The year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books. [edit] 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.
[edit] New books [edit] New drama [edit] Poetry Main article: 2002 in poetry[edit] Non-fiction [edit] Births [edit] 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
- March 21 - Thomas Flanagan, novelist, 78
- May 17 - Dave Berg, cartoonist for Mad Magazine, 81
- June 2 - Flora Lewis, journalist, 84
- June 13 - R. W. B. Lewis, critic, 84
- June 20
- 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
[edit] Awards [edit] Australia [edit] Canada [edit] France [edit] United Kingdom - Booker Prize: Yann Martel, The Life of Pi
- 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
[edit] United States - Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Shao Wei for Pulling a Dragon's Teeth
- Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, Grace Schulman
- Arthur Rense Prize for poetry awarded to B.H. Fairchild by the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Timothy Donnelly, “His Long Imprison'd Thought”
- Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, Alice Fulton for 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
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