2002 in literature

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The year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• March 16: Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested and jailed poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and fired a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticized the state's Islamic judiciary. In it, the poet accused some judges of being corrupt and issuing unfair rulings for their own personal benefit.
• November: Raymond Benson releases his final James Bond novel, a novelization of the film Die Another Day, bringing to a close an uninterrupted series of novels based upon Ian Fleming's character that started in 1981.

New prose fiction

• Aaron Allston - Enemy Lines: Rebel Dream and Enemy Lines: Rebel Stand
• Jean M. Auel - The Shelters of Stone
• Paul Auster - The Book of Illusions
• Iain Banks - Dead Air
• Greg Bear - Vitals
• Raymond Benson - Die Another Day and The Man with the Red Tattoo
• Nelson Bond - The Far Side of Nowhere
• William Boyd - Any Human Heart
• Mircea Cărtărescu -- The Encyclopedia of Dragons
• Stephen L. Carter - The Emperor of Ocean Park
• Tracy Chevalier - Girl with a Pearl Earring
• Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Prey, Sharpe's Skirmish and Vagabond
• Michael Crichton - Prey
• Elaine Cunningham - Dark Journey
• L. Sprague de Camp - Aristotle and the Gun and Other Stories
• Thomas R. DeGregori - The Bountiful Harvest
• Dave Eggers - You Shall Know Our Velocity
• Janet Evanovich - Hard Eight
• Michel Faber - The Crimson Petal and the White
• Giorgio Faletti - Io uccido
• Mick Farren - Underland
• Nancy Farmer- The House of The Scorpion
• Janet Fitch - White Oleander
• Alan Dean Foster - The Approaching Storm
• Horace L. Gold and L. Sprague de Camp - None But Lucifer
• Jean-Christophe Grangé - Le Concile de pierre
• Niall Griffiths - Sheepshagger
• John Grisham - The Summons
• Joanne Harris - Coastliners
• John D. Harvey - The Cleansing
• Aleksandar Hemon - Nowhere Man
• Carl Hiaasen - Hoot
• Stephen King - Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales and From a Buick 8
• Rachel Klein - The Moth Diaries
• Dean R. Koontz - By the Light of the Moon and One Door Away from Heaven
• Robert Ludlum - The Sigma Protocol
• Valerio Massimo Manfredi - The Last Legion
• Rohinton Mistry - Family Matters
• Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore
• Chuck Palahniuk - Lullaby
• Orhan Pamuk - Snow
• Ann Patchett - Bel Canto
• James Patterson - Beach House
• Terry Pratchett - Night Watch
• Libby Purves - Mother Country
• Pascal Quignard - Les Ombres errantes
• Kathy Reichs - Grave Secrets
• Nora Roberts - Face the Fire
• R. A. Salvatore - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
• Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones
• Carol Shields - Unless
• Vladimir Sorokin - Ice
• David Southwell - Dirty Cash
• Thomas Sullivan - Born Burning
• Danielle Steel - The Cottage
• Matthew Stover - Traitor
• Donna Tartt - The Little Friend
• William Trevor - The Story of Lucy Gault
• Andrew Vachss - Only Child
• Guy Vanderhaeghe - The Last Crossing
• Barbara Vine - The Blood Doctor
• Sarah Waters - Fingersmith
• Darren Williams - Angel Rock
• Walter Jon Williams - Destiny's Way
• Roger Zelazny - The Last Defender of Camelot

New drama

• Nilo Cruz - Anna in the Tropics
• Peter Verhelst - Blush

Poetry

• Jim Dodge - Rain on the River
• Linton Kwesi Johnson - Mi Revalueshanary Fren
• Grazyna Miller - Alibi of a butterfly

Non-fiction

• Peter Ackroyd - Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination
• Bija Bennett - Emotional Yoga
• Stuart Christie - Granny Made me an Anarchist
• Gerina Dunwich - A Witch's Guide to Ghosts and the Supernatural
• Michael J. Fox - Lucky Man: A Memoir
• Stephen J. Gould - I Have Landed
• Peter Jennings - In Search of America
• Judith Levine - Harmful to Minors
• Gabriel García Márquez - Vivir para contarla (autobiography)
• Jeremy Paxman - The Political Animal
• Neil Peart - Ghost Rider
• James B. Stewart - Heart of a Soldier
• Rachel Simon - Riding the Bus with My Sister
• Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life
• Edited by John Brockman - The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century

Births

Deaths

• January 12 - Lady Violet Powell, literary critic, 89
• January 28 - Astrid Lindgren, children's author, 94
• February 8 - Joachim Hoffmann, 71
• February 21 - A. L. Barker, novelist, 83
• February 27 - Spike Milligan, comedian, writer and actor
• March 21 - Thomas Flanagan, novelist, 78
• May 17 - Dave Berg, cartoonist for Mad Magazine, 81
• May 20 - Stephen J. Gould, paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and writer
• June 2 - Flora Lewis, journalist, 84
• June 13 - R. W. B. Lewis, critic, 84
• June 20
  • Timothy Findley, Canadian author, 71
  • Kenneth Kantzer, theologian, 84
• July 23 - Chaim Potok, novelist
• August 25 - Dorothy Hewett, Australian poet and playwright, 79
• October 13 - Stephen Ambrose, controversial historian and biographer, 66
• October 21 - Harbhajan Singh (poet), poet and critic, 82
• November 8 - Jon Elia, poet and philosopher, 64
• November 19 - Max Reinhardt, publisher, 86

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Imre Kertész

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Danielle Wood, The Alphabet of Light and Dark
• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Robert Gray, Afterimages
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Alan Wearne, The Lovemakers
• Mary Gilmore Prize: Geraldine McKenzie, Duty
• Miles Franklin Award: Tim Winton, Dirt Music

Canada

• Giller Prize: Austin Clarke, The Polished Hoe
• See 2002 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Griffin Poetry Prize: Christian Bök, Eunoia and Alice Notley, Disobedience

France

• Prix Décembre: Pierre Michon, Abbés and Corps du Roi
• Prix Femina: Chantal Thomas, Les adieux à la reine
• Prix Femina (non-fiction): Michael Barry, Massoud
• Prix Goncourt: Pascal Quignard, Les Ombres errantes
• Prix Médicis French: Daniel Desmarquet, Kafka et les jeunes filles
• Prix Médicis Non-Fiction: Anne F. Garréta, Pas un jour
• Prix Médicis International: Philip Roth, The Human Stain

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Sharon Creech, Ruby Holler
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Jenny Uglow, The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future 1730-1810
• Cholmondeley Award: Moniza Alvi, David Constantine, Liz Lochhead, Brian Patten
• Eric Gregory Award: Caroline Bird, Christopher James, Jacob Polley, Luke Heeley, Judith Lal, David Leonard Briggs, Eleanor Rees, Kathryn Simmonds
• Samuel Johnson Prize: Margaret MacMillan, Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Ann Patchett, Bel Canto
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Peter Porter

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Shao Wei, Pulling a Dragon's Teeth
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Grace Schulman
• Arthur Rense Prize for poetry: B.H. Fairchild
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Timothy Donnelly, “His Long Imprison'd Thought”
• Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Alice Fulton, Felt
• Brittingham Prize in Poetry: Anna George Meek, Acts of Contortion
• Compton Crook Award: Wen Spencer, Alien Taste
• Frost Medal: Galway Kinnell
• Hugo Award: Neil Gaiman, American Gods
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Linda Sue Park, A Single Shard
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Richard Russo, Empire Falls
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carl Dennis, Practical Gods
• Wallace Stevens Award: Ruth Stone

Other

• Finlandia Prize: Kari Hotakainen Trench Street
• IMPAC Award: Michel Houellebecq, Les Particules Élémentaires
• Macmillan Writers' Prize for Africa Adult Fiction: Yvonne Vera, Stone Virgins
• Premio Nadal: Ángela Vallvey, Los estados carenciales