2002 in literature

Events

• March 16 – Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrest and jail the poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and dismiss a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem "The Corrupt on Earth", which criticizes the state's Islamic judiciary, accusing some judges of being corrupt and issuing unfair rulings for personal benefit.
• March 31 – resumes its run on C-SPAN, having been interrupted by the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath.
• October 16 – Bibliotheca Alexandrina is inaugurated in Alexandria, Egypt.
• November – Raymond Benson releases his final James Bond novel, based on the film Die Another Day, bringing to a close an uninterrupted series of novels featuring Ian Fleming's character that started in 1981.

• Bokklubben World Library begins publication in Norway.

  New books

Fiction

• Alaa Al Aswany – The Yacoubian Building
• Aaron Allston – ' and '
• 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
• Ted Chiang – Stories of Your Life and Others
• 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
• 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
• Elena Ferrante – I giorni dell'abbandono
• 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
• Margaret Peterson Haddix – Among the Betrayed
• Peter Handke – Crossing the Sierra de Gredos
• Joanne Harris – Coastliners
• John D. Harvey – The Cleansing
• Aleksandar Hemon – Nowhere Man
• Carl Hiaasen – Hoot
• Rabee Jaber – رحلة الغرناطي
• Stephen King – ' 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
• Ursula K. Le Guin – The Birthday of the World
• Sallie Lowenstein – Sender Unknown
• Robert Ludlum – The Sigma Protocol
• Jon McGregor – If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
• Valerio Massimo Manfredi – The Last Legion
• Javier Marías – '
• Rohinton Mistry – Family Matters
• Haruki Murakami – Kafka on the Shore
• Taslima Nasrin – Forashi Premik
• 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
• Joel C. Rosenberg – The Last Jihad
• R. A. Salvatore –
• Samanta Schweblin – El núcleo del disturbio
• Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
• Åsne Seierstad – The Bookseller of Kabul
• Carol Shields – Unless
• Vladimir Sorokin – Ice
• Danielle Steel – The Cottage
• David Storey – As It Happened
• Matthew Stover – Traitor
• Thomas Sullivan – Born Burning
• Donna Tartt – The Little Friend
• Hồ Anh Thái – Cõi người rung chuông tận thế
• 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

  Children and young people

• Chris Van Allsburg – Zathura
• Neil Gaiman – Coraline
• Bob Graham – Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child
• Kathleen Hague – Good Night, Fairies
• Isabel Hoving – The Dream Merchant
• Tony Johnston – That Summer
• Ulrich Karger – Geisterstunde im Kindergarten
• Jenny Nimmo – Midnight for Charlie Bone
• Margie Palatini – Earthquack!
• Christopher Paolini – Eragon
• Jerry Pinkney – The Nightingale
• Jerry Pinkney – Noah's Ark
• Leander Watts – Stonecutter

  Drama

• Edward Albee – The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
• Caryl Churchill – A Number
• Nilo Cruz – Anna in the Tropics
• Zlatko Topčić – Time Out
• Peter Verhelst – Blush

  Poetry

• Neil Astley – Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times
• 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
• Andrew Alpern – The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter
• Jeffrey Archer – A Prison Diary: Volume 1: Belmarsh: Hell
• T. J. Binyon – Pushkin: A Biography
• John Brockman – '
• Stuart Christie – Granny Made me an Anarchist
• Alphonse Daudet, translated by Julian Barnes – In the Land of Pain
• Gerina Dunwich – A Witch's Guide to Ghosts and the Supernatural
• Lindy Edwards – '
• Koenraad Elst – Ayodhya – The Case Against the Temple
• Tye R. Farrell and Jeffrey Morrow – University of Psychogenic Fugue
• Aminatta Forna –
• Pim Fortuyn – De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars
• Michael J. Fox – Lucky Man: A Memoir
• Stephen J. Gould – I Have Landed
• Peter Jennings – In Search of America
• B. B. Lal – The Sarasvatī Flows On: The Continuity of Indian Culture
• Judith Levine – Harmful to Minors
• Gabriel García Márquez – Vivir para contarla
• Jeremy Paxman – The Political Animal
• Neil Peart – Ghost Rider
• Arun Shourie – Worshipping False Gods
• Rachel Simon – Riding the Bus with My Sister
• Daniel Snowman – The Hitler Émigrés: The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism
• David Southwell – Dirty Cash
• James B. Stewart – Heart of a Soldier
• Paul Theroux – Dark Star Safari
• Rick Warren – The Purpose Driven Life
• Alison Watt – The Last Island

  Deaths

• January 12 – Lady Violet Powell, British critic and biographer
• January 28 – Astrid Lindgren, Swedish children's author
• February 8 – Joachim Hoffmann, German historian
• February 21 – A. L. Barker, English novelist
• February 27 – Spike Milligan, Indian-born British-Irish comedian, screenwriter and poet
• March 21 – Thomas Flanagan, American historical novelist
• April 6 – Martin Sperr, German dramatist
• April 24 – Ismith Khan, Trinidad-born novelist
• May 6 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch political columnist and writer
• May 17 – Dave Berg, American cartoonist
• May 20 – Stephen J. Gould, American paleontologist, biologist and writer
• June 2 – Flora Lewis, American journalist
• June 13 – R. W. B. Lewis, American critic
• June 20
• *Timothy Findley, Canadian novelist and playwright
• *Kenneth Kantzer, American theologian
• June 24 – John Kincaid McNeillie, Scottish novelist and non-fiction writer
• July 23 – Chaim Potok, American writer
• August 25 – Dorothy Hewett, Australian poet and playwright
• September 17 – Eileen Colwell, English children's librarian
• September 20 – Joan Littlewood, English theater director and biographer
• October 13 – Stephen E. Ambrose, American historian and biographer
• October 21 – Harbhajan Singh, Indian Punjabi poet and critic
• October 27 – Sesto Pals, Romanian Israeli poet and philosopher
• October 28 – Sugathapala de Silva, Sri Lankan dramatist, novelist and translator writing in Sinhalese
• November 8 – Jon Elia, Pakistani poet and philosopher writing in Urdu
• December 24 – Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author, poet and artist

  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
• Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction: Tom Allen,

  France

• Prix Décembre: Pierre Michon, Abbés and Corps du Roi
• Prix Femina: Chantal Thomas, Les adieux à la reine
• Prix Femina : 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
• Caine Prize for African Writing: Binyavanga Wainaina, "Discovering Home"
• 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
• National Book Award for Fiction: to Three Junes by Julia Glass
• National Book Critics Circle Award: to Atonement by Ian McEwan
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Linda Sue Park, A Single Shard
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: to Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• 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
• Whiting Awards:

  Other

• Camões Prize: Maria Velho da Costa
• Finlandia Prize: Kari Hotakainen Trench Street
• International Dublin Literary Award: Michel Houellebecq, Les Particules Élémentaires
• Macmillan Writers' Prize for Africa Adult Fiction: Yvonne Vera, Stone Virgins
• Premio Nadal: Ángela Vallvey, Los estados carenciales
• SAARC Literary Award: Laxmi Chand Gupta