This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1965.

You never heard such silence

— From Pinter's The Homecoming

• February 10 – Soviet fiction writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to five and seven years, respectively, for "anti-Soviet" writings.
• February 20 – While Soviet author and translator Valery Tarsis is abroad, the Soviet Union negates his citizenship.
• March 26 – Harold Pinter's play The Homecoming receives its world première at the New Theatre, Cardiff, from the Royal Shakespeare Company under Peter Hall.^[1] Its London première follows on June 3 at the Aldwych Theatre, with Vivien Merchant, Pinter's wife at this time, appearing. It also appears in print this year.
• May 26 – The world première of A High Wind in Jamaica, a film from Richard Hughes's 1929 novel, featuring the future novelist Martin Amis, son of Kingsley Amis, as a teenage actor.
• June 11 – International Poetry Incarnation, a performance poetry event, takes place at London's Royal Albert Hall before an audience of 7,000, with members of the Beat Generation featuring. Adrian Mitchell reads "To Whom It May Concern".
• June 17 – The London première of Frank Marcus' farce The Killing of Sister George (at the Duke of York's Theatre) is among the first mainstream British plays with lesbian characters. Beryl Reid plays the title rôle. It has been previewed in April at the Bristol Old Vic.^[2]
• June 19 – J. D. Salinger's novella "Hapworth 16, 1924" takes up most of an issue of The New Yorker magazine dated today.^[3] It will be the last of his works published before his death in 2010.^[4]
• June 30 – The English novelists Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard marry at Marylebone register office in London, as his second marriage and her third.^[5][6]
• November 10 – Chinese critic Yao Wenyuan publishes a review of a Beijing Opera production of Wu Han's Hai Rui Dismissed from Office in the Shanghai daily newspaper Wenhui Bao, claiming the drama to be counter-revolutionary, a starting point for the Cultural Revolution in China.
• unknown dates
  • After the text of Heiner Müller's play Der Bau (Construction Site) is published in Sinn und Form, authorities in East Germany prevent a stage première until 1980.^[7]
  • The Nebula Award is conceived by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.^[8] The first award will be made next year to Frank Herbert's Dune.^[9]
  • The National Library of New Zealand is formed by merging the Alexander Turnbull Library, the National Library Service and the General Assembly Library under the National Library Act of this year.^[10]

• February 1 – Louise Welsh, British writer of psychological thrillers
• February 20 – Philip Hensher, English fiction writer, critic and editor
• March 4
  • Andrew Collins, English journalist and scriptwriter
  • Anisul Hoque, Bangladeshi novelist, dramatist and journalist
• March 30 – Piers Morgan, English journalist and editor
• May 14 - Eoin Colfer, Irish children's books author
• June 2 – Sean Stewart, American-Canadian author
• June 22 – Gamal Abdul Nasir Zakaria, Indonesian lecturer and writer
• July 7 – Zoë Heller, English novelist
• July 31 – J. K. Rowling, English children's novelist
• August 1 – Sam Mendes, English theatre and film director
• September 29 – Nikolaj Frobenius, Norwegian novelist
• October 23 – Augusten Burroughs, American memoirist
• November 28 – Erwin Mortier, Belgian poet, novelist and translator writing in Flemish/Dutch
• November 29 – Lauren Child, English children's fiction writer and illustrator
• December 14 – Helle Helle, Danish novelist
• December 31 – Nicholas Sparks, American novelist
• unknown dates
  • Patience Agbabi, British performance poet^[11]
  • Mike McCormack, Irish fiction writer^[12]
  • Keith Mansfield, English novelist and publisher
  • Yishai Sarid, Israeli novelist and lawyer
  • Charlotte Wood, Australian novelist

• January 4 – T. S. Eliot, American-born English poet and dramatist (born 1888)
• January 12 – Lorraine Hansberry, American journalist and dramatist (cancer, born 1930)
• March 13 – Fan S. Noli, Albanian bishop and poet (born 1882)
• May 3 – Howard Spring, Welsh-born novelist and writer (born 1889)
• May 5 – Edgar Mittelholzer, Guyanese-born novelist (suicide, born 1909)
• May 19 – Maria Dąbrowska, Polish novelist, essayist and playwright (born 1889)
• June 5
  • Thornton Burgess, American children's author (born 1874)
  • Eleanor Farjeon, English children's writer and poet (born 1881)^[13]
• June 13 – Martin Buber, Austrian-born Jewish philosopher (born 1878)
• July 8 – Thomas Sigismund Stribling, American novelist (born 1881)
• July 9 – Jacques Audiberti, French Absurdist dramatist, poet and novelist (born 1899)
• July 28 – Rampo Edogawa (江戸川 乱歩, Taro Hirai), Japanese author and critic (born 1894)
• July 30 – Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (谷崎 潤一郎), Japanese novelist (born 1888)
• July 31 – John Metcalfe, English novelist and short story writer (born 1891)
• August 1 – Percy Lubbock, English essayist, critic and biographer (born 1879)
• August 6 – Aksel Sandemose, Danish novelist (born 1899)
• August 8 – Shirley Jackson, American horror novelist and short story writer (born 1916)
• August 17 – Jack Spicer, American poet (alcohol-related, born 1925)
• September 17 – John Davy Hayward, English literary editor and bibliophile (born 1905)
• October 8 – Thomas B. Costain, Canadian popular historian (born 1885)
• October 15 – Randall Jarrell, American poet (road accident, born 1914)
• October 30 – Arthur Schlesinger, Sr., American historian (born 1888)
• November 8 – Dorothy Kilgallen, American journalist (alcohol/drug overdose, born 1913)
• November 20 – Katharine Anthony, American biographer (born 1877)
• November 24 – Betty Miller, Irish-born Jewish writer (born 1910)
• December 16 – W. Somerset Maugham English novelist, dramatist and short story writer (born 1874)^[14]

• Nobel Prize for literature – Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov