2002 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 2002.

Events

• March 16 – Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrest and jail poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and dismiss a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticizes the state's Islamic judiciary. In it, the poet accuses some judges of being corrupt and issuing unfair rulings for their own personal benefit.
• March 31 – American Writers: A Journey Through History resumes its run on C-SPAN, having been interrupted by the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath.^[1]
• 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.
• Bokklubben World Library begins publication in Norway.

New books

Fiction

• Alaa Al Aswany – The Yacoubian Building (عمارة يعقوبيان, ʿImārat Yaʿqūbīān)
• 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 (Enciclopedia zmeilor)
• Stephen L. Carter – The Emperor of Ocean Park
• 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
• Elena Ferrante – I giorni dell'abbandono (The Days of Abandonment)
• 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
• Frank Turner Hollon - The God File
• Rabee Jaber – رحلة الغرناطي (Rahlat al-Gharnati, The Journey of the Granadian)
• 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
• Sallie Lowenstein – Sender Unknown
• Robert Ludlum – The Sigma Protocol
• Valerio Massimo Manfredi – The Last Legion
• Javier Marías – Your Face Tomorrow Volume 1: Fever and Spear (Tu rostro mañana 1. Fiebre y lanza)
• Rohinton Mistry – Family Matters
• Haruki Murakami (村上 春樹) – Kafka on the Shore (海辺のカフカ, Umibe no Kafuka)
• 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 – Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
• 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 (The Apocalypse Bell Tolls in the Human World)
• 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

• Neil Gaiman – Coraline
• Bob Graham – Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child
• Ulrich Karger – Geisterstunde im Kindergarten (translated as The Scary Sleepover)
• Jenny Nimmo – Midnight for Charlie Bone
• Christopher Paolini – Eragon (first in the Inheritance Cycle of four books)

Drama

• Caryl Churchill – A Number
• Nilo Cruz – Anna in the Tropics
• Peter Verhelst – Blush

Poetry

• Neil Astley (ed.) – Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times (anthology)
• 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
• Jeffrey Archer (as FF 8282) – A Prison Diary: Volume 1: Belmarsh: Hell
• Bija Bennett – Emotional Yoga
• T. J. Binyon – Pushkin: A Biography
• Stuart Christie – Granny Made me an Anarchist
• Gerina Dunwich – A Witch's Guide to Ghosts and the Supernatural
• Tye R. Farrell and Jeffrey Morrow – University of Psychogenic Fugue
• 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
• Judith Levine – Harmful to Minors
• Gabriel García Márquez – Vivir para contarla (autobiography)
• Jeremy Paxman – The Political Animal
• Neil Peart – Ghost Rider
• Rachel Simon – Riding the Bus with My Sister
• 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^[2]
• 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, British critic and biographer (born 1912)
• January 28 – Astrid Lindgren, Swedish children's author (born 1907)
• February 8 – Joachim Hoffmann, German historian (born 1930)
• February 21 – A. L. Barker, English novelist (born 1918)
• February 27 – Spike Milligan, Indian-born English comedian, screenwriter and poet (born 1918)
• March 21 – Thomas Flanagan, American historical novelist (born 1923)
• April 6 – Martin Sperr, German dramatist (born 1944)
• May 6 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch political columnist and writer (born 1948)
• May 17 – Dave Berg, American cartoonist (born 1920)
• May 20 – Stephen J. Gould, American paleontologist, biologist and writer (born 1941)
• June 2 – Flora Lewis, American journalist (born 1922)
• June 13 – R. W. B. Lewis, American critic (born 1917)
• June 20
  • Timothy Findley, Canadian novelist and playwright (born 1930)
  • Kenneth Kantzer, American theologian (born 1917)
• June 24 – John Kincaid McNeillie (also Ian Niall), Scottish novelist and non-fiction writer (born 1916)
• July 23 – Chaim Potok, American writer (born 1929)
• August 25 – Dorothy Hewett, Australian poet and playwright (born 1923)
• September 17 – Eileen Colwell, English children's librarian (born 1904)
• September 20 – Joan Littlewood, English theater director and biographer (born 1914)
• October 13 – Stephen E. Ambrose, American historian and biographer (born 1936)
• October 21 – Harbhajan Singh, Indian Punjabi poet and critic (born 1920)
• October 27 – Sesto Pals, Romanian Israeli poet and philosopher (cancer, born ca. 1912)
• October 28 – Sugathapala de Silva, Sri Lankan dramatist, novelist and translator writing in Sinhalese (born 1928)
• November 8 – Jon Elia, Pakistani poet and philosopher writing in Urdu (born 1931)

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Imre Kertész
• Camões Prize: Maria Velho da Costa

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, Rolling Home^[3]

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
• 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:

Fiction: Jeffery Renard Allen, Justin Cronin, Kim Edwards, Michelle Huneven, Danzy Senna

Plays: Melissa James Gibson, Evan Smith

Poetry: Elizabeth Arnold, David Gewanter, Joshua Weiner

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

References