January 20 — Maya Angelou reads "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.
March 31–April 3 — Writing from the New Coast: First Festival of Poetry held at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Many influential younger poets attend the conference. The final, two-volume issue of o•blék magazine this year will contain writing presented at the conference.
December 8 — Start of the University of Buffalo POETICS listserv, informally and variously known as UBPOETICS or the POETICS list, one of the oldest and most widely known mailing lists devoted to the discussion of contemporary North American poetry and poetics. In the early days of the list, membership, list discussions and even the existence of the list itself were kept private, and members were required not to discuss the contents of list postings or the list itself with "outsiders." People who wished to join the list were asked to provide a short "personal statement" before being approved.
T. S. Eliot Prize created.
Reality television contest Million's Poet (Arabic: شاعر المليون) is launched in the United Arab Emirates.
Bound by Honor, a film directed by Taylor Hackford, based on the life of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, who co-wrote the screenplay, is released.
Poetic Justice, a film directed by John Singleton, features Maya Angelou's poetry, and she appears as Aunt June.
Poesia sempre, is created by the National Library of Brazil to promote poetry both from that nation and from beyond its borders and provide a forum for debate on poetry
A new Yiddish monthly journal, Di yidishe gas ("The Jewish Street"), edited by Aron Vergelis, appears in Moscow. It is the first since the Sovetish heymland ("Soviet Homeland") became defunct.
American literary magazine o•blék (pronounced "oblique"), founded in 1987 by Peter Gizzi who co-edited it with Connell McGrath, stopped publishing.
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Jennifer Maiden, Acoustic Shadow, Penguin
Philip Salom: Feeding the Ghost, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-058692-3
John Tranter:
Under Berlin, University of Queensland Press
The Floor of Heaven, HarperCollins/Angus & Robertson
Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Rungs of Time, Oxford University Press
George Bowering:
The Moustache: Remembering Greg Curnoe
George Bowering Selected: Poems 1961–1992
Marilyn Bowering, Love as It Is
Leonard Cohen, Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs, selected from works written between 1956 and 1992
Sheree Fitch, In This House Are Many Women
Judith Fitzgerald:
Walkin' Wounded, including a cycle of baseball poems
"Habit of Blues", a prose poem meditating on the fate of the late novelist Juan Butler.
Bryan Gooch and Maureen Niwa, editors, The Emergence of the Muse: Major Canadian Poets from Crawford to Pratt, Toronto: Oxford University Press (scholarship)
Irving Layton, Fornalutx
Dennis Lee, Riffs London, Ont.: Brick Books.
Gwendolyn MacEwen:
Atwood, Margaret and Barry Callaghan, eds. The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen: The Early Years (Volume One). Toronto: Exile Editions. ISBN 978-1-55096-543-8
Atwood, Margaret and Barry Callaghan, eds. The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen: The Later Years (Volume Two). Toronto: Exile Editions. ISBN 978-1-55096-547-6
A. F. Moritz, The Ruined Cottage
bp Nichol:
Truth: A Book of Fictions
First Screening
Hernert Rosengarten and Amanda Goldrick-Jones, editors, Broadview Anthology of Poetry, anthology of American, British and Canadian poetry; ISBN 978-1-55111-006-6
Raymond Souster, Old Bank Notes. Ottawa: Oberon.
Raymond Souster, Riding the Long Black Horse, Ottawa: Oberon.
Sudeep Sen, Parallel ( Poetry in English ), with compact disc/audio cassette; Edinburgh: The Scottish Poetry Library
Arundhathi Subramaniam, editor, In Their Own Voice: The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary Indian Women Poets, anthology; New Delhi: Penguin, ISBN 0-14-015643-7.
Makarand Paranjape, editor, Indian Poetry in English, Madras: Macmillan India Ltd.
Ireland
Fergus Allen, The Brown Parrots of Providencia, including "Elegy for Faustina" and "The Fall", Faber and Faber, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Pat Boran, Familiar Things, publisher: Dedalus
Ciaran Carson, First Language, including "Ovid: Metamorphoses, V, 529–550" and "Bagpipe Music", Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1-85235-128-1
Michael D. Higgins, The Season of Fire
Medbh McGuckian, The Flower Master and Other Poems, including "The Seed-picture", "Gateposts" and "The Flower Master", Oldcastle: The Gallery Press
Martin Mooney, Grub, including "Anna Akhmatova's Funeral", Belfast: The Blackstaff Press
W. R. Rodgers, Poems, including "Lent", "The Net" and "Stormy Night", Oldcastle: The Gallery Press
New Zealand
Fleur Adcock (New Zealand poet who moved to England in 1963), Mary Magdalene and the Birds: Mezzo-sporano and Clarinet, by Dorothy Buchanan, with words by Fleur Adcock, Wellington: Waiteata Press
Andrew Johnston, Sol How to Talk, winner of the 1994 New Zealand Book Award for Poetry and the 1994 Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award
Cilla McQueen, Crïk´ey: New and Selected Poems
W. H. Oliver, Bodily Presence: Words, Paintings, co-author: Anne Munz; Wellington: BlackBerry Press, New Zealand
Keith Sinclair, Moontalk
Ian Wedde, The Drummer
Fleur Adcock (New Zealand poet who moved to England in 1963), Mary Magdalene and the Birds: Mezzo-sporano and Clarinet, by Dorothy Buchanan, with words by Fleur Adcock, Wellington: Waiteata Press
Fergus Allen, The Brown Parrots of Providencia, including "Elegy for Faustina" and "The Fall", Faber and Faber, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Moniza Alvi, The Country at my Shoulder
Simon Armitage, Book of Matches
Barbara Bleiman editor, Five Modern Poets: Fleur Adcock, U.A. Fanthorpe, Tony Harrison, Anne Stevenson, Derek Walcott, Harlow, England: Longman
Ciarán Carson: First Language: Poems, Gallery Books, Wake Forest University Press, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Gillian Clarke, The King of Britain's Daughter
Blaga Dimitrova, Bulgaria's popular vice president, The Last Rock Eagle, a translation of several of her poems
Carol Ann Duffy, Mean Time, Anvil Press Poetry
Douglas Dunn, Dante's Drum-Kit
Paul Durcan, A Snail in my Prime
D. J. Enright, Old Men and Comets
James Fenton, Out of Danger
Roy Fuller, Last Poems
W. S. Graham, Aimed at Nobody (posthumous)
Thom Gunn, Collected Poems
Tony Harrison, Black Daisies for the Bride
Seamus Heaney:
Keeping Going, Bow and Arrow Press
Translator: The Midnight Verdict: Translations from the Irish of Brian Merriman and from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, Gallery Press
John Heath-Stubbs, Sweet-Apple Earth
Jackie Kay, Other Lovers
James Kirkup, Blue Bamboo
Jamie McKendrick, The Kiosk on the Brink
E. A. Markham, Letter from Ulster and the Hugo Poems
Sean O'Brien, A Rarity (Carnivorous Arpeggio)
Tom Rawling, The Names of the Sea-Trout
Carol Rumens, Thinking of Skins
Labi Siffre, Nigger
R. S. Thomas, Collected Poems, 1945–1990
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom
Elmer Andrews, editor, The Poetry of Seamus Heaney, ISBN 0-231-11926-7
Thomas N. Corns, editor, Cambridge Companion to English Poetry, Donne to Marvell, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Michael Parker, Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet, ISBN 0-333-47181-4
Ai, Greed
A.R. Ammons, Garbage, a book-length poem about American trash and its implications, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry this year and the 1994 Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry
Jared Carter, After the Rain, winner of the Poets' Prize for 1994
Geoffrey Dearmer, A Pilgrim's Song: Selected Poems
Mark Doty, My Alexandria
Petya Dubarova, Here I Am, in Perfect Leaf Today (posthumous), translated from Bulgarian to English by Don D. Wilson
Jerry Estrin, Rome, A Mobile Home
Margaret Gibson, The Vigil
Donald Hall, Life Work, memoir
John Hollander:
Selected Poetry
Tesserae and Other Poems
Daniel Halpern, editor, The Inferno by Dante, 21 living American poets wrote their versions of the cantos
Meto Jovanovski, Faceless Men and Other Macedonian Stories, translated from Macedonian to English by Charles Simic in collaboration with Milne Holton and Jeffrey Folks.
Susan Ludvigson, Everything Winged Must Be Dreaming
Jack Marshall, Sesame
W. S. Merwin:
The Second Four Books of Poems, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press
W. S. Merwin, Travels: Poems, New York: Knopf
Lorine Niedecker and Louis Zukofsky, Niedecker and the Correspondence with Zukofsky 1931–1970, edited by Jenny Penberthy (Cambridge University Press)
Ed Ochester & Peter Oresick, Pittsburgh Book of Contemporary American Poetry (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Jim Powell, translator, Sappho: A Garland, new translations of the poems and fragments of the 6th-century BC poet
Lawrence Raab, What We Don't Know About Each Other
Adrienne Rich, Collected Early Poems, 1950–1970
David Rosenberg, translator, The Lost Book of Paradise, a verse translation of Genesis
Sherod Santos, The City of Women, a sequence of poems and prose
Sappho, Sappho: A Garland, new translations of the poems and fragments, translated by Jim Powell
James Schuyler, Collected Poems
Frederick Seidel, My Tokyo
Charles Simic, translator, The Horse Has Six Legs: An Anthology of Serbian Poetry, from Serbian into English, including Serbian poets Ivan V. Lalić, Vasko Popa, Momčilo Nastasijević, and Nina Zivancevic.
Sande Stojcevski, A Gate in the Cloud, translated by David Bowen and others from Macedonian to English, with more than 50 of the poet's lyrics.
Mark Strand, Dark Harbor, Canadian native living in and published in the United States
Luci Tapahonso, Saanii Dahataal
Rosmarie Waldrop, Lawn of the Excluded Middle (Tender Buttons)
Rosanna Warren, Stained Glass
Eliot Weinberger, editor, American Poetry Since 1950: Innovators and Outsiders (Marsilio Publishers)
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
Donald Hall, Life Work, a memoir
Jay Parini, editor, The Columbia History of American Poetry
Alex Preminger, and T. V. F. Brogan, editors, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Adrienne Rich, What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics
Delmore Schwartz and James Laughlin, Selected Letters, correspondence between the poet and his publisher
Don Burness, editor, Echoes of the Sunbird: An Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry, Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies
John Hollander, editor, American Poetry, the Nineteenth Century, two volumes (Library of America)
Garrett Hongo, editor, The Open Boat: Poems from Asian America, New York: Doubleday
Poets included in The Best American Poetry 1993
Poems from these 75 poets were in The Best American Poetry 1993, edited by David Lehman, guest editor Louise Glück:
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Kirsten Hammann, Jeg er så træt af min krop (Mellem tænderne), publisher: Gyldendal; Denmark
Pia Tafdrup, Krystalskoven
Henrik Nordbrandt, Støvets tyngde
Thorkild Bjørnvig, Siv vand og måne
Kirsten Hammann, Vera Vinkelvir, a cross between a prose poem and a novel
Claude Beausoleil, L'Usage du temps
Louise Dupré, Noir déjà
Madeleine Gagnon, La Terre est remplie de langage
Serge-Patrice Thibodeau, Le Cycle de Prague
Olivier Barbarant, Douze lettres d'amore au soldat inconnu, publisher: Editions Champ Vallon; ISBN 978-2-87673-164-6
Yves Bonnefoy:
La vie errante
Une autre époque de l'écriture
Claude Esteban, Sept jours d'hier, Fourbis
Abdellatif Laabi, L'Étreinte du monde; Paris; Moroccan author writing in French and published in France
Yves Leclair, L'or du commun
Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Robert Gernhardt, guest editor, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 9 ("Poetry Yearbook 9"), publisher: Luchterhand; anthology
Heinz Czechowski, Nachtspur
Wulf Kirsten, Stimmenschotter
Richard Wagner, Heisse Maroni
Mordechai Geldman, A'yin ("Eye")
Israel Eliraz, Pe Karu'a ("A Torn Mouth")
Tamir Greenberg, Dyokan Atzmi Im Qvant veHatul Met ("Self Portrait with Quantum and Dead Cat")
Zvika Shternfeld, Hamarkiza miGovari ("The Marquise of Govari")
Shimon Shloush, Tola Havui shel Asham ("A Hidden Worm of Guilt")
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Gulzar, Chand Pukhraj Ka; Urdu-language
K. Satchidanandan, Ente Satchidanandan Kavitakal, selected poems; Malayalam-language
Kanaka Ha Ma, Holebagilu, Sagara, Karnataka: Akshara Prakashana; Kannada language
Kunwar Narain, Koee Doosra Naheen, New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan, ISBN 81-267-0007-6; Hindi-language
Mallika Sengupta, Ardheke Prithivi, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers; Bengali-language
Manushya Puthiran, En Padukai araiyil yaroo olithirukirargal, Chennai: South Asian Books, Tamil language
Nilmani Phookan, editor, Aranyar Gan, an anthology of Indian tribal love poems; Guwahati, Assam: Students’ Store, Assamese-language
Prabodh Parikh, Kaunsman ("Between Parentheses/In Brackets"), winner of several awards, including Best Poetry Collection of 1993-94 from the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi and the G.F. Saraf Award for Best Gujarati Book in 1992–1995; Mumbai: R.R. Sheth Publishers; Gujarati-language
Poland
Ewa Lipska, Wakacje mizantropa. Utwory wybrane ("Misanthrope Holidays: Selected Work"), Kraków: Wydawnictwo literackie
Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz, Moje dzielo posmiertne ("My Posthumous Works") Kraków: Znak
Wisława Szymborska: Koniec i początek ("The End and the Beginning")
Jan Twardowski:
Kasztan dla milionera: Wiersze dla dzieci, Warsaw: Nasza Księgarnia
Krzyżyk na drogę ("Cross the Road"), Kraków: Znak
Joaquim Manuel Magalhães, A poeira levada pelo vento
Waly Salamão, Armarinho da miudezas, which reflects native Bahian traditions
Sebastião Uchoa Leite, published a poetry book
Felipe Fortuna published a poetry book
Adão Ventura, Texturaafro,
Miodrag Pavlović:
Knjiga horizonta ("The Book of Horizon")
Nebo v pećini ("The Sky in the Rocks")
Ogledi o narodnoj i staros srpskoj poeziji ("A Treatise on Folk and Old Serbian Poetry"), scholarship
Dejan Stojanović, Krugovanje: 1978–1987 ("Circling"), first edition, Narodna knjiga, Alfa, Beograd
Matilde Camus, Amor dorado ("Golden Love")
Ángel González, Poemas
Xavier Sabater, editor, Poesía experimental 93, a visual poetry anthology; Barcelona: Sedicions
Jesper Svenbro:
Blått ("Blue")
Samisk Apollon och andra dikter ("The Sami Apollo and Other Poems")
Henrik Nilsson, Utan skor
Yisroel Khaym Biletski, Uri Tsvi Grinberg der yidish-dikhter ("Uri Tsvi Grinberg: The Yiddish Poet") biography on the poet
Lindita Arapi, Kufomë lulesh, Albania
Blaga Dimitrova, Bulgaria's popular vice president, Noshten dnevnik ("Night Diary"), 70 poems written from 1989–1992
Lo Fu (Luo Fu), Hidden Title Poems, Chinese (Taiwan)
Cathal Ó Searcaigh, Homecoming/An Bealach 'na Bhaile, including "Bo Bhradach", "Na Piopai Creafoige", and "Caoineadh", Gaelic-language, Ireland
Novica Tadić, Night Mail: Selected Poems, Macedonia
Yu Jian, Dui yi zhi wuya de mingming, Chinese
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Les Murray, Translations from the Natural World
Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize: At the Florida by John Tranter
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Les Murray, Translations from the Natural World
Mary Gilmore Prize: Jill Jones - The Mask and Jagged Star
Gerald Lampert Award
Archibald Lampman Award
See 1993 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Pat Lowther Award
Prix Alain-Grandbois
Cholmondeley Award: Patricia Beer, George Mackay Brown, P. J. Kavanagh, Michael Longley
Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection: Carol Ann Duffy, Mean Time (Anvil Press)
Forward Poetry Prize Best First Collection: Don Paterson, Nil Nil (Faber and Faber)
T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Ciaran Carson, First Language: Poems
Whitbread Award for poetry: Carol Ann Duffy, Mean Time
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Natasha Sajé, Red Under the Skin
Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: George Starbuck
AML Award for poetry to Linda Sillitoe for "Crazy Living"
Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Stephen Yenser, "Blue Guide"
Bollingen Prize (United States): Mark Strand
Frost Medal: William Stafford
National Book Award for poetry (United States): A.R. Ammons, Garbage (will also win 1994 Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry)
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress: Rita Dove appointed
Pulitzer Prize for poetry (United States): Louise Glück, The Wild Iris
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Louise Glück, The Wild Iris
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Charles Wright
Whiting Awards: Mark Levine, Nathaniel Mackey, Dionisio D. Martinez, Kathleen Peirce
Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Gerald Stern
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
April 23 – Bertus Aafjes, 89 (born 1914), Dutch poet
June 19 – William Golding, 82 (born 1919), English novelist, poet, and winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature
June 22 – Jerry Estrin, 46 (born 1947 in poetry), American poet (Rome, A Mobile Home) and magazine editor (Vanishing Cab)
August 28 – William Stafford, 79, American poet and pacifist, and the father of poet and essayist Kim Stafford
September 16 – Oodgeroo Noonuccal, 71, Australian poet, actress, writer, teacher, artist and campaigner for Aboriginal causes
September 26 – Nina Berberova, Нина Николаевна Берберова (born 1901), Russian-born poet, novelist, playwright, critic and academic who lived in Europe from 1922 to 1950, then in the United States
October 27 – Peter Quennell, 88, English biographer, historian and poet
October (exact date not known) – Gu Cheng, Chinese poet, by suicide
Exact date not known – Parijat, पारिजात, Bishnu Kumari Waiba, c.56 (born 1937), Nepalese novelist and poet
