# 1983 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1983.

## Events

* April – The Russian samizdat poet Irina Ratushinskaya is sentenced to imprisonment in a labor camp for dissident activity. While there she continues to write poetry clandestinely.
* June 2 – The Francophone Senegalese poet and politician Léopold Sédar Senghor becomes the first black African writer elected as a member of the Académie française.
* July – Barbara Cartland, who reaches the age of 82, writes 23 romantic novels this year.
* November – Bruce Bethke's short story "Cyberpunk", written in 1980, is published in Amazing Stories magazine in the United States, giving a name to the science fiction subgenre of cyberpunk.
* unknown date – Salvage for the Saint by Peter Bloxsom and John Kruse is published, as the final book in a series of novels, novellas and short stories featuring the Leslie Charteris creation "The Saint", which started in 1928. (An attempt to revive the series in 1997 is unsuccessful.)

## New books
### Fiction

* Nelson Algren (posthumous) – The Devil's Stocking
* Isaac Asimov – The Robots of Dawn
* Greg Bear – The Wind from a Burning Woman
* Samuel Beckett – Worstward Ho
* Thomas Bernhard – The Loser (Der Untergeher)
* Jorge Luis Borges – Shakespeare's Memory (La memoria de Shakespeare, short stories)
* Marion Zimmer Bradley – The Mists of Avalon
* Morley Callaghan – A Time for Judas
* Raymond Carver – Cathedral
* J. M. Coetzee – Life and Times of Michael K
* Jackie Collins – Hollywood Wives
* Basil Copper – The House of the Wolf
* Bernard Cornwell
** Sharpe's Sword
** Sharpe's Enemy
* Bernard and Judy Cornwell (as Susannah Kells) – A Crowning Glory
* György Dalos – 1985
* L. Sprague de Camp
** The Reluctant King
** The Unbeheaded King
* Jim Dodge – Fup
* Stephen R. Donaldson – White Gold Wielder: Book Three of The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
* Nora Ephron – Heartburn
* Ken Follett – On Wings of Eagles
* Ernest J. Gaines – A Gathering of Old Men
* John Gardner – Icebreaker
* Mark Helprin – Winter's Tale
* Susan Hill – The Woman in Black
* Elizabeth Jolley – Woman in a Lamp Shade
* Ernst Jünger – Aladdin's Problem
* William Kennedy – Ironweed
* Stephen King
** Christine
** Pet Sematary
* Dean R. Koontz – Phantoms
* Louis L'Amour – The Lonesome Gods
* Derek Lambert – The Judas Code
* John le Carré – The Little Drummer Girl
* Mary Mackey – The Last Warrior Queen
* Norman Mailer – Ancient Evenings
* James A. Michener – Poland
* R. K. Narayan – A Tiger for Malgudi
* Robert B. Parker – The Widening Gyre
* Ellis Peters
** The Sanctuary Sparrow
** The Devil's Novice
* Tim Powers – The Anubis Gates
* Terry Pratchett – The Colour of Magic
* Salman Rushdie – Shame
* Joanna Russ – The Zanzibar Cat
* Danielle Steel – Changes
* Peter Straub – Floating Dragon
* Walter Tevis – The Queen's Gambit
* Gore Vidal – Duluth
* Evangeline Walton – The Sword Is Forged
* Fay Weldon – The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
* A. N. Wilson – Scandal
* Robert Anton Wilson – Prometheus Rising
* Christa Wolf – Cassandra (Kassandra)
* Roger Zelazny – Unicorn Variations (stories and essays)

### Children and young people

* Chris Van Allsburg – The Wreck of the Zephyr
* Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (with Willi Glasauer) – Beauty and the Beast
* Roald Dahl – The Witches
* Lynley Dodd – Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy (first of the Hairy Maclary and Friends series)
* Mem Fox – Possum Magic
* Dick King-Smith – The Sheep-Pig (also as Babe, the Gallant Pig)
* Harold Lamb (with George Barr and Alicia Austin) - The Sea of the Ravens
* Jean Giono (with Willi Glasauer) – The Man Who Planted Trees
* Julian F. Thompson - The Grounding of Group 6

### Drama

* Samuel Beckett – Nacht und Träume (television play, first broadcast)
* Ray Cooney – Run for Your Wife
* David Mamet – Glengarry Glen Ross
* Tom Murphy – The Gigli Concert
* Christina Reid – Tea in a China Cup
* Larry Shue – The Foreigner
* Neil Simon – Brighton Beach Memoirs
* Botho Strauß – The Park (Der Park)

### Poetry

* Paul Durcan – Jumping the Train Tracks with Angela
* Grace Nichols – I is a long-memoried woman

### Non-fiction

* Benedict Anderson – Imagined Communities
* Pascal Bruckner – The Tears of the White Man
* L. Sprague de Camp – The Fringe of the Unknown
* L. Sprague de Camp, Catherine Crook de Camp and Jane Whittington Griffin – Dark Valley Destiny
* Tom Dardis – Harold Lloyd: The Man on the Clock
* Joan Didion – Salvador
* Terry Eagleton – Literary Theory: An Introduction
* Anthony Grey – The Prime Minister Was a Spy
* Susan Oliver – Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey
* Renée Richards – Second Serve: The Renée Richards Story
* Colin Thubron – Among the Russians
* A. N. Wilson – The Life of John Milton: A Biography

## Births

* November 17 – Christopher Paolini, American fantasy novelist
* December 6 – Jason Reynolds, African American children's novelist and poet
* unknown date – Sarah Howe, Hong Kong-born poet writing in English

## Deaths

* January 5 – Chapman Grant, American historian and publisher (born 1887)
* January 18 – Colin Watson, English crime fiction writer (born 1920)
* February 14 – Brita von Horn, Swedish theater director, dramatist and novelist (born 1886)
* February 18 – Robert Payne, English author, poet and biographer (born 1911)
* February 25 – Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams III), American playwright (born 1911)
* March 3 – Hergé (Georges Prosper Remi), Belgian comics creator (born 1907)
* March 15 – Dame Rebecca West, British writer (born 1892)
* April 12 – Desmond Bagley, English novelist (complications from stroke, born 1923))
* May 4 – Shūji Terayama (寺山 修司), Japanese poet, dramatist, and film director (cirrhosis, born 1935)
* May 21 – Amal Abul-Qassem Donqol, Egyptian poet (born 1940)
* May 26 – Jack Hilton, British writer (born 1900)
* June 19 – Vilmundur Gylfason, Icelandic historian, poet and politician (suicide, born 1948)
* June 27 – Alden Nowlan, Canadian poet, novelist and playwright (born 1933)
* July 27 – Gladys Mitchell, English crime fiction writer (born 1901)
* August 12 – Mikey Smith, Jamaican dub poet (stoned to death; born 1954)
* August 18 – Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, German-born British art historian (born 1902)
* September 15 – Beverley Nichols, English writer and playwright (born 1898)
* September 16 – Roy Andries De Groot, English-born American food writer (born 1910)
* November 30 – Richard Llewellyn, British novelist (heart attack, born 1906)
* December 5 – John Robinson, English religious writer and bishop (born 1919)
* December 13 – Mary Renault, British novelist (born 1905)
* December 27 – Wilson Starbuck, American playwright and author (born 1897)

## Awards

* Nobel Prize for Literature: William Golding

### Australia

* The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Jenny Summerville, Shields Of Trell
* Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Vivian Smith, Tide Country
* Miles Franklin Award: No award presented

### Canada

* See 1983 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

### France

* Prix Goncourt: Frédérick Tristan, Les Égarés
* Prix Médicis French: Jean Echenoz, Cherokee
* Prix Médicis International: Kenneth White, La Route bleue

### Spain

* Miguel de Cervantes Prize: Rafael Alberti

### United Kingdom

* Booker Prize: J. M. Coetzee -Life and Times of Michael K
* Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Jan Mark, Handles
* Cholmondeley Award: John Fuller, Craig Raine, Anthony Thwaite
* Eric Gregory Award: Martin Stokes, Hilary Davies, Michael O'Neill, Lisa St Aubin De Teran, Deidre Shanahan
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Jonathan Keates, Allegro Postillions
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Alan Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years
* Newdigate prize: Peter McDonald
* Whitbread Best Book Award: John Fuller, Flying to Nowhere

### United States

* Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Kate Daniels, The White Wave
* Nebula Award: David Brin, Startide Rising
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Cynthia Voigt, Dicey's Song
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Marsha Norman, 'Night, Mother
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Alice Walker – The Color Purple
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Galway Kinnell – Selected Poems
* Pulitzer Prize for History: The Transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790 by Rhys Isaac
* Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction: Is There No Place on Earth for Me? by Susan Sheehan

### Elsewhere

* Hugo Award for Best Novel: Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov
* Premio Nadal: Salvador García Aguilar, Regocijo en el hombre