# 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* Peter Carey and Joan London join the list of authors who have withdrawn from contention for the Tasmania Pacific Region Prize.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.
* 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.
* 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.

## 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
* Nerida Newton – The Lambing Flat
* 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 & Bone
* Jaclyn Moriarty – Finding Cassie Crazy
* Martine Murray – How to Make a Bird
* Garth Nix
** Abhorsen
** Mister Monday
* Emily Rodda – Rowan of the Bukshah
* 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
* Bill Congreve – Southern Blood: New Australian Tales of the Supernatural
* 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
* 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 | Philip Salom |
| Patrick White Award | Janette Turner Hospital |

### Literary

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Sonya Hartnett | Of a Boy | Viking |
| ALS Gold Medal | Kate Jennings | Moral Hazard | Picador |
| Colin Roderick Award | Tom Keneally | The Tyrant's Novel | Doubleday |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Gail Jones | Black Mirror | Picador |

### 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 | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year Award | Sonya Hartnett | Of a Boy | Viking Books |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Nicholas Angel | Drown Them in the Sea | Allen and Unwin |
| The Australian/Vogel Literary Award | Ruth Balint | Troubled Waters | Allen and Unwin |
| Miles Franklin Award | Alex Miller | Journey to the Stone Country | Allen & Unwin |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Kate Jennings | Moral Hazard | Fourth Estate |
| Nita Kibble Literary Award | Gail Jones | Black Mirror | Picador |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Janette Turner Hospital | Due Preparations for the Plague | HarperCollins |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Brian Castro | Shanghai Dancing | Giramondo Publishing |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Gail Jones | Black Mirror | Picador |

### Children and Young Adult
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Older Readers | Markus Zusak | The Messenger | Macmillan Publishers |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Younger Readers | Catherine Bateson | Rain May and Captain Daniel | University of Queensland Press |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Picture Book | Norman Jorgensen, illus. Brian Harrison-Lever | In Flanders Fields | Fremantle Arts Centre Press |
| Children's Book of the Year Award | Early Childhood | Penny Matthews, illus. Andrew McLean | A Year on Our Farm | Omnibus Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Simon French | Where in the World | Little Hare Books |
| New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Young People's | Markus Zusak | The Messenger | Macmillan Publishers |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Children's | Catherine Bateson | Rain May and Captain Daniel | University of Queensland Press |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | Young Adult | David Metzenthen | Boys of Blood and Bone | Penguin Books |
| Victorian Premier's Literary Award | Young Adult Fiction | Margo Lanagan | Black Juice | Allen & Unwin |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Writing for Young Adults | Colin Bowles | Nights in the Sun | Penguin Books |
| Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Children's | Mark Greenwood | The Legend of Lasseter's Reef | Cygnet Books |

### Crime and Mystery
#### National

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Gabrielle Lord | Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing | Hodder Headline Australia |
| Davitt Award | Novel | Alex Palmer | Blood Redemption | HarperCollins |
| Davitt Award | Readers' Choice | Cathy Cole | Skin Deep | Duffy and Snellgrove |
| Davitt Award | Young Adult Novel | Natalie Jane Prior | Fireworks and Darkness | Angus & Robertson |
| Ned Kelly Award | Novel | Peter Temple | White Dog | Text Publishing |
| Ned Kelly Award | First novel | Alex Palmer | Blood Redemption | HarperCollins |
| Ned Kelly Award | True crime | Peter Lalor | Blood Stain | Allen & Unwin |
| Ned Kelly Award | Lifetime Achievement | Kerry Greenwood | | |

### Science fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Aurealis Award | Sf Novel | Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman | Fallen Gods | Telos Publishing |
| Aurealis Award | Sf Short Story | Brendan Duffy | "Louder Echo" | Agog! Terrific Tales |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Novel | Garth Nix | Abhorsen | Allen and Unwin |
| Aurealis Award | Fantasy Short Story | Lucy Sussex | "La Sentinelle" | Southern Blood: New Australian Tales of the Supernatural |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Novel | Victor Kelleher | Born of the Sea | Viking Books |
| Aurealis Award | Horror Short Story | Simon Brown | "Love is a Stone" | Gathering the Bones |
| Aurealis Award | Young Adult Novel | Garth Nix | Abhorsen | Allen and Unwin |
| Aurealis Award | Young Adult Novel | Carole Wilkinson | Dragonkeeper | Black Dog Books |
| Ditmar Award | Novel | Sean Williams and Shane Dix | Echoes of Earth | HarperCollins |
| Ditmar Award | Short Fiction | Deborah Biancotti | "King of All and The Metal Sentinel" | Agog! Fantastic Fiction |
| Ditmar Award | Collected Work | Cat Sparks ed. | Agog! Fantastic Fiction | Agog! Press |

### Poetry

| Award | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Not awarded | | |
| The Age Book of the Year | Laurie Duggan | Mangroves | University of Queensland Press |
| Anne Elder Award | Chris Andrews | Cut Lunch | Indigo |
| Anne Elder Award | Kathryn Lomer | Extraction of Arrows | University of Queensland Press |
| Grace Leven Prize for Poetry | Stephen Edgar | Lost in the Foreground | Duffy & Snellgrove |
| Mary Gilmore Prize | Not awarded | | |
| 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 |

### Non-Fiction

| Award | Category | Author | Title | Publisher |
| Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature | Non-Fiction | Not awarded | |
| The Age Book of the Year | Non-Fiction | Ann Galbally | Charles Condor: The Last Bohemian | Miegunyah Press |
| National Biography Award | Biography | Peter Rose | Rose Boys | Allen & Unwin |
| National Biography Award | Biography | 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 |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | Community and Regional History | Erik Eklund | Steel Town: The Making and Breaking of Port Kembla | Melbourne University Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | General History | David Garrioch | The Making of Revolutionary Paris | University of California Press |
| New South Wales Premier's History Awards | 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 |
| Queensland Premier's Literary Awards | 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 |

## Deaths

* 16 March – Susan McGowan, poet (born 1907 in Edinburgh, Scotland)
* 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 in Budapest, Hungary)
* 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)