1971 in literature

The year 1971 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

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

New books

 * Hiroshi Aramata - Teito Monogatari
 * Denys Val Baker - The Face in the Mirror
 * William Peter Blatty - The Exorcist
 * Richard Brautigan - Revenge of the Lawn
 * Albert Camus - A Happy Death (La Mort heureuse)
 * John Dickson Carr - Deadly Hall
 * Agatha Christie
 * Nemesis
 * The Golden Ball and Other Stories
 * Brian Cleeve - Cry of Morning
 * Gwen Davis - Touching
 * L. Sprague de Camp - The Clocks of Iraz
 * L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter - Conan the Buccaneer
 * Walter de la Mare - Eight Tales
 * August Derleth, editor - Dark Things
 * E. L. Doctorow - The Book of Daniel
 * Frederick Forsyth - The Day of the Jackal
 * Dick Francis - Bonecrack
 * Ernest J. Gaines - The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
 * George Garrett - Death of the Fox
 * John Gardner - Grendel
 * William Golding - The Scorpion God
 * Arthur Hailey - Wheels
 * Anna Kavan - A Scarcity of Love
 * Thomas Keneally - The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
 * Jerzy Kosinski - Being There
 * John le Carré - The Naive and Sentimental Lover
 * Ursula K. Le Guin - The Lathe of Heaven
 * Stanisław Lem - Dzienniki gwiazdowe (The Star Diaries)
 * Brian Lumley - The Caller of the Black
 * John D. MacDonald - A Tan and Sandy Silence
 * Antonine Maillet - La Sagouine
 * Ruth Manning-Sanders - A Choice of Magic
 * James A. Michener - The Drifters
 * Nicholas Mosley - Natalie Natalia
 * Alice Munro - Lives of Girls and Women
 * V. S. Naipaul - In a Free State
 * William F. Nolan - Space for Hire
 * Rosamunde Pilcher - The End of Summer
 * Anthony Powell - Books Do Furnish a Room
 * Terry Pratchett - The Carpet People
 * John Rawls - A Theory of Justice
 * Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro - Sergeant Getulio
 * Mordecai Richler - St. Urbain's Horseman
 * Harold Robbins - The Betsy
 * Leonardo Sciascia - Il contesto
 * Hubert Selby Jr. - The Room
 * Tom Sharpe - Riotous Assembly
 * Alexander Solzhenitsyn - August 1914
 * Wallace Stegner - Angle of Repose
 * Irving Stone - The Passions of the Mind
 * Gay Talese - Honor Thy Father
 * Tom Tryon - The Other
 * John Updike - Rabbit Redux
 * Herman Wouk - The Winds of War
 * Roger Zelazny
 * The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories
 * Jack of Shadows

New drama

 * Peter Handke - Der Ritt über den Bodensee ("The Ride Across Lake Constance")
 * John Mortimer - A Voyage Round My Father

Poetry

 * Maya Angelou - Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie
 * Donald S. Fryer - Songs and Sonnets Atlantean
 * Ted Hughes - Crow
 * Alan Llwyd - Y March Hud ("The Magic Horse")
 * Clark Ashton Smith - Selected Poems

Non-fiction

 * Pierre Berton – The Last Spike
 * Robert Coles
 * Migrants, Sharecroppers, Mountaineers, vol 2 of Children of Crisis – Pulitzer Prize, 1973
 * The South Goes North, vol 3 of Children of Crisis – Pulitzer Prize, 1973
 * Brian J. Ford – Nonscience
 * Robert Foster – The Complete Guide to Middle-earth
 * Joan Garrity – The Sensuous Woman
 * Graham Greene - A Sort of Life
 * Xaviera Hollander – The Happy Hooker: My Own Story
 * H.P. Lovecraft – Selected Letters III (1929–1931)
 * Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel – Hess: A Biography
 * Alison Plowden - Young Elizabeth
 * B.F. Skinner – Beyond Freedom and Dignity
 * Pierre Vallières – White Niggers of America (translation)
 * Carlos Castaneda - A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan

Births

 * January 16 - Helen Darville, writer
 * February 3 - Sarah Kane, playwright (d. 1999)
 * March 10 - Ugonna Wachuku, poet, creative writer, author
 * March 29 - José Luis Rodríguez Pittí, Panamanian writer, photographer
 * May 28 - Richard Gunn, journalist and motoring writer
 * July 17 - Cory Doctorow, science fiction writer
 * July 22 - Akhil Sharma, novelist
 * December 19 - Tristan Egolf, novelist (d. 2005)

Deaths

 * March 5 - Allan Nevins, journalist
 * March 7 - Stevie Smith, poet
 * April 10 - André Billy, French author
 * May 19 - Ogden Nash, poet and humorist
 * May 20 - Waldo Williams, Welsh language poet
 * June 1 - Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian
 * June 4 - Georg Lukács, philosopher and critic
 * June 6 - Edward Andrade, poet and physicist
 * July 4 - August Derleth, anthologist
 * July 7 - Claude Gauvreau, poet and dramatist
 * August 30 - Peter Fleming, travel writer and brother of Ian Fleming
 * October 25 - Philip Gordon Wylie, novelist
 * November 10 - Walter Van Tilburg Clark, novelist (The Ox-Bow Incident)
 * December 22 - Godfried Bomans, Dutch writer
 * December 25 - S. Foster Damon, critic and poet
 * date unknown
 * Clifford Dyment, poet
 * St. John Greer Ervine, dramatist
 * Jacques Lusseyran, blind author

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Pablo Neruda

Canada

 * See 1971 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

 * Prix Goncourt: Jacques Laurent, Les Bêtises
 * Prix Médicis: Pascal Lainé, L'Irrévolution

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Ivan Southall, Josh
 * Cholmondeley Award: Charles Causley, Gavin Ewart, Hugo Williams
 * Eric Gregory Award: Martin Booth, Florence Bull, John Pook, D.M. Warman, John Welch
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Nadine Gordimer, A Guest of Honour
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Julia Namier, Lewis Namier
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Stephen Spender

United States

 * Frost Medal: Melville Cane
 * Hugo Award: Larry Niven, Ringworld
 * Nebula Award: Robert Silverberg, A Time of Changes
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Betsy Byars, Summer of the Swans
 * 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

Elsewhere

 * Akutagawa Prize: Azuma Mineo, Okinawan Boy
 * Premio Nadal: José María Requena, El cuajarón
 * Viareggio Prize: Ugo Attardi, L'erede selvaggio