See also: 1969 in literature, other events of 1970, 1971 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Deliverance by American poet James Dickey published. In 2001, the book would be named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.

New books

• Ali and Nino - Kurban Said
• Ball Four - Jim Bouton
• Eagle in the Snow - Wallace Breem
• The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
• The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart
• Deliverance - James Dickey
• The Fall of the Towers (Trilogy) - Samuel R. Delany
• Fifth Business - Robertson Davies
• Frederick the Great - Nancy Mitford
• The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles
• The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight - Jimmy Breslin
• Great Lion of God - Taylor Caldwell
• A Happy Death (La Mort heureuse) - Albert Camus
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
• I'm the King of the Castle - Susan Hill
• Inside the Third Reich - Albert Speer
• Julia and the Bazooka - Anna Kavan
• Kamouraska - Anne Hébert
• Love Story - Erich Segal
• The Naked Face - Sidney Sheldon
• The National Dream - Pierre Berton
• Only the Ball was White - Robert Peterson
• QB VII - Leon Uris
• Ringworld - Larry Niven
• The Trumpet Of The Swan - E.B. White
• Travels with My Aunt - Graham Greene

Births

• September 10 - Phaswane Mpe, novelist, (d. 2004)

Deaths

• April 11 - John O'Hara, novelist
• November 25 - Yukio Mishima, Japanese author and rightist political activist (suicide)

Awards

• Booker Prize: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
• See 1970 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Hugo Award: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
• Nebula Award: Larry Niven, Ringworld
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: William H. Armstrong , Sounder
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• Prix Goncourt: Michel Tournier , Le Roi des Aulnes
• Prix Médicis French: Camille Bourniquel , Sélinonte ou la Chambre impériale
• Prix Médicis International: Luigi Malerba, Saut de la mort
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Charles Gordone , No Place To Be Somebody
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Jean Stafford, Collected Stories
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Richard Howard, Untitled Subjects
• Viareggio Prize: Nello Saito , Dentro e fuori