2003 in literature

The year 2003 in literature involved some significant new books.

New books

 * Peter Ackroyd - The Clerkenwell Tales
 * Atsuko Asano - No. 6
 * Paul Auster - Oracle Night
 * Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Purple Hibiscus
 * Mitch Albom - The Five People You Meet in Heaven
 * Martin Amis - Yellow Dog
 * Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake
 * Max Barry - Jennifer Government
 * Greg Bear - Darwin's Children
 * Hilari Bell - Fall of a Kingdom
 * Thomas Berger - ''Best Friends
 * Giles Blunt - The Delicate Storm
 * Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code
 * Lars Saabye Christensen - Maskeblomstfamilien
 * Paolo Coelho - Eleven Minutes
 * J. M. Coetzee - Elizabeth Costello
 * Deborah Joy Corey - The Skating Pond
 * Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Havoc, Sharpe's Christmas and Heretic
 * Douglas Coupland - Hey Nostradamus!
 * Robert Crais - The Last Detective
 * Julie E. Czerneda - Space, Inc.
 * Jeffery Deaver - Twisted
 * Don DeLillo - Cosmopolis
 * Cory Doctorow - A Place So Foreign and Eight More and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
 * Gerard Donovan - Schopenhauer's Telescope
 * Fernanda Eberstadt - The Furies
 * William Gibson -Pattern Recognition
 * Jean-Christophe Grangé - L'Empire des loups
 * John Grisham - The King of Torts
 * Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel
 * Joanne Harris - Holy Fools
 * Victor Heck
 * The Asylum Vol 2 - The Violent Ward
 * The Asylum Vol 3 - The Quiet Ward
 * Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner
 * Jennifer Haigh - Mrs. Kimble
 * Zoë Heller - Notes on a Scandal
 * Michel Houellebecq - Lanzarote
 * Pope John Paul II - Roman Triptych. Meditations
 * Alan Judd - The Kaiser's Last Kiss
 * Greg Keyes - The Final Prophecy
 * Stephen King - Wolves of the Calla
 * Dean R. Koontz - The Face
 * Jonathan Lethem - The Fortress of Solitude
 * James Luceno - The Unifying Force
 * Steve Martini - The Arraignment
 * Magnus Mills - The Scheme for Full Employment
 * Julie Myerson - Something Might Happen
 * Andrew Neiderman - The Baby Squad
 * Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife
 * Garth Nix - Mister Monday
 * Chuck Palahniuk - Diary
 * Christopher Paolini - Eragon
 * Carolyn Parkhurst - The Dogs of Babel
 * DBC Pierre - Vernon God Little
 * Terry Pratchett - Monstrous Regiment and The Wee Free Men
 * Matthew Reilly - Scarecrow
 * J. Jill Robinson - Residual Desire
 * J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Nick Sagan - Idlewild
 * Matthew Sharpe - The Sleeping Father
 * Michael Slade - Bed of Nails
 * Lemony Snicket - The Slippery Slope
 * Wilbur Smith - Blue Horizon
 * Olen Steinhauer - The Bridge of Sighs
 * Neal Stephenson - Quicksilver (Vol. I of the Baroque Cycle)
 * Matthew Stover - Shatterpoint
 * Anthony Swofford - Jarhead
 * Miguel Sousa Tavares - Ecuador
 * Adam Thirlwell - Politics
 * Akira Toriyama - Tenshi no Tocchio
 * Sergio Troncoso - The Nature of Truth
 * Andrew Vachss - The Getaway Man''
 * Irvine Welsh - Porno
 * Sean Williams & Shane Dix - Force Heretic: Remnant, Force Heretic: Refugee and Force Heretic: Reunion
 * Tobias Wolff - Old School
 * Roger Zelazny - Manna from Heaven

New drama

 * Richard Greenberg - The Violet Hour
 * Kwame Kwei-Armah - Elmina's Kitchen

Poetry

 * Dean Kalimniou - Kipos Esokleistos

Non-fiction

 * Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh
 * Gerina Dunwich – Dunwich's Guide to Gemstone Sorcery
 * Marc Ferro - Le livre noir du colonialisme
 * John Fowles – The Journals - Volume 1
 * James Frost – Merchant Princes, Halifax's First Family of Finance, Ships and Steel
 * Mattias Gardell - Gods of the Blood
 * A.C. Grayling - What Is Good?: The Search for the Best Way to Live
 * Erik Larson – The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
 * Don Miller – Blue Like Jazz
 * Michael Moore – Dude, Where's My Country?
 * Azar Nafisi - Reading Lolita in Tehran
 * Alanna Nash – The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley
 * Chuck Palahniuk – Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon
 * Clark Ashton Smith – Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith
 * David Starkey – Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII
 * Lynne Truss – Eats, Shoots & Leaves
 * Jane Smiley – Charles Dickens

Deaths

 * February 16 - Aleksandar Tišma, Serb novelist
 * February 26 - Quentin Keynes, bibliophile
 * March 11 - Brian Cleeve, writer and broadcaster
 * September 3 - Alan Dugan, poet
 * March 12 - Howard Fast, American novelist
 * April 7 - Cecile de Brunhoff, children's author
 * June 21 - George Axelrod, dramatist and screenwriter
 * June 21 - Leon Uris, novelist
 * July 10 - Winston Graham, novelist
 * July 16 - Carol Shields, novelist
 * November 9 - Binod Bihari Verma, Maithili littérateur
 * December 2 - Alan Davidson, food writer

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: J. M. Coetzee

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Nicholas Angel, Drown Them in the Sea
 * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Emma Lew, Anything the Landlord Touches
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Jill Jones, Screens Jets Heaven
 * Miles Franklin Award: Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country

Canada

 * Giller Prize: M.G. Vassanji - The In-Between World of Vikram Lall
 * See 2003 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of the winners of those awards.
 * Griffin Poetry Prize: Margaret Avison, Concrete and Wild Carrot and Paul Muldoon, Moy sand and gravel

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: D.B.C. Pierre, Vernon God Little
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light
 * Cholmondeley Award: Ciarán Carson, Michael Donaghy, Lavinia Greenlaw, Jackie Kay
 * Eric Gregory Award: Jen Hadfield, Zoe Brigley, Paul Batchelor, Olivia Cole, Sasha Dugdale, Anna Woodford
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Volume 2 - The Power of Place
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Andrew O'Hagan, Personality
 * Orange Prize for Fiction: Valerie Martin, Property
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: U. A. Fanthorpe
 * Whitbread Book of The Year Award: Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel

United States

 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: David Shumate, High Water Mark
 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry: W.S. Merwin
 * Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Julie Sheehan, “Brown-headed Cow Birds”
 * Bollingen Prize for Poetry: Adrienne Rich
 * Brittingham Prize in Poetry: Brian Teare, The Room Where I Was Born
 * Compton Crook Award: Patricia Bray, Devlin's Luck
 * Frost Medal: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
 * Hugo Award: Robert J. Sawyer, Hominids
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Avi, Crispin: The Cross of Lead
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
 * Wallace Stevens Award: Richard Wilbur

Elsewhere

 * International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Orhan Pamuk My Name is Red
 * Premio Nadal: Andrés Trapiello, Los amigos del crimen perfecto