2008 in poetry.html



Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events

• June — the release in the United Kingdom of a new film, The Edge of Love, Dylan Thomas' relationship with two women, starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys (asThomas)¹
• September — A United Kingdom exam board, Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, asked schools to withdraw copies of its anthology which contain the poem, Education for Leisure by Carol Ann Duffy after some teachers complained about the poem’s reference to knives. Other teachers opposed the move, and Duffy respoded with a new poem, Mrs Schofield’s GCSE.¹

Works published in English

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

Canada

• Kyle Buckley, The Laundromat Essay, a long poem (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552452066
• Margaret Christakos, What Stirs, (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781-552452042
• Jen Currin, Hagiography (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451977
• Jeramy Dodds, Crabwise to the Hounds (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552452059
• Randall Maggs, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems (Brick Books) ISBN 978-1894078627
• Nancy Holmes, Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems, Wilfrid Laurier University Press ISBN 978-1554580330
• Jordan Scott, Blert (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451991
• David Silverberg, editor, Mic Check: An Anthology Of Canadian Spoken Word Poetry, Quattro Books, ISBN 978-0978280659
• Todd Swift, Seaway: New and Selected Poems (Salmon Poetry) ISBN 9781903392928
• R. M. Vaughan, Troubled, (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451984

Ireland

• Guzstáv Báger, Object Found, translated by Thomas Kabdebo; Hungarian poet published in Ireland (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392782
• Ciaran Berry, The Sphere of Birds, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 9781852354428
• Andrew Carpenter, editor, Thornfield: Poems by the Thornfield Poets (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392799 (anthology)
• Ciaran Carson:
  • Collected Poems, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 9781852354336
  • For All We Know, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 9781852354404
• Eileen Casey, Drinking the Colour Blue
• Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin: Selected Poems Gallery Press, London: Oldcastle and Faber, Irish work published in the United Kingdom²
• Gerald Dawe, Points West, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 9781852354473
• Frank Golden, In Daily Accord (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392751
• Maurice Harmon, The Mischievous Boy and other poems (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392867
• Anne Le Marquand Hartigan, To Keep the Light Burning: Reflections in Times of Loss, poetry and prose (Salmon Poetry) ISBN 9781903392966
• Kevin Higgins (poet), Time Gentlemen, Please (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392768
• Peter van de Kamp, In Train, Dutch native living in Ireland (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392850
• Caroline Lynch, Lost in the Gaeltacht (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392843
• Alan Jude Moore, Lost Republics (Salmon Poetry) ISBN 9781903392935
• Patrick Moran (poet), Green (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392959
• Ulick O'Connor, The Kiss: New and Selected Poems and Translations (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392973
• Lorna Shaughnessy, Torching the Brown River (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392775
• Eamon Wall, A Tour of Your Country Irish native living in the United States, published in Ireland (Salmon Press) ISBN 9781903392805

New Zealand

• Kevin Ireland, How To Survive The Morning, Cape Catley Ltd, ISBN 9781877340178

Best New Zealand Poetry 2007

The year's guest editor, who chose 25 poems for inclusion, was Paula Green. The list appeared at the series website in February 2008.³

United Kingdom

• Mourid Barghouti, Midnight and Other Poems, translated by Radwa Ashour, Palestinian poet published in the United Kingdom (Arc Publications), ISBN 9781906570088
• Marck L. Beggs, Catastrophic Chords (Salmon Poetry) ISBN 9781903392898
• Liam Guilar, Lady Godiva and Me (Nine Arches Press) ISBN 9780956055910
• Clive James, Angels Over Elsinore: Collected Verse 2003-2008 (Picador)
• Ira Lightman, Duetcetera (Shearsman Books) ISBN 9781848610118
• Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin: Selected Poems Gallery Press, London: Oldcastle and Faber, Irish work published in the United Kingdom²
• Sean O'Brien, Andrew Marvell: poems selected by Sean O'Brien (Poet to Poet series, Faber and Faber)
• Avi Sharon, translator, Constantine Cavafy, The Selected Poems of Cavafy, Penguin Classic, ISBN 9780141185613
• Ruth Thompson (poet), The Flaggy Shore, (bluechrome Publishing) ISBN 9781906061593 Northern Irish poet published in United Kingdom
• Rab Wilson, Life Sentence: More Poems Chiefly in the Scots Dialect (Luath Press Ltd) ISBN 9781906307899

Anthologies in the United Kingdom

• Lesley Duncan, editor, 100 Favourite Poems of the Day (Luath Press Ltd) ISBN 9781906307080
• Mark Richardson, editor, The Big Green Poetry Machine Poems from Scotland (Young Writers) ISBN 9781844317875

United States

• Rae Armantrout, Complete Early Poems, (Green Integer) ⁴
• Mary Jo Bang, Elegy, Graywolf Press
• Frank Bidart, Watching the Spring Festival (Macmillan/Farrar, Strauss and Giroux), ISBN 9780374286033

• Charles Bukowski, The People Look Like Flowers At Last: New Poems, purportedly the "fifth and final" posthumous collection
• William Corbett, Opening Day (Hanging Loose Press, 2008)
• Robert Creeley, Selected Poems, 1945-2005, edited by Benjamin Friedlander, University of California Press
• Mark Doty:
  • Theories and Apparitions, London: Jonathan Cape⁵
  • Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, New York, HarperCollins⁵
• Jorie Graham, Sea Change Ecco/HarperCollins
• Geoffrey Hill, A Treatise of Civil Power, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0300131499
• John Hollander, A Draft of Light, Knopf (in May), his 19th book of poems
• Richard Howard, Without Saying (Turtle Point Press) ISBN 9781933527147
• Devin Johnston, Sources, (Turtle Point Press)
• Ted Kooser, Valentines, University of Nebraska Press
• David Lehman, editor, The Best American Erotic Poems: From 1800 to the Present (anthology), Scribner
• Jackson Mac Low, Thing of Beauty: New and Selected Works (edited by Anne Tardos), (University of California Press)
• James Merrill, Selected Poems, edited by J. D. McClatchy and Stephen Yenser (Alfred A. Knopf)
• George Oppen, Selected Prose, Daybooks, and Papers (edited by Stephen Cope), (University of California Press) (publication was 2007, but not available until 2008)
• Peter Oresick, Warhol-o-rama, Carnegie Mellon University Press⁶
• Grace Paley, Fidelity (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), posthumous
• Aram Saroyan, Complete Minimal Poems, Ugly Duckling Presse ISBN 978-1933254258
• Leslie Scalapino, It’s go in horizontal: Selected Poems, 1974-2006, (University of California Press)
• Susan M. Schultz, Dementia Blog, (Singing Horse Press)
• Ron Silliman, The Alphabet (University of Alabama Press)⁷
• Frank Stanford:
  • The Singing Knives, (Lost Roads, 1979 & 2008)
  • You, (Lost Roads, 1979 & 2008)
• David Wagoner, A Map of the Night (University of Illinois Press, ISBN 978-0252075674)
• Francis X. Walker, When Winter Come: The Ascension of York, University of Kentucky Press
• Mark Yakich, The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine, Penguin

Anthologies in the United States

• Tina Chang and Nathalie Handal, editors, Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond,W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 9780393332384
• Leslie Pockell and Celia Johnson, editors, 100 Poems to Lift Your Spirits, Grand Central Publishing, ISBN 9780446177955
• Reginald Shepherd, editor, Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetries, Counterpath Press, ISBN 9781933996066
• Jason Shinder, John Lithgow, Billy Collins, editors, The Poem I Turn To: Actors and Directors Present Poetry That Inspires Them, ISBN 9781402205026
• Mark Strand and Jeb Livingood, editors, Best New Poets 2008, including work by Zach Savich, Heidi Poon, and Malachi Black

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

• Michael Almereyda, editor, Night Wraps the Sky: Writings by and about Mayakovsky (Macmillan/Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), ISBN 9780374281359
• Robert Frost, The Collected Prose of Robert Frost, edited by Mark Richardson; Frost was reluctant to publish his collected prose and even said he lost his notes to the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures he delivered at Harvard in 1936 (Harvard University Press)
• Donald Hall, Unpacking the Boxes: A Memoir of a Life in Poetry, Houghton Mifflin
• Michael Heller, Speaking the Estranged: Essays on the Work of George Oppen, Cambridge UK: Salt Publishing
• Michael Palmer, Active Boundaries: Selected Essays and Talks, New Directions (New York, NY), 2008. ISBN 081121754X
• Reginald Shepherd, Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry, University of Michigan Press
• Jan Ziolkowski and Bridget K. Balint, editors, A Garland of Satire, Wisdom, and History: Latin Verse from Twelfth-Century France (Carmina Houghtoniensia), Harvard University Press, ISBN 0976547279 ISBN 9780976547273

Poets in The Best American Poetry 2008

These poets appeared in The Best American Poetry 2008, with David Lehman, general editor, and Charles Wright, guest editor (who selected the poetry) (Scribner ISBN 0743299736):

Works published in other languages

Awards and honors

Australia awards and honors

• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry:
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry:

Canada awards and honors

• Archibald Lampman Award:
• Atlantic Poetry Prize:
• Griffin Poetry Prize: Canadian:
• Griffin Poetry Prize: International, in the English Language: John Ashbery, Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems (HarperCollins Publishers/Ecco)
  • Others on the shortlist: David Harsent, Selected Poems 1969-2005 (Faber); Elaine Equi, Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press); Clayton Eshleman, translating from the Spanish by César Vallejo, The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition (University of California Press)
• Pat Lowther Award:
• Prix Alain-Grandbois:
• Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award:

New Zealand awards and honors

• Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards (poetry category):

United Kingdom awards and honors

• Cholmondeley Award: John Burnside, David Harsent, John Greening and Sarah Maguire
• Costa Award (formerly "Whitbread Awards") for poetry: Jean Sprackland, Tilt (Cape)
  • Shortlist (announced in November 2007): Ian Duhig, The Speed of Dark, John Fuller, The Space of Joy, Daljit Nagra, Look We Have Coming to Dover!
• English Association's Fellows' Poetry Prizes: Tony Flynn (first prize), Kim Rooney (second prize) and Peter Cash and Simon Jackson (joint third prize)
• Eric Gregory Award (for a collection of poems by a poet under the age of 30): Emily Berry, Rhiannon Hooson, James Midgley, Adam O’Riordan and Heather Phillipson
• Forward Poetry Prize:
  • Best Collection:
    • Shortlist: Sujata Bhatt, Pure Lizard (Carcanet); Jane Griffiths, Another Country (Bloodaxe); Jen Hadfield, Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe); Mick Imlah, The Lost Leader (Faber), Jamie McKendrick, Crocodiles & Obelisks (Faber); and Catherine Smith, Lip (Smith/Doorstop)
  • Best First Collection:
    • Shortlist: Simon Barraclough, Andrew Forster, Frances Leviston, Allison McVety, Stephanie Norgate and Kathryn Simmonds
• Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize for poetry:
  • Shortlist: Paul Batchelor, The Sinking Road (Bloodaxe Books); Ciaran Berry, The Sphere of Birds (Gallery Press); Adam Foulds, The Broken Word (Cape Poetry); Frances Leviston, Public Dream (Picador Poetry); Stephanie Norgate, Hidden River (Bloodaxe Books)
• Manchester Poetry Prize: Lesley Saunders and Mandy Coe
• National Poet of Wales: Gillian Clarke succeeds Gwyn Thomas
• National Poetry Competition 2007:
• T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Sean O'Brien The Drowned Book (Judges: Peter Porter, W. N. Herbert and Sujata Bhatt)
  • Shortlist (announced in November 2007): Ian Duhig, Alan Gillis, Sophie Hannah, Mimi Khalvati, Frances Leviston, Sarah Maguire, Edwin Morgan, Poetry Review's Fiona Sampson, and Matthew Sweeney
• The Times/Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry Translation:
• Wigtown Poetry Competition (Scotland's largest poetry prize): Jane Weir, first prize

United States awards and honors

• Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize: Henri Cole for Blackbird and Wolf
• National Book Award for Poetry:
• The New Criterion Poetry Prize:
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (United States): Robert Hass for Time and Materials; and Philip Schultz for Failure
• Wallace Stevens Award: Louise Gluck
• PEN Award for Poetry in Translation: Rosmarie Waldrop for Lingos I - IX by Ulf Stolterfoht (Burning Deck, 2007)
• Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize : Gary Snyder

From the Poetry Society of America

• Frost Medal: Michael S. Harper

• Shelley Memorial Award: Ed Roberson, Judges: Lyn Hejinian & C.D. Wright

• Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award: Joanie Mackowski, Judge: Donald Revell

• Lyric Poetry Award: Wayne Miller, Judge: Elizabeth Macklin

• Lucille Medwick Memorial Award: Christina Pugh, Judge: Timothy Donnelly; finalist: Sally Ball

• Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award: Natasha Sajé, Judge: Dean Young; finalists: Kevin Prufer & James Richardson

• Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Student Poetry Award: Carey Powers, Judge: David Roderick; finalists: Willa Granger & Philip Sparks

• George Bogin Memorial Award: Theresa Sotto, Judge: by Prageeta Sharma

• Robert H. Winner Memorial Award: Jocelyn Emerson, Judge: by Annie Finch; finalists: Rachel Conrad & Marsha Pomerantz

• Cecil Hemley Memorial Award: Brian Henry, Judge: Norma Cole

• Norma Farber First Book Award: Catherine Imbriglio for Parts of the Mass, published by Burning Deck, Judge: Thylias Moss); finalist: Alena Hairston for The Logan Topographies, published by Persea

• William Carlos Williams Award: Aram Saroyan for Complete Minimal Poems, published by Ugly Duckling Presse; Judge: Ron Silliman; finalists: Roberta Beary for The Unworn Necklace, published by Snapshot Press; and Eileen Myles for Sorry, Tree, published by Wave Books

Deaths

• January 3 - Henri Chopin, 85, French poet
• January 16 - Hone Tuwhare, 85, New Zealand poet
• January 21 – Burton Hatlen, 71, American literary scholar, founding member of the National Poetry Foundation, mentor and teacher to Stephen King, who promoted the work of the Objectivist poets ^{8 9}
• February 13 – Raúl Salinas, 73, American poet, complications of liver cancer. ¹⁰
• March 16 – Jonathan Williams, 79, American poet, publisher and founder of The Jargon Society
• March 23 - E. A. Markham, 68, Montserratian poet
• April 3 – Andrew Crozier, 64, English poet with connections to American poet poetry, who edited volumes by American poet Carl Rakosi ¹¹
• April 13 - Robert Greacen, 87, Irish poet
• April 14 - Horst Bingel (born 1933), German writer, poet, graphic artist and publisher
• April 17 – Aimé Césaire, 94, French-Martiniquan poet and politician¹²
• April 24 – Jason Shinder, 53, American poet and editor¹³
• June 5 – Eugenio Montejo, 70, Venezuelan poet^{citation needed}
• June 8 - Peter Rühmkorf (born 1929), German writer and poet¹⁴
• July 4 - Thomas M. Disch, 68, American poet and novelist; committed suicide.¹⁵
• August 9 - Mahmoud Darwish, 67, Palestinian poet; complications following heart surgery.¹⁶
• August 25 - Ahmed Faraz, 77, Pakistani poet
• September 10 - Reginald Shepherd, 44, American poet, complications from colon cancer^{17 18}
• September 20 - Duncan Glen, 75, British poet, critic and literary historian¹⁹
• September 29 - Hayden Carruth, 87, American poet and literary critic ²⁰

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Poetry in the News 2008" web page at the Poetry Society website, retrieved November 30, 2008
2. ^ ^{a b} Web page titled "Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin" at Poetry International website, accessed May 3, 2008
3. ^ Web page titled "Best New Zealand Poetry 2007 / Introduction" at the Best New Zealand Poetry website, accessed April 25, 2008
4. ^ Early collections, from 1978's Extremities to 1995's Made to Seem collected here
5. ^ ^{a b} Web page titled "Mark Doty Books" at Mark Doty website, accessed May 5, 2008
6. ^ Web page at the CMU Press website, accessed July 24, 2008
7. ^ Silliman reveals publication on his blog
8. ^ UM scholar Hatlen, mentor to Stephen King, dies at 71
9. ^ Burton Hatlen 1936 — 2008 A "cyber-tombeau" at Silliman's Blog by poet Ron Silliman includes comments, tributes, and links
10. ^ Raúl Salinas, poet, teacher and activist, dies: Austin resident and bookstore owner gave voice to Chicano struggle.
11. ^ After Rakosi's Selected Poems, published in 1941, Rakosi dedicated himself to social work and apparently neither read nor wrote any poetry at all. A letter from Crozier to Rakosi asking about his early poetry was the trigger that started Rakosi writing again. His first book in 26 years, Amulet was published by New Directions in 1967 and his Collected Poems in 1986 by the National Poetry Foundation.
12. ^ Aimé Césaire, Martinique poet, has died
13. ^ Service for Shinder
14. ^ "Peter Rühmkorf: German poet who captured idioms" obituary, Times of London, June 17, 2008; retrieved November 26, 2008
15. ^ Ellen Datlow, "Thomas M. Disch (February 2, 1940-July 4, 2008)," sff.discuss.obituaries, 2008-07-06, 15:01
16. ^ Mahmoud Darwish: Palestinian 'poet of the resistance'
17. ^ Reginald Shepherd: 1963 - 2008; A "cyber-tombeau" at Silliman's Blog by poet Ron Silliman includes comments, tributes, and links
18. ^ Tribute at Poetry Foundation Shepherd was a frequent contributor to the Poetry Foundation blog called Harriet. Listed here are dozens of tributes and comments from many who were touched in some way by Shepherd and his work
19. ^ The Independent obituary
20. ^ The Independent obituary

See also

Poetry portal

• Poetry
• List of poetry awards