See also: 1973 in literature, other events of 1974, 1975 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New books

• All the President's Men - Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward
• Carrie - Stephen King
• Centennial - James A. Michener
• Crime Partners - Donald Goines
• The Cry of the Halidon - Robert Ludlum
• Death Sleep - John Hawkes
• The Diviners - Margaret Laurence
• The Dogs of War - Frederick Forsyth
• The Ebony Tower - John Fowles
• Ending Up - Kingsley Amis
• Falstaff - Robert Nye
• Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
• Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick
• The Last Days of Louisiana Red - Ishmael Reed
• Let Me Alone - Anna Kavan
• Look at the Harlequins - Vladimir Nabokov
• The Other Side of Midnight - Sidney Sheldon
• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - Annie Dillard
• The Pirate - Harold Robbins
• The Power Broker - Robert A. Caro
• Something Happened - Joseph Heller
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John le Carré
• Wait Until the Evening - Hal Bennett
• A Wind in the Door - Madeleine L'Engle
• Working - Studs Terkel

Births

• April 13 - K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (d. 2005)

Deaths

• March 24 - Olive Higgins Prouty, American novelist
• July 4 - Georgette Heyer, author
• October 4 - Anne Sexton, poet
• December 14 - Walter Lippmann, writer

Awards

• Booker Prize: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist
• See 1974 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Hugo Award: Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama
• Nebula Award: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Paula Fox , The Slave Dancer
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Evyind Johnson and Harry Martinson
• Prix Goncourt: Pascal Lainé , La Dentellière
• Prix Médicis French: Porporino ou les Mystèrs de Naples
• Prix Médicis International: Julio Cortázar, Libro de Manuel
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Lowell, The Dolphin
• Viareggio Prize: Clotilde Marghieri , Amati enigmi