1982 in literature

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The year 1982 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• La Bicyclette Bleue (The Blue Bicycle) by Régine Deforges becomes France's best selling novel ever.

New prose fiction

• Isabel Allende - La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits)
• Isaac Asimov - Foundation's Edge
• Jean M. Auel - The Valley of Horses
• Lynne Reid Banks - The Indian in the Cupboard
• Michael Bishop - Blooded on Arachne
• William Boyd - An Ice-Cream War
• Arthur C. Clarke - 2010: Odyssey Two
• Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Company
• Aileen Crawley - The Bride of Suleiman
• Roald Dahl - The BFG
• L. Sprague de Camp - The Virgin of Zesh & The Tower of Zanid
• L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter - Conan the Barbarian
• August Derleth - The Solar Pons Omnibus
• Marguerite Duras - The Malady of Death
• Ken Follett - The Man from St. Petersburg
• Max Frisch - Bluebeard
• John Gardner - For Special Services
• Graham Greene - Monsignor Quixote
• Gwenyth Hood - The Coming of the Demons
• Kazuo Ishiguro - A Pale View of Hills
• John Jakes - North and South
• Thomas Keneally - Schindler's Ark
• David Kesterton - The Darkling
• Stephen King - Different Seasons, Pet Sematary and The Running Man
• W.P. Kinsella - Shoeless Joe
• Judith Krantz - Mistral's Daughter
• Morgan Llywelyn - The Horse Goddess
• Robert Ludlum - The Parsifal Mosaic
• Colleen McCullough - An Indecent Obsession
• Russell McCormmach - Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist
• George R. R. Martin - Fevre Dream
• James Merrill - The Changing Light at Sandover
• James A. Michener - Space
• Timothy Mo - Sour Sweet
• Harry Mulisch - The Assault
• Chris Mullin - A Very British Coup
• Sidney Sheldon - Master of the Game
• Elizabeth Smart - The Assumption of the Rogues and Rascals
• Danielle Steel - Crossings
• Alice Walker - The Color Purple
• Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice - Water Witch
• Gene Wolfe - The Citadel of the Autarch
• Roger Zelazny - Eye of Cat and Dilvish, the Damned
• Stefan Zweig - The Post Office Girl

New drama

• Peter Flannery - Our Friends in the North
• Michael Frayn - Noises Off
• Stephen MacDonald - Not About Heroes
• Frank McGuinness - The Factory Girls
• Tom Stoppard - The Real Thing

Non-fiction

• Irving Abella and Harold Troper - None is Too Many.
• Martin Amis - Invasion of the Space Invaders
• Carol Gilligan - In a Different Voice.
• Edward James - The Origins of France: Clovis to the Capetians 500-1000.
• Gary Kinder - Victim: The Other Side of Murder.
• Audre Lorde - Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.
• John Naisbitt - Megatrends.
• Tom Peters - In Search of Excellence.
• Margaret Trudeau - Consequences.

Births

Deaths

• February 18 - Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand crime writer and theatre director
• March 2 - Philip K. Dick, American writer
• March 6 - Ayn Rand, Russian-American author
• June 6 - Kenneth Rexroth, American poet and critic
• June 18 - John Cheever, American writer
• September 14 - John Gardner, American novelist

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Gabriel García Márquez

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Brian Castro, Birds of Passage; Nigel Krauth, Matilda, My Darling
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Fay Zwicky, Kaddish and Other Poems

Canada

• See 1982 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

• Prix Goncourt: Dominique Fernandez, dans la main de l'Ange
• Prix Médicis French: Jean-François Josselin, L'Enfer et Cie
• Prix Médicis International: Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Margaret Mahy, The Haunting
• Cholmondeley Award: Basil Bunting, Herbert Lomas, William Scammell
• Eric Gregory Award: Steve Ellis, Jeremy Reed, Alison Brackenbury, Neil Astley, Chris O'Neill, Joseph Bristow, John Gibbens, James Lasdun
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Bruce Chatwin, On The Black Hill
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Richard Ellmann, James Joyce
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Bruce Chatwin, On the Black Hill

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Lawrence Joseph, Shouting at No One
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction, Bernard Malamud
• Nebula Award for Best Novel: Michael Bishop, No Enemy But Time
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Nancy Willard, A Visit to William Blake's Inn
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Charles Fuller, A Soldier's Play
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: John Updike - Rabbit Is Rich
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Sylvia Plath: The Collected Poems

Elsewhere

• Hugo Award for Best Novel: Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh
• Premio Nadal: Fernando Arrabal, La torre herida por un rayo