1985 in literature

See also: 1984 in literature, other events of 1985, 1986 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New books

• The Accidental Tourist – Anne Tyler
• The Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome – Wayne Kritsberg
• At the Going Down of the Sun  – Elizabeth Darrell
• Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy
• Blood Music – Greg Bear
• The Cider House Rules  – John Irving
• Contact  – Carl Sagan
• The Damnation Game – Clive Barker
• Elvis and Me  – Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
• Eon – Greg Bear
• The Handmaid's Tale  – Margaret Atwood
• If Tomorrow Comes  – Sidney Sheldon
• Lake Wobegon Days  – Garrison Keillor
• Less Than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis
• Lonesome Dove – Larry McMurtry
• The Mammoth Hunters  – Jean M. Auel
• The Nuclear Age – Tim O'Brien
• Rebuilding Coventry – Sue Townsend
• Robots and Empire – Isaac Asimov
• The Secret Life of Saeed – Imil Habibi
• Secrets  – Danielle Steel
• Skeleton Crew  – Stephen King
• Texas  – James A. Michener
• Walking on Glass  – Iain Banks

Births

Deaths

• July 16 – Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel laureate
• August 30 – Taylor Caldwell
• December 7 – Robert Graves

Awards

• Booker Prize: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
• See 1985 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Nebula Award: Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Claude Simon
• Prix Goncourt: Yann Queffelec, Les Noces barbares
• Prix Médicis French: Michel Braudeau, Naissance d'une passion
• Prix Médicis International: Joseph Heller, God Knows
• 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
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carolyn Kizer: Yin
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Douglas Dunn, Elegies