1927 in literature

• January – The Books Kinokuniya (紀伊國屋書店) bookstore business is established in Tokyo.
• May 5 – Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness novel To the Lighthouse is published by Hogarth Press in London. A second impression follows in June. It is seen as a landmark of high modernism,[1]
• June 29 – T. S. Eliot, hitherto Unitarian, is baptised into the Church of England at Finstock. In November he takes British citizenship.
• July 7 – James Joyce's collection Pomes Penyeach is published by Shakespeare and Company in Paris.
• July 9 – P. G. Wodehouse's short story "Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey", published in the U.S. magazine Liberty, introduces Lord Emsworth's prize pig, the Empress of Blandings. The first UK appearance follows in the August issue of The Strand Magazine).
• August – T. S. Eliot's poem Journey of the Magi appears in Faber and Gwyer's Ariel poems series in London, illustrated by E. McKnight Kauffer.
• September – Eric Blair (George Orwell) decides while on leave from the Imperial Police in Burma to remain in the U.K. He moves to London to become a writer.
• October – Victor Gollancz founds the London publishing house Victor Gollancz Ltd.
• December – Agatha Christie's fictional amateur detective Miss Marple makes a first appearance in "The Tuesday Night Club", published in The Royal Magazine.[2]

Uncertain dates

• The expatriate American Natalie Clifford Barney starts an informal Académie des femmes for woman writers, at her Paris salon. Those honored include Colette, Gertrude Stein, Anna Wickham, Rachilde, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Mina Loy, Djuna Barnes, and posthumously, Renée Vivien.[3]
• A translation of Franz Roh's work of art criticism Nach Expressionismus – Magischer Realismus: Probleme der neuesten europäischen Malerei (After Expressionism – Magical Realism: Problems of the newest European painting, 1925) into Spanish by Revista de Occidente leads to the concept of magic realism becoming popular in Latin American literature.[4]
• The Strand Bookstore is founded in Manhattan by Benjamin Bass.

• January 8 – Charles Tomlinson, English poet (died 2015)
• January 16 – Oldřich Daněk, Czech dramatist (died 2000)
• January 24
  • Lasse Pöysti, Finnish writer, playwright, and actor (died 2019)
  • Marvin Kaplan, American actor, screenwriter and playwright (died 2016)
• January 25 – John Calder, Canadian-born Scottish publisher (died 2018)
• January 28 – Vera Williams, American author and illustrator (died 2015)
• February 1 – Galway Kinnell, American poet (died 2014)
• February 6 – William Gardner Smith, expatriate American novelist and journalist (died 1974)
• February 16 – Shahidullah Kaiser, Bangladeshi novelist (died 1971)
• February 21 – Erma Bombeck, American humorist (died 1996)
• March 6 – Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist (died 2014)
• March 15 – Hanns Joachim Friedrichs, German journalist (died 1995)
• March 18 – George Plimpton, American writer and actor (died 2003)
• March 22 – Vera Henriksen, née Roscher Lund, Norwegian historical novelist (died 2016)
• April 2 – Kenneth Tynan, English theatre critic (died 1980)
• May 19 – Yusuf Idris, Egyptian writer (died 1991)
• May 25 – Robert Ludlum, American novelist (died 2001)
• May 27 – Malayattoor Ramakrishnan, Indian Malayali novelist (died 1997)
• May 28 – William A. Hilliard, American journalist (died 2017)
• June 6 – Alan Seymour, Australian playwright (died 2015)
• June 13 – Paul Ableman, English writer of erotic fiction and playwright (died 2006)
• June 20 – Simin Behbahani, Persian poet (died 2014)
• June 24 – Frederick Vreeland, American diplomat and writer
• June 27 – Dominic Jeeva, Sri Lankan Tamil fiction writer and essayist
• June 30 – James Goldman, American screenwriter and playwright (died 1998)
• July 4 – Neil Simon, American playwright (died 2018)
• July 15 – Ann Jellicoe, British playwright, stage director, and actress (died 2017)
• July 22 – Katharine Topkins, American novelist
• July 27 – John Seigenthaler, American journalist, writer, and political figure (died 2014)
• July 31 – Peter Nichols, English playwright (died 2019)
• August 9 – Robert Shaw, English-born actor, novelist and playwright (died 1978)
• August 15 – Patrick Galvin, Irish poet and dramatist (died 2011)
• August 17 – Stefan Geosits, Burgenland Croatian writer, translator
• August 23 – Dick Bruna, Dutch author and illustrator (died 2017)[6]
• August 24 – David Ireland, Australian novelist
• August 27 – Fouad al-Tikerly, Iraqi novelist and writer (died 2008)
• September 4 – Bernardino Zapponi, Italian novelist (died 2000)
• September 30 – W. S. Merwin, American poet (died 2019)
• October 7 – Robert Westall, English novelist and children's writer (died 1993)
• October 16 – Günter Grass, German novelist (died 2015)
• November 16 – Franz Jalics, Hungarian Jesuit priest and author
• November 24 – Charles Osborne, Australian-born British writer and arts administrator (died 2017)
• December 13 – James Wright, American poet (died 1980)
• December 24 – Mary Higgins Clark, American novelist

• February 26 – Alfred Remy, German-born American philologist and music writer (born 1870)
• March 18 – Philip Wicksteed, English theologian and critic (born 1844)
• March 31 – Mabel Collins, British theosophist and author (born 1851)
• April 16 – Gaston Leroux, French novelist (born 1868)
• May 25 – Henri Hubert, French sociologist (born 1872)
• May 29 – Georges Eekhoud, Belgian novelist (born 1854)
• June 1 – J. B. Bury, Irish historian (born 1861)
• June 9 – Adolfo León Gómez, Colombian poet (born 1857)
• June 14 – Jerome K. Jerome, English humorous writer (born 1859)
• June 20 – Clara Louise Burnham, American novelist (born 1854)[7]
• July 5 – Lesbia Harford, Australian poet (born 1891)
• July 24 – Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (芥川 龍之介), Japanese short story writer and poet (suicide, born 1892)
• August 13 – James Oliver Curwood, American novelist and conservationist (born 1878)
• August 24 – Manuel Díaz Rodríguez, Venezuelan writer (born 1871)
• September 14 – Hugo Ball, German poet (born 1886)
• September 15 – Herman Gorter, Dutch poet and socialist (born 1864)
• October 8
  • Ricardo Güiraldes, Argentine novelist and poet (Hodgkin's disease, born 1886)[8]
  • Mary Webb, English novelist (born 1881)
• October 22 – Borisav Stanković, Serbian writer (born 1876)
• October 23 – Bernhard Alexander, Hungarian philosopher and polymath (born 1850)
• November 23 – Stanisław Przybyszewski, Polish novelist, dramatist, and poet (born 1868)
• December 5 – Fyodor Sologub, Russian dramatist and essayist (born 1863)
• December 17 – Hubert Harrison, African-American writer, critic, and activist (born 1883)

• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Francis Brett Young, The Portrait of Clare
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: H. A. L. Fisher, James Bryce, Viscount Bryce of Dechmont, O.M.
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Will James, Smoky the Cow Horse
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Henri Bergson
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Paul Green, In Abraham's Bosom
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Leonora Speyer, Fiddler's Farewell
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Louis Bromfield, Early Autumn