Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
March 16 — Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrest and jail poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and dismiss a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticizes the state's Islamic judiciary. In it, the poet accuses some judges of being corrupt and issuing unfair rulings for their own personal benefit.August 22 — Poet Ron Silliman starts his popular and controversial weblog, Silliman's Blog, which will become one of the most popular blogs devoted largely to contemporary poetry and poetics. (By August 2006, the blog will reach a total of 800,000 hits and get its next 100,000 by early November.).August 27 in the United States; December 8 in Europe — Avril Lavigne's pop song Sk8er Boi is released; it is about the award-winning Irish performance poet Gerard McKeown, whom she has not met, but had seen performing in Belfast, Northern Ireland while on tour there. The single reached number ten on the United States Billboard Hot 100, number eight in the United Kingdom, number three in Australia, number thirteen in Canada and number one in Spain. Lavigne confirms the connection in a 2008 interview.September - Amiri Baraka (b. 1934), an African-American poet and political activist from Newark, New Jersey who was appointed the second Poet Laureate of New Jersey, ignites a controversy and accusations of anti-Semitism with a public reading of "Somebody Blew Up America" at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival near Stanhope, New Jersey. Baraka's poem discussed the September 11th attacks that was highly critical of racism in America, included angry depictions of public figures such as Rudolph Giuliani, Trent Lott, Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Ward Connerly, accused Israel of involvement in the World Trade Center attacks, and supported the theory that the United States government knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance. Amid public outrage and pressure from state leaders, Baraka was asked to resign as the Poet Laureate by New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey who appointed him to the post two months earlier. Baraka refused. Because there was no legal mechanism provided in the law to remove him as poet laureate, the state legislature and governor abolished the position to remove him from the post effective 2 July 2003.Fulcrum, An annual of poetry and aesthetics is founded in the United States.After Ghazi al-Gosaibi, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Britain, publishes a poem praising a suicide bomber who had killed himself and two Israelis after blowing himself up in a supermarket; the ambassador is recalled home.The office of Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate is instituted (see "Awards and honors" section below).The office of Edinburgh Makar is instituted in Scotland, with Stewart Conn as first incumbent.Influential Chinese literary magazine Tamen ("They/Them") revived as a webzine at www.tamen.net.Bowery Poetry Club, a New York City poetry performance space, founded by Bob Holman.Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:
Alison Croggon, Attempts at Being, Salt Publishing, ISBN 1-876857-42-0.Robert Gray, AfterimagesEmma Lew, Anything the Landlord Touches, won the 2003 C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry and was short-listed for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry that same yearChris Mansell:Stalking the Rainbow (PressPress, 2002)Fickle Brat (IP Digital, Brisbane, 2002)Les Murray:Poems the Size of Photographs, Duffy & Snellgrove and CarcanetNew Collected Poems, Duffy & Snellgrove; Carcanet, 2003Margaret Avison, Concrete and Wild CarrotChristian Bök, ’Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science ISBN 978-0-8101-1877-5Dionne Brand, thirstyMichael Boughn, Dislocations in Crystal (Coach House Books) ISBN 978-1-55245-111-3Louis Cabri, The Mood Embosser (Coach House Books) ISBN 978-1-55245-095-6Margaret Christakos, Excessive Love Prostheses (Coach House Books) ISBN 978-1-55245-102-1Lise Downe, Disturbances of Progress (Coach House Books) ISBN 978-1-55245-112-0Rob Fitterman, Metropolis (Book 2) (Coach House Books) ISBN 978-1-55245-104-5Laura Lush:The First Day of Winter: Poetry, Vancouver: Ronsdale PressGoing to the Zoo, Winnipeg: Turnstone PressDon McKay, Vis à Vis: Field Notes on Poetry & WildernessGeorge McWhirter, The Book of ContradictionsJay Millar, Mycological Studies (Coach House Books) ISBN 978-1-55245-103-8P. K. Page, Planet Earth: Poems Selected and New, edited and with an introduction by Eric Ormsby, Erin, ON: Porcupine's QuillJoe Rosenblatt, Parrot fever. collages by Michel Christensen. Toronto: Exile.Raymond Souster, Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Ottawa: Oberon Press.Meena Alexander, Illiterate Heart ( Poetry in English ), Evanston, Illinois: TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, by an Indian writing living in and published in the United StatesSmita Agarwal, Wish-granting Words,(Poetry in English) New Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publisher, 2002. ISBN 81-7530-046-9Sujata Bhatt, A Colour for Solitude ( Poetry in English ), Carcanet PressKeki Daruwalla, The Map-maker ( Poetry in English ), Ravi DayalRanjit Hoskote, editor, Reasons for Belonging, Fourteen Contemporary Indian Poets ( Poetry in English ), New Delhi: Viking/Penguin Books India; anthology including work from: Jerry Pinto, Vijay Nambisan, C. P. Surendran, Smita Agarwal, Arundhati Subramaniam, Jeet Thayil, Tabish Khair, Ranjit Hoskote and Rukhmini Bhaya Nair, Vivek Narayanan, Gavin Barrett, Anjum Hasan and H. Masud TajSudeep Sen, Monsoon, re-issued in 2005 as Rain ( Poetry in English ); London: Aark Arts, ISBN 1-899179-10-0C. P. Surendran, Canaries on the Moon ( Poetry in English ), Kozhikode: Yeti, Chennai.Mallika Sengupta, Carriers Of Fire, (translated from the original Bengali, Kolkata: BhashanagarIreland
Vona Groarke, Flight, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, IrelandJustin Quinn:Fuselage Oldcastle: The Gallery Press,Gathered Beneath the Storm: Wallace Stevens, Nature and Community, University College of Dublin Press, 2002 (criticism)New Zealand
James K. Baxter, The Tree House: James K. Baxter's Poems for Children (posthumous), the first illustrated edition of his work for childrenJanet Charman, Snowing Down South, Auckland: Auckland University PressAlan Brunton, Fq, a sequence of 144 poems (posthumous)Cilla McQueen, Soundings, Otago University PressMike Minehan, O Jerusalem: James K. Baxter an Intimate MemoirKendrick Smithyman, posthumous:Last Poems, Auckland: Holloway Press, designed by Tara hir poi a pek fhj nbb a: Auckland University PressPoets in Best New Zealand Poems
Best New Zealand Poems series, an annual online anthology, is started this year with Iain Sharp as the first annual editor. Twenty-five poems by 25 New Zealand poets are selected from the previous year. The first selection is called Best New Zealand Poetry 2001. Unlike The Best American Poetry series, the year named in each edition refers to the year the poems were originally published, not the following year, when the collection is put together and made public. Sharp chose poems published in 2001 from these poets:
Neil Astley, editor, Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times (anthology)Ciarán Carson: The Inferno of Dante Alighieri (translator), Granta, awarded the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation PrizeCarol Ann Duffy, Feminine Gospels PicadorElaine Feinstein, Collected Poems and Translations, CarcanetJames Fenton: An Introduction to English PoetryPaul Henry, The Slipped Leash, SerenTed Hughes, Selected Poems, 1957–1994 (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); a New York Times "notable book of the year"Glyn Maxwell, The Nerve (Houghton Mifflin); a New York Times "notable book of the year" (British poet living in America, poetry editor of The New Republic magazine)Sean O'Brien:Cousin Coat: Selected Poems 1976–2001 (Picador)With John Kinsella and Peter Porter, Rivers (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Australia)Alice Oswald:Dart, Faber and Faber, ISBN 0-571-21410-XCo-editor, with Peter Oswald and Robert Woof), Earth Has Not Any Thing to Shew More Fair: A Bicentennial Celebration of Wordsworth's "Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge" Shakespeare's Globe & The Wordsworth Trust, ISBN 1-870787-84-6John Heath-Stubbs, The Return of the CranesPeter Redgrove, From the Virgil CavernsR.S. Thomas, Residues (posthumous)Hugo Williams, Collected Poems, Faber and FaberMeena Alexander, Illiterate Heart, Evanston, Illinois: TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, by an Indian writing living in and published in the United StatesJohn Ashbery, Chinese WhispersFrank Bidart, Music Like Dirt (Sarabande Books), the only poetry chapbook ever nominated for a Pulitzer PrizeBilly Collins, Nine Horses: Poems (Random House); a New York Times "notable book of the year" (ISBN 0-375-50381-1)Robert Creeley, guest editor, The Best American Poetry 2002Jim Dodge – Rain on the RiverAlan Dugan, Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry (Seven Stories); a New York Times "notable book of the year"Michael S. Harper, Selected Poems, ARC PublicationsPaul Hoover, Winter Mirror, (Flood Editions)Kenneth Koch:Sun Out: Selected Poems, 1952–1954, New York: KnopfA Possible World, New York: KnopfAbba Kovner, Sloan-Kettering: Poems (Schocken); a New York Times "notable book of the year"Brad Leithauser, Darlington's Fall: A Novel in Verse (Knopf); a 5,700-line verse novel in 10-line stanzas, irregularly rhymed; a New York Times "notable book of the year"Glyn Maxwell, The Nerve (Houghton Mifflin); a New York Times "notable book of the year" (British poet living in America, poetry editor of The New Republic magazine)J.D. McClatchy, Hazmat: Poems (Knopf); a New York Times "notable book of the year"Czesław Miłosz, New and Collected Poems: 1931–2001 (Ecco/HarperCollins); a New York Times "notable book of the year"Paul Muldoon, Moy Sand and Gravel, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and Griffin Poetry Prize and shortlisted for the 2002 T. S. Eliot PrizeLorine Niedecker, Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works, edited by Jenny Penberthy (University of California Press), posthumousMary Oliver, What Do We KnowMolly Peacock, Cornucopia: New & Selected PoemsCarl Phillips, Rock HarborMarie Ponsot, Springing: New and Selected Poems (Knopf); a New York Times "notable book of the year"Claudia Rankine and Juliana Spahr, editors, American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Lyric Meets Language, Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 978-0-8195-6546-4, anthology including work by Lucie Brock-Broido, Harryette Mullen, Ann Lauterbach, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Brenda Hillman and Jorie GrahamMargaret Reynolds, editor, The Sappho Companion (scholarship) Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-312-29510-3 ISBN 0-312-29510-3W. G. Sebald, After Nature (Random House); a book-length poem; a New York Times "notable book of the year"Aharon Shabtai, Artzenu (Hebrew: "Our Land")Adam Zagajewski, Without End: New and Selected Poems (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); a New York Times "notable book of the year"Poems from these 75 poets were in The Best American Poetry 2002, David Lehman, editor; Robert Creeley, guest editor:
Han Dong:Baba zai tianshang kan wo ("Daddy's Watching Me in Heaven"), Hebei: jiaoyu chubanshe,Jiaocha paodong ("Running Criss-cross"), Dunhuang: wenyi chubansheHe Xiaozhu, 6 ge dongci, huo pingguo ("6 Verbs, or Apples"), Hebei: jiaoyu chubansheJimu Langge, Jingqiaoqiao de zuolun ("The silent revolver"), Hebei: jiaoyu chubansheDenise Desautels, Pendant la mort;;, Montréal: Québec AmériqueMadeleine Gagnon, Le chant de la terre : Poèmes choisis 1978–2002, anthologie préparée par Paul Chanel Malenfant, Montréal, TypoPierre Nepveu, Lignes aériennes, Montréal: Éditions du NoroîtMadeleine Ouellette-Michalska, Le cycle des migrations, Montréal: Le NoroîtJean Royer, Poèmes de veille, Montréal: Le NoroîtChris Wallace-Crabbe, La Poésie Australienne, Valenciennes: Presses Universitaires, (with Simone Kadi), French translation of the work of this Australian poetIn each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Gulzar, Raat Pashmine Ki, New Delhi: Rupa& Co.; in both Urdu and HindiKunwar Narain, In Dino, New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan, ISBN 81-267-0594-9Rituraj, Leela Mukharvinda, New Delhi: Medha BooksVinod Kumar Shukla, Atrikt Nahin, New Delhi: Vani PrakashanBharat Majhi, Saralarekha, Bhubaneswar: Paschima; Oriya-languageChandrakanta Murasingh, Ruphaini Buduk Ani Nogo, Agartala: Tripura Publisher: Agartala; Kokborok-languageGulzar, Raat Pashmine Ki, New Delhi: Rupa& Co.; in both Urdu and HindiJoy Goswami, Horiner Jonyo Ekok, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers, ISBN 81-7756-240-1; Bengali-languageK. Satchidanandan, Malayalam-language:Bharateeya Kavitayile Pratirodha Paramparyam, ("The Tradition of Dissent of Indian Poetry"); scholarshipVikku, ("Stammer")K. Siva Reddy; Telugu-language:Antarjanam, Hyderabad: Jhari Poetry CircleVrittalekhini, Hyderabad: Jhari Poetry CircleKutti Revathi, Mulaigal ("Breasts"). Chennai: Thamizhini; Tamil-languageKynpham Sing Nongkynrih; Kahsi-language:Ka Samoi jong ka Lyer ("The Season of the Wind"), Shillong: AuthorKi Mawsiang ka Sohra ("The Ancient Rocks of Cherra"), Shillong: AuthorKi Jingkynmaw (Remembrances), Shillong: S. R. LanongNirendranath Chakravarti, Dekha Hobey, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers; Bengali-languageYash Sharma, Bedi Pattan Sanjh Mallah, publisher: Vaasu Prakashan, Jammu; Dogri-languagePoland
Ewa Lipska, Uwaga: stopień, Krakow: Wydawnictwo literackieCzesław Miłosz, Druga przestrzen ("The Second Space"); Cracow: ZnakTadeusz Różewicz, Szara strefa ("Gray Zone"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo DolnośląskieJarosław Marek Rymkiewicz, Zachód słońca w Milanówku ("Sunset in Milanówek"), Warsaw: Sic!Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Lutz Seiler, guest editor, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 2003 ("Poetry Yearbook 2003"), publisher: Beck; anthologyKlaus Høeck, Projekt Perseus, publisher: Arena; DenmarkRami Saari, Kamma, Kamma milxama ("So Much, So Much War"), IsraelMaria Luisa Spaziani, Poesie dalla mano sinistra, ItalyWisława Szymborska: Chwila ("Moment"), PolandSøren Ulrik Thomsen, Det værste og det bedste, illustrated by Ib Spang Olsen; DenmarkC. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Robert Gray, AfterimagesDinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize: After Images by Robert GrayKenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Alan Wearne, The LovemakersMary Gilmore Prize: Geraldine McKenzie, DutyGerald Lampert AwardArchibald Lampman AwardAtlantic Poetry PrizeThe office of Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate is instituted, George Bowering is the first appointee and will serve until 2004See 2002 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.Griffin Poetry Prize: Canada: Christian Bök, Eunoia; International, in the English Language: Alice Notley, DisobediencePat Lowther AwardPrix Alain-GrandboisShaunt Basmajian Chapbook AwardNew Zealand
Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:Montana New Zealand Book Awards (no poetry category winner this year) First-book award for poetry: Chris Price, Husk, Auckland University PressCholmondeley Award: Moniza Alvi, David Constantine, Liz Lochhead, Brian PattenEric Gregory Award: Caroline Bird, Christopher James, Jacob Polley, Luke Heeley, Judith Lal, David Leonard Briggs, Eleanor Rees, Kathryn SimmondsForward Poetry Prize Best Collection): Peter Porter, Max is Missing (Picador); Best First Collection: Tom French, Touching the Bones (The Gallery Press)Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Peter PorterT. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Alice Oswald, DartWhitbread Award for poetry (United Kingdom):Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Shao Wei for Pulling a Dragon's TeethAiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, Grace SchulmanAML Awards for poetry to Kimberly Johnson for Leviathan with a HookArthur Rense Prize for poetry awarded to B.H. Fairchild by the American Academy of Arts and LettersBernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Timothy Donnelly, "His Long Imprison'd Thought"Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, Alice Fulton for FeltBrittingham Prize in Poetry, Anna George Meek, Acts of ContortionFrost Medal: Galway KinnellNational Book Award for poetry (United States): Ruth Stone, In the Next GalaxyPoet Laureate of Virginia: George Garrett, two year appointment 2002 to 2004Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carl Dennis, Practical GodsRobert Fitzgerald Prosody Award: Paul FussellRuth Lilly Poetry Prize: Lisel MuellerWallace Stevens Award: Ruth StoneWhiting Awards: Elizabeth Arnold, David Gewanter, Joshua WeinerWilliam Carlos Williams Award: Li-Young Lee, Book of My Nights (American Poets Continuum), Judge: Carolyn KizerFellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Sharon OldsGrand Austrian State Prize for Literature (2001 prize given this year): Gert JonkeBirth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
February 9 – Ale Ahmad Suroor, 90 (born 1911), Indian Urdu-language poetMay 1 – Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh (إبراهيم العريّض) (born 1908), Bahraini poetJune 14 – June Jordan, 65 (born 1936), Jamaican American poet, of breast cancerJune 27 – Alan Brunton, 55 (born 1946), New Zealand poet and scriptwriter, died on visit to AmsterdamJuly 6 – Kenneth Koch, 77 (born 1925), American poet, of leukemiaJuly 14 – Nabakanta Barua, also known as Ekhud Kokaideu, 75 (born 1926), Indian Assamese-language novelist and poetAugust 25 – Dorothy Hewett 79 (born 1923), Australian feminist writerSeptember 27 – Charles Henri Ford, 89 (born 1908), American novelist, poet, filmmaker, photographer and collage artistOctober 21 – Harbhajan Singh, 82 (born 1920), Punjabi poet, critic, cultural commentator and translatorOctober 28 – Annada Shankar Ray, 98 (born 1905), Bengali poetDecember 9 – Stan Rice, 60 (born 1942), American painter, educator, poet, husband of author Anne Rice, of brain cancer 