2003 in literature

See also: 2002 in literature, other events of 2003, 2004 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• September 9 – Barnes & Noble, the largest American bookseller, announces that it will no longer sell downloadable electronic texts sometimes called e-books.
• Chuck Palahniuk reads his short story "Guts" to audiences while on tour to promote his novel Diary. Over 35 people faint while listening to the readings.

New books

• The Arraignment – Steve Martini
• Blue Horizon – Wilbur Smith
• The Bridge of Sighs – Olen Steinhauer
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel – Mark Haddon
• Darwin's Children – Greg Bear
• The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
• The Delicate Storm – Giles Blunt
• Diary – Chuck Palahniuk
• Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom – Cory Doctorow
• Dude, Where's My Country? – Michael Moore
• Dunwich's Guide to Gemstone Sorcery – Gerina Dunwich
• L'Empire des loups – Jean-Christophe Grangé
• The Face – Dean R. Koontz
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
• Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon – Chuck Palahniuk
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J. K. Rowling
• Hey Nostradamus! – Douglas Coupland
• Holy Fools – Joanne Harris
• Idlewild – Nick Sagan
• Jarhead – Anthony Swofford
• Jennifer Government – Max Barry
• The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley – Alanna Nash
• The Journals – Volume 1 – John Fowles
• The King of Torts – John Grisham
• The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
• The Last Jihad: A Novel – Joel C. Rosenberg
• Merchant Princes, Halifax's First Family of Finance, Ships and Steel – James Frost
• Monstrous Regiment – Terry Pratchett
• Notes on a Scandal – Zoë Heller
• Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood
• A Place So Foreign and Eight More – Cory Doctorow
• Pattern Recognition – William Gibson
• Politics – Adam Thirlwell
• Scarecrow – Matthew Reilly
• Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII – David Starkey
• The Skating Pond – Deborah Joy Corey
• Something Might Happen – Julie Myerson
• The Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett
• Wolves of the Calla – Stephen King

Births

Deaths

• February 16 – Aleksandar Tisma
• March 12 – Howard Fast
• July 16 – Carol Shields

Awards

• 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
• Hugo Award: Robert J. Sawyer, Hominids
• International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Orhan Pamuk My Name is Red
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Avi, Crispin: The Cross of Lead
• Nobel Prize for Literature: J. M. Coetzee
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Valerie Martin, Property
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
• Whitbread Book of The Year Award: Mark Haddon for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel