2003 in literature

Events

• February 12 – An invitation from the First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush, for some poets to attend a conference at the White House is postponed when one of them, Sam Hamill, organizes a "Poets Against the War" group for poetry readings across the United States on the same date.
• February 15 – Anti-war protests occur in London. They are later used as the setting for Ian McEwan's 2005 novel Saturday.
• March – The University of Mosul library is damaged and looted during the Iraq War, but many volumes are removed for protection by staff.
• April 14 – The Iraq National Library and Archive is burned down during the Battle of Baghdad.
• April – Nicholas Hytner succeeds Sir Trevor Nunn as artistic director of London's Royal National Theatre.
• November 7 – UNESCO places among the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity wayang kulit, a shadow puppet theatre and best known of the Indonesian wayang.

New books

Fiction

• Peter Ackroyd – The Clerkenwell Tales
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Purple Hibiscus
• Mitch Albom – The Five People You Meet in Heaven
• Monica Ali – Brick Lane
• Martin Amis – Yellow Dog
• Margaret Atwood – Oryx and Crake
• Paul Auster – Oracle Night
• Max Barry – Jennifer Government
• Greg Bear – Darwin's Children
• Frédéric Beigbeder – Windows on the World
• Hilari Bell – Fall of a Kingdom
• Thomas Berger – Best Friends
• Giles Blunt – The Delicate Storm
• Frank Brennan – Tampering with Asylum
• Dan Brown – The Da Vinci Code
• Angus Peter Campbell – An Oidhche Mus Do Sheol Sinn
• Lars Saabye Christensen – Maskeblomstfamilien
• Paulo Coelho – Eleven Minutes
• J. M. Coetzee – Elizabeth Costello
• Deborah Joy Corey – The Skating Pond
• Bernard Cornwell
  • Sharpe's Havoc
  • Sharpe's Christmas
  • Heretic
• Douglas Coupland – Hey Nostradamus!
• Robert Crais – The Last Detective
• Julie E. Czerneda – Space, Inc.
• Jeffery Deaver – Twisted
• Don DeLillo – Cosmopolis
• Kate DiCamillo – The Tale of Despereaux
• Cory Doctorow
  • A Place So Foreign and Eight More
  • Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
• Gerard Donovan – Schopenhauer's Telescope
• Fernanda Eberstadt – The Furies
• Rodrigo Fresán – Jardines de Kensington
• Cornelia Funke – Inkheart
• Anna Gavalda – I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere (translation)
• William Gibson – Pattern Recognition
• Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen – Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War
• Jean-Christophe Grangé – L'Empire des loups
• John Grisham – The King of Torts
• Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Barons
• Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• Pete Hamill – Forever
• Joanne Harris – Holy Fools
• Shirley Hazzard – The Great Fire
• Victor Heck – The Asylum
  • Vol 2 – The Violent Ward
  • Vol 3 – The Quiet Ward
• Jennifer Haigh – Mrs. Kimble
• Zoë Heller – Notes on a Scandal
• Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner
• Michel Houellebecq – Lanzarote
• Evan Hunter – The Frumious Bandersnatch
• Alan Judd – The Kaiser's Last Kiss
• N. M. Kelby – Theater of the Stars: A Novel of Physics and Memory
• Thomas Keneally – The Tyrant's Novel
• Greg Keyes – The Final Prophecy
• Stephen King – Wolves of the Calla
• Dean R. Koontz – The Face
• Dean R. Koontz – Odd Thomas
• Jhumpa Lahiri – The Namesake
• Dennis Lehane – Shutter Island
• Jonathan Lethem – The Fortress of Solitude
• James Luceno – The Unifying Force
• Steve Martini – The Arraignment
• Magnus Mills – The Scheme for Full Employment
• Paul Murray – An Evening of Long Goodbyes
• 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
• Per Petterson – Out Stealing Horses (Ut og stjæle hester)
• DBC Pierre – Vernon God Little
• Terry Pratchett
  • Monstrous Regiment
  • The Wee Free Men
• Jean Raspail – Les Royaumes de Borée
• Matthew Reilly – Scarecrow
• Nina Revoyr – Southland
• Tom Robbins – Villa Incognito
• J. Jill Robinson – Residual Desire
• Nick Sagan – Idlewild
• Matthew Sharpe – The Sleeping Father
• Wilbur Smith – Blue Horizon
• Olen Steinhauer – The Bridge of Sighs
• Neal Stephenson – Quicksilver (Vol. I of the Baroque Cycle)
• Matthew Stover – Shatterpoint
• Jonathan Stroud – The Amulet of Samarkand
• Anthony Swofford – Jarhead
• Miguel Sousa Tavares – Equador
• Adam Thirlwell – Politics
• Akira Toriyama (鳥山 明) – Toccio the Angel (Tenshi no Tocchio)
• Sergio Troncoso – The Nature of Truth
• Andrew Vachss – The Getaway Man
• Mario Vargas Llosa – The Way to Paradise (El paraíso en la otra esquina)
• Jo Walton – Tooth and Claw
• Irvine Welsh – Porno
• Tobias Wolff – Old School
• Roger Zelazny – Manna from Heaven (short stories)

Children and young people

• David Almond – The Fire-Eaters
• Atsuko Asano – No. 6 (あさの あつこ)
• Cressida Cowell – How to Train Your Dragon (first in the eponymous series of 16 books)
• Madonna - The English Roses
• Elizabeth Laird – The Garbage King
• Jim Murphy – An American Plague: the true and terrifying story of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793
• Jenny Nimmo – Charlie Bone and the Time Twister
• Tyne O'Connell – Pulling Princes
• Philip Reeve – Predator's Gold
• J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Lemony Snicket – The Slippery Slope
• Dugald Steer (with Helen Ward, Wayne Anderson, etc.) – Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons
• Mo Willems - Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (first in a series of 8 books)
• Ann Turnbull – No Shame, No Fear
• Kay Winters (with Barry Moser) – Voices of Ancient Egypt
• Yang Hongying (楊紅櫻) – Four Troublemakers (四个调皮蛋, first in the Mo's Mischief – 淘气包马小跳 – series of 8 books)
• Peter H. Reynolds - The Dot

Drama

• Jordi Galceran – El mètode Grönholm (The Grönholm method)
• Richard Greenberg – The Violet Hour
• David Hare – The Permanent Way
• Kwame Kwei-Armah – Elmina's Kitchen
• Lynn Nottage – Intimate Apparel
• Mark O'Rowe – Crestfall
• Abhi Subedi – Agniko Katha

Poetry

Main article: 2003 in poetry

• Lavinia Greenlaw – Minsk
• Pope John Paul II – Roman Triptych. Meditations
• Dean Kalimniou – Kipos Esokleistos

Non–fiction

• Banglapedia – National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh
• Neal Bascomb – Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City
• Patricia Brown – A League Of My Own: Memoir of a Pitcher for the All-American Girls
• Andrea Curtis – Into the Blue
• Richard Dawkins – A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
• Gerina Dunwich – Dunwich's Guide to Gemstone Sorcery
• Jerry A. Eichenberger – Your Pilot's License
• Marc Ferro – Le Livre noir du colonialisme
• John Fowles – The Journals – Volume 1
• Anna Funder – Stasiland
• Mattias Gardell – Gods of the Blood
• A. C. Grayling – What Is Good?: The Search for the Best Way to Live
• Christopher Hitchens – A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq
• Erik Larson – The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
• Bethany McLean – The Smartest Guys in the Room
• 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
• Daniel Okrent – Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center
• Chuck Palahniuk – Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon
• Rudy Ruiz – ¡ADELANTE!: una guía personal del éxito para usted y su familia (a guide for success for immigrants)
• Jane Smiley – Charles Dickens
• Clark Ashton Smith – Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith
• David Starkey – Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII
• Lynne McTaggart – The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe
• Amy Tan – The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings
• Lynne Truss – Eats, Shoots & Leaves
• Penny Wolfson – Moonrise

Films

• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Deaths

• January 5 – Jean Kerr, American author and playwright (born 1923)
• January 21 – Paul Haines, American-born Canadian poet and songwriter (born 1933)
• February 16 – Aleksandar Tišma, Serbian novelist (born 1924)
• February 26 – Quentin Keynes, English explorer, writer and filmmaker (born 1921)
• March 11 – Brian Cleeve, English-born Irish writer and broadcaster (born 1921)
• March 12 – Howard Fast, American novelist (born 1914)
• March 14 – Lucian Boz, Romanian and Australian literary critic (born 1908)
• April 3 – Michael Kelly, American journalist (born 1957)
• April 7 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French children's writer (born 1903)
• June 21
  • George Axelrod, American dramatist and screenwriter (born 1922)
  • Leon Uris, American novelist (born 1924)
• July 6 – Kathleen Raine, English poet, scholar, and translator (born 1908)
• July 10 – Winston Graham, English novelist (born 1908)
• July 14 – Éva Janikovszky, Hungarian novelist and children's writer (born 1926)
• July 15 – Roberto Bolaño, Chilean-born fiction writer (born 1953)
• July 16 – Carol Shields, American-born Canadian novelist (breast cancer; born 1935)
• September 3 – Alan Dugan, American poet (born 1923)
• September 12 – Profira Sadoveanu, Romanian journalist, memoirist, biographer, editor and translator (born 1906)
• September 24 – Derek Prince, English biblical scholar, author and radio presenter (born 1915)
• September 25 – Edward Said, Palestinian-American literary critic (born 1935)
• November 9 – Alan Davidson, Northern Irish historian and food writer (born 1924)
• December 3 – Sita Ram Goel, Indian historian, publisher and author (born 1921)
• December 11 – Ahmadou Kourouma, Ivorian writer (born 1927)
• December 12 – Fadwa Toukan, Palestinian poet (born 1917)

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
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Alison Watt, The Last Island

Sweden

• Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: Maurice Sendak and Christine Nöstlinger

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
• Caine Prize for African Writing: Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, "Weight of Whispers"
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light
• Cholmondeley Award: Ciarán Carson, Michael Donaghy, Lavinia Greenlaw, Jackie Kay
• David Cohen Prize: Beryl Bainbridge, Thom Gunn
• Eric Gregory Award: Jen Hadfield, Zoë 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
• Lambda Literary Awards: Multiple categories; see 2003 Lambda Literary Awards
• National Book Award for Fiction: Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire
• National Book Critics Circle Award: Edward P. Jones, The Known World
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Avi, Crispin: The Cross of Lead
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Sabina Murray, The Caprices
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
• Wallace Stevens Award: Richard Wilbur
• Whiting Awards: :Fiction: Courtney Angela Brkic (fiction/nonfiction), Alexander Chee, Agymah Kamau, Ann Pancake, Lewis Robinson, Jess Row :Nonfiction: Christopher Cokinos, Trudy Dittmar :Plays: Sarah Ruhl :Poetry: Major Jackson

Other

• Camões Prize: Rubem Fonseca
• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Susan Sontag
• International Dublin Literary Award: Orhan Pamuk My Name is Red
• Premio Nadal: Andrés Trapiello, Los amigos del crimen perfecto
• SAARC Literary Award: Tissa Abeysekara, Laxman Gaikwad

Notes

References

References

1. Knowles, Joe. (2003-02-14). "Poets Against the War". In These Times.
2. [[Christopher Hitchens]]. (April 2005). "Civilisation and its malcontents". The Atlantic.
3. Eskander, Saad. (December 2004). "The Tale of Iraq's 'Cemetery of Books'". Information Today.
4. (25 September 2001). "Hytner appointment welcomed".
5. [http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?RL=00039 Indonesian wayang Inscribed in 2003 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity].
6. Will Hammond. (10 August 2003). "Old London calling".
7. Lane, Harriet. (1 June 2003). "Ali's in Wonderland". [[The Observer]].
8. Young, Richard. (2011). "Historical dictionary of Latin American literature and theater". Scarecrow Press.
9. Charlotte Moore. (24 May 2003). "Just the facts, ma'am".
10. John Homans. (March 10, 2003). "The Three Wives Club".
11. Stuhr, Rebecca. (2009). "Reading Khaled Hosseini". Greenwood Press.
12. Hahn 2015, p. 21
13. Hahn 2015, p. 332-333
14. Hahn 2015, p. 408
15. Hahn 2015, p. 492
16. Hahn 2015, pp. 264-265
17. (2011). "21st-century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000". Scarecrow Press.
18. Goodreads, [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4825775-into-the-blue ''Into the Blue''], Book review, Retrieved 11/27/2012
19. Eichenberger, J.. (2003). "Your Pilot's License". Mcgraw-hill.
20. (8 July 2003). "Obituary: Kathleen Raine".
21. "Winston Graham obituary". The Independent.
22. Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. (July 18, 2003). "Carol Shields, Pulitzer-Prize Winning Novelist, Dies at 68". The New York Times.
23. Bernstein, Richard. (26 September 2003). "Edward W. Said, Literary Critic and Advocate for Palestinian Independence, Dies at 67". The New York Times.
24. Busby, Margaret. (16 December 2003). "Ahmadou Kourouma". [[The Independent]].
25. link. (2014-06-06 , ''Wilfrid Laurier University'', Previous winners, Alison Watt, Retrieved 11/27/2012)
26. Hahn 2015, p. 653
27. Hahn 2015, p. 661
28. Hahn 2015, p. 658