1971 in literature

See also: 1970 in literature, other events of 1971, 1972 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• The Destiny Waltz by Gerda Charles wins England's first Whitbread Novel of the Year Award.

• Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner is published.

New Books

• Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner
• The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - Ernest J. Gaines
• Being There - Jerzy Kosinski
• The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
• The Betsy - Harold Robbins
• Bonecrack - Dick Francis
• The Book of Daniel - E. L. Doctorow
• Books Do Furnish a Room - Anthony Powell
• Crow - Ted Hughes
• The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth
• Death of the Fox - George Garrett
• The Drifters - James A. Michener
• The End of Summer - Rosamunde Pilcher
• The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty
• Grendel - John Gardner
• The Happy Hooker: My Own Story – Xaviera Hollander
• Honor Thy Father - Gay Talese
• In a Free State - V.S. Naipaul
• The Last Spike - Pierre Berton
• The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
• Lives of Girls and Women - Alice Munro
• The Naive and Sentimental Lover - John le Carré
• The Other - Thomas Tyron
• The Passions of the Mind - Irving Stone
• Rabbit Redux - John Updike
• St. Urbain's Horseman - Mordecai Richler
• A Scarcity of Love - Anna Kavan
• Sergeant Getulio - Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro
• A Theory of Justice - John Rawls
• The Winds of War - Herman Wouk
• The Winter of the Fisher - Cameron Langford
• Wheels - Arthur Hailey

Births

• January 7 - Helen Darville, writer
• March 10 - Ugonna Wachuku, poet, creative writer, author

Deaths

• April 10 - André Billy, French author

Awards

• Akutagawa Prize: Azuma Mineo, Okinawan Boy
• Booker Prize: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
• See 1971 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Hugo Award: Larry Niven, Ringworld
• Nebula Award: Robert Silverberg, A Time of Changes
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Betsy Bears, Summer of the Swans
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Pablo Neruda
• Prix Goncourt: Jacques Laurent, Les Bêtises
• Prix Médicis: Pascal Lainé, L'Irrévolution
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Paul Zindel, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: William S. Merwin, The Carrier of Ladders
• Viareggio Prize: Ugo Attardi, L'erede selvaggio