June 2 – Dead Poets Society, a film incorporating excerpts from many traditional poets, ending with the title and opening line of Walt Whitman's lament on the death of Abraham Lincoln, "O Captain! My Captain!", is released in the United States
November 10 – My Left Foot, a film about Christy Brown, the Irish poet, and based on his autobiography, is released
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Robert Adamson The Clean Dark
Les Murray, The Idyll Wheel
Philip Salom: Barbecue of the Primitives. (University of Queensland) ISBN 978-0-7022-2221-4
Chris Wallace-Crabbe (Sangue e l'acqua, translated and edited into Italian by Giovann Distefano, Abano Terme: Piovan Editore
Margaret Avison, No Time (winner of the Governor General's Award for English language poetry in 1990
C. Bayard, The New Poetics in Canada and Quebec (scholarship)
Roo Borson, Intent, or, The Weight of the World, ISBN 0-7710-1588-7 American-Canadian
Tim Lilburn, Tourist To Ecstasy, a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, Canada
Michael Ondaatje, The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems, Canadian poet published in the United Kingdom; London: Pan; New York: Knopf, 1991
Michael Ondaatje and Linda Spalding, editors, The Brick Anthology, illustrated by David Bolduc, Toronto: Coach House Press
Nissim Ezekiel, Collected Poems ( Poetry in English ), Delhi, Oxford University Press
Jayanta Mahapatra, Temple ( Poetry in English ), Sydney: Dangaroo Press
Imtiaz Dharker, Purdah ( Poetry in English ),Oxford University Press, Delhi
Ireland
Sebastian Barry, Fanny Hawke Goes to the Mainland Forever
Dermot Bolger, Leinster Street Ghosts
Eavan Boland, Selected Poems, including "Listen. This is the Noise of Myth" and "Fond Memory", Carcanet Press
Ciaran Carson, Belfast Confetti, including "The Mouth" and "Hamlet", Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1-85235-042-0
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin: The Magdalene Sermon, shortlisted for the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Award, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, Ireland
Denis Devlin, Collected Poems, including "Ank'hor Vat", "Little Elegy", "Memoirs of a Turcoman Diplomat: Oteli Asia Palas, Inc.", (see also Collected Poems 1964), Dedalus Press
Thomas McCarthy, Seven Winters in Paris, Anvil Press, London, Ireland
John Montague, New Selected Poems, including "Like Dolmens Round My Childhood, the Old People", "The Trout", "A Chosen Light", The Same Gesture", "Last Journey", "Dowager" and "Herbert Street Revisited", Oldcastle: The Gallery Press
Matthew Sweeney, Blue Shoes, including "to the Building Trade", and "Tube Ride to Martha's"
Dannie Abse, White Coat, Purple Coat
Fleur Adcock (New Zealand poet who moved to England in 1963), translator, Orient Express: Poems. Grete Tartler, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press
Simon Armitage, Zoom!
Dermot Bolger, Leinster Street Ghosts, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Gillian Clarke, Letting in the Rumour
Donald Davie, To Scorch or Freeze
Gavin Ewart, Penultimate Poems
James Fenton, Manila Envelope, self-published book of poems
Roy Fuller, Available for Dreams
Alasdair Gray, Old Negatives
Gerald Hammond, Fleeting Things: English Poets and Poems, 1616-1660, scholarship
The Blasphemers' Banquet by Tony Harrison
Selima Hill, The Accumulation of Small Acts of Kindness
Ted Hughes, Wolfwatching
Peter Levi, Shadow and Bone
George MacBeth, Collected Poems 1958–1982
E. A. Markham, editor, Hinterland: Caribbean Poetry from the West Indies and Britain
Grace Nichols:
Editor, Poetry Jump-Up, illustrated by Michael Lewis, Penguin (Harmondsworth, England); had been published as Black Poetry in 1988 by Blackie (London, England)
Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman, and Other Poems, Virago Press (London, England); published in 1990 by Random House (New York)
Sean O'Brien, Boundary Beach (Ulsterman Publications)
Fiona Pitt-Kethley, The Perfect Man
Peter Porter, Possible Worlds
Pauline Prior-Pitt, Waiting Women
J. H. Prynne, Word Order
Peter Reading, Perduta Gente
Vernon Scannell, Soldiering On
Iain Crichton Smith, 'The Village, and Other Poems
Charles Tomlinson, Annunciations
Hugo Williams, Selected Poems, Oxford University Press
Joseph Payne Brennan, Look Back On Laurel Hills (Jwindz Publishing/Dwayne H. Olsen)
Raymond Carver, A New Path To The Waterfall
Henri Cole, The Zoo Wheel of Knowledge
Ed Dorn, Abhorrences, Black Sparrow Press
Rita Dove, Grace Notes
W. S. Merwin and Soiku Shigematsu, translators, Sun at Midnight, poems by Musō Soseki
Molly Peacock, Take Heart
Charles Reznikoff, Poems 1918-1975: The Complete Poems of Charles Reznikoff, edited by Seamus Cooney (Black Sparrow Press)
Michael Ryan, God Hunger, Viking Penguin
Mary Jo Salter, Unfinished Painting, Knopf
N. Baym, et all, editors, The Norton Anthology of American Literature, two volumes, third edition
Eugene England and Dennis Clark, editors, Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems, 328 pages. Signature Books, ISBN 978-0-941214-80-3.
M. Honey, editors, Shadowed Dreams: Women's Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance
M. Harris and K. Aguero, editors, An Ear to the Ground
Poets included in The Best American Poetry 1989
Poems by these 75 poets were included in The Best American Poetry 1989, edited by David Lehman, with Donald Hall, guest editor:
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
Frederick Feirstein, editor, Expansive Poetry, various essays on the New Formalism and the related movement New Narrative, under the umbrella term "Expansive Poetry"
Michele Leggott, Reading Zukofsky's 80 Flowers, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, (New Zealand writer; book published in the United States)
A. Shucard, Modern American Poetry 1865-1950
M. Davidson, The San Francisco Renaissance
W. Kalaidjian, Languages of Liberation: The Social Text in Contemporary American Poetry
Norman Simms, Who's Writing and Why in the South Pacific, scholarship, New Zealand
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Nizar Qabbani, Syrian;
A Match in My Hand
Petty Paper Nations
No Victor Other Than Love
Inger Christensen, Denmark:
Digt om døden ("Poem on Death")
Lys og Græs ("Light and Grass")
Klaus Høeck, Heptameron, publisher: Gyldendal; Denmark
Claude Esteban, Elégie de la mort violente, Flammarion; France
Abdellatif Laabi, translator, Plus rares sont les roses, translated from the original Arabic of Mahmoud Darwich into French; Paris: Éditions de Minuit
Jean Royer, Introduction à la poésie québécoise: Les poètes et les œuvres des origines à nos jours, Montréal: BQ; Canada
György Petri, Ami kimaradt
György Petri, Valahol megvan
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Anamika, Samay Ke Shahar Mein, Delhi: Parag Publications; Hindi-language
Dileep Jhaveri, Pandukavyo ane Itar, Gujarati-language [2]
Gagan Gill, Ek Din Lautegi Laraki, New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan, New Delhi, 1989, Bharatiya Jnanpith; Hindi-language
Nirendranath Chakravarti, Jongole Ek Unmadini, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers; Bengali-language
Poland
Juliusz Erazm Bolek, Prywatne zagrożenie
Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Rozwiązywanie przestrzeni. Poemat polifoniczny ("Dissolving Space – A Polyphonic Poem")
Wisława Szymborska: Poezje: Poems, bilingual Polish-English edition
Matilde Camus:
Santander en mi sentir ("Santander in my heart")
Sin alcanzar la luz ("Without reaching the Light")
Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Rolf Haufs, guest editor, Luchterhand Jahrbuch der Lyrik 1989/90 ("Poetry Yearbook 1989/90"), publisher: Luchterhand Literaturverlag; anthology; West Germany
Alexander Mezhirov, Russia, Soviet Union:
Бормотуха ("Bormotuha")
Стихотворения ("Poems")
Vladimir Vysotsky, Poėzii͡a i proza ("Poems and prose"), Russia songwriter and poet, Soviet Union
Yu Jian, Shi liushi shou China
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Gwen Harwood, Bone Scan
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: John Tranter, Under Berlin
Mary Gilmore Prize: Alex Skovron, The Re-arrangement
Gerald Lampert Award
Archibald Lampman Award
See 1989 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Pat Lowther Award
Prix Alain-Grandbois
New Zealand
Jenny Bornholdt, Moving House
Lauris Edmond, Hot October, autobiography
Kendrick Smithyman, Selected Poems, edited by Peter Simpson, Auckland: Auckland University Press, New Zealand
Cholmondeley Award: Peter Didsbury, Douglas Dunn, E.J. Scovell
Eric Gregory Award: Gerard Woodward, David Morley, Katrina Porteous, Paul Henry
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Allen Curnow
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Nancy Vieira Couto, The Face in the Water
Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Anthony Hecht
AML Award for poetry Susan Elizabeth Howe for "Things in the Night Sky"
Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Jorie Graham, "Spring"
Frost Medal: Gwendolyn Brooks
Lannan Literary Award for Poetry: Cid Corman, George Evans and Peter Levitt
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Richard Wilbur: New and Collected Poems
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Mona Van Duyn
Whiting Awards: Russell Edson, Mary Karr, C.D. Wright
William Carlos Williams Award: Diane Wakoski, Emerald Ice: Selected Poems 1962-1987
Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Richard Howard
June 21 – Jackie Hill-Perry, born Jackie Hill, American poet and hip hop artist
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 4 – Srikrishna Alanahalli, 41 (born 1947), Indian Kannada-language novelist and poet
January 13 – Sterling Allen Brown, 87 (born 1901), African-American poet, teacher and writer on folklore and of literary criticism
January 22 – M. Govindan, 69 (born 1919), Indian, Malayalam-language poet
February 28 – Richard Armour, 82, American poet and writer, of Parkinson's disease
May 14 – Bhupi Sherchan, 53 (born 1935) Nepali poet
June 19 – Betti Alver, 82 (born 1906), Estonian poet
August 25 – Hans Børli, 70, Norwegian poet, novelist, and writer
September 15 – Robert Penn Warren (born 1905), poet and writer, former U.S. Poet Laureate, of cancer
October 12 – N. V. Krishna Warrier, 78 (born 1911), Indian, Malayalam-language poet, critic and scholar, introduced new types of long narrative poems and satires, editor of weekly Mathrubhumi, director of Kerala Bhasa Institute
October 24 – Doris Huestis Speirs (born 1894), Canadian painter, ornithologist and poet
December 4 – May Swenson, American poet and playwright
December 22 – Samuel Beckett, Irish poet, playwright and novelist, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1969
