Events February 24 - Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower, the author of the bestselling The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction given for the first time New Books Arabian Nights and Days - Naguib Mahfouz La Bicyclette Bleue (The Blue Bicycle) - Régine Deforges Bliss - Peter Carey Creation - Gore Vidal Cujo - Stephen King Distant Star - Samuel R. Delany Famous Last Words\ - Timothy Findley Flames Across the Border - Pierre Berton The Glitter Dome - Joseph Wambaugh Goodbye, Janette - Harold Robbins Gorky Park - Martin Cruz Smith Hotel New Hampshire - John Irving An Indecent Obsession - Colleen McCullough Masquerade - Kit Williams Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie No Time for Tears - Cynthia Freeman Nobel House - James Clavell Red Dragon - Thomas Harris Strata - Terry Pratchett Tar Baby - Toni Morrison The Third Deadly Sin - Lawrence Sanders Births Deaths January 6 - A.J. Cronin, writer Awards Booker Prize: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Chidlren See 1981 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. Nebula Award: Gene Wolfe, The Claw of the Conciliator Newbery Medal for children's literature: Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved Nobel Prize for Literature: Elias Canetti Prix Goncourt: Lucien Bodard, Anne Marie Prix Médicis French: François-Olivier Rousseau , L'Enfant d'Édouard Prix Médicis International: David Shahar, Le Jour de la comtesse Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Beth Henley, Crimes of the Heart Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Schuyler: The Morning of the Poem Whitbread Best Book Award: William Boyd, A Good Man in Africa