# 1983 in Australian literature

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1983.

## Events

* The judges of the 1983 Miles Franklin Award announced there was no book entered of sufficient merit to receive the award.

## Major publications
### Novels

* Brian Castro — Birds of Passage
* Elizabeth Jolley
** Miss Peabody's Inheritance
** Mr Scobie's Riddle
* Peter Kocan — The Cure
* Kylie Tennant — Tantavallon
* Morris West — The World Is Made of Glass

### Crime and mystery

* Peter Corris — The Empty Beach
* Gabrielle Lord — Tooth and Claw
* Ian Moffitt — The Colour Man

### Science fiction and fantasy

* A. Bertram Chandler — Kelly Country
* Greg Egan – An Unusual Angle
* Lee Harding — Waiting for the End of the World
* George Turner — Yesterday's Men

### Short story collections

* Beverley Farmer — Milk
* Elizabeth Jolley — Woman in a Lampshade
* David Malouf — Antipodes

### Children's and young adult fiction

* Pamela Allen — Bertie and the Bear
* Mem Fox — Possum Magic
* Patricia Wrightson — A Little Fear

### Poetry

* Les Murray
** "Flowering Eucalypt in Autumn"
** The People's Otherworld : Poems

### Drama

* Stephen Sewell — The Blind Giant is Dancing

### Non-fiction

* Russell Braddon
** Japan Against the World
** The Other Hundred Years War
* Mary Durack — Sons in the Saddle
* Sylvia Lawson — The Archibald Paradox
* Megan McMurchy, Margot Oliver and Jeni Thornley — For Love or Money, a Pictorial History of Women and Work in Australia
* Lilith Norman — The brown and yellow: Sydney Girls' High School 1883–1983
* Cyril Pearl — The Dunera Scandal: Deported by Mistake
* Lloyd Robson — A History of Tasmania (Volume 1)
* Anne Summers — Gamble for Power: How Bob Hawke beat Malcolm Fraser: The 1983 federal election

## Awards and honours
### Member of the Order of Australia (AM)

* Joyce Nicholson, for "service to literature and the book publishing industry"
* Lu Rees, for "service to children's literature and the community"

### Lifetime achievement

| Award | Author |
| Christopher Brennan Award | Bruce Dawe |
| Patrick White Award | Marjorie Barnard |

### Literary awards

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Elizabeth Jolley | Mr Scobie's Riddle | Penguin |
| ALS Gold Medal | David Malouf | Child's Play; Fly Away Peter | Penguin |
| Colin Roderick Award | Dudley McCarthy | Gallipoli to the Somme — The Story of C.E.W. Bean | John Ferguson |

### Fiction

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Elizabeth Jolley | Mr Scobie's Riddle | Penguin |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Jenny Summerville | Shields of Trell | Allen and Unwin |
| Miles Franklin Award | No award | | |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Peter Kocan | The Cure | Angus & Robertson |

### Children and Young Adult

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | Victor Kelleher | Master of the Grove | Penguin Books |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Pamela Allen | Who Sank the Boat? | Nelson Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's Book Award | Pamela Allen | Who Sank the Boat? | Nelson Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Special Children's Book Award | Nadia Wheatley | Five Times Dizzy | Oxford University Press |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Anne Elder Award | David Brooks | The Cold Front | Hale and Iremonger |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Peter Porter | Collected Poems | Oxford University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Vivian Smith | Tide Country | Angus & Robertson |

### Drama

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Play | Nicholas Enright and Terence Clarke | Variations | Manuscript |

### Non-fiction

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | L. L. Robson | A History of Tasmania : Volume 1. : Van Dieman's Land from the Earliest Times to 1855 | Oxford University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Blanche d'Alpuget | Robert J. Hawke | Schwartz Books |

## Births

A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1983 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.
* 2 December — Tara June Winch, writer of Aboriginal and European descent

## Deaths

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1983 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.
* 20 January — Maie Casey, Baroness Casey, pioneer aviator, poet, librettist, biographer, memoirist and artist (born 1891)
* 23 January — Lu Rees, bookseller, book collector and children's literature advocate (born 1901)
* 8 February – Colin Simpson, journalist and travel writer (born 1908)
* 31 March — Christina Stead, novelist and short-story writer (born 1902)
* 25 August — Donald Stuart, novelist whose works include stories with Aboriginal backgrounds and a series recounting his experience as a prisoner of war in Burma in World War II (born 1913)
* 29 September — Alan Moorehead, war correspondent and author of popular histories (born 1910)
* 5 December — Gavin Greenlees, poet (born 1930)