2002 in Australian literature

Major publications

Literary fiction

• John Clarke – The Tournament
• J. M. Coetzee – Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II
• Bryce Courtenay – Matthew Flinders' Cat
• Andrea Goldsmith – The Prosperous Thief
• Sonya Hartnett – Of a Boy
• Sarah Hay – Skins
• Chloe Hooper – A Child's Book of True Crime
• Kate Jennings – Moral Hazard
• Gail Jones – Black Mirror
• Thomas Keneally – An Angel in Australia
• Colleen McCullough – The October Horse
• Alex Miller – Journey to the Stone Country
• Dorothy Porter – Wild Surmise
• Eva Sallis – ''The City of Sealions''

Children's and Young Adult fiction

• J. C. Burke – White Lies
• Isobelle Carmody – Darksong
• Alison Croggon – The Gift
• Mem Fox – The Magic Hat
• Marieke Hardy – Short Cuts
• Richard Harland – Ferren and the White Doctor
• Lian Hearn – Across the Nightingale Floor
• Maureen McCarthy – When You Wake and Find Me Gone
• Meme McDonald and Boori Pryor – Njunjul the Sun
• David Metzenthen – Wildlight: A Journey
• Kirsty Murray – Walking Home with Marie-Claire
• Natalie Jane Prior – Fireworks and Darkness
• Gillian Rubinstein – The Whale's Child
• Markus Zusak – ''The Messenger''

Crime

• Carmel Bird – Open for Inspection
• Kirsty Brooks – Lady Luck
• Jon Cleary – The Easy Sin
• Jane Clifton – Half Past Dead
• Peter Corris – Salt and Blood
• Kerry Greenwood – Murder in Montparnasse
• Gabrielle Lord – Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing
• Barry Maitland – Babel
• Shane Maloney – Something Fishy
• Tara Moss – Split
• Alex Palmer – Blood Redemption
• Peter Temple – ''In The Evil Day''

Romance

• Lilian Darcy – For the Taking
• Barbara Hannay
• * A Bride at Birralee
• * Their Doorstep Baby
• Di Morrissey – Kimberley Sun
• Valerie Parv
• * The Baron and the Bodyguard
• * ''The Marquis and the Mother-To-Be''

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Damien Broderick – Transcension
• Trudi Canavan – The Novice
• Marianne Curley – The Named
• Cecilia Dart-Thornton
• * The Battle of Evernight
• * The Lady of the Sorrows
• Sara Douglass
• * The Crippled Angel
• * Hades' Daughter
• Greg Egan
• * Schild's Ladder
• * "Singleton"
• Ian Irvine – Tetrarch
• Fiona McIntosh
• * Destiny
• * Revenge
• Sean McMullen – Voyage of the Shadowmoon
• Juliet Marillier – Wolfskin
• Sean Williams
• * Echoes of Earth with Shane Dix
• * The Sky Warden and the Sun
• * ''The Storm Weaver and the Sand''

Drama

• David Brown – Eating Ice Cream With Your Eyes Closed
• Nick Enright
• * Country Music
• * A Man with Five Children
• Michael Gow – The Fortunes of Richard Mahony
• Michael Gurr – The Simple Truth
• Daniel Keene – Half and Half
• Jenny Kemp – Still Angela
• Joanna Murray-Smith – Rapture
• David Williamson – ''Soulmates''

Poetry

• M. T. C. Cronin – My Lover's Back : 79 Love Poems
• Robert Gray – Afterimages
• Jill Jones – Screens Jets Heaven: New and Selected Poems
• Emma Lew – Anything the Landlord Touches
• Kate Lilley – Versary
• Les Murray
• * Collected Poems : 1961–2002
• * ''Poems the Size of Photographs''

Non-fiction

• Bruce Bennett – Australian Short Fiction: A History
• Anna Funder – Stasiland
• Mark McKenna – Looking for Blackfellas' Point : An Australian History of Place
• Ashley Mallett – The Black Lords of Summer : The Story of the 1868 Aboriginal Tour of England and Beyond
• John Marsden – ''The Boy You Brought Home : A Single Mother's Guide to Raising Boys''

Biographies

• Nick Bleszynski – Shoot Straight, You Bastards! : The Truth Behind the Killing of 'Breaker' Morant
• Barry Dickins – Black and Whiteley : Barry Dickins in Search of Brett
• Ann Galbally – Charles Conder : The Last Bohemian
• Barry Hill – Broken Song : T. G. H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession
• Thomas Keneally – American Scoundrel : The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles
• Ross McMullin – Pompey Elliott
• Brenda Niall – The Boyds : A Family Biography
• Don Watson – ''Recollections of a Bleeding Heart : A Portrait of Paul Keating PM''

Awards and honours

Lifetime achievement

Fiction

International

National

Children and Young Adult

National

Crime and Mystery

National

Science fiction

Poetry

Drama

Non-Fiction

Deaths

• 27 May – Ray Mathew, poet and novelist
• 6 June – Peter Cowan, short story writer and literary editor
• 25 August – Dorothy Hewett, poet
• 16 September – J. E. Macdonnell, novelist
• 2 October – R. A. Simpson, poet
• 8 December – Gary Catalano, poet and critic

• Olive Pell, librarian and poet