1979 in literature

See also: 1978 in literature, other events of 1979, 1980 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Sophie's Choice by William Styron is published.
• A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul is published.

New Books

• A Bend in the River - V. S. Naipaul
• Beyond Reason - Margaret Trudeau
• Collected Poems - Kingsley Amis
• The Dead Zone - Stephen King
• The Executioner's Song - Norman Mailer
• The Fight for Manod - Raymond Williams
• Ghost Story - Peter Straub
• The Ghost Writer - Philip Roth
• Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut
• Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer
• Kindred - Octavia Butler
• The Last Enchantment - Howard Fast
• Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There - Philip P. Hallie
• Lion of Ireland: The Legend of Brian Boru - Morgan Llywelyn
• The Matarese Circle - Robert Ludlum
• Memories of Another Day - Harold Robbins
• Montmartre - Philippe Jullian
• Overload - Arthur Hailey
• The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge - Jean-François Lyotard
• The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
• Smiley's People - John le Carré
• Sophie's Choice - William Styron
• The Tree - John Fowles
• White House Years - Henry Kissinger
• Year of the French - Thomas Flanagan

Births

Deaths

Awards

• Booker Prize: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore
• See 1979 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Nebula Award: Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game
• Odysseus Elytis won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1979.
• Prix Goncourt: Antonine Maillet, Pélagie la Charette
• Prix Médicis French: Claude Durand, La Nuit zoologique
• Prix Médicis International:
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Sam Shepard, Buried Child
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: John Cheever - The Stories of John Cheever
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Penn Warren: Now and Then
• Viareggio Prize: Giorgio Manganelli, Centuria