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
- Mudrooroo Nyoongah – Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World
- 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
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
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
- 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"
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 |
Births
A list, ordered by date of birth 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 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
- 23 January — Lu Rees, bookseller, book collector and children's literature advocate
- 8 February – Colin Simpson, journalist and travel writer
- 31 March — Christina Stead, novelist and short-story writer
- 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
- 29 September — Alan Moorehead, war correspondent and author of popular histories
- 5 December — Gavin Greenlees, poet