2002 in literature

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

1 Events
2 New books
3 New drama
4 Poetry
5 Non-fiction
6 Births
7 Deaths
8 Awards

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 books

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
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
Thomas Sullivan - Born Burning
David Southwell - Dirty Cash
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

Main article: 2002 in 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
Sue Monk Kidd - The Secret Life of Bees
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