1976 in literature

See also: 1975 in literature, other events of 1976, 1977 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Saul Bellow won both the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

New books

• 1876  – Gore Vidal
• The Alteration – Kingsley Amis
• Blubber  – Judy Blume
• The Canadian Establishment – Peter C. Newman
• The Dark Side of the Sun – Terry Pratchett
• The Deep  – Peter Benchley
• Dolores  – Jacqueline Susann
• Falstaff – Robert Nye
• The Final Days – Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein
• Flight To Canada – Ishmael Reed
• The Grass is Always Greener over the Septic Tank  – Erma Bombeck
• Infants of the Spring – Anthony Powell
• Inferno – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
• Just An Old Sweet Song – Melvin Van Peebles
• El beso de la mujer araña (Kiss of the Spider Woman) – Manuel Puig
• A Piece of My Heart – Richard Ford
• Roots  – Alex Haley
• Slapstick or Lonesome No More!  – Kurt Vonnegut
• Sleeping Murder  – Agatha Christie
• A Stranger in the Mirror – Sidney Sheldon
• The Sunflower – Simon Wiesenthal
• The Takeover – Muriel Spark
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing  – Judy Blume
• To Jerusalem and Back – Saul Bellow
• Trinity  – Leon Uris
• Triton – Samuel R. Delany

Births

• February 3 – Isla Fisher, actress and author

Deaths

• January 12 – Agatha Christie, best-selling crime writer
• February 12 – John Lewis, philosopher
• April 28 – Richard Hughes, novelist
• March 24 – E. H. Shepard, book illustrator
• September 10 – Dalton Trumbo, novelist and screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten
• December 21 – Munro Leaf, children's author
• date unknown – Yashpal, Hindi novelist
• date unknown – Robert Speaight, actor, biographer and essayist

Awards

• Booker Prize: David Storey, Saville
• See 1976 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Nebula Award: Frederik Pohl, Man Plus
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Susan Cooper, The Grey King
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Saul Bellow
• Prix Goncourt: Patrick Grainville, Les Flamboyants
• Prix Médicis French: Marc Cholodenko, Les États du désert
• Prix Médicis International: Doris Lessing, The Gold Coronet – United Kingdom
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Michael Bennett for concept, choreography, and direction; James Kirkwood for book, Marvin Hamlisch for lyrics, Nicholas Dante for music, A Chorus Line
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Saul Bellow – Humboldt's Gift
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: John Ashbery: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
• Viareggio Prize: Mario Tobino, La bella degli specchi