January 14 – Egyptian poet Omar Hazek, who was released from prison in September 2015, is prevented from leaving Egypt to receive the 2016 Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression.
January 26 – Egyptian poet Fatima Naoot is sentenced to three years in prison, found guilty of “contempt of religion." Naoot goes to prison immediately and must appeal from there.
January 25 – the 125th birthday of Osip Mandelstam.
March 5 – semicentenary of the death of Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet (Requiem)
March 27 – 90th birthday of Frank O'Hara. (See July 25)
April 24 – centenary of the start of the Easter Rising in Dublin, which inspired W. B. Yeats’s poem “Easter, 1916”.
May 21 – 90th birthday of Robert Creeley (d. 2005).
June 7 – semicentenary of the death of Jean Arp, French sculptor, painter and poet, leader in Dadaism
July 11 – semicentenary of the death of Delmore Schwartz, American poet, Bollingen Prize winner and short story writer ("In Dreams Begin Responsibilities")
July 25 – semicentenary of the death of Frank O'Hara, American poet and key member of the New York School of poetry. (See March 27)
August 29 – semicentenary of the death of Melvin Tolson, American poet Modernist poet, educator, columnist, and politician
September 25 – semicentenary of the death of Mina Loy, British-born American artist, poet, Futurist and actor
September 28 – semicentenary of the death of André Breton, French poet, essayist and theorist; the leading exponent of Surrealism in literature
Joe Denham, Regeneration Machine
Steven Heighton, The Waking Comes Late
Susan Holbrook, Throaty Wipes
Garry Thomas Morse, Prairie Harbour
Rachel Rose, Marry & Burn
Gregory Scofield, Witness, I Am
England
Emily Berry, Anne Carson and Sophie Collins, If I'm Scared We Can't Win (Penguin Modern Poets)
Rachael Boast, Void Studies
Vahni Capildeo, Measures of Expatriation (Trinidad-born poet)
Melissa Lee-Houghton, Sunshine
Alice Oswald, Falling Awake
Ruth Padel, Tidings - A Christmas Journey
Denise Riley, Say Something Back
Kate Tempest, Let Them Eat Chaos
Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke, The Map and the Clock: A Laureates' Choice of the Poetry of Britain and Ireland
Alphabetical listing by author name
Matthew and Michael Dickman, Brother (Faber)
Ben Lerner, No Art (collection incorporating three previous volumes)
Michael Palmer, The Laughter of the Sphinx (New Directions)
C. D. Wright. ShallCross (Copper Canyon Press)
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
J.D. McClatchy. Sweet Theft: A Poet's Commonplace Book
C. D. Wright. The Poet, The Lion, Talking Pictures, El Farolito, A Wedding in St. Roch, The Big Box Store, The Warp in the Mirror, Spring, Midnights, Fire & All (Copper Canyon Press)
Awards and honors by Country
Awards announced this year:
Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Laureate:
Australia awards and honors
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry:
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry:
Canada awards and honors
Archibald Lampman Award: Pearl Pirie, the pet radish, shrunken
Atlantic Poetry Prize:
2016 Governor General's Awards: Steven Heighton, The Waking Comes Late (English); Normand de Bellefeuille, Le poème est une maison de bord de mer (French)
Griffin Poetry Prize:
Canada: Liz Howard, Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent
International: Norman Dubie, The Quotations of Bone
Lifetime Recognition Award (presented by the Griffin trustees): Adam Zagajewski.
Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize: Gregory Scofield
Gerald Lampert Award: Ben Ladouceur, Otter
Pat Lowther Award: Lorna Crozier, The Wrong Cat
Prix Alain-Grandbois: Rosalie Lessard, L'observatoire
France awards and honors
Prix Goncourt de la Poésie:
New Zealand awards and honors
Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
Montana New Zealand Book Awards (poetry category):
United Kingdom awards and honors
Cholmondeley Award:
Costa Award (formerly "Whitbread Awards") for poetry:
Shortlist: Melissa Lee-Houghton, Sunshine; Alice Oswald, Falling Awake; Denise Riley, Say Something Back; Kate Tempest, Let Them Eat Chaos
English Association's Fellows' Poetry Prizes:
Eric Gregory Award (for a collection of poems by a poet under the age of 30):
Forward Poetry Prize:
Best Collection:
Shortlist: Vahni Capildeo, Measures of Expatriation
Best First Collection:
Shortlist: Tiphanie Yanique, Wife
Best Poem:
Shortlist:
Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize for poetry:
Shortlist:
Manchester Poetry Prize:
National Poet of Wales:
National Poetry Competition 2016:
T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Jacob Polley, Jackself
Shortlist (announced in November 2016): 2016 Short List
The Times / Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry Translation:
United States awards and honors
Arab American Book Award (The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award):
Honorable Mentions:
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize:
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award:
Best Translated Book Award (BTBA):
Beatrice Hawley Award from Alice James Books:
Bollingen Prize:
Jackson Poetry Prize:
Judges:
Lambda Literary Award:
Gay Poetry:
Lesbian Poetry:
Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize:
Los Angeles Times Book Prize:
Finalists:
National Book Award for Poetry (NBA):
NBA Finalists:
NBA Longlist:
NBA Judges:
National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry:
The New Criterion Poetry Prize:
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (United States): to Ozone Journal by Peter Balakian
Finalists: to Four-Legged Girl by Diane Seuss ; and to Alive: New and Selected Poems by Elizabeth Willis
Wallace Stevens Award:
Whiting Awards:
PEN Award for Poetry in Translation:
PEN Center USA 2016 Poetry Award:
PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry: (Judges: )
Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Award:
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize:
Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award:
Walt Whitman Prize – - Judge:
Yale Younger Series:
Frost Medal:
Shelley Memorial Award:
Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award:
Lyric Poetry Award:
Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award:
Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Student Poetry Award:
George Bogin Memorial Award:
Robert H. Winner Memorial Award:
Cecil Hemley Memorial Award:
Norma Farber First Book Award:
Lucille Medwick Memorial Award:
William Carlos Williams Award: (Judge: )
Finalists for WCW Award:
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
January 1 – Fazu Aliyeva, 83 (born 1932), Russian Avar poet and journalist
January 6 – Nivaria Tejera, 86 (born 1929), Cuban poet and novelist
January 9 – Zelimkhan Yaqub, 66 (born 1950), Azerbaijani poet
January 12 – C. D. Wright, 67 (born 1949), American poet who was the former poet laureate of Rhode Island and winner of the 2009 International Griffin Poetry Prize
January 15 – Francisco X. Alarcón, 61 (born 1954), Chicano-American poet who was born in California and grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico
January 19 – Laurence Lerner, 90 (born 1925), South African-born English-language poet and academic
February 7 – Andrew Glaze, 90 (born 1920), American poet appointed 11th Poet Laureate of Alabama in 2013
February 8 – Nida Fazli, 77 (born 1938), Indian poet and lyricist
February 21 – Akbar Ali, 90 (born 1925), Indian Kannada poetMiroslav Nemirov, 54 (born 1961), Russian poet
March 5 – Rafael Squirru, 90 (born 1925), Argentine author, art critic and poet
April 13 – Jock Scot, 63 (born 1952), Scottish performance poet
April 30 – Daniel Berrigan, 94 (born 1921), American Jesuit priest, poet, peace activist and recidivist (one of Catonsville Nine); winner of Lamont Prize for his book of poems Time Without Number
June 4 – Alexander Glezer, 82, Russian poet.
June 16 – Bill Berkson, 76, American poet and art critic, heart attack.
June 25 – Adam Small, 79, South African writer and poet, winner of the Hertzog Prize. (born 1936).
June 30 – Sir Geoffrey Hill, 84, English poet
July 1 – Yves Bonnefoy, 93, French poet, essayist, translator, and critic (born 1923).
September 3 – Peter Oresick, 60, American poet (born 1955)
September 4 – Novella Matveyeva, 81, Russian poet and singer-songwriter (born 1934)
October 28 – Jolanda Insana, 79, Italian poet and translator, Viareggio Prize recipient.
December 30 – Judith Ortiz Cofer, 64, Puerto Rican American poet and educator.
December 31 – David Meltzer, 79, American poet and musician.
