April – National Poetry Month established by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States.
November 11 – A memorial to John Betjeman is unveiled in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey by Lady Wilson.
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Raewyn Alexander, Fat, Auckland: Penguin
Robert Gray, Lineations
Jennifer Harrison: Cabramatta/Cudmirrah (Black Pepper)
Les Murray:
Late Summer Fires
Subhuman Redneck Poems, Carcanet and Sydney, Duffy & Snellgrove winner of the 1996 T. S. Eliot Prize
Peter Porter, editor, The Oxford book of Modern Australian Verse, Melbourne: Oxford University Press
Philip Salom: Feeding the Ghost. (Penguin) ISBN 978-0-14-058692-3
Roo Borson, Water Memory, ISBN 0-7710-1589-5 American-Canadian
Cyril Dabydeen, editor, Another Way to Dance: Contemporary Asian Poetry from Canada and the United States, Toronto: TSAR
Kristjana Gunnar, Exiles Among You
Dennis Lee, Nightwatch: New and Selected Poems, 1968-1996
Sylvia Legris:
ash petals (chapbook)
Circuitry of Veins
Steve McCaffery, The Cheat of Words
George McWhirter, A Staircase for All Souls
Erin Mouré, Search Procedures
Janis Rapoport, After Paradise
Joe Rosenblatt, The Voluptuous Gardener. (new poetry and selected drawings from Carleton University Art Gallery permanent collection) Beach Holme Press.
Stephen Scobie, Taking the Gate: A Journey Through Scotland
Raymond Souster, Close to Home. Ottawa: Oberon Press.
Keki N. Daruwalla, A Summer of Tigers ( Poetry in English ), Delhi: Oxford University Press
Kamala Das, My Story, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers; autobiography
Ireland
Pat Boran, The Shape of Water (Dedalus), Ireland
Ciaran Carson, Opera Et Cetera, Oldcastle: Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1-85235-188-5
Seán Dunne, Time and the Island, Oldcastle: Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1-85235-181-6
Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level
Thomas McCarthy, The Lost Province, Anvil Press, London
Ulick O'Connor, Poems of the Damned, a translation of Les Fleurs du mal from the original French of Charles Baudelaire
Bernard O'Donoghue, Gunpowder, Irish poet living in and published in the United Kingdom
New Zealand
James K. Baxter, posthumous, Cold Spring : Baxter's Unpublished Early Collection, edited by Paul Millar, Auckland: Oxford University Press
Alan Brunton, Romaunt of Glossa: a saga, Bumper Books
Alistair Campbell, Pocket: Collected Poems, Christchurch: Hazard Press
Allen Curnow, New and Collected Poems 1941-1995
Maurice Gee, Loving Ways
Bill Manhire:
My Sunshine
Sheet Music: Poems 1967-1982
John Agard and Grace Nichols, A Caribbean Dozen: A Collection of Poems, London: Walker Books (children's book)
James Berry, Playing a Dazzler
Ciarán Carson: Opera Et Cetera, Bloodaxe, Wake Forest University Press, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Carol Ann Duffy:
Salmon - Carol Ann Duffy: Selected Poems, Salmon Poetry
Editor, with Trisha Rafferty, Stopping for Death, Viking (anthology)
T. S. Eliot, Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-1917, early unpublished verse that the author had said he never wanted published; edited by Christopher Ricks; posthumous
Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level Faber & Faber; Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom
John Heath-Stubbs, Galileo's Salad
Tobias Hill, Midnight in the City of Clocks
Grace Nichols, Sunris (no "e" in the title), London: Virago Press
Bernard O'Donoghue, Gunpowder, Irish poet living in and published in the United Kingdom
Iona Opie, editor, My Very First Mother Goose, a collection of nursery rhymes
Alice Oswald, The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-282513-5
Craig Raine, Clay: Whereabouts Unknown
Peter Reading, Collected Poems 1985–1996
Peter Redgrove:
Assembling a Ghost
The Book of Wonders: The Best of Peter Redgrove's Poetry, edited by Jeremy Robinson
Iain Sinclair, editor, Conductors of Chaos: A Poetry Anthology, anthology of poets associated with or seen as precursors to the British Poetry Revival; Picador
Benjamin Zephaniah, Propa Propaganda
Criticism, scholarship, and biography in the United Kingdom
Anthony Cronin, Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist (London: HarperCollins), one of The New York Times "notable books of the year" for 1997, when it was published in the United States (Irish poet and scholar published in the United Kingdrom)
Elizabeth Alexander, Body of Life
A.R. Ammons, Brink Road
Virginia Hamilton Adair, Ants on the Melon, the author's first book of poems, at age 83
Joseph Brodsky: So Forth : Poems, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Russian-American
Raymond Carver, All of Us: The Collected Poems
Juliana Chang, editor, Quiet Fire: A Historical Anthology of Asian American poetry, 1892-1970, New York: The Asian American Writers' Workshop
Ed Dorn, High West Rendezvous
Robert Fagles, translator, The Odyssey, from the original Ancient Greek of Homer
Donald Hall, The Old Life, four short poems, a long poem and three elegies
Robert Hass, Sun Under Wood, lyric poems
Louise Glück, Meadowlands
Haim Gouri, Milim Be-Dami Holeh Ahavah ("Words in My Love-Sick Blood"), selected poems in English translation Detroit: Wayne State University Press, ISBN 0-8143-2594-7
Paul Henry, Captive Audience, Seren
Mark Jarman and David Mason, editors, Rebel Angels: 25 Poets of the New Formalism
Ronald Johnson, ARK (Albuquerque: Living Batch Press & University of New Mexico Press)
Kenneth Koch, The Art of Poetry, Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press (criticism)
Maxine Kumin, Connecting the Dots
James McMichael, The World at Large: New and Selected Poems, 1971-1996
W. S. Merwin
Editor, Lament for the Makers: A Memorial Anthology, Washington: Counterpoint
Translator, Pieces of Shadow: Selected Poems of Jaime Sabines
The Vixen: Poems, New York: Knopf
Robert Pinsky, The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966-1996
James Reiss, The Parable of Fire
Patti Smith, The Coral Sea
Gary Snyder, Mountains and Rivers Without End
Brian Swann, editor, Wearing the Morning Star: Native American Song-Poems, New York: Random House
Henry Taylor, Understanding Fiction: Poems 1986-1996
C. K. Williams, The Vigil
Poems from these 75 poets were in The Best American Poetry 1996, edited by David Lehman, guest editor Adrienne Rich:
Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Bang-i-Dara (The Call Of The Marching Bell), a philosophical poetry book in Urdu; M.A.K. Khalil translation into English of the 1923 work
Listed by language or nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayyati, "The Dragon", Iraq
Books of poetry by:
in Egypt: Muhammad Salih (poet), Rif'at Sallam, Imad Abu-Salih, and Muhammad Mutawalli
in Lebanon: Yahya Jabir, 'Abduh Wazin, and Bassam Hajjar
in Syria: Nuri al-Jarrah
in Morocco: 'Abd al-Latif Lu'abi, Muhammad Binnis, M. Bin Talhah, Mahdi Khuraif, and Tiraibaq Ahmad
Naja Marie Aidt, Huset overfor
Niels Frank, Tabernakel
Katrine Marie Guldager, Blank, publisher: Gyldendal
Klaus Høeck, Skovene (døden), publisher: Gyldendal
Per Højholt, Anekdoter, the end of the author's Praksis series in poetry and prose
Klaus Rifbjerg, Leksikon
Søren Ulrik Thomsen; Denmark:
Det skabtes vaklen: Arabesker ("The Shaking of Creation"), poetry"
En dans på gloser, ("Dancing Attendance on the Word,"), critical essays
Denise Desautels, «Ma joie», crie-t-elle ("'My joy', she cried"), illustrated with drawings by Francine Simonin, Montréal: Le Noroît
Suzanne Jacob, Les écrits de l'eau, Montréal: l'Hexagone
Serge Patrice Thibodeau, Traversée du désert
Switzerland, in French
Markus Hediger, Ne retournez pas la pierre, Editions de l'Aire, Vevey
Michel Butor, A la frontière
Bertrand Degott, Éboulements et Taillis
Claude Esteban, Sur la dernière lande, Fourbis
Michel Houellebecq, Le Sens du combat, poèmes, Flammarion
Abdellatif Laabi, Le Spleen de Casablanca. La Différence, Paris, Moroccan author writing in French and published in France
Dominique Pagnier, La Faveur de l'obscurité
Esther Tellermann, Pangeia
Joël Vernet, Totems de sable
Christoph Buchwald, general editor, Michael Brown and Michael Buselmeier, guest editors, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 1996/97 ("Poetry Yearbook 1996/97"), publisher: Beck; anthology
Sarah Kirsch, Bodenlos, winner of the Büchner-Preis
Inge Müller, Irgendwo: noch einmal möcht ich sehn, poetry, prose, diary, edited and with commentary by Ines Geipel
Bert Papenfuss-Gorek, Berliner Zapfenstreich: Schnelle Eingreifsgesänge
Ory Bernstein, Zman shel aherim ("Temps des autres")
Roni Somek, Gan eden le-orez ("Rice Paradise")
Avner Treinin, Ma`a lot Ahaz ("The Dial of Ahaz")
Nathan Zach, Mikhevan she`ani baSviva ("Because I'm Around")
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Amarjit Chandan, Beejak, Navyug, New Delhi; Punjabi-language
Gagan Gill, Andhere men Buddha, New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan, New Delhi, 1996, Bharatiya Jnanpith; Hindi-language
Jiban Narah, Tumi Poka Dhanar Dore, Guwahati, Assam: Puthiniketan; Indian, Assamese-language
Kedarnath Singh, Bagh, Delhi: Bharatiya Jnanpith; Hindi-language
K. Satchidanandan, Malayalam; Malayalam-language
Nilmani Phookan, Cheena Kavita, Guwahati, Assam: Students’ Store, Assamese-language
Raghavan Atholi, Kandathi, Thrissur: Current Books; Malayalam-language
Saleel Wagh, Nivadak Kavita, Pune: Time and Space Communications; Marathi-language
Vasant Abaji Dahake, Shunah-shepa; Marathi-language
Eugenio Montale, Diario postumo: 66 poesie e altre, edited by Annalisa Cima; publisher: Mondadori
Maria Luisa Spaziani, I fasti dell’ortica
Andrea Zanzotto, Meteo
Sergio Badilla Castillo, Nordic Saga Monteverdi Editions. 1996, Santiago de Chile.
Erling Aadland, Poetisk tenkning i Rolf Jacobsens lyrikk, analysis of the verse of Rolf Jacobsen; criticism
Inger Hagerup, a book of poetry
Gunvor Hofmo, Samlede dikt
Sigmund Mjelve, a book of poetry
Poland
Stanisław Barańczak, Poezja i duch uogolnienia. Wybor esejow 1970-1995 ("Poetry and the Spirit of Generalization: Selected Essays"), criticism; Kraków: Znak
Urszula Koziol, Wielka pauza (“The Great Pause”)
Ryszard Krynicki, Magnetyczny punkt. Wybrane wiersze i przeklady ("The Magnetic Point: Selected Poems and Translations"); Warsaw: CiS
Ewa Lipska, Wspólnicy zielonego wiatraczka. Lekcja literatury z Krzysztofem Lisowskim ("Partners of the Green Fan: Literature Lesson with Krzysztofem Lisowskim"), selected poems, Kraków: Wydawnictwo literackie
Czeslaw Milosz:
Legendy nowoczesnoshci (“Legends of Modernity”), wartime essays and wartime correspondence with Jerzy Andrzejewski
Cóz to za goshcia mielishmy ("What a Guest We Had"), a biography of his friend, the late poet Anna Swirszczynska
Tadeusz Różewicz, Zawsze fragment. Recycling ("Always a Fragment: Recycling"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
Wisława Szymborska: Widok z ziarnkiem piasku ("View with a Grain of Sand"), the author was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature this year
Jan Twardowski, Rwane prosto z krzaka ("Torn Straight From the Bush") Warsaw: PIW
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, "Trinadtsat" ("The Thirteen"), a long poem alluding to "Dvenadtsat" ("The Twelve") by Aleksandr Blok, about the Russian Revolution
Books of poetry were published by Bella Akhmadulina, Sergey Biryukov, Oleg Chukhontsev, Arkady Dragomoshchenko, Vladimir Gandelsman, Sergey Gandlevsky, Yelena Kabysh, Svetlana Kekova, Aleksandr Kushner, Ilya Kutik, Aleksey Parshchikov, Dmitry Prigov, Lev Rubinshtein, Yelena Shvarts, Genrikh Sapgir, Vladimir Sokolov, and Andrey Voznesensky
Matilde Camus, Reflexiones a medianoche ("Midnight thoughts")
Lars Gustafsson, Variationer över ett tema av Silfverstolpe
Gunnar D. Hansson, AB Neanderthal
Lukas Moodysson, Souvenir
Göran Sonnevi, Mozarts tredje hjärna
Jesper Svenbro, Vid budet att Santo Bambino di Aracœli slutligen stulits av maffian
Tomas Tranströmer, Sorgegondolen
Yoysef Bar-El, Di shire fun Yankev Fridman ("The Poetry of Yankev Fridman"), criticism
Yoysef Kerler and Boris Karlov (poet), Shpigl-ksav ("Mirror-writing"); the authors are father and son; Israel
Yitskhok Niborski, Vi fun a pustn fas ("As Though out of an Empty Barrel"); Israel
Hadasa Rubin, Rays nisht op di blum ("Don't Tear Up the Flower"); Israel
Yankev Tsvi Shargel, Tsum eygenem shtern ("To My Own Star"); translations and original poems; Israel
Gerrit Komrij, Kijken is bekeken worden; Netherlands
Wang Huairang, Zhongguoren: buguide ren ("Chinese: A People Not on Its Knees"), China
Krystyna Rodowska, Na dole płomień W górze płomień, Poland
Tadeusz Różewicz, Zawsze fragment, Poland
Hilmi Yavuz, Çöl (“Desert”); Turkey
Awards and honors
Nobel prize: Wislawa Szymborska
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Peter Bakowski, In the Human Night
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Eric Beach, Weeping for Lost Babylon
Mary Gilmore Prize: Morgan Yasbincek - Night Reversing
Gerald Lampert Award
Archibald Lampman Award
See 1996 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Pat Lowther Award
Prix Alain-Grandbois
Cholmondeley Award: Elizabeth Bartlett, Dorothy Nimmo, Peter Scupham, Iain Crichton Smith
Eric Gregory Award: Sue Butler, Cathy Cullis, Jane Griffiths, Jane Holland, Chris Jones, Sinéad Morrissey, Kate Thomas
Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection: John Fuller, Stones and Fires (Chatto & Windus)
Forward Poetry Prize Best First Collection: Kate Clanchy, Slattern (Chatto & Windus)
Orange Prize for Fiction: Helen Dunmore, A Spell of Winter
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Peter Redgrove
T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Les Murray, Subhuman Redneck Poems
Whitbread Award for poetry and for book of the year (United Kingdom): Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Helen Conkling, Red Peony Night
AML Award for poetry to Leslie Norris for Collected Poems
Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: John Voiklis, "The Princeling's Apology", and (separately) Sarah Arvio, "Visits from the Seventh"
Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Kenneth Koch, One Train
National Book Award for poetry: Hayden Carruth, Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Jorie Graham: The Dream of the Unified Field
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Gerald Stern
Wallace Stevens Award: Adrienne Rich
Whiting Awards: Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Elizabeth Spires, Patricia Storace
Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Jay Wright
Awards and honors elsewhere
Denmark:
Golden Laurels: Henrik Nordbrandt
Critics' Prize: Per Højholt
Japan: Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize in Poetry: Masao Tsuji for Haikai Tsuji shu ("Poems of Haikai Tsuji")
Spain: Cervantes Prize: José García Nieto
Turkey: President's Award: Cahit Külebi
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 28 – Joseph Brodsky, 55 (born 1940), a Russian-American poet and essayist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1987) and was chosen Poet Laureate of the United States (1991–1992), of a heart attack
February 11 – Amelia Rosselli, 66 (born 1950), Italian poet and ethnomusicologist, from suicide, on the same date Sylvia Plath killed herself.
March 18 – Odysseus Elytis, Greek
April 13 – George Mackay Brown, 74, Scottish poet, author and dramatist
May 8 – Larry Levis, 49, American poet, of a heart attack
May 11 – Sam Ragan (born 1915), American poet, journalist; North Carolina Poet Laureate, 1982–1996
August 18 – Geoffrey Dearmer, 103, British poet
September 25 – Mina Loy, 83, artist, poet, Futurist, actor
November 24 – Sorley MacLean, 85, Scottish
December 10 – Dorothy Porter, 54, Australian poet
December 14 – Gaston Miron, 68 Canada
Date not known:
Haermann Kesten (born 1900), German
Tom Rawling (born 1916), English poet and angler
Constance Urdang, American poet and novelist, wife of Donald Finkel
