Jane Greer launched Plains Poetry Journal, an advance guard of the New Formalism movement.
Final issue of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Magazine published.
First issue of Conjunctions literary journal published.
This year, "the word 'Martianism' came into use, through the verse of Craig Raine and his associates, presenting a vision of life on Earth as seen by a visiting Martian," the 1982 Britannica Book of the Year reported (page 504). Some noted that "Martianism" is an anagram for one of Raine's associates, Martin Amis.
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
R. Hall, editor, Collins Book of Australian Poetry, anthology
H. Heseltine, editor, Penguin Book of Modern Australian Verse, anthology
L. Kramer, Oxford History of Australian Literature (scholarship)
Jennifer Maiden, For The Left Hand, South Head
Margaret Atwood, True Stories
Alfred Bailey, Miramichi Lightning: The Collected Poems.
Roo Borson, A Sad Device, ISBN 0-86495-011-X, American-Canadian
Louis Dudek, Continuation I. Montréal: Véhicule Press, 1981.
Louis Dudek, Poems from Atlantis. Ottawa: Golden Dog, 1981.
Robert Finch, Has and Is.
Gwen Hauser, Gophers and Swans
George Johnston:
Auk Redivivus: Selected Poems
Rocky Shores.
Irving Layton, Europe And Other Bad News. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
Dorothy Livesay, The Raw Edges: Voices from Our Time. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press.
Gwendolyn MacEwen, Trojan Women. 1981.
Jay Macpherson, Poems Twice Told: The Boatman & Welcoming Disaster. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Anne Marriott:
This West Shore, Toronto: League of Canadian Poets.
The Circular Coast: Poems New and Selected, Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press.
George McWhirter, The Island Man
P. K. Page, Evening Dance of the Grey Flies, poetry and prose
Stephen Scobie, A Grand Memory For Forgetting
Stephen Scobie and Douglas Barbour:
The Pirates of Pen's Chance: Homolinguistic Translations
The Maple Laugh Forever: An Anthology of Canadian Comic Poetry (Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers)
F. R. Scott, The Collected Poems of F. R. Scott. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. Governor General's Award 1981.
Raymond Souster, Collected Poems of Raymond Souster, Volume Two, 1955-62
Keki N. Daruwalla, Winter Poems ( Poetry in English ), Bombay: Allied Publishers.
Jayanta Mahapatra, Relationship ( Poetry in English ), winner of the Central Sahitya Akademi Awardin 1982; Cuttack: Chandrabhaga Society
Pritish Nandy, editor, Indian Poetry in English Today, New Delhi: Sterling Publication Pvt. Ltd.
Ireland
Dermot Bolger, Finglas Lilies
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin: The Rose Geranium, Dublin: The Gallery Press
Seamus Heaney, Selected Poems 1965-1975, Faber & Faber, Northern Ireland native published in the United Kingdom
Michael Longley, Patchwork, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Thomas McCarthy, The Sorrow Garden, Anvil Press, London, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Derek Mahon:
Courtyards in Delft. Gallery Press
The Hunt by Night
Christopher Nolan, Dam-Burst of Dreams
Dannie Abse, Way Out in the Centre
Sir John Betjeman, Church Poems
Alison Brackenbury, Dreams of Power
Roberta Berke, Bounds out of Bounds: A Compass for Recent American and British Poetry, Oxford University Press, criticism
Douglas Dunn, St. Kilda's Parliament
D. J. Enright, Collected Poems
James Fenton, Dead Soldiers, Sycamore Press,
Roy Fisher, Consolidated Comedies
Thom Gunn, Talbot Road
Tony Harrison:
Continuous
A Kumquat for John Keats
Seamus Heaney, Selected Poems 1965-1975, Faber & Faber, Northern Ireland native published in the United Kingdom
John Heath-Stubbs:
Buzz Buzz
Editor, Selected Poems of Thomas Gray
Ted Hughes:
Under the North Star
Editor, Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath (see Plath, below)
Peter Levi, Private Ground
Liz Lochhead, The Grimm Sisters
Christopher Logue, Ode to the Dodo
Michael Longley, Patchwork, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Derek Mahon:
Courtyards in Delft. Gallery Press
The Hunt by Night
Andrew Motion, Independence
Norman Nicholson, Sea to the West
Brian Patten, Love Poems
Tom Paulin, The Book of Juniper
Sylvia Plath, Collected Poems, posthumous, containing 224 poems in chronological order, edited by Ted Hughes; poems by an American, edited by her English husband
Peter Porter, English Subtitles
Peter Reading, Tom O'Bedlam's Beauties
Peter Redgrove, The Apple Broadcast, and Other New Poems
Carol Rumens, Unplayed Music
Elizabeth Smart, Ten Poems
D. M. Thomas, Dreaming in Bronze
R. S. Thomas, Between Here and Now
The Faber Book of Christian Verse
A.R. Ammons, A Coast of Trees
John Ashbery, Shadow Train
Imamu Amiri Baraka, formerly "LeRoi Jones", Reggae or Not!
Ted Berrigan, In a Blue River
Robert Bly, The Man in the Black Coat Turns
Paul Bowles, Next to Nothing: Collected Poems 1926–1977
Joseph Payne Brennan, Creep To Death
Joseph Brodsky: Verses on the Winter Campaign 1980, translation by Alan Meyers. – London: Anvil Press Russian-American
Gwendolyn Brooks:
Black Love
To Disembark
Jared Carter, Work, for the Night Is Coming
Gregory Corso, Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit, his first collection in 11 years
Peter Davison, Barn Fever and Other Poems
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Endless Life: Selected Poems
Carolyn Forche, The Country Between Us
Daryl Hine, Selected Poems
John Hollander:
Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse, poetry
The Figure of Echo
Janet Kauffman, The Weather Book
Denise Levertov, Light Up the Cave
Philip Levine, One for the Rose
Frederick Morgan, Northbook
Michael Palmer, Notes For Echo Lake (North Point Press)
Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, editor, containing 224 poems in chronological order (posthumous)
Marie Ponsot, Admit Impediment
Michael Ryan, In Winter (Holt)
Anne Sexton, The Complete Poems, published posthumously (died 1974)
Leslie Marmon Silko, Storyteller, short stories, poems and photographs
Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic a collection of children's poetry
Gilbert Sorrentino, Selected Poems 1958-1980
Gerald Stern, The Red Coal
Robert Stone, A Flag for Sunrise
Mark Strand, The Planet of Lost Things
Richard L. Tierney, Collected Poems
Michael Van Walleghen, More Trouble With the Obvious
David Wagoner, Landfall
Rosmarie Waldrop, Nothing Has Changed (Awede Press)
Diane Wakoski, The Magician's Feastletters
Robert Penn Warren, Rumor Verified: Poems 1979-1980
Richard Wilbur, Seven Poems
Nancy Willard, A Visit to William Blake's Inn, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
John Hollander:
Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse, criticism
The Figure of Echo, criticism
Alistair Campbell, Collected Poems, Hazard, ISBN 1-877393-00-2, New Zealand
C. K. Stead, In the Glass Case, criticism, New Zealand
Listed by language and often by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Inger Christensen, Alphabet (Alfabet), translated into English by Susanna Nied in 2001
Klaus Høeck:
Canzone, publisher: Gyldendal
Sorte sonetter, publisher: Gyldendal
Søren Ulrik Thomsen, City Slang
Pierre Nepveu, editor, La poésie québécoise, des origines à nos jours, en collaboration avec Laurent Mailhot, Montréal: Presses de l'Université du Québec/l'Hexagone, anthology
Madeleine Ouellette-Michalska, Entre le souffle et l'aine, Saint-Lambert: Le Noroît
Jean Royer, L'intime soif, Montréal: Éditions du silence
Alain Bosquet:
Poèmes, deux
Sonnets pour une fin de siècle
Jean Cayrol, Poésie-Journal
Michel Deguy, Domnant Donnant
Emmanuel Hocquard, Une ville ou une petite ile
Abdellatif Laabi, Sous le bâillon le poème. L'Harmattan, Paris, Moroccan author writing in and published in France
Charles le Quintrec, La Lumière et l'argile
Jacques Roubaud, Dors
Jacques Roubaud and Florence Delay, Merlin l'enchanteur
Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Rolf Haufs, guest editor, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 3 ("Poetry Yearbook 3"), publisher: Claassen; anthology
V. Hage, editor, Lyrik für Leser: Deutsche Gedichte der siebziger Jahre, anthology
Heinz Toni Hamm, Poesie und kommunikative Praxis (scholarship)
Klaus Weissenberger, editor, Die deutsche Lyrik, 1945-1975 (scholarship)
A. Hillel, Devareiy
Gabriel Preil, a new collection
Avot Yeshurun, a new collection
S. Shalom, a new collection
Yehuda Amichai, Shalva gedola, she'elot uteshuvot
Robert Whitehill, Efes Makom ("No Place"), published in Israel
Peretz Banai, a "new poet"
Esther Ettinger, a "new poet"
Yosef Yehezkel, a "new poet"
Aharon Shabtai, Xut ("Thread")
Mordecai Geldman, a new collection
Hannah Barzilai, a new collection
Batsheva Sharif, a new collection
Michael Senunit, a new collection
Menachem Ben, a new collection
György Petri, Örökhétfő
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Hari Daryani, Amar Gitu, a verse translation into Sindhi of (and commentary on) the Gita
K. G. Sankara Pillai, Kavitha, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: Kerala Kavita; Malayalam-language
K. Satchidanandan, Peedana Kalam, ("Times of Torment"); Malayalam-language
Namdeo Dhasal; Marathi-language:
Tuhi Iyatta Kanchi?, Mumbai: Ambedkara Prabodhini
Ambedkari Chalwal, Mumbai: Ambedkara Prabodhini
Nilmani Phookan, Gacia Larkar Kavita, Guwahati, Assam: Bani Prakash, Assamese-language
Nirendranath Chakravarti, Pagla Ghonti, Kolkata: Dey’s Publishing; Bengali-language
Parsram Rohra "Nimano", Sindhi-language
Pritish Nandy and Shakti Chattopadhyay, Pritisa Nandira kabita, Kalikata: Ananda Pabalisarsa
Rajendra Kishore Panda, Choukathhare Chirakala, Cuttack: Friends Publishers, Oraya-language
Rituraj, Pul aur Pani, New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan; Hindi-language
Umashankur Joshi, Gujarati-language:
Dharavastra
Saptapadi
Vinod Kumar Shukla, Vah Aadmi Chala Gaya Naya Garam Coat Pehankar Vichar Ki Tarah, Hapur: Sambhavna Prakashan; Hindi-language
Udaya Narayana Singh, Anuttaran, Calcutta: Mithila Darshan, Maithili-language
Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi, Rang-o-Noor (The Colour and the Light) - published by R.K.Sehgal, Bazm-e-Seemab, New Delhi, Urdu
Eugenio Montale, L'opera in versi
Carlo Betocchi, Poesie del sabato
Eugenio Montale, Altri verse e poesie disperse (originally published in 1980 under the title L'opera in versi), Milan: Arnaldo Mondadore Editore; Italy
Maria Luisa Spaziani, Geometria del disordine
Giovanni Guidici, Il ristorante dei morti
Amelia Rosselli:
Primi scritti 1952-1965
Impromptu
Poland
Stanisław Barańczak, Ksiazki najgorsze 1975-1980 ("The Worst Books"), criticism; Kraków: KOS
T. Kostkiewiczowa and Z. Goliński, editors, Swiat polprawiac—zuchwate rzemiosto, anthology
Ryszard Krynicki, Niewiele więcej. Wiersze z notatnika 78-79 ("Not Much More. Poems From the Notebook 78-79"); Kraków: Cracowska Oficyna Studentow
Ewa Lipska, Poezje wybrane ("Selected Poems"), Warszawa: LSW
Bronisław Maj, Taka wolność. Wiersze z lat 1971-1975 ("Such Freedom: Poems, 1971-1975"); Warsaw: MAW
Piotr Sommer, Przed snem
Herberto Helder, Poesia Toda
A. Pinheiro Torre, O Ressentimento dum Ocidental
Carlos Drummond de Andrade, A paixão medida
João Cabral de Melo Neto, A escola das faces
Adélia Prado, Terra de Santa Cruz
Mário da Silva, several volumes of poetry
Antonio Abad, Misericor de mí
Matilde Camus:
He seguido tus huellas ("I have followed your footprints")
Testigo de tu marcha ("Witness of your departure")
Concha Lagos, Teoría de la inseguridad
Vincente Presa, Teoría de los límites
Pablo Virumbrales, Cancionero del vaso
Mario Benedetti, Viento del exilio ("Air From Exile"), Uruguay
Karl Vennberg, Bilder I-XXVI
Goran Sonnevi, Små klanger; en rőst
Eva Runefelt, Augusti
Criticism, scholarship and biography in Yiddish
Itskhak Janoswicz, Avrom Sutzkever, His Poetry and Prose
The Lexicon of Modern Yiddish Literature, the eighth and final volume
Khaim Leyb Fuks, Biographical Dictionary of Hebrew and Yiddish Writers in Canada
Chen Kehua, Qijing shaonian ("Whale Boy") Chinese (Taiwan)
Rita Kelly, Dialann sa Díseart, Ireland
Lo Fu (poet) (Luo Fu),Wound of Time, Chinese (Taiwan)
Stein Mehren, Den usynlige regnbuen, Norway
Alexander Mezhirov, Selected Works, two volumes, Russia, Soviet Union
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, An dealg Droighin, including "Sceala" and "Failte Bheal na Sionna don Iasc", Gaelic-language, Ireland
Nizar Qabbani, Syrian poet writing in Arabic:
I Write the History of Woman Like So
The Lover's Dictionary
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Alan Gould, Astral Sea
Gerald Lampert Award
See 1981 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Pat Lowther Award
Cholmondeley Award: Roy Fisher, Robert Garioch, Charles Boyle
Eric Gregory Award: Alan Jenkins, Simon Rae, Marion Lomax, Philip Gross, Kathleen Jamie, Mark Abley, Roger Crowley, Ian Gregson
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: D. J. Enright
Hawthornden Prize: Christopher Reid
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Kathy Callaway, Heart of the Garfish
AML Award for poetry to Robert A. Rees for "Gilead"
Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Frank Bidart, "The War of Vaslav Nijinsky"
Bollingen Prize (United States): Howard Nemerov and May Swenson
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Maxine Kumin appointed this year.
MacArthur Fellowships: A.R. Ammons, Joseph Brodsky, Robert Penn Warren
National Book Award for poetry (United States): Lisel Mueller, The Need to Hold Still
National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry: A.R. Ammons, A Coast of Trees (Norton)
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress: Maxine Kumin appointed
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Schuyler: The Morning of the Poem
Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Richard Hugo
Walt Whitman Award: Alberto Ríos, Whispering to Fool the Wind (Sheep Meadow Press) Judge: Donald Justice
April 6 – Marie Šťastná, Czech poet
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 29 – John Glassco (born 1909), Canadian poet, memoirist and novelist
February 23 – Nan Shepherd (born 1893), Scottish novelist and poet
March 15 – Horiguchi Daigaku 堀口 大学 (born 1892), Japanese, Taishō and Showa period poet and translator of French literature; a member of the Shinshisha ("The New Poetry Society"); accompanied his father on overseas diplomatic postings
April 25 – Takis Sinopoulos (born 1917), Greek
April 26 – Robert Garioch (born 1909), Scots language Scottish poet and translator
April 29 – Leonard Mann (born 1895), Australian
May 8 – Uri Zvi Grinberg (born 1896), Jewish
May 31 – Falguni Ray (born 1945), Bengali poet and youngest member of Hungryalism movement
August 19 – Badawi al-Jabal (born 1905 or 1907), Syrian Arab
August 27 – James Larkin Pearson (born 1879), American poet, newspaper publisher; North Carolina Poet Laureate, 1953–1981
September 12 – Eugenio Montale, 85, Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975.
October 26 – Marie Uguay, 26 (born 1955), French-Canadian), from bone cancer
October 30 – George Brassens, French
Also:
Adolf Beiss (born 1900), German
Ada Verdun Howell (born 1902), Australian
