1972 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1972.

Events

 * May 22 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, dies at Lemmons, the home of novelists Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard in North London, which he has shared with his wife and son – actors Jill Balcon and Daniel Day-Lewis – and at weekends with Kingsley's writer son Martin Amis and others.
 * June 4 – The poet Joseph Brodsky is expelled from the Soviet Union.
 * October 6–7 – The new Staatstheater Darmstadt is opened.
 * October 8 – The play Sizwe Bansi is Dead has its first performance at the Space Theatre (Cape Town), South Africa, before a multiracial audience. Playwright Athol Fugard directs, with co-writers John Kani and Winston Ntshona in lead roles.
 * October 10 – Sir John Betjeman is declared Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, the first knight ever to be so.
 * "The three Marias", Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta and Maria Velho da Costa, publish in Lisbon New Portuguese Letters (Novas Cartas Portuguesas), a collection challenging the Estado Novo dictatorship, to immediate success, but banned by censors as "pornographic and an offense to public morals". Its authors are imprisoned for "abuse of freedom of the press" and "outrage to public decency". Only after the 1974 "Carnation Revolution" does their trial end with the authors pardoned and the judge assigning "outstanding literary merit" to the book.
 * unknown date – Somali Latin alphabet is introduced.

Fiction

 * Dritëro Agolli – The Rise and Fall of Comrade Zylo (Shkëlqimi dhe Rënja e Shokut Zylo, published in the magazine Hosteni)
 * Srikrishna Alanahalli – Kaadu
 * Jorge Amado – Teresa Batista Cansada da Guerra (Tereza Batista: Home from the Wars)
 * Eric Ambler – The Levanter
 * Martin Amis – The Rachel Papers
 * Isaac Asimov – The Gods Themselves
 * John Braine – The Queen of a Distant Country
 * Gerald Butler – There Is a Death, Elizabeth
 * Taylor Caldwell – Captains and the Kings
 * Italo Calvino – Invisible Cities (Le città invisibili)
 * John Dickson Carr – The Hungry Goblin: A Victorian Detective Novel
 * Angela Carter – The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
 * Agatha Christie – Elephants Can Remember
 * Brian Cleeve – Tread Softly in this Place
 * Michael Crichton – The Terminal Man
 * Robertson Davies – The Manticore
 * L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp, editors – 3000 Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction
 * R. F. Delderfield – To Serve Them All My Days
 * Margaret Drabble, B. S. Johnson and others – London Consequences
 * Frederick Forsyth – The Odessa File
 * Günter Grass – Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke (From the Diary of a Snail)
 * Graham Greene – The Honorary Consul
 * Peter Handke – A Sorrow Beyond Dreams (Wunschloses Unglück)
 * James Herriot – All Creatures Great and Small
 * Georgette Heyer – Lady of Quality
 * George V. Higgins – The Friends of Eddie Coyle
 * Witi Ihimaera – Pounamu Pounamu (short story collection)
 * P. D. James – An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
 * Dan Jenkins – Semi-Tough
 * Thomas Keneally – The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
 * Carl Jacobi – Disclosures in Scarlet
 * Derek Lambert
 * Blackstone
 * The Red House
 * Halldór Laxness – Guðsgjafaþula (Mantra of God's Gift)
 * Ira Levin – The Stepford Wives
 * Audrey Erskine Lindop – Journey Into Stone
 * Frank Belknap Long – The Rim of the Unknown
 * Robert Ludlum – The Osterman Weekend
 * David McCullough – The Great Bridge
 * John D. MacDonald – The Scarlet Ruse
 * Ngaio Marsh – Tied Up in Tinsel
 * Barry N. Malzberg – Beyond Apollo
 * Vladimir Nabokov – Transparent Things
 * Kenzaburō Ōe (大江 健三郎) – The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away (みずから我が涙をぬぐいたまう日, Mizukara Waga Namida o Nugui Tamau Hi)
 * Chaim Potok – My Name Is Asher Lev
 * Josef Škvorecký – The Miracle Game (Mirákl)
 * David Storey – Pasmore
 * Arkady and Boris Strugatsky – Roadside Picnic («Пикник на обочине», Piknik na obochine)
 * Paul Theroux – Saint Jack
 * Hunter S. Thompson – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
 * Irving Wallace – The Word

Children and young people

 * Chinua Achebe – How the Leopard Got His Claws
 * Richard Adams – Watership Down
 * E. M. Almedingen – Anna
 * Rev. W. Awdry – Tramway Engines (twenty-sixth in The Railway Series of 42 books by him and his son Christopher Awdry)
 * Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
 * Rumer Godden
 * The Diddakoi (also Gypsy Girl)
 * The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle
 * Robert E. Howard (with Alicia Austin) – Echoes from an Iron Harp
 * Tove Jansson – The Summer Book
 * Michael de Larrabeiti – The Redwater Raid
 * Ronald McCuaig – Gangles
 * James Marshall – George and Martha (first in a series of seven eponymous books)
 * Helen Nicoll (illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski) – Meg and Mog (first in series)
 * Graham Oakley – The Church Mouse (first in the Church Mice series of twelve books)
 * Bill Peet
 * The Ant and the Elephant
 * Countdown to Christmas
 * Mary Renault – The Persian Boy
 * Marjorie W. Sharmat – Nate the Great
 * Judith Viorst – Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Drama

 * Alan Ayckbourn – Absurd Person Singular
 * Samuel Beckett – Not I
 * Bill Bryden – Willie Rough
 * Caryl Churchill – Owners
 * Hanay Geiogamah – Body Indian
 * Eugène Ionesco – Macbett
 * Vijay Tendulkar
 * Ghashiram Kotwal
 * Sakharam Binder

Non-fiction

 * The American Museum of Natural History – An Introduction
 * Jacob Bronowski – The Ascent of Man
 * L. Sprague de Camp
 * Great Cities of the Ancient World
 * with Catherine Crook de Camp – Darwin and His Great Discovery'
 * Carlos Castaneda – Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan
 * Winston Graham – The Spanish Armadas
 * Bruce Joyce and Marsha Weil – Models of Teaching (first edition)
 * Michael Kammen – People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization
 * Richard Mabey – Food for Free
 * Elaine Morgan – The Descent of Woman
 * Robert Newton Peck – A Day No Pigs Would Die
 * Frances Yates – The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
 * John Howard Yoder – The Politics of Jesus

Births

 * January 1 – Maile Meloy, American novelist and short story writer
 * February 11 – Noboru Yamaguchi (山口 登), Japanese light novelist and game scenario author (died 2013)
 * March 29 - Ernest Cline, American science-fiction novelist and screenwriter
 * May 22 – Max Brooks, American horror author and screenwriter
 * May 27 – Maggie O'Farrell, Northern Ireland-born novelist
 * July 21 – Josué Guébo, Ivorian writer and academic
 * August 6 - Paolo Bacigalupi, American science-fiction and fantasy writer
 * August 18 – Adda Djørup, Danish poet and fiction writer
 * August 26 - Paula Hawkins, British novelist and journalist
 * September 6 – China Miéville, English science fiction novelist
 * September 19
 * Cheryl B (Cheryl Burke), American poet and spoken word artist
 * N. K. Jemisin, American science fiction and fantasy writer
 * November 4 – Yiyun Li (李翊雲), Chinese American writer of fiction in English
 * November 26 - James Dashner, American writer of speculative fiction
 * December 20 – Gen Urobuchi, Japanese novelist and screenwriter
 * unknown dates
 * Shimon Adaf, Israeli poet and novelist
 * Zinnie Harris, British dramatist
 * Rabee Jaber, Lebanese novelist
 * Charlotte Mendelson, English novelist
 * Marente de Moor, Dutch novelist and columnist
 * Ben Rice, English novelist
 * Fran Wilde, American science fiction novelist

Deaths

 * January 1 – Eberhard Wolfgang Möller, German playwright and poet (born 1906)
 * January 7 – John Berryman, American poet (suicide; born 1914)
 * January 8 – Kenneth Patchen, American poet and author (born 1911)
 * January 17 – Betty Smith, American novelist (born 1896)
 * February 2 – Natalie Clifford Barney, American writer and patron (born 1876)
 * February 15 – Edgar Snow, American political writer (cancer, born 1905)
 * March 4 – Richard Church, English poet and novelist (born 1893
 * March 9 – Violet Trefusis, English writer (born 1894)
 * March 11 – Fredric Brown, American genre novelist (born 1906
 * March 14 – Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Italian publisher (born 1926)
 * April 10 – Laurence Manning, Canadian science fiction author (born 1899)
 * April 16 – Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成), Japanese fiction writer, Nobel laureate (born 1899)
 * May 22 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish-born Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and (as Nicholas Blake) novelist (born 1904)
 * May 28 – Violette Leduc, French novelist and memoirist (born 1907)
 * June 24 – R. F. Delderfield, English novelist and playwright (born 1912)
 * August 2 – Helen Hoyt (Helen Lyman), American poet (born 1887)
 * August 9 – Ernst von Salomon, German writer (born 1902)
 * August 17 – Alexander Vampilov, Russian dramatist (drowned fishing, born 1937)
 * August 22 – Ernestine Hill, Australian travel writer (born 1899)
 * September 21 – Henry de Montherlant, French novelist, dramatist and essayist (suicide, born 1895)
 * September 27 – S. R. Ranganathan, Indian mathematician and librarian (born 1892)
 * October 5 – Ivan Yefremov, Soviet paleontologist and science fiction author (born 1908)
 * November 1 – Ezra Pound, American poet (born 1885)
 * November 12 – José Nucete Sardi, Venezuelan historian and diplomat (born 1897)
 * November 29 – Victor Bridges (Victor George de Freyne), English genre novelist, playwright and poet (born 1878)
 * December 10 – Mark Van Doren, American poet, writer and critic (born 1894)
 * December 13 – L. P. Hartley, English novelist (born 1895)
 * December 23 – Abraham Joshua Heschel, Polish-born American theologian and rabbi (born 1907)
 * unknown dates
 * Wasif Jawhariyyeh, Palestinian Arab diarist, poet and composer (born 1897)
 * Donar Munteanu, Romanian poet and magistrate (born 1886)

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Heinrich Böll

Canada

 * See 1972 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

 * Prix Goncourt: Jean Carrière, L'Epervier de Maheux
 * Prix Médicis French: Maurice Clavel, Le Tiers des étoiles

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: John Berger, G.
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Richard Adams, Watership Down
 * Cholmondeley Award: Molly Holden, Tom Raworth, Patricia Whittaker
 * Eric Gregory Award: Tony Curtis, Richard Berengarten, Brian Oxley, Andrew Greig, Robin Lee, Paul Muldoon
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: John Berger, G
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf

United States

 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for the novel, Eudora Welty
 * Hugo Award: Philip José Farmer, To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971)
 * National Book Award: Flannery O'Connor, The Complete Stories
 * Nebula Award: Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Robert C. O'Brien, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Not awarded
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Wallace Stegner – Angle of Repose
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Wright, Collected Poems

Elsewhere

 * Miles Franklin Award: Thea Astley, The Acolyte
 * Premio Nadal: José María Carrascal, Groovy
 * Viareggio Prize: Romano Bilenchi, Il bottone di Stalingrado