1983 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1983.

Events

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

New books

Births

• July 2 – Tao Lin (林韬), Chinese novelist and poet
• November 17 – Christopher Paolini, American fantasy novelist
• Unknown date – Sarah Howe, Hong Kong-born poet writing in English

Deaths

• January 5 – Chapman Grant, American historian and publisher (born 1887)
• February 14 – Brita von Horn, Swedish theater director, dramatist and novelist (born 1886)
• February 25 – Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams III), American playwright (born 1911)
• March 3 – Hergé (Georges Prosper Remi), Belgian comics creator (born 1907)
• 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)
• June 19 – Vilmundur Gylfason, Icelandic historian, poet and politician (suicide, born 1948)
• June 27 – Alden Nowlan, Canadian poet, novelist and playwright (born 1933)
• August 12 – Mikey Smith, Jamaican dub poet (stoned to death; born 1954)
• September 16 – Roy Andries De Groot, English-born American food writer (born 1910)
• December 5 – John Robinson, English religious writer and bishop (born 1919)

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: William Golding

References