Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
April – First issue of o•blék: a journal of language arts (pronounced "oblique") is published, founded by Peter Gizzi who co-edits it with Connell McGrath. The magazine stops publishing in 1993.
October 16 – Charles Bukowski, fictionalised as alter ego Henry Chinaski, becomes the subject of the film Barfly starring Mickey Rourke released today.
October – Tony Harrison's poem v. is broadcast in a filmed version on Channel 4 television in the United Kingdom.
Joseph Brodsky, a Russian exile who has become a United States citizen, resigns his membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters in protest over the honorary membership of the Russian poet Evgenii Evtushenko, regarded by Brodsky as a Soviet "yes man".
In his 'Notes on the New Formalism', Dana Gioia writes: "the real issues presented by American poetry in the Eighties will become clearer: the debasement of poetic language; the prolixity of the lyric; the bankruptcy of the confessional mode; the inability to establish a meaningful aesthetic for new poetic narrative and the denial of a musical texture in the contemporary poem. The revival of traditional forms will be seen then as only one response to this troubling situation."
The Dolmen Press in Portlaoise, Ireland, founded in 1951 to provide a publishing outlet for Irish poetry, ceases operations after the death of founder Liam Miller.
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Patrick Lane, Selected Poems
Irving Layton, Fortunate Exile. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-4947-1.
Irving Layton, Final Reckoning: Poems, 1982-1986. Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press.
Dennis Lee, The Difficulty of Living on Other Planets. Toronto: Macmillan.
Gwendolyn MacEwen, Afterworlds. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 978-0-7710-5428-0
Don McKay, Sanding Down the Rocking Chair on a Windy Night
Raymond Souster, The Eyes of Love. Ottawa: Oberon Press.
George Woodcock:
Beyond the Blue Mountains, An Autobiography, Markham: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Canada
Northern Spring: The Flowering of Canadian Literature, Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, scholarship
Keki Daruwalla, Landscapes ( Poetry in English ), Delhi: Oxford University Press
Dom Moraes, Collected Poems 1957-1987 ( Poetry in English )
Jayanta Mahapatra, Selected Poems ( Poetry in English ), New Delhi: Oxford University Press
Bruce King, editor, Modern Indian Poetry in English - Historical Perspective (first edition), Delhi: Oxford University Press (anthology)
Ireland
Ciarán Carson: The Irish for No, including "Cocktails", Oldcastle: The Gallery Press Wake Forest University Press, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom and the United States
Michael Coady, Oven Lane, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1-85235-020-8
Paul Durcan, Going Home to Russia, Belfast: The Blackstaff Press
Eamon Grennan, What Light There Is, including "Totem" and "Four Deer", Oldcastle: The Gallery Press
Michael Hartnett, A Necklace of Wrens, including "Sneachta Gealai '77" and "Moonsnow '77", Oldcastle: The Gallery Press
Seamus Heaney, The Haw Lantern, Faber & Faber, Northern Ireland native at this time living in the United States
Thomas Kinsella, Out of Ireland, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Paul Muldoon, Meeting the British, including "Something Else", Faber and Faber, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Tom Paulin, Fivemiletown, Northern Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
New Zealand
Fleur Adcock (New Zealand poet who moved to England in 1963), The Faber Book of 20th Century Women's Poetry, edited by Fleur Adcock. London and Boston: Faber and Faber
Janet Charman, 2 Deaths in 1 Night: Poems, Auckland: New Women's Press
Allen Curnow, Look Back Harder: Critical Writings 1935–1984 (Auckland University Press), edited by Peter Simpson, criticism
Kendrick Smithyman, Are You Going to the Pictures?
Ian Wedde, Driving into the Storm: Selected Poems, New Zealand
Anthologies in New Zealand
Murray Edmond and Mary Paul, editors, The New Poets
V. O'Sullivan, editor, Anthology of 20th Century New Zealand Poetry, anthology, third edition
Mark Williams, Caxton Press Anthology of New Zealand Poetry
Peter Ackroyd, The Diversions of Purley, and Other Poems
Fleur Adcock (New Zealand poet who moved to England in 1963), The Faber Book of 20th Century Women's Poetry, edited by Fleur Adcock. London and Boston: Faber and Faber
Alan Brownjohn, The Old Flea-Pit
Ciarán Carson: The Irish for No, Gallery Press, Wake Forest University Press, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
David Constantine, Madder
Carol Ann Duffy, Selling Manhattan
Gavin Ewart, Late Pickings
U. A. Fanthorpe, A Watching Brief
James Fenton, Partingtime Hall (written with John Fuller, 1987), Viking / Salamander Press, comical poems,
Elaine Feinstein, Badlands, Hutchinson
Philip Gross, Cat's Whisker
Tony Harrison, Anno Forty-Two
Seamus Heaney, The Haw Lantern, Faber & Faber, Northern Ireland native at this time living in the United States
John Heath-Stubbs, Cat's Parnassus, Aldgate Press, ISBN 1-870841-00-X
Kathleen Jamie, The Way We Live
P. J. Kavanagh, Presence
Thomas Kinsella, Out of Ireland, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Blake Morrison, The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper
Andrew Motion, Natural Causes
Paul Muldoon, Meeting the British, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Sean O'Brien, The Frighteners (Bloodaxe)
Tom Paulin, Fivemiletown, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom
Fiona Pitt-Kethley, Private Parts
Ruth Pitter, A Heaven to Find
Peter Porter, The Automatic Oracle
Peter Redgrove:
In the Hall of the Saurians, shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize for Poetry in 1987
The Moon Disposes: Poems 1954-1987
Carol Rumens, Plato Park
C. H. Sisson, God Bless Karl Marx
R.S. Thomas, Welsh Airs
Anthony Thwaite, Letter from Tokyo
Charles Tomlinson, The Return
John Wain, Open Country
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom
Elaine Feinstein, A Captive Lion: The Life of Marina Tsvetayeva, Hutchinson
A.R. Ammons, Sumerian Vistas
Maya Angelou, Now Sheba Sings the Song
Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, autobiography, poetry, political, historical and cultural analysis
John Ashbery, April Galleons
Marvin Bell, New and Selected Poems, Athenaeum
Gwendolyn Brooks, Blacks
Amy Clampitt, Archaic Figure
Jorie Graham, The End of Beauty
Seamus Heaney, The Haw Lantern, Faber & Faber, Northern Ireland native at this time living in the United States
Paul Hoover, The Figures
Salma Khadra Jayyusi, editor, Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology, Columbia University Press
Lincoln Kirstein, The Poems of Lincoln Kirstein (Atheneum) ISBN 0-689-11923-2
Harry Mathews, a collection
Robert McDowell, Quiet Money
William Meredith, Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems (winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize)
George Frederick Morgan, Poems: New and Selected, University of Illinois Press
Mary Oliver, Provincetown (limited edition with woodcuts by Barnard Taylor)
Gregory Orr, a collection
Octavio Paz, Collected Poems, 1957–1987, English translation from Spanish
Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky, Pound/Zukofsky: Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky, edited by Barry Ahearn (Faber & Faber)
W.D. Snodgrass, Selected Poems: 1957-1987
Rosmarie Waldrop, The Reproduction of Profiles (New Directions)
Theodore Weiss, a collection
C.K. Williams, Flesh and Blood
Jay Wright, Selected Poems
Stephen Yenser, The Consuming Myth: The Work of James Merrill, criticism, scholarship
Edward Brathwaite, X/Self, Jamaica
Les Murray, The Daylight Moon, Australia
Klaus Høeck, Blackberry Winter, with Asger Schnack,; publisher: Gyldendal; Denmark
Klaus Rifbjerg, Byens tvelys ("Twilight of the City"), Denmark
Søren Ulrik Thomsen, New Poems
Jean Royer:
Depuis l'amour: Poème, Montréal: l'Hexagone / Paris: La Table rase
Le Québec en poésie, Saint-Laurent: Lacombe
La poésie québécoise contemporaine (anthologie), Montréal: l'Hexagone/Paris: La Découverte; anthology
Yves Bonnefoy:
Ce qui fut sans lumière
Récits en rêve
Abdellatif Laabi, translator, Autobiographie du voleur de feu, translated from the original Arabic of Abdelwahab al-Bayati into French; Paris: Unesco/Actes Sud
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Chandrakanta Murasingh, Haping Garingo Chibuksa Ringo, Agartala: Shyamlal Debbarma, Kokborok Sahitya Sanskriti Samsad; India, Kokborok-language
Jayant Kaikini, Shravana Madhyahna, Sagar, Karnataka: Akshara Prakashana, Indian, Kannada-language
K. Satchidanandan, Ivanekkoodi, ("Him, too"); Malayalam-language
Nirendranath Chakravarti, Ghumiye Porar Aage, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers; Bengali-language
Rituraj, Surat Nirat, Jaipur: Panchscheel Prakashan; Hindi-language
Vasant Abaji Dahake, Shubha-vartaman; Marathi-language
Juliusz Erazm Bolek, Miniatury; Poland
Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Jürgen Becker, guest editor, Luchterhand Jahrbuch der Lyrik 1987/88 ("Luchterhand Poetry Yearbook 1987/88"), publisher: Luchterhand Literaturverlag; anthology; Germany
Odysseus Elytis, Κριναγόρας ("Krinagoras"), Greece
Ndoc Gjetja, Poezi ("Poetry"); Albania
Hamid Ismailov, Сад ("Garden") Uzbek language
Czesław Miłosz, Kroniki ("Chronicles"); Paris: Instytut Literacki; Poland
Nizar Qabbani, Love Shall Remain, Sir, Syrian, Arabic-language
M. Swales, editor, German Poetry, anthology with poems in German
Maire Mhac an tSaoi, An Cion go Dti Seo, including "Caoineadh" and "Ceathruinti Mhaire Ni Ogain", Gaelic-language, Ireland
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Lily Brett, The Auschwitz Poems
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Philip Hodgins, Blood and Bone
Mary Gilmore Prize: Jan Owen - Boy with Telescope
Gerald Lampert Award
Archibald Lampman Award
See 1987 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Pat Lowther Award
Cholmondeley Award: Wendy Cope, Matthew Sweeney, George Szirtes
Commonwealth Prize for Poetry: Edward Brathwaite of Jamaica
Eric Gregory Award: Peter McDonald, Maura Dooley, Stephen Knight, Steve Anthony, Jill Maughan, Paul Munden
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: David Rivard, Torque
Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Howard Nemerov
AML Award for poetry to Robert A. Christmas for "Self-Portrait as Brigham Young"
Frost Medal: Robert Creeley / Sterling Brown
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress: Richard Wilbur
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Rita Dove, Thomas and Beulah
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Philip Levine
Whiting Awards: Mark Cox, Michael Ryan
William Carlos Williams Award: Alan Shapiro, Happy Hour
Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Josephine Jacobsen and Alfred Corn
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 14 – Ewart Milne, 83 (born 1903), Irish poet and radical
February 22 – Glenway Wescott, 85 (born 1901), American novelist and poet, from a stroke
June 22 – John Hewitt, 79 (born 1907), Irish poet
August 23 – Samar Sen, 70 (born 1916), Bengali poet and journalist
September 11 – Ladislav Stehlík (born 1908), Czech poet, writer and painter
September 16 – Howard Moss, 65 (born 1922), poetry editor of The New Yorker, from a heart attack
November 6 – John Logan (born 1923), American poet
November 29 – Gwendolyn MacEwen, 46 (born 1941) Canadian poet and novelist, alcohol-related
December 29 – Jun Ishikawa 石川淳 pen name of Ishikawa Kiyoshi, Ishikawa, 88 (born 1899), Japanese, Showa period modernist author, translator and literary critic
Also – Vaughan Morgan (born 1907), New Zealand shepherd-poet
