1980 in literature

The year 1980 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman to be elected to the Académie française.
 * Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer (published 1979), reaches #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
 * September - Performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth with Peter O'Toole in the lead opens at the Old Vic Theatre, London, often considered one of the greatest disasters in theatre history.

New books

 * Douglas Adams - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
 * Richard Adams
 * The Girl in a Swing
 * The Iron Wolf and Other Stories
 * Warren Adler - The War of the Roses
 * Woody Allen - Side Effects
 * Jean M. Auel - The Clan of the Cave Bear
 * 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
 * Roald Dahl - The Twits
 * L. Sprague de Camp
 * Conan and the Spider God
 * The Purple Pterodactyls
 * Thomas M. Disch - The Brave Little Toaster
 * E. L. Doctorow - In Loon Lake
 * Allan W. Eckert - Song of the Wild
 * Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
 * Ken Follett - The Key to Rebecca
 * Frederick Forsyth - The Devil's Alternative
 * Mary Jayne Gold - Crossroads Marseilles 1940
 * William Golding - Rites of Passage
 * Douglas Hill - Deathwing Over Veynaa
 * Douglas Hill - Day of the Starwind
 * Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp - The Treasure of Tranicos
 * L. Ron Hubbard - Battlefield Earth
 * P. D. James - Innocent Blood
 * Stephen King - Firestarter
 * Judith Krantz - Princess Daisy
 * Björn Kurtén - Dance of the Tiger
 * John le Carré - Smiley's People
 * Madeleine L'Engle - A Ring of Endless Light
 * Robert Ludlum - The Bourne Identity
 * Ruth Manning-Sanders - A Book of Spooks and Spectres
 * James A. Michener - The Covenant
 * Robert B. Parker - Looking for Rachel Wallace
 * Belva Plain - Random Winds
 * Marin Preda - Cel mai iubit dintre pământeni (The Most Beloved of Earthlings)
 * Herman Raucher - There Should Have Been Castles
 * Mordecai Richler - Joshua Then and Now
 * Marilynne Robinson - Housekeeping
 * Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children
 * Sidney Sheldon - Rage of Angels
 * Gay Talese - Thy Neighbor's Wife
 * Walter Tevis - "Mockingbird"
 * John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
 * Gene Wolfe - The Shadow of the Torturer
 * Roger Zelazny
 * Changeling
 * The Last Defender of Camelot

New drama

 * Howard Brenton - The Romans in Britain
 * Kenneth Ross - Breaker Morant
 * Willy Russell - Educating Rita
 * Sam Shepard - True West

Poetry

 * Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse

Non-fiction

 * Pierre Berton - The Invasion of Canada
 * Graham Chapman et al. - A Liar's Autobiography
 * L. Sprague de Camp - The Ragged Edge of Science
 * L. Sprague de Camp, editor - The Spell of Conan
 * Graham Greene - Ways of Escape
 * Jerry Hopkins & Danny Sugerman - No One Here Gets Out Alive
 * Michael Medved & Harry Medved - The Golden Turkey Awards
 * Carl Sagan - Cosmos
 * Alvin Toffler - The Third Wave

Deaths

 * January 3 - Joy Adamson, conservationist and author of Born Free (killed by a servant in northern Kenya)
 * January 3 - G. S. Fraser, poet and critic
 * January 11 - Barbara Pym, novelist
 * March 25 - James Wright, poet
 * April 15 - Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher, novelist and dramatist
 * June 7 - Henry Miller, writer
 * July 1 - C. P. Snow, novelist
 * July 9 - Vinicius de Moraes, poet and songwriter
 * July 26 - Kenneth Tynan, influential theatre critic
 * September 18 - Katherine Anne Porter, novelist and essayist
 * November 9 - Patrick Campbell, journalist and wit
 * November 22 - Mae West, actress and dramatist
 * December 2 - Romain Gary, writer
 * December 8 - John Lennon, musician, author
 * December 12 - Ben Travers, dramatist
 * December 31 - Marshall McLuhan (author)
 * date unknown - Gareth Evans, philosopher
 * date unknown - Caradog Prichard, Welsh-language poet and novelist

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Czesław Miłosz

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Inaugural award to Archie Weller, The Day Of The Dog, after the award was initially given to Paul Radley, who was disqualified after admitting his manuscript was actually written by his uncle.
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: David Campbell, Man in the Honeysuckle

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