2003 in Australian literature
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2003.
Events
- Peter Carey and Joan London join the list of authors who have withdrawn from contention for the Tasmania Pacific Region Prize. In 2002 Richard Flanagan and Tim Winton also declined to have their books nominated for the prize in protest at the involvement of Forestry Tasmania as a sponsor of the Ten Days on the Island festival at which the award winner is to be announced.[1]
- Members of The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) voted in their Society's 40th anniversary poll to select Australia's favourite book. Tim Winton's Cloudstreet headed the poll followed by The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead and The Fortunes of Richard Mahony by Henry Handel Richardson.[2]
- Nevil Shute's 1950 novel, A Town Like Alice was included in a BBC-sponsored UK survey of 100 popular novels, but has failed to make a similar Australian list.[3]
Major publications
Literary fiction
- Alan Atwood – Burke's Soldier
- Peter Carey – My Life as a Fake
- Brian Castro – Shanghai Dancing
- J. M. Coetzee – Elizabeth Costello
- Julian Davies – The Boy
- Nikki Gemmell – The Bride Stripped Bare
- Peter Goldsworthy – Three Dog Night
- Shirley Hazzard – The Great Fire
- Kathryn Heyman – The Accomplice
- Janette Turner Hospital – Due Preparations for the Plague
- M. J. Hyland – How the Light Gets In
- Annamarie Jagose – Slow Water
- Nada A. Jarrar – Somewhere, Home
- Tom Keneally – The Tyrant's Novel
- Kathy Lette – Dead Sexy
- Colleen McCullough – The Touch
- Elliot Perlman – Seven Types of Ambiguity
- D. B. C. Pierre – Vernon God Little
- Patricia Shaw – The Five Winds
- Sue Woolfe – The Secret Cure
Children's and Young Adult fiction
- Pamela Allen – Cuthbert's Babies
- Paul Collins – The Earthborn
- Kate Constable – The Waterless Sea
- Marianne Curley – The Dark
- Justin D'Ath – Shaedow Master
- Garry Disher – Eva's Angel
- John Heffernan – GBH
- Melina Marchetta – Saving Francesca
- David Metzenthen – Boys of Blood and Bone
- Jaclyn Moriarty – Finding Cassie Crazy
- Garth Nix
- Janeen Webb – The Silken Road to Samarkand
Crime
- Kirsty Brooks – The Vodka Dialogue
- Ian Callinan – Appointment at Amalfi
- Jon Cleary – Degrees of Connection
- Peter Corris – Master's Mates
- Michelle de Kretser – The Hamilton Case
- Garry Disher – Kittyhawk Down
- Kerry Greenwood – The Castlemaine Murders: A Phryne Fisher Mystery
- Wayne Grogan – Junkie Pilgrim
- Gabrielle Lord – Lethal Factor
- Barry Maitland – The Verge Practice
- Matthew Reilly – Scarecrow
- Gregory David Roberts – Shantaram
- Michael Robotham – The Suspect
- Steve J. Spears – Murder at the Fortnight
- Peter Temple – White Dog
- Lee Tulloch – The Cutting: A Nullin Mystery
- Robin Wallace-Crabbe – The Forger
Romance
- Ally Blake – The Wedding Wish
- Lucy Clark – Englishman at Dingo Creek
- Barbara Hannay – A Wedding at Windaroo
- Stephanie Laurens – A Gentleman's Honor
- Di Morrissey – Barra Creek
- Candice R. Proctor – Beyond Sunrise
- Meredith Webber – Outback Encounter
Science Fiction and Fantasy
- Max Barry – Jennifer Government
- K. A. Bedford – Orbital Burn
- K. J. Bishop – The Etched City
- Russell Blackford – An Evil Hour
- Trudi Canavan – The High Lord
- Cecilia Dart-Thornton – The Battle of Evernight
- Sara Douglass – God's Concubine
- Jennifer Fallon
- Eye of the Labyrinth
- Lord of the Shadows
- Lian Hearn – Grass for His Pillow
- Ian Irvine – Terminator Gene
- Victor Kelleher – Born of the Sea
- Glenda Larke – The Aware
- Fiona McIntosh – Myrren's Gift
- Anthony O'Neill – The Lamplighter
- Kate Orman – Blue Box
- Tony Shillitoe – Freedom
- Kim Wilkins – The Autumn Castle
- Sean Williams and Shane Dix – Heirs of Earth
Drama
- Mireille Juchau – White Gifts
- Hannie Rayson – Inheritance
- Henri Szeps – One Life, Two Journeys
- David Williamson – Birthrights
Poetry
- Judith Beveridge – Wolf Notes
- Laurie Duggan – Mangroves
- Stephen Edgar – Lost in the Foreground
- Clive James – The Book of My Enemy : Collected Verse, 1958–2003
- John Kinsella – Peripheral Light
Non-fiction
- Fiona Capp – That Oceanic Feeling
- Inga Clendinnen – Dancing with Strangers
- Patricia Crawford and Ian Crawford – Contested Country: A History of the Northcliffe Area
- David Hollinsworth – They Took the Children
- Stuart Macintyre and Anna Clark – The History Wars
- Peter Robb – A Death in Brazil
Biographies
- Graeme Blundell – King: The Life and Comedy of Graham Kennedy
- Lorraine Day – Gordon of Dingley Dell: The Life of Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833–1870): Poet and Horseman
- Edward Duyker – Citizen Labillardiere: A Naturalist's Life in Revolution and Exploration (1755–1834)
- Greg Growden – The Snowy Baker Story
- Barry Hill – Broken Song: T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession
- Tom Keneally – Abraham Lincoln
- Jonathan King – Gallipoli: Our Last Man Standing: The Extraordinary Life of Alec Campbell
- Garry Linnell – Playing God: The Rise and Fall of Gary Ablett
- Peter Singer – Pushing Time Away: My Grandfather and the Tragedy of Jewish Vienna
- Nicholas Thomas – Discoveries: The Voyages of Captain Cook
- Anne Whitehead – Bluestocking in Patagonia
Awards and honours
Note: these awards were presented in the year in question.
Lifetime achievement
| Award | Author |
|---|---|
| Christopher Brennan Award[4] | Philip Salom |
| Patrick White Award[5] | Janette Turner Hospital |
Fiction
International
| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Best Novel, SE Asia and South Pacific region | Sonya Hartnett | Of a Boy | Viking Books |
National
| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Age Book of the Year | Fiction | Sonya Hartnett | Of a Boy | Viking Books |
| ALS Gold Medal | Kate Jennings | Moral Hazard | Fourth Estate | |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Nicholas Angel | Drown Them in the Sea | Allen and Unwin | |
| Ruth Balint | Troubled Waters | Allen and Unwin | ||
| Colin Roderick Award | Tom Keneally | The Tyrant's Novel | Doubleday | |
| Miles Franklin Award[6] | Alex Miller | Journey to the Stone Country | Allen & Unwin | |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Fiction | Kate Jennings | Moral Hazard | Fourth Estate |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Gail Jones | Black Mirror | Picador | |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Fiction | Janette Turner Hospital | Due Preparations for the Plague | HarperCollins |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Fiction | Brian Castro | Shanghai Dancing | Giramondo Publishing |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Fiction | Gail Jones | Black Mirror | Picador |
Children and Young Adult
National
Crime and Mystery
National
| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davitt Award | Novel | Gabrielle Lord | Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing | Hodder Headline Australia |
| Alex Palmer | Blood Redemption | HarperCollins | ||
| Ned Kelly Award | Novel | Peter Temple | White Dog | Text Publishing |
| First novel | Alex Palmer | Blood Redemption | HarperCollins |
Science fiction
| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aurealis Award | Sf Novel | Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman | Fallen Gods | Telos Publishing |
| Sf Short Story | Brendan Duffy | "Louder Echo" | Agog! Terrific Tales | |
| Fantasy Novel | Garth Nix | Abhorsen | Allen and Unwin | |
| Fantasy Short Story | Lucy Sussex | "La Sentinelle" | Southern Blood: New Australian Tales of the Supernatural | |
| Horror Novel | Victor Kelleher | Born of the Sea | Viking Books | |
| Horror Short Story | Simon Brown | "Love is a Stone" | Gathering the Bones | |
| Young Adult Novel | Garth Nix | Abhorsen | Allen and Unwin | |
| Carole Wilkinson | Dragonkeeper | Black Dog Books | ||
| Ditmar Award | Novel | Sean Williams and Shane Dix | Echoes of Earth | HarperCollins |
| Short Fiction | Deborah Biancotti | "King of All and The Metal Sentinel" | Agog! Fantastic Fiction | |
| Collected Work | Cat Sparks ed. | Agog! Fantastic Fiction | Agog! Press |
Non-Fiction
| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Age Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Ann Galbally | Charles Condor: The Last Bohemian | Miegunyah Press |
| National Biography Award | Peter Rose | Rose Boys | Allen & Unwin | |
| Don Watson | Recollections of a Bleeding Heart : a Portrait of Paul Keating PM | Random House | ||
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Non-Fiction | Mark McKenna | Looking for Blackfellas' Point: An Australian History of Place | University of New South Wales Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Australian History | James Bowen and Margarita Bowen | The Great Barrier Reef: History, Science, Heritage |
Cambridge University Press |
| Community and Regional History | Erik Eklund | Steel Town: The Making and Breaking of Port Kembla | Melbourne University Press | |
| General History | David Garrioch | The Making of Revolutionary Paris | University of California Press | |
| Young People's | Alan Tucker | My Story: The Bombing of Darwin, The Diary of Tom Taylor | Scholastic Press | |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Non-fiction | Margaret Simons | Meeting of the Waters | Hachette Australia |
| History | Richard Bosworth | Mussolini | Oxford University Press | |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Non-fiction | Graeme Davison | Car Wars: How the Car Won Our Hearts and Conquered Our Cities | Allen & Unwin |
Poetry
| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Age Book of the Year | Laurie Duggan | Mangroves | University of Queensland Press |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Stephen Edgar | Lost in the Foreground | Duffy & Snellgrove |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Jill Jones | Screens Jets Heaven: New and Selected Poems | Salt Publishing |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Emma Lew | Anything the Landlord Touches | Giramondo Publishing |
Drama
| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patrick White Playwrights' Award | David Milroy and Ningali Lawford | Windmill Baby | Currency Press |
Deaths
- 16 March – Susan McGowan, poet (born 1907)
- 18 March – Julie Lewis, short story writer (born 1925)
- 30 March – Nick Enright, playwright and screenwriter (born 1950)
- 2 April – Joan Phipson, writer for children and young adults (born 1912)
- 20 April – Bill Wannan, editor (born 1915)
- 1 May – Stephen Estaban Kelen, dramatist (born 1912)
- 28 June – Clem Christesen, poet and founding editor of Meanjin (born 1911)
- 30 June – Oriel Gray, playwright and screenwriter (born 1920)
- 23 November – Hesba Brinsmead, writer for children (born 1922)
See also
- 2003 in Australia
- 2003 in literature
- 2003 in poetry
- List of years in literature
- List of years in Australian literature
References
- ^ Austlit Gateway News March/April 2003
- ^ Austlit Gateway News July/August 2003
- ^ Austlit Gateway News September/October 2003
- ^ "Austlit — FAW Christopher Brennan Award". Austlit. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
- ^ "Austlit — Patrick White Award - Past Winners". Austlit. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
- ^ "Austlit — Miles Franklin Literary Award (1957-)". Austlit. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
Note: all references relating to awards can, or should be, found on the relevant award's page.
 Years in Australian literature (1852–present) | |
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| 19th century | |
| 20th century |
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| 21st century | |