1978 in literature

• March 8 – Douglas Adams' comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy originates as a radio comedy broadcast on the U.K. BBC Radio 4.
• March – Philip Larkin ends his relationships with Maeve Brennan and Betty Mackereth.[1]
• April – James Blaylock's first published story, "The Ape-Box Affair", appears in Unearth magazine, pioneering steampunk fiction.[2]
• August 1 – Barbara Pym is a guest on Desert Island Discs.[3]
• October – The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, a humorous award given annually to books with unusual titles, is launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The first winner is Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.[4]
• November 15 – Harold Pinter's play Betrayal, inspired by a seven-year clandestine extramarital affair with BBC Television presenter Joan Bakewell, opens at the National Theatre in London, directed by Peter Hall and featuring Penelope Wilton and her husband at this time, Daniel Massey, with Michael Gambon.[5]

Uncertain date

• The Berlin State Library's new Haus Potsdamer Straße is completed and opened in West Berlin's Kulturforum.

• February 1 – Arno Camenisch, Swiss writer
• July 23 – Lauren Groff, American novelist and short story writer
• October 24 – Kei Miller, Jamaican-born poet and fiction writer

Uncertain dates

• Filippo Bologna, Italian novelist and screenwriter
• David Llewellyn, Welsh screenwriter
• Samanta Schweblin, Argentine fiction writer
• Rachel Trezise, Welsh novelist and short story writer

• January 12 – Robert Harbin, South African-born author of books on magic (born 1908)
• March 1 – Paul Scott, English novelist, playwright and poet (born 1920)
• March 24 – Leigh Brackett, American science fiction writer (born 1915)
• April 14 – F. R. Leavis, English academic literary critic (born 1895)
• May 1 – Sylvia Townsend Warner, English poet and novelist (born 1893)
• May 12 – Louis Zukofsky, American modernist poet (born 1904)
• June 11 – Carola Oman, English historical novelist, biographer and children's writer (born 1897)
• June 18 – Walter C. Alvarez, American medical author (born 1884)
• August 11 – Berta Ruck, Indian-born Welsh romantic novelist (born 1878)[7]
• August 28 – Robert Shaw, English-born actor, novelist and playwright (born 1927)
• September 3 – Basil Willey, English academic literary critic (died 1897)
• September 15 – Edmund Crispin (Robert Bruce Montgomery), English crime writer and composer (born 1921)
• September 28 – Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani), Italian author of Illustrissimi (born 1912)
• November 5 – N. Crevedia, Romanian poet, novelist and journalist (born 1902)
• November 15 – Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist and author (born 1901)[8]

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Isaac Bashevis Singer
• Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year is first awarded. The winner is Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.