2002 in literature

Table of contents

1 Events 2 New Books 3 Births 4 Deaths 5 Awards

Events

• March 16, 2002: 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.

• Atonement - Ian McEwan
• Beach House - James Patterson
• Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
• Bohemian Paris: Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, and the Birth of Modern Art - Dan Franck & Cynthia Liebow
• The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Chapter from the Korean War - Charles J. Hanley , Sang-Hun Choe, & Martha Mendoza
• By the Light of the Moon - Dean R. Koontz
• Coastliners - Joanne Harris
• Le Concile de pierre - Jean-Christophe Grangé
• The Cottage - Danielle Steel
• The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
• The Emperor of Ocean Park - Stephen L. Carter
• Face the Fire - Nora Roberts
• Family Matters - Rohinton Mistry
• The Girl with the Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
• Grave Secrets - Kathy Reichs
• Hard Eight - Janet Evanovich
• Heart of a Soldier - James B. Stewart
• In Search of America - Peter Jennings
• The Last Crossing - Guy Vanderhaeghe
• Lucky Man - Michael J. Fox
• Les Ombres errantes - Pascal Quignard
• The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
• Modigliani & the Artists of Montparnasse - Kenneth Wayne
• Night Watch - Terry Pratchett
• One Door Away from Heaven - Dean R. Koontz
• Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World - Margaret Olwen Macmillan & Richard Holbrooke
• Prey - Michael Crichton
• Surrealist Subversions: Rants, Writings & Images by the Surrealist Movement in the United States, edited by Ron Sakolsky
• The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
• The Shelters of Stone - Jean M. Auel
• The Story of Lucy Gault - William Trevor
• The Summons - John Grisham
• Unless - Carol Shields
• Vitals - Greg Bear
• Vivir para contarla (autobiography) - Gabriel García Márquez
• White Oleander - Janet Fitch

• May 17 - Dave Berg (81), cartoonist for Mad Magazine
• June 20 - Timothy Findley (71), Canadian author
• July 23 - Chaim Potok, novelist

• Booker Prize: Yann Martel, The Life of Pi
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Austin Clarke -The Polished Hoe
• See 2002 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Linda Sue Park, A Single Shard
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Imre Kertész
• Orange Prize for Fiction: Ann Patchett, Bel Canto
• 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