1978 in literature

The year 1978 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, a humorous award given annually to books with unusual titles is created. The first winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.

New books

 * Alan Dean Foster - Splinter of the Mind's Eye
 * John L. Parker - Once a Runner
 * Kingsley Amis - Jake's Thing
 * Richard Bach - Illusions
 * Beryl Bainbridge - Young Adolf
 * William Peter Blatty - The Ninth Configuration
 * Judy Blume - Wifey
 * Charles Bukowski - Women
 * Anthony Burgess - 1985
 * Taylor Caldwell - Bright Flows The River
 * Chantal Chawaf - Rougeâtre
 * John Cheever - The Stories of John Cheever
 * C.J. Cherryh - Well of Shiuan
 * Brian Cleeve - Judith
 * Mary Elizabeth Counselman - Half in Shadow
 * L. Sprague de Camp
 * The Best of L. Sprague de Camp
 * The Great Fetish
 * L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg - Conan the Swordsman
 * Samuel R. Delany - Empire: A Visual Novel
 * Don DeLillo - Running Dog
 * Nelson DeMille - By the Rivers of Babylon
 * Phyllis Eisenstein - Born to Exile
 * J. G. Farrell - The Singapore Grip
 * Howard Fast - Second Generation
 * Ken Follett - Eye of the Needle
 * Ernest J. Gaines - In My Father's House
 * Günter Grass - Die Flunder - (The Flounder)
 * Graham Greene - The Human Factor
 * Donald Hamilton - The Silencers
 * Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You
 * James Herbert - The Spear
 * William Hjortsberg - Falling Angel
 * John Irving - The World According to Garp
 * Marshall Jevons - Murder at the Margin
 * James Jones - Whistle
 * Ismail Kadare - Ura Me Tri Harqe (The Three-Arched Bridge)
 * M. M. Kaye - The Far Pavilions
 * Stephen King - The Stand
 * Stephen King - Night Shift (collection of short stories, including Children of the Corn)
 * Christopher Koch - The Year of Living Dangerously
 * Larry Kramer - Faggots
 * Judith Krantz - Scruples
 * Ursula K. Le Guin - The Eye of the Heron
 * Madeleine L'Engle - A Swiftly Tilting Planet
 * Robert Ludlum - The Holcroft Covenant
 * John D. MacDonald - The Empty Copper Sea
 * Ian MacClennan - Billy Bobby
 * David Malouf - An Imaginary Life
 * Richard Matheson - What Dreams May Come
 * Ian McEwan - The Cement Garden
 * James A. Michener - Chesapeake
 * Alice Munro - Beggar Maid
 * Larry Niven - The Magic Goes Away
 * Tim O'Brien - Going After Cacciato
 * Andrew J. Offutt - Conan and the Sorcerer
 * Robert B. Parker - The Judas Goat
 * Elizabeth Peters - Street of the Five Moons
 * William Luther Pierce - The Turner Diaries
 * Belva Plain - Evergreen
 * Mario Puzo - Fools Die
 * Mary Renault - The Praise Singer
 * Ruth Rendell - A Sleeping Life
 * Hubert Selby Jr. - Requiem for a Dream
 * Whitley Strieber - The Wolfen
 * Thomas Sullivan - Diapason
 * Rosemary Sutcliff - Song for a Dark Queen
 * John Updike - The Coup
 * Philip Van Rensselaer - That Vanderbilt Woman
 * Gore Vidal - Kalki
 * William Wharton - Birdy
 * Herman Wouk - War and Remembrance
 * Richard Yates -A Good School
 * Frank Yerby - Hail the Conquering Hero
 * Roger Zelazny - The Courts of Chaos

New drama

 * David Hare - Plenty
 * Ira Levin - Deathtrap
 * Mary O'Malley - Once a Catholic

Poetry

 * Robert Minhinnick - A Thread in the Maze
 * John Tripp - Collected Poems

Non-fiction

 * Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg - Tabu Homosexualität
 * Roger Caron - Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars
 * Lord David Cecil - A Portrait of Jane Austen
 * Charlotte Chandler - Hello, I Must Be Going!
 * Christina Crawford - Mommie Dearest
 * Gerald Durrell - The Garden of the Gods
 * John Gall - Systemantics
 * H. R. Haldeman - The Ends of Power
 * Mollie Katzen - Moosewood Cookbook
 * Richard Nixon - The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
 * David Rorvik - In his Image: The Cloning of a Man

Births

 * June 26 - Eric Shapiro, novelist
 * July 23 - Lauren Groff, author
 * date unknown
 * David Llewellyn, screenwriter
 * Rachel Trezise, novelist and short story writer

Deaths

 * January 12 - Robert Harbin, author of many books on origami
 * March 1 - Paul Scott, Raj Quartet author
 * March 24 - Leigh Brackett, science fiction writer
 * April 14 - F. R. Leavis, literary critic
 * May 1 - Sylvia Townsend Warner, poet and novelist
 * May 12 - Louis Zukofsky, modernist poet
 * September 15 - Edmund Crispin, crime writer
 * September 28 - Pope John Paul I, author of Illustrissimi under his real name of Albino Luciani
 * November 15 - Margaret Mead, anthropologist and author
 * date unknown - Walter C. Alvarez, medical author

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Isaac Bashevis Singer
 * Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year is first awarded. The winner is Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.

Canada

 * See 1978 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

 * Prix Goncourt: Patrick Modiano, Rue des boutiques obscures
 * Prix Médicis French: Georges Perec, La vie mode d'emploi
 * Prix Médicis International: Aleksandr Zinovyev, L’Avenir radieux - Russia

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: David Rees, The Exeter Blitz
 * Cholmondeley Award: Christopher Hope, Leslie Norris, Peter Reading, D.M. Thomas, R.S. Thomas
 * Eric Gregory Award: Ciarán Carson, Peter Denman, Christopher Reid, Paul Wilkins, Martyn A. Ford, James Sutherland-Smith
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Maurice Gee, Plumb
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Robert Gittings, The Older Hardy

United States

 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction, Peter Taylor
 * Nebula Award: Vonda McIntyre, Dreamsnake
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Donald L. Coburn, The Gin Game
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: James Alan McPherson, Elbow Room
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Howard Nemerov, Collected Poems

Elsewhere

 * Premio Nadal: Germán Sánchez Espeso, Narciso
 * Viareggio Prize: Antonio Altomonte, Dopo il presidente