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

*John L. Parker - "Once a Runner"
*Kingsley Amis - "Jake's Thing"
*Martin Amis - "Success"
*Richard Bach - "Illusions"
*Beryl Bainbridge - "Young Adolf"
*Anthony Burgess - "1985"
*Taylor Caldwell - "Bright Flows The River"
*Chantal Chawaf - "Rougeâtre"
*John Cheever - "The Stories of John Cheever"
*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 - ""
*Don DeLillo - "Running Dogs"
*Phyllis Eisenstein - "Born to Exile"
*Howard Fast - "Second Generation"
*Ken Follett - "Eye of the Needle"
*Ernest J. Gaines - "In My Father's House"
*Günter Grass - "Die Flunder" - ("The Flounder")
*Harry Harrison - "The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You"
*John Irving - "The World According to Garp"
*Marshall Jevons - "Murder at the Margin"
*Ismail Kadare - "Ura Me Tri Harqe" ("The Three-Arched Bridge")
*Stephen King - "The Stand"
*Stephen King - "Night Shift" (collection of short stories, most previously published elsewhere)
*Christopher Koch - "The Year of Living Dangerously"
*Judith Krantz - "Scruples"
*Madeleine L'Engle - "A Swiftly Tilting Planet"
*Robert Ludlum - "The Holcroft Covenant"
*Ian MacClennan - "Billy Bobby"
*David Malouf - "An Imaginary Life"
*James A. Michener - "Chesapeake"
*Alice Munro - "Beggar Maid"
*Tim O'Brien - "Going After Cacciato"
*Robert B. Parker - "The Judas Goat"
*Elizabeth Peters - "Street of the Five Moons"
*Belva Plain - "Evergreen"
*Mario Puzo - "Fools Die"
*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 - "Coup"
*Philip Van Rensselaer - "That Vanderbilt Woman"
*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

*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"
*John Gall - "Systemantics"
*H. R. Haldeman - "The Ends of Power"
*Mollie Katzen - "Moosewood Cookbook"
*Richard Nixon - "The Memoirs of Richard Nixon"
*David Rorvik - ""

Births

*June 26 - Eric Shapiro, novelist
*"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"
* Cholmondeley Award: Christopher Hope, Leslie Norris, Peter Reading, D.M. Thomas, R.S. Thomas
* Eric Gregory Award: Ciaran 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"