1985 in literature

The year 1985 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * A memorial to Hugh MacDiarmid is unveiled near his home at Langholm, Scotland.

New books

 * Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire
 * Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale
 * Jean M. Auel - The Mammoth Hunters
 * Iain Banks - Walking on Glass
 * Clive Barker - The Damnation Game
 * Greg Bear - Blood Music and Eon
 * Anthony Burgess - The Kingdom of the Wicked
 * M. C. Beaton - Death of a Gossip
 * Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
 * Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Honour
 * Elizabeth Darrell - At the Going Down of the Sun
 * Don DeLillo - White Noise
 * Bret Easton Ellis - Less Than Zero
 * John Fowles - A Maggot
 * Gabriel García Márquez - Love in the Time of Cholera
 * Graham Greene - The Tenth Man
 * Imil Habibi - The Secret Life of Saeed
 * Amy Hempel - Reasons to Live
 * Frank Herbert - Chapterhouse: Dune
 * John Irving - The Cider House Rules
 * Garrison Keillor - Lake Wobegon Days
 * Stephen King - Skeleton Crew
 * Doris Lessing - The Good Terrorist
 * H. P. Lovecraft - At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels and The Dunwich Horror and Others (corrected edition)
 * Richard A. Lupoff - Lovecraft's Book
 * Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian
 * Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove
 * John D. MacDonald - The Lonely Silver Rain
 * Naguib Mahfouz - Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth
 * James A. Michener - Texas
 * Brian Moore - Black Robe
 * Bharati Mukherjee - Darkness
 * Iris Murdoch - The Good Apprentice
 * Orhan Pamuk - The White Castle
 * Robert B. Parker - Catskill Eagle
 * Caryl Phillips - The Final Passage
 * Peter Pohl - Johnny, My Friend (Janne, min vän)
 * Charles Portis - Masters of Atlantis
 * Carl Sagan - Contact
 * Sidney Sheldon - If Tomorrow Comes
 * Danielle Steel - Secrets
 * Sue Townsend - Rebuilding Coventry
 * Anne Tyler - The Accidental Tourist
 * Andrew Vachss - Flood
 * Jeanette Winterson - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
 * Roger Zelazny - Trumps of Doom

New drama

 * David Hare & Howard Brenton - Pravda
 * Wallace Shawn - Aunt Dan and Lemon
 * Sam Shepard - A Lie of the Mind
 * Neil Simon - Biloxi Blues
 * August Wilson - Fences

Poetry

 * Carol Ann Duffy - Standing Female Nude

Non-fiction

 * Roger Caron - Bingo! The Horrifying Eyewitness Account of a Prison Riot
 * Michael Denton - Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
 * Elaine Dundy - Elvis and Gladys
 * Wayne Kritsberg - The Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome
 * Tim O'Brien - The Nuclear Age
 * Priscilla Beaulieu Presley - Elvis and Me
 * David Robinson - Chaplin: His Life and Art
 * Oliver Sacks - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Deaths

 * February 6 - James Hadley Chase, novelist
 * March 15 - Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian and writer
 * April 7 - Carl Schmitt, political theorist
 * July 16 - Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel laureate
 * August 14 - Alfred Hayes, novelist and poet
 * August 30 - Taylor Caldwell, novelist
 * October 24 - László Bíró, inventor of the ballpoint pen
 * November 3 - John Michael Wallace-Hadrill, historian
 * November 25 - Geoffrey Grigson, poet and critic
 * December 7 - Robert Graves
 * date unknown
 * Hedley Bull, economist

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Claude Simon

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: no award given out this year
 * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Kevin Hart, Your Shadow; Rosemary Dobson, The Three Fates
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, Kevin Hart, Your Shadow
 * Mary Gilmore Prize: Doris Brett, The Truth about Unicorns

Canada

 * See 1985 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

 * Prix Goncourt: Yann Queffelec, Les Noces barbares
 * Prix Médicis French: Michel Braudeau, Naissance d'une passion
 * Prix Médicis International: Joseph Heller, God Knows

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm
 * Cholmondeley Award: Dannie Abse, Peter Redgrove, Brian Taylor
 * Eric Gregory Award: Graham Mort, Adam Thorpe, Pippa Little, James Harpur, Simon North, Julian May
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Robert Edric, Winter Garden
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: David Nokes, Jonathan Swift: A Hypocrite Reversed
 * Newdigate prize: Robert Twigger
 * Whitbread Best Book Award: Douglas Dunn, Elegies

United States

 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Liz Rosenberg, The Fire Music
 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, Robert Penn Warren
 * Frost Medal: Robert Penn Warren
 * Nebula Award: Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: James Lapine for book; Stephen Sondheim for music and lyrics, Sunday in the Park With George
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Alison Lurie - Foreign Affairs
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carolyn Kizer: Yin

Elsewhere

 * Premio Nadal: Pau Faner Coll - Flor de sal