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."
 * unknown dates
 * Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer (published 1979), tops The New York Times Best Seller list.
 * Vasily Grossman's novel Life and Fate ("Жизнь и судьба", completed 1959) 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 (TARWA); 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.

Fiction

 * Douglas Adams – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
 * Warren Adler – The War of the Roses
 * Woody Allen – Side Effects
 * V. C. Andrews – Petals on the Wind
 * Jean M. Auel – The Clan of the Cave Bear
 * Thomas Berger – Neighbors
 * Anthony Burgess – Earthly Powers
 * Ramsey Campbell, editor – New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
 * 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
 * L. Sprague de Camp
 * Conan and the Spider God
 * The Purple Pterodactyls
 * E. L. Doctorow – Loon Lake
 * Allan W. Eckert – Song of the Wild
 * Umberto Eco – The Name of the Rose (Il Nome della Rosa)
 * Ken Follett – The Key to Rebecca
 * Frederick Forsyth – The Devil's Alternative
 * Mary Jayne Gold – Crossroads Marseilles 1940
 * William Golding – Rites of Passage
 * Graham Greene – Dr. Fischer of Geneva
 * 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
 * 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
 * Ngaio Marsh – Photo Finish
 * James A. Michener – The Covenant
 * 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 (1st trade edition)
 * Belva Plain – Random Winds
 * Paulette Poujol-Oriol – Le Creuset (The Crucible)
 * Marin Preda – Cel mai iubit dintre pământeni (The Most Beloved of Earthlings)
 * Barbara Pym (died 1980) – Crampton Hodnet (written 1940)
 * Herman Raucher – There Should Have Been Castles
 * Mordecai Richler – Joshua Then and Now
 * Marilynne Robinson – Housekeeping
 * Sidney Sheldon – Rage of Angels
 * Julian Symons – Sweet Adelaide
 * Gay Talese – Thy Neighbor's Wife
 * Walter Tevis – Mockingbird
 * John Kennedy Toole (suicide 1969) – A Confederacy of Dunces
 * 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
 * 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
 * Thomas M. Disch – The Brave Little Toaster
 * Buchi Emecheta – Titch the Cat
 * 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 (adaptation) – 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 (as editor) – 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 (Hiány)
 * Paul H. Lewis – Paraguay Under Stroessner
 * Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers – Grimoire of Armadel translation from French (posthumous)
 * 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 (Cinematic Pearls)
 * 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 (Hindi language) 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 (murdered, born 1910)
 * George Sutherland Fraser, Scottish poet and critic (born 1915)
 * January 11 – Barbara Pym, English novelist (cancer, born 1913)
 * January 21 – Irene Rathbone, English novelist (born 1892)
 * February 25 – Caradog Prichard, Welsh poet and novelist in Welsh (born 1904)
 * March 12 – Eugeniu Ștefănescu-Est, Romanian poet, novelist and cartoonist (born 1881)
 * March 17 – P. M. Hubbard, English crime writer (born 1910)
 * March 25 – James Wright, American poet (born 1927)
 * March 26 – Roland Barthes, French literary theorist (born 1915)
 * March 27 – Idris Jamma', Sudanese poet (died 1980)
 * April 6 – John Collier, English-born American short story writer (born 1901)
 * April 15 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, novelist and dramatist (born 1905)
 * April 24 – Alejo Carpentier, French Cuban novelist and writer (cancer, born 1904)
 * May 7 – Margaret Cole, English political writer, biographer and activist (born 1893)
 * May 16 – Marin Preda, Romanian novelist (asphyxiation, born 1922)
 * June 7
 * Salvator Gotta, Italian writer (born 1887)
 * Henry Miller, American novelist (born 1891)
 * June 20 – Amy Key Clarke, English mystical poet (born 1892)
 * June 27 – Carey McWilliams, American author, editor and lawyer (born 1905)
 * July 1 – C. P. Snow, English novelist and scientist (born 1905)
 * July 6 – Mart Raud, Estonian poet, playwright and writer (born 1903)
 * July 9 – Vinicius de Moraes, Brazilian poet and songwriter (born 1913)
 * July 17 – Traian Herseni, Romanian social scientist and journalist (born 1907)
 * July 23 – Olivia Manning, English novelist and poet (born 1908)
 * July 26 – Kenneth Tynan, English-born theater critic (pulmonary emphysema, born 1927)
 * August 8 – David Mercer, English dramatist (born 1928)
 * August 10 – Gareth Evans, British philosopher (lung cancer, born 1946)
 * September 18 – Katherine Anne Porter, American novelist and essayist (born 1890)
 * September 19 – Jacky Gillott, English novelist (suicide, born 1939)
 * October 26 – Sam Cree, Northern Irish playwright (born 1928)
 * November 9 – Patrick Campbell, Irish journalist and wit (born 1913)
 * December 2 – Romain Gary (Roman Kacew), French novelist (suicide, born 1914)
 * December 8 – John Lennon, English musician, songwriter and author (murdered, born 1940)
 * December 12 – Ben Travers, English playwright, screenwriter and novelist (born 1886)
 * December 14 – Nichita Smochină, Transnistrian Romanian ethnographer and journalist (born 1894)
 * December 21
 * Marc Connelly, American playwright (born 1890)
 * Nelson Rodrigues, Brazilian playwright, journalist and novelist (born 1912)
 * December 27 – Todhunter Ballard, American genre novelist (born 1903)
 * December 31 – Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher (born 1911)

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: The Unquiet Heart
 * Whitbread Best Book Award: David Lodge, How Far Can You Go?

United States

 * 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

 * Hugo Award for Best Novel: Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise
 * Premio Cervantes : Juan Carlos Onetti
 * Premio Nadal: Juan Ramón Zaragoza, Concerto grosso