The year 1973 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• Frank Herbert becomes director-photographer of the television show, The Tillers.
• Robert B. Parker starts the Spenser book series.

New books

• Martin Amis - The Rachel Papers
• Ernest Becker - The Denial of Death
• Joseph Payne Brennan - Stories of Darkness and Dread
• John Brunner - The Stone That Never Came Down
• Ramsey Campbell - Demons by Daylight
• Jerome Charyn - Tar Baby
• Basil Copper - From Evil's Pillow
• L. Sprague de Camp - The Fallible Fiend
• L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp, editors - 3000 Years of nd Science Fiction
• August Derleth - The Chronicles of Solar Pons
• Michael Ende - Momo
• Paul E. Erdman - The Billion Dollar Sure Thing
• Leon Forrest - There Is A Tree More Ancient Than Eden
• William Goldman - The Princess Bride
• Graham Greene - The Honorary Consul
• Elisabeth Harvor, Women and Children 11 stories (revised as Our Lady of All Distances, 1991)
• James Jones - A Touch of Danger
• Anna Kavan - Who Are You-
• Brian Killick - The Heralds
• Dean R. Koontz - Demon Seed
• Jerzy Kosinski - The Devil Tree
• Robert Ludlum - The Matlock Paper
• John D. MacDonald - The Turquoise Lament
• Cormac McCarthy - Child of God
• Ruth Manning-Sanders - A Book of Ogres and Trolls
• Robert Marasco - Burnt Offerings
• Toni Morrison - Sula
• Iris Murdoch - The Black Prince
• Robert B. Parker - The Godwulf Manuscript
• Mervyn Peake - The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb (posthumously published)
• Anthony Powell - Temporary Kings
• Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow
• Irwin Shaw - Evening in Byzantium
• Rex Stout - Please Pass the Guilt
• Jacqueline Susann - Once Is Not Enough
• Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
• Jack Vance - The Anome
• Gore Vidal - Burr
• Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Breakfast of Champions
• Patrick White - The Eye of the Storm
• Rudy Wiebe - Temptations of Big Bear
• Roger Zelazny
  • To Die in Italbar
  • Today We Choose Faces

New drama

• Alan Ayckbourn - The Norman Conquests

Poetry

Main article: 1973 in poetry

• Allen Curnow - An Abominable Temper and Other Poems
• Tomás Rivera - Always and other poems

Non-fiction

• Allan W. Eckert - The Court-Martial of Daniel Boone
• Antonia Fraser - Cromwell, our Chief of Men
• Tim O'Brien - If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Send Me Home
• John Pearson - James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007
• Binod Bihari Verma - Maithili Karna Kayasthak Panjik Sarvekshan Maithili book

Births

Deaths

• February 22 - Elizabeth Bowen, novelist
• March 6 - Pearl S. Buck
• March 26 - Sir Noel Coward, dramatist and humorist
• April 9 - Warren Lewis, author, Inkling, and brother of C. S. Lewis
• April 28 - Jacques Maritain, philosopher
• May 21 - Carlo Emilio Gadda, author
• June 9 - John Creasey, author
• June 30 - Nancy Mitford, English novelist and biographer
• July 29 - Henri Charrière, Papillon author
• September 2 - J. R. R. Tolkien, fantasy writer
• September 23 - Pablo Neruda, poet
• September 29 - W. H. Auden, poet
• October 28 - Sergio Tofano, dramatist
• December 9 - Anthony Gilbert, crime writer

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Patrick White

Canada

• See 1973 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

• Prix Goncourt: Jacques Chessex, L'Ogre
• Prix Médicis French: Tony Duvert, Paysage de fantaisie
• Prix Médicis International: Milan Kundera, Life Is Elsewhere

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
• Cholmondeley Award: Patric Dickinson, Philip Larkin
• Eric Gregory Award: John Beynon, Ian Caws, James Fenton, Keith Harris, David Howarth, Philip Pacey
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: John Heath-Stubbs

United States

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, John Crowe Ransom
• Hugo Award: Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves
• Nebula Award: Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Jean Craighead George, Julie of the Wolves
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Jason Miller, That Championship Season
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Eudora Welty, The Optimists Daughter
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Maxine Kumin, Up Country

Elsewhere

• Premio Nadal: José García Blázquez, El rito
• Viareggio Prize: Achille Campanile, Manuale di conversazione