1938 in literature

• January
  • The John Dos Passos trilogy U.S.A. is published, containing his novels The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936).
  • Samuel Beckett is stabbed in the chest in Paris and nearly killed.
• February 21 – The gay American writer and composer Paul Bowles marries the lesbian American writer Jane Auer at a Reformed Church in Manhattan.
• March 7 – Samuel Beckett's first completed novel Murphy is published in London.
• July 11 – The first live drama adaptation in Orson Welles' The Mercury Theatre on the Air series on CBS Radio in the United States is broadcast: Bram Stoker's Dracula.
• August – Muslims protest in London against passages they see as disrespectful to their religion in H. G. Wells' A Short History of the World (1922).[1]
• September 13 – The first production in Britain of a play by Bertolt Brecht, Mrs Carrar's Rifles, opens at the Unity Theatre, London.
• October 30 – Orson Welles' radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds (with script by Howard Koch) is broadcast in The Mercury Theatre on the Air series.
• December 24 – Jorge Luis Borges is injured in an accident and develops blood poisoning. While recovering the following year he will write the first short story in his later characteristic style.

Uncertain dates

• The first complete performance of both parts of Goethe's Faust (1808/32) is given at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland.
• The avant-garde musician and theoretician Pierre Schaeffer begins his writing career as an essayist for a number of French musical journals.

• January 2 – Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian short story writer
• January 5 – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (also known as James Ngigi), Kenyan novelist
• January 6 – Mario Rodríguez Cobos ("Silo"), Argentine author and spiritualist (died 2010)
• January 20 – Liz Calder, English publisher and editor
• February 7 – Andrea Newman, English novelist and screenwriter (died 2019)
• February 9 – Jovette Marchessault, French Canadian writer and artist (died 2012)
• February 12
  • Judy Blume, American children's author
  • Tor Obrestad, Norwegian novelist, poet and documentary writer
• February 22 – Ishmael Reed, American poet, essayist and novelist
• March 1 – Michael Kurland, American author of sci-fi and detective fiction
• March 14 – Eleanor Bron, English humorous writer and actress
• March 24 – Ian Hamilton, English critic, biographer and poet (died 2001)
• March 27 – Hansjörg Schneider, Swiss novelist (died 2016)
• April 20 – Chiung Yao, Taiwanese romance novelist
• April 29 – Larry Niven, American sci-fi author
• May 13 – Norma Klein, American author (died 1989)
• May 15 – Nancy Garden, American author (died 2014)[4]
• May 25
  • Raymond Carver, American short-story writer and poet (died 1988)
  • Margaret Forster, English novelist and biographer (died 2016)
• May 26 – Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Russian novelist and playwright
• June 5 – M. K. Wren (Martha Kay Renfroe), American novelist (died 2016)
• June 16 – Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist
• June 24 – Lawrence Block, American crime fiction writer
• June 26 – Maria Velho da Costa, Portuguese writer (died 2020)
• July 19
  • Nicholas Bethell, English historian and politician (died 2007)
  • Dom Moraes, Indian poet and columnist (died 2004)
  • Tom Raworth, English poet (died 2017)
• July 28 – Robert Hughes, Australian critic and historian (died 2012)
• August 15 – Janusz Zajdel, Polish writer (died 1985)
• August 21 – Mudrooroo (Colin Johnson), Australian novelist
• September 3 – Caryl Churchill, English dramatist
• September 12 – Richard Booth, Welsh bookseller (died 2019)
• September 15 – Charles L. Mee, American dramatist
• September 18 – Poornachandra Tejaswi, Kannada writer (died 2007)
• September 19 – Keorapetse Kgositsile, South African Poet Laureate (died 2018)
• October 12 – Anne Perry (Juliet Marion Hulme), English historical novelist
• October 13 – Hugo Young, English journalist (died 2003)
• October 17 – Les Murray, Australian poet (died 2019)
• October 19 – Allan Massie, Singapore-born Scottish writer
• November 3 – Terrence McNally, American playwright (died 2020)
• November 4 – Daniel Snowman, English non-fiction writer and historian
• December 9 – Willi Glasauer, German artist and illustrator
• December 14 – Leonardo Boff (Genézio Darci Boff), Brazilian philosopher and theologian
• December 21 – Frank Moorhouse, Australian journalist, author and screenwriter
• December 31 – Basudeb Dasgupta, Bengali novelist (died 2005)

Uncertain date

• Gabriel Ruhumbika, Tanzanian novelist

• January 4 – Paola Drigo, Italian writer (born 1876)
• January 16 – Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (Sarat Chandra Chattergee), Bengali novelist (born 1876)
• January 19 – Branislav Nušić, Serbian novelist and dramatist (born 1864)
• January 29 – Armando Palacio Valdés, Spanish novelist and critic (born 1853)
• February 13 – Momčilo Nastasijević, Serbian poet, novelist and dramatist (born 1894)
• March 1 – Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian poet and novelist (born 1863)
• March 31 – Willem Kloos, Dutch poet and critic (born 1859)
• April 19 – Sir Henry Newbolt, English poet (born 1862)
• April 21 – Lady Ottoline Morrell, English literary hostess (born 1873)
• May 26 – James Forbes, Canadian American dramatist and screenwriter (born 1871)
• June 9 – Ovid Densusianu, Romanian poet, philologist, and literary historian (born 1873)
• June 26
  • James Weldon Johnson, American politician, poet and activist (born 1871)
  • E. V. Lucas, English essayist and biographer, 70
• July 21 – Owen Wister, American Western fiction writer and historian (born 1860)
• August 7 – Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre director (born 1863)
• August 26 – Millosh Gjergj Nikolla, Albanian poet and writer (tuberculosis, born 1911)
• September 15 – Thomas Wolfe, American novelist (tuberculosis, born 1900)
• October 3 – Olivia Shakespear, British novelist, playwright and patron of the arts (born 1863)
• October 27 – Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and literary critic (born 1881)
• December 23 – Robert Herrick, American realist novelist (born 1868)
• December 25 – Karel Čapek, Czech science fiction author and dramatist (pneumonia, born 1890)
• December 27 – Osip Mandelstam, Russian poet and essayist (in detention, born 1891)

• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Noel Streatfeild, The Circus Is Coming
• Hawthornden Prize – David Jones, In Parenthesis
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: C. S. Forester, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Sir Edmund Chambers, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Kate Seredy, The White Stag
• Newdigate prize: Michael Thwaites
• Nobel Prize in literature: Pearl S. Buck
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Thornton Wilder, Our Town
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Marya Zaturenska, Cold Morning Sky
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: John Phillips Marquand, The Late George Apley