1965 in literature

The year 1965 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * The first ever Nebula Award is won by Frank Herbert's Dune.

New books

 * Lloyd Alexander - The Black Cauldron
 * J. G. Ballard - The Drought
 * Ray Bradbury - The Vintage Bradbury
 * John Brunner
 * The Martian Sphinx as Keith Woodcott
 * The Squares of the City
 * Kenneth Bulmer - Land Beyond the Map
 * Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan and the Castaways
 * John Dickson Carr - The House at Satan's Elbow
 * Agatha Christie - At Bertram's Hotel
 * L. Sprague de Camp
 * The Arrows of Hercules
 * The Spell of Seven (ed.)
 * August Derleth - The Casebook of Solar Pons
 * Margaret Drabble - The Millstone
 * Ian Fleming - The Man with the Golden Gun
 * Margaret Forster - Georgy Girl
 * Witold Gombrowicz - Kosmos
 * Graham Greene - The Comedians
 * Frank Herbert - Dune
 * Arthur Hailey - Hotel
 * Bel Kaufman - Up the Down Staircase
 * Pierre Klossowski - Le Baphomet
 * Jerzy Kosinski - The Painted Bird
 * John le Carré - The Looking-Glass War
 * J. M. G. Le Clézio - Le Livre des fuites
 * David Lodge - The British Museum Is Falling Down
 * H. P. Lovecraft - Dagon and Other Macabre Tales
 * Norman Mailer - An American Dream
 * Eric Malpass - Morning's at Seven
 * Ruth Manning-Sanders - A Book of Dragons
 * James A. Michener - The Source
 * Iris Murdoch - The Red and the Green
 * Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (also known as James Ngigi) - The River Between
 * Peter O'Donnell - Modesty Blaise
 * Raymond Queneau - Les fleurs bleues
 * Françoise Sagan - La chamade
 * Vincent Starrett - The Quick and the Dead
 * Irving Stone - Those Who Love
 * Rex Stout - The Doorbell Rang
 * Jack Vance - Space Opera
 * Erico Verissimo - O Senhor Embaixador
 * Kurt Vonnegut - God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
 * Donald Wandrei - Strange Harvest
 * John D. MacDonald - A Deadly Shade of Gold

New drama

 * Samuel Beckett - Come and Go
 * Edward Bond - Saved
 * John Osborne - A Patriot for Me
 * Michel Tremblay - Les Belles-Sœurs

Poetry

 * Stanley McNail - Something Breathing
 * Sylvia Plath - Ariel
 * Clark Ashton Smith - Poems in Prose

Non-fiction

 * Truman Capote - In Cold Blood
 * Nirad C. Chaudhuri - The Continent of Circe
 * Allen G. Debus - The English Paracelsians.
 * Acheson, Dean - Morning and Noon
 * Barney Glaser & Anselm Strauss - Awareness of Dying
 * William Golding - The Hot Gates
 * Alex Haley & Malcolm X - The Autobiography of Malcolm X
 * H. P. Lovecraft - Selected Letters I (1911–1924)
 * Robin Moore - The Green Berets

Births

 * March 4 - Andrew Collins, journalist and scriptwriter
 * March 30 - Piers Morgan, controversial journalist and editor
 * July 31 - Joanne Rowling, author
 * October 23 - Augusten Burroughs, memoirist
 * December 31 - Nicholas Sparks, novelist
 * date unknown
 * Patience Agbabi, performance poet
 * Thomas Brussig, novelist

Deaths

 * January 4 - T. S. Eliot, American/British poet
 * January 12 - Lorraine Hansberry, writer
 * March 13 - Fan S. Noli, Albanian bishop and poet (b. 1882)
 * May 3 - Howard Spring, novelist
 * June 5 - Thornton Burgess, children's author
 * July 9 - Jacques Audiberti, Absurdist dramatist, poet and novelist
 * July 28 - Rampo Edogawa, Japanese author and critic (b. 1894)
 * July 30 - Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Japanese writer (b. 1886)
 * July 31 - John Metcalfe, novelist and short story writer
 * August 17 - Jack Spicer, poet
 * October 8 - Thomas B. Costain, popular historian
 * October 15 - Randall Jarrell, poet
 * October 30 - Arthur Schlesinger, Sr., American historian (b. 1888)
 * November 8 - Dorothy Kilgallen, journalist
 * November 20 - Katharine Anthony, biographer
 * December 16 - William Somerset Maugham, dramatist, novelist and short story writer

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for literature - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov

Canada

 * See 1965 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

 * Prix Goncourt: J. Borel, L'Adoration
 * Prix Médicis: René-Victor Pilhes, La Rhubarbe

United Kingdom

 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Philip Turner, The Grange at High Force
 * Eric Gregory Award: John Fuller, Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, Norman Talbot
 * Newdigate prize: Peter Jay
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Mary Moorman, William Wordsworth: The Later Years 1803-1850
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Philip Larkin

United States

 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Criticism: Walter Lippmann
 * Hugo Award: Fritz Leiber, The Wanderer
 * Nebula Award: Frank Herbert, Dune
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Maia Wojciechowska, Shadow of a Bull
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Frank D. Gilroy, The Subject Was Roses
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Shirley Ann Grau - The Keepers Of The House
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: John Berryman: 77 Dream Songs

Elsewhere

 * Premio Nadal: E. Cabalero Calderón, El buen salvaje
 * Viareggio Prize: Goffredo Parise, Il Padrone (The Boss)