Editing 1985 in literature

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{{Year nav topic5|1985|literature|poetry}}

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of '''1985'''.
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==Events==
*[[February 25]] – [[Sue Limb]]'s parodic [[pastiche]] of the [[Lake Poets]], ''The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere'', begins broadcasting on [[BBC Radio 4]] in the U.K.
*[[March 1]] –  The [[GNU Manifesto]] by [[Richard Stallman]] is published for the first time, and becomes a fundamental philosophical source within the [[free software movement]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-gnu-manifesto-turns-thirty|title=The GNU Manifesto Turns Thirty|last=Bustillos|first=Maria|date=2015-03-17|work=The New Yorker|access-date=2019-10-07|language=en|issn=0028-792X|archive-date=2019-10-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007212915/https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-gnu-manifesto-turns-thirty|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[August 11]] – A memorial to the poet [[Hugh MacDiarmid]] is unveiled near his home at [[Langholm]], Scotland.
*''unknown dates'' – Three notable novels in English by female authors are published during the year: [[Margaret Atwood]]'s ''[[The Handmaid's Tale]]'',<ref name="Deer1994"/> [[Jilly Cooper]]'s ''[[Riders (novel)|Riders]]'', the first of the [[Rutshire Chronicles]], and [[Jeanette Winterson]]'s ''[[Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit]]''.

==New books==
===Fiction===
*[[Isaac Asimov]] – ''[[Robots and Empire]]''
*[[Margaret Atwood]] – ''[[The Handmaid's Tale]]''<ref name="Deer1994">{{cite book|author=Glenn Deer|title=Postmodern Canadian Fiction and the Rhetoric of Authority|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oazw0sDhO_kC&pg=PA110|year=1994|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-1159-0|pages=110|access-date=2021-01-03|archive-date=2023-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415041642/https://books.google.com/books?id=oazw0sDhO_kC&pg=PA110|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[Jean M. Auel]] – ''[[The Mammoth Hunters]]''
*[[Iain Banks]] – ''[[Walking on Glass]]''
*[[Clive Barker]] 
**''[[Books of Blood]]''
**''[[The Damnation Game (novel)|The Damnation Game]]''
*[[Greg Bear]]
**''[[Blood Music (novel)|Blood Music]]''
**''[[Eon (novel)|Eon]]''
*[[Marion Chesney|M. C. Beaton]] – ''[[Death of a Gossip]]''
*[[Thomas Bernhard]] – ''[[Old Masters (novel)|Old Masters: a comedy]]'' (''Alte Meister: Komödie'')
*[[Anthony Burgess]] – ''[[The Kingdom of the Wicked]]''
*[[Orson Scott Card]] – ''[[Ender's Game]]''
*[[Jilly Cooper]] – ''[[Riders (novel)|Riders]]''
*[[Bernard Cornwell]] – ''[[Sharpe's Honour (novel)|Sharpe's Honour]]''
*[[Don DeLillo]] – ''[[White Noise (novel)|White Noise]]''
*[[Friedrich Dürrenmatt]] – ''[[The Execution of Justice]] (Justiz)''
*[[Bret Easton Ellis]] – ''[[Less than Zero (novel)|Less than Zero]]''
*[[Steve Erickson]] – ''[[Days Between Stations]]''
*[[John Fowles]] – ''[[A Maggot]]''
*[[Carlos Fuentes]] – ''[[The Old Gringo]] (Gringo Viejo)''
*[[William Gaddis]] – ''[[Carpenter's Gothic]]''
*[[Gabriel García Márquez]] – ''[[Love in the Time of Cholera]] (El amor en los tiempos del cólera)''
*[[Jane Gardam]] – ''Crusoe's Daughter''
*[[Alasdair Gray]] – ''[[The Fall of Kelvin Walker: A Fable of the Sixties]]''
*[[Graham Greene]] – ''[[The Tenth Man (novel)|The Tenth Man]]''
*[[Amy Hempel]] – ''Reasons to Live ''
*[[Frank Herbert]] – ''[[Chapterhouse: Dune]]''
*[[John Irving]] – ''[[The Cider House Rules]]''
*[[Garrison Keillor]] – ''[[Lake Wobegon Days]]''
*[[Stephen King]] – ''[[Skeleton Crew (short story collection)|Skeleton Crew]]''
*[[László Krasznahorkai]] – ''[[Satantango (novel)|Satantango]]''
*[[Derek Lambert (author)|Derek Lambert]] – ''[[The Man Who Was Saturday]]''
*[[Ursula K. Le Guin]] – ''[[Always Coming Home]]''
*[[Doris Lessing]] – ''[[The Good Terrorist]]''
*[[H. P. Lovecraft]]
**''[[At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels]]''
**''[[The Dunwich Horror and Others]]'' (corrected edition)
*[[Richard A. Lupoff]] – ''[[Lovecraft's Book]]''
*[[Cormac McCarthy]] – ''[[Blood Meridian]]''
*[[Larry McMurtry]] – ''[[Lonesome Dove]]''
*[[John D. MacDonald]] – ''[[The Lonely Silver Rain]]''
*[[James A. Michener]] – ''[[Texas (novel)|Texas]]''
*[[Brian Moore (novelist)|Brian Moore]] – ''[[Black Robe]]''
*[[Bharati Mukherjee]] – [[Darkness (short stories)|''Darkness'' (short stories)]]
*[[Iris Murdoch]] – ''[[The Good Apprentice]]''
*[[Orhan Pamuk]] – ''[[The White Castle]]  (Beyaz Kale)''
*[[Ellis Peters]] – ''[[An Excellent Mystery]]''
*[[Caryl Phillips]] – ''[[The Final Passage]]''
*[[Peter Pohl]] – ''[[Johnny, My Friend]]'' (''Janne, min vän'')
*[[Guy Rewenig]] – ''Hannert dem Atlantik'' (first novel in the [[Luxembourgish language]])
*[[Carl Sagan]] – ''[[Contact (novel)|Contact]]''
*[[Nava Semel]] – ''Kova Zekhukhit'' (Hat of Glass, short stories)
*[[Sidney Sheldon]] – ''[[If Tomorrow Comes (novel)|If Tomorrow Comes]]''
*[[Patrick Süskind]] – ''[[Perfume (novel)|Perfume: The Story of a Murderer]]''
*[[Sue Townsend]] – ''[[Rebuilding Coventry]]''
*[[Anne Tyler]] – ''[[The Accidental Tourist]]''
*[[Andrew Vachss]] – ''[[Burke (series)|Flood]]''
*[[Kurt Vonnegut]] – ''[[Galápagos (novel)|Galápagos]]''
*[[Jeanette Winterson]] – ''[[Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit]]''
*[[Roger Zelazny]] – ''[[Trumps of Doom]]''

===Children and young people===
*[[Chester Aaron]] – ''Out of Sight, Out of Mind''
*[[Pamela Allen]] – ''[[A Lion in the Night]]''
*[[Chris Van Allsburg]] – ''[[The Polar Express]]''
*[[Frank Asch]] – ''[[I Can Blink]]''
*[[Kirsten Boie]] – ''Paule ist ein Glücksgriff''
*[[Robert Cormier]] – ''[[Beyond the Chocolate War]]''
*[[Roald Dahl]] – ''[[The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me]]''
*[[Virginia Hamilton]] (with [[Leo and Diane Dillon]]) – ''[[The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales]]''
*[[Gordon Korman]] - ''[[Don't Care High]]''
*[[Patricia MacLachlan]] – ''[[Sarah, Plain and Tall]]''
*[[Laura Numeroff]] – ''[[If You Give a Mouse a Cookie]]''
*[[Pat O'Shea (author)|Pat O'Shea]] – ''[[The Hounds of the Morrigan]]''
*[[Bill Peet]] – ''The Kweeks of Kookatumdee''
*[[Cynthia Rylant]] – ''A Blue-Eyed Daisy''
*[[Jacqueline Wilson]] – ''[[How to Survive Summer Camp]]'' (novel)
*[[Elizabeth Winthrop]] – ''[[The Castle in the Attic]]''

===Drama===
*[[Peter Brook]] and [[Jean-Claude Carrière]] (adapted) – ''[[Mahabharata]]''
*[[Christopher Hampton]] (adapted) – ''[[Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Hampton play)|Les Liaisons Dangereuses]]''
*[[David Hare (dramatist)|David Hare]] and [[Howard Brenton]] – ''[[Pravda (play)|Pravda]]''
*[[Larry Kramer]] – ''[[The Normal Heart]]''
*[[Wallace Shawn]] – ''[[Aunt Dan and Lemon]]''
*[[Sam Shepard]] – ''[[A Lie of the Mind]]''
*[[Neil Simon]] – ''[[Biloxi Blues]]''
*[[August Wilson]] – ''[[Fences (play)|Fences]]''

===Poetry===
*[[Carol Ann Duffy]] – ''Standing Female Nude''

===Non-fiction===
*[[Bill Bryson]] – ''The Palace under the Alps and Over 200 Other Unusual, Unspoiled and Infrequently Visited Spots in 16 European Countries''
*[[Roger Caron]] – ''Bingo! The Horrifying Eyewitness Account of a Prison Riot''
*[[Allen Carr]] – ''[[The Easy Way to Stop Smoking]]''
*[[Timothy J. Cooney]] - ''[[Telling Right From Wrong]]''
*[[Michael Denton]] – ''[[Evolution: A Theory in Crisis]]''
*[[Elaine Dundy]] – ''[[Elvis and Gladys]]''
*[[Julien Gracq]] – ''[[The Shape of a City]]''
*[[G. L. Harriss]] (editor) – ''Henry V: The Practice of Kingship''
*[[Ernest Hemingway]] – ''[[The Dangerous Summer]] ''
*[[Pauline Kael]] – ''[[State of the Art_(book)|State of the Art]]''
*[[David Lowenthal]] – ''The Past Is a Foreign Country''
*[[Walter A. McDougall]] – ''[[...The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age]]''
*[[Tim O'Brien (author)|Tim O'Brien]] – ''The Nuclear Age''
*[[Priscilla Presley|Priscilla Beaulieu Presley]] – ''[[Elvis and Me]]''
*[[David Robinson (film critic and author)|David Robinson]] – ''[[Chaplin: His Life and Art]]''
*[[Oliver Sacks]] – ''[[The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat]]''
*[[Roger Scruton]] – ''[[Thinkers of the New Left]]''
*[[Gary Soto]] – ''[[Living Up the Street]]''
*[[M. Crawford Young|Crawford Young]] and Thomas Turner – ''The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State''

==Births==
*[[February 7]] - [[Justina Ireland]], American science-fiction and fantasy author of young-adult fiction
*[[April 24]] – [[Alexander Zeldin]], British playwright and director
*[[September 24]] – [[Eleanor Catton]], New Zealand novelist<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Nicholas Birns]]|title=Contemporary Australian Literature: A World Not Yet Dead|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FIMRCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA231|date=1 December 2015|publisher=Sydney University Press|isbn=978-1-74332-436-3|pages=231|access-date=3 January 2021|archive-date=15 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415041645/https://books.google.com/books?id=FIMRCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA231|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[September 30]] – [[Téa Obreht]], Yugoslav-born American novelist writing in English

==Deaths==
*[[January 1]] – [[Sigerson Clifford]], Irish poet, playwright, and civil servant (born [[1913 in literature|1913]])
*[[January 5]] – [[Alexis Rannit]], [[Estonia]]n-born American poet and critic (born [[1914 in literature|1914]])
*[[February 6]] – [[James Hadley Chase]], English thriller novelist (born [[1906 in literature|1906]])<ref>{{cite book|title=The Annual Obituary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70sYAAAAIAAJ|year=1988|publisher=St. Martin's|isbn=978-0-912289-82-3|pages=56-57|access-date=2021-01-12|archive-date=2023-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415041646/https://books.google.com/books?id=70sYAAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[February 19]] – [[Carl Joachim Hambro (philologist)|Carl Joachim Hambro]], Norwegian novelist, essayist and philologist (born [[1914 in literature|1914]])<ref>Hambro, Johan (1984). ''C. J. Hambro: Liv og drøm'' (in Norwegian). Oslo: Aschehoug. p. 67. {{ISBN|82-03-11347-8}}.</ref>
*[[March 15]] – [[Radha Krishna Choudhary]], Indian historian and philosopher (born [[1921 in literature|1921]])
*[[April 4]] – [[Kate Roberts (author)|Kate Roberts]], Welsh writer (born [[1891 in literature|1891]])
*[[April 7]] – [[Carl Schmitt]], German political theorist (born [[1888 in literature|1888]])
*[[April 17]] 
**[[Basil Bunting]], English poet (born [[1900 in literature|1900]])
**[[D. I. Suchianu]], Romanian essayist, translator, social scientist and film theorist (born [[1895 in literature|1895]])
*[[April 25]] – [[Uku Masing]], Estonian religious philosopher, linguist and writer (born [[1909 in literature|1909]])
*[[May 1]] – [[Denise Robins]], English romantic novelist (born [[1897 in literature|1897]])
*[[May 12]] – [[Josephine Miles]], American poet and literary critic (born [[1911 in literature|1911]])
*[[May 18]] – [[Hedley Bull]], Australian economist (cancer, born [[1932 in literature|1932]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Ayson|title=Hedley Bull and the Accommodation of Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lVFYTDTkgfgC&pg=PA196|date=24 September 2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-36389-2|pages=196}}</ref>
*[[May 25]] – [[Robert Nathan]], American novelist and poet (born [[1894 in literature|1894]])
*[[June 8]] – [[Hu Feng]] (胡风), Chinese novelist (born [[1902 in literature|1902]])
*[[June 16]] – [[Ernst Orvil]], Norwegian novelist, poet and playwright (born [[1898 in literature|1898]])
*[[July 16]] – [[Heinrich Böll]], German novelist, Nobel laureate (born [[1917 in literature|1917]])
*[[July 8]] – [[Leslie Paul]], Anglo-Irish novelist (born [[1905 in literature|1905]])
*[[July 29]] – [[Judah Waten]], Australian novelist (born [[1911 in literature|1911]])<ref>{{Cite web |title=Waten, Judah Papers (National Library of Aus.) – Biographical Note |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-346552937/findingaid |access-date= |publisher=[[National Library of Australia]] |archive-date=2022-10-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031050812/https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-346552937/findingaid |url-status=live }}</ref>
*[[August 14]] – [[Alfred Hayes (writer)|Alfred Hayes]], English-born American novelist, poet and screenwriter (born [[1911 in literature|1911]])
*[[August 30]] – (Janet) [[Taylor Caldwell]], English-born American novelist (born [[1900 in literature|1900]])<ref>{{cite book|author1=John Arthur Garraty|author2=Mark Christopher Carnes|title=American National Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YHIRAQAAMAAJ|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-512783-6|page=206|access-date=2021-03-27|archive-date=2023-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415041650/https://books.google.com/books?id=YHIRAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[September 1]] – [[Saunders Lewis]], Welsh writer and broadcaster ([[Plaid Cymru]]) (born [[1893 in literature|1893]])<ref>{{cite book|author=World Book, Inc. Staff|title=The World Book Year Book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9EN9g4G5d3YC|date=February 1986|publisher=World Book, Incorporated|isbn=978-0-7166-0486-0|page=516|access-date=2021-03-27|archive-date=2023-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415041640/https://books.google.com/books?id=9EN9g4G5d3YC|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[September 17]] – [[Fran Ross]], African American satirist (born [[1935 in literature|1935]])
*[[September 22]] – [[D. J. Opperman]], South African Afrikaans poet (born [[1914 in literature|1914]])
*[[September 27]] – [[Leonard Gribble]], English novelist (born [[1908 in literature|1908]])
*[[October 1]] – [[E. B. White]], American children's writer and writer on style (born [[1899 in literature|1899]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Jill C. Wheeler|title=E. B. White|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B-96AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA21|date=1 January 2013|publisher=ABDO Publishing Company|isbn=978-1-61480-938-8|pages=21|access-date=27 March 2021|archive-date=15 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415041644/https://books.google.com/books?id=B-96AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA21|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[October 11]] – [[Alex La Guma]], South African novelist and political activist (born [[1925 in literature|1925]])
*[[October 24]] – [[László Bíró]], Hungarian journalist and inventor (born [[1899 in literature|1899]])
*[[October 31]] – [[Nikos Engonopoulos]], Greek poet (born [[1903 in literature|1903]])
*[[November 3]] – [[J. M. Wallace-Hadrill]], English historian (born [[1916 in literature|1916]])
*[[November 4]] – [[Hilda Vaughan]], Welsh novelist and short story writer (born [[1892 in literature|1892]])
*[[November 6]] – [[Sara Woods]], British crime fiction writer (born [[1922 in literature|1922]])
*[[November 11]] – [[James Hanley (novelist)|James Hanley]], English-born novelist and dramatist of Irish extraction (born [[1897 in literature|1897]])<ref>{{Cite book |first=Linneae |last=Gibbs |title=James Hanley: A Bibliography |year=1980}}</ref>
*[[November 25]]
**[[Geoffrey Grigson]], English poet and critic (born [[1905 in literature|1905]])
**[[Elsa Morante]], Italian novelist (born [[1912 in literature|1912]])<ref>Santo, Aricò L. (1990). ''Contemporary Women Writers in Italy: A Modern Renaissance''. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.</ref>
*[[November 27]] – [[Fernand Braudel]], French historian (born [[1902 in literature|1902]])
*[[December 2]] – [[Philip Larkin]], English poet (born [[1922 in literature|1922]])
*[[December 5]] – [[Mihail Celarianu]], Romanian poet and novelist (born [[1893 in literature|1893]])
*[[December 7]] – [[Robert Graves]], English novelist, poet and critic (born [[1895 in literature|1895]])

==Awards==
*[[Nobel Prize for Literature]]: [[Claude Simon]]

===Australia===
*[[The Australian/Vogel Literary Award]]: no award given out this year
*[[C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry]]: [[Kevin Hart (poet)|Kevin Hart]], ''Your Shadow''; [[Rosemary Dobson]], ''The Three Fates''
*[[Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry]], [[Kevin Hart (poet)|Kevin Hart]], ''Your Shadow''
*[[Mary Gilmore Prize]]: [[Doris Brett]], ''The Truth about Unicorns''
*[[Miles Franklin Award]]: [[Christopher Koch]], ''[[The Doubleman]]''

===Canada===
*See [[1985 Governor General's Awards]] for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

===France===
*[[Prix Goncourt]]: [[Yann Queffélec]], ''Les Noces barbares''<ref>{{cite book|author1=Douglas W. Alden|author2=Peter C. Hoy|author3=Christine M. Zunz|title=French XX Bibliography: Critical and Biographical References for the Study of French Literature Since 1885|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yySSPhUSBDAC&pg=PA11458|date=September 1989|publisher=Susquehanna University Press|isbn=978-0-941664-99-8|pages=11458|access-date=2021-01-03|archive-date=2023-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415041641/https://books.google.com/books?id=yySSPhUSBDAC&pg=PA11458|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[Prix Médicis]] French: [[Michel Braudeau]], ''Naissance d'une passion''
*[[Prix Médicis]] International: [[Joseph Heller]], ''[[God Knows (novel)|God Knows]]''

===Spain===
*[[Miguel de Cervantes Prize]]: [[Gonzalo Torrente Ballester]]

===United Kingdom===
*[[Booker Prize]]: [[Keri Hulme]], ''[[The Bone People]]''
*[[Carnegie Medal (literary award)|Carnegie Medal]] for [[children's literature]]: [[Kevin Crossley-Holland]], ''[[Storm (novella)|Storm]]''
*[[Cholmondeley Award]]: [[Dannie Abse]], [[Peter Redgrove]], [[Brian Taylor (poet)|Brian Taylor]]
*[[Eric Gregory Award]]: Graham Mort, [[Adam Thorpe]], [[Pippa Little]], [[James Harpur]], [[Simon North]], [[Julian May (poet)|Julian May]]
*[[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for fiction: [[Robert Edric]], ''Winter Garden''
*[[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for biography: [[David Nokes]], ''[[Jonathan Swift]]: A Hypocrite Reversed''
*[[Newdigate Prize]]: [[Robert Twigger]]
*[[1985 Whitbread Awards|Whitbread Best Book Award]]: [[Douglas Dunn]], ''Elegies''

===United States===
*[[Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize]]: [[Liz Rosenberg]], ''The Fire Music''
*[[American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medals#Poetry|American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry]], [[Robert Penn Warren]]
*[[Frost Medal]]: [[Robert Penn Warren]]
*[[Nebula Award]]: [[Orson Scott Card]], ''[[Ender's Game]]''
*[[Newbery Medal]] for [[children's literature]]: [[Robin McKinley]], ''[[The Hero and the Crown]]''
*[[Pulitzer Prize for Drama]]: [[James Lapine]] for book; [[Stephen Sondheim]] for music and lyrics, ''[[Sunday in the Park With George]]''
*[[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]]: [[Alison Lurie]] – ''[[Foreign Affairs (novel)|Foreign Affairs]]''
*[[Pulitzer Prize for Poetry]]: [[Carolyn Kizer]]: ''Yin''
*[[Whiting Awards]] (inaugural year):
:Fiction: [[Raymond Abbott]], [[Stuart Dybek]], [[Wright Morris]] (fiction/nonfiction), [[Howard Norman]], [[James Robison (author)|James Robison]], [[Austin Wright]] (fiction/nonfiction)
:Poetry: [[Douglas Crase]], [[Jorie Graham]], [[Linda Gregg]], [[James Schuyler]]

===Elsewhere===
*[[Premio Nadal]]: [[Pau Faner Coll]] – ''Flor de sal''

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Portal|1980s|Literature}}
{{Year in literature article categories}}