1980 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1980.
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
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''