''Concerto grosso''