2006 in poetry.html



Events

Grolier Poetry Bookstore

• French public notary Patrick Huet unveils Pieces of Hope to the Echo of the World in Lyon. It is reportedly the longest modern hand-written poem in the world.
• March 29 — Grolier Poetry Bookstore is sold.
• BLATT, an English-language literary magazine and publishing imprint is started in Prague, Czech Republic.
• May — The Poetry Out Loud recitation contest is created this year by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation to increase awareness in the art of performing poetry, with a top prize a $20,000 scholarship. State finalists performed in Washington D.C. during the second week of May.
• November 1 — A Sylvia Plath sonnet from her college years was discovered and first published by Blackbird, an online literary journal run by the English Department at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
• November — The most influential American poets of all time are Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, and Sylvia Plath, according to Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry Magazine. Wiman named the poets in a sidebar article to a December The Atlantic Monthly cover story about the "100 Most Influential Americans" — no poet made it on that larger list.¹
• November 10 — A new series, "The Best of Irish Poetry" was launched by Southword Editions in Ireland with the 80-page The Best of Irish Poetry 2007 The project is under the direction of Patrick Cotter, with Colm Breathnach as Irish-language editor and Maurice Riordan as English-language (or Hiberno-English) editor. "Quite often readers abroad are presented with a selection of Irish poets restricted to those who are first published in the USA or the UK," Cotter wrote. "This annual series will present a more general selection generated by more informed pundits."²

Works published in English

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

Australia

• Robert Adamson The Goldfinches of Baghdad
• Robert Gray, Nameless Earth
• Jennifer Harrison: Folly & Grief (Black Pepper) ISBN 1876044454
• Chris Mansell, Love poems (Kardoorair, Armidale)
• Les Murray, The Biplane Houses (Black Inc.), ISBN 1863952144
• Dorothy Porter, The Best Australian Poems 2006 (Black, Inc.), ISBN 1863952624
• Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Then

Canada

• Margaret Avison, Momentary Dark
• George Elliott Clarke, Black. Vancouver: Polestar, ISBN 1551929031
• John Paul Fiorentino, The Theory of the Loser Class (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451687
• Don McKay:
  • Strike/Slip winner of the 2007 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize³ and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
  • Field Marks: The Poetry of Don McKay edited by Méira Cook
• Michael Ondaatje, The Story, Toronto: House of Anansi, ISBN 0887841945⁴
• Sina Queyras, Lemon Hound (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451670
• Angela Rawlings, Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451694
• Nathalie Stephens, Touch to Affliction (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451755

Ireland

• Vona Groarke, Juniper Street, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, Ireland
• Maurice Riordan and Colm Breathnach, editors, Best of Irish Poetry 2007 selections from 50 Irish poets, including Eavan Boland, Seamus Heaney, Thomas McCarthy, Paul Muldoon, Paul Durcan, Eamon Grennan, Vona Groarke, Thomas Kinsella, Michael Longley, Dorothy Molloy, Gerry Murphy, Katie Donovan, Matthew Sweeney, Derek Mahon, Gabriel Rosenstock, Louis De Paor, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill (Southward Editions) ISBN 9781905002238 (anthology) Ireland (published November 2006)
• Justin Quinn, Waves and Trees, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press

New Zealand

• Glenn Colquhoun, Playing God
• Cilla McQueen, A Wind Harp (compact disc)⁵
• Alison Wong, Cup, Publisher: Steele Roberts

Poets in Best New Zealand Poems

Poems from these 25 poets were selected by Andrew Johnston for Best New Zealand Poems 2005, published online this year:

United Kingdom

• Carol Ann Duffy and Jane Ray, The Lost Happy Endings, Penguin
• James Fenton:
  • Selected Poems (2006) Penguin⁶
  • Editor, The New Faber Book of Love Poems (anthology)⁶
• John Haynes, Letter to Patience, a book-length poem in iambic pentameter, winner of the Costa Book Award
• Seamus Heaney, District and Circle, Faber & Faber
• Allison Hedge Coke - Blood Run Salt Publications
• Geoffrey Hill: Without Title
• Derek Mahon, Adaptations (A collection of versions, rather than translations proper, from poets such as Pasolini, Juvenal, Bertolt Brecht, Valery, Baudelaire, Rilke, and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.) Gallery Press
• Sean O'Brien, Inferno: a verse version of Dante's Inferno (Picador)
• Robin Robertson, Swithering, winner of the 2006 Forward Poetry Prize for Best Collection, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize
• Claire Tomalin, Thomas Hardy, Penguin Press, one of the New York Times "100 Notable Books of the Year" for 2007 (biography)
• Hugo Williams, Dear Room, (Faber and Faber)

Poets included in New Writing 14

This book of British writing (Granta, ISBN 1-86207-850-5), edited by Lavinia Greenlaw and Helon Habila, contains short stories, essays and excerpts of novels in addition to poems by these poets:

United States

Anthologies in the United States

• Harold Bloom and Jesse Zuba, editors, American Religious Poems: An Anthology, Library of America
• Michael Hofmann, editor, Twentieth-Century German Poetry: An Anthology (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Joy Katz and Kevin Prufer, editors, Dark Horses: Poets on Overlooked Poems, 76 poems, each selected by a poet who was asked to provide an "unknown or underappreciated poem written by anyone, in any language, from any era", along with a brief essay by the selecting poet about the poem each chose; Illinois University Press
• Jeb Livingood, series editor; Eric Pankey, editor, Best New Poets 2006: 50 Poems from Emerging Writers, Samovar

Poets included in The Best American Poetry 2006

Poets included in The Best American Poetry 2006, edited by David Lehman, co-edited this year by Billy Collins:

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

• Jason Shinder, editor, “The Poem That Changed America: 'Howl' Fifty Years Later, essays on Allen Ginsberg's poem, Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Other

• Chandrashekhar Bhattacharya, Tomake Ebong Tomake: Poems (Manaswini Publication), Bangladesh
• Mohit Kailashnath Misra, "Ponder Awhile" (Booksurge Publishers)

Works published in other languages

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

• Duo Yo, Duo Yu shixuan ("Poems by Duo Yu"), China

Awards and honors

• Nobel Prize in Literature: Orhan Pamuk, Turkey

Australia

• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry:
• Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize: Friendly Fire by Jennifer Maiden
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry:

Canada

• Atlantic Poetry Prize: Jenny MacDougall
• Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate: John Steffler (until December 3, 2008)

• Griffin Poetry Prize (Canada): Sylvia Legris, Nerve Squall
• Griffin Poetry Prize (International, in the English Language): Kamau Brathwaite, Born to Slow Horses
• Pat Lowther Award: Sylvia Legris, Nerve Squall
• Prix Alain-Grandbois: Fernand Ouellette
• Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award: Kate Marshall Flaherty, Unfathom, ISBN 978-1-55253-065-8

New Zealand

• Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards (poetry category): Bill Manhire, Lifted, Victoria University Press

United Kingdom

• Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection: Robin Robertson for Swithering.
• Forward Poetry Prize Best First Collection: Tishani Doshi, for Countries of the Body.
• Forward Poetry Prize Best Single Poem: Sean O'Brien, for "Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright".
• T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Seamus Heaney, for District and Circle
• Costa Book Awards (formerly Whitbread Award) for poetry: John Haynes for Letter to Patience
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Fleur Adcock

United States

• American Academy of Arts and Letters: poets Paul Auster and Frank Bidart elected to the Literature Department
• Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress: Donald Hall appointed
• Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Awards: Moira Linehan, If No Moon
• James Laughlin Award for poetry: Tracy K. Smith
• National Book Award for poetry: Nathaniel Mackey, Splay Anthem, New Directions
  • Finalists: Louise Glück, Averno, Farrar, Straus & Giroux; H.L. Hix, Chromatic, Etruscan Press; Ben Lerner, Angle of Yaw, Copper Canyon Press; James McMichael, Capacity, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
• National Poetry Review Book Prize: Bryan Penberthy, Lucktown.
• Poets' Prize: Catherine Tufariello, Keeping My Name
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (United States): Claudia Emerson, Late Wife
• Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award: John Hollander
• Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Richard Wilbur
• Whiting Writers' Award (poetry winners): Sherwin Bitsui, Tyehimba Jess, Suji Kwock Kim
• Wallace Stevens Award: Michael Palmer
• Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition: Jessica Fisher, Frail-Craft; Judge: Louise Glück
• Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Carl Phillips

From the Poetry Society of America

• Frost Medal: Maxine Kumin
• Shelley Memorial Award: George Stanley (poet), Judges: Sonia Sanchez, Joshua Clover
• Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award: Nicole Cooley, "The Anatomical Museum", Judge: Gerald Stern
• Cecil Hemley Memorial Award: Rusty Morrison, "Sky Clutches Any Strong Beat", Judge: Cal Bedient
• Lanan Literary Award for Poetry: Bruce Weigl
• Lyric Poetry Award: Alice Jones, "Valle D'Aosta", Judge: Toi Derricotte
• Lucille Medwick Memorial Award: Lynne Knight, "Recovery", Judge: Grace Schulman
  • Finalists: Amy Dryansky, Somewhere Honey from Those Bees; J.C. Todd, What's Left;
• Alice Fay di Castagnola Award (for a manuscript in progress): G.C. Waldrep, Archicembalo,
  • Finalists: John Isles, The Arcadia Negotiations; Wayne Miller, The Book of Props; Emily Rosko, Weather Inventions; Judge: Forrest Gander
• Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Student Poetry Award: Katherine Browning, "to discover the cartography of blankness", Judge: Prageeta Sharma
• George Bogin Memorial Award: Kevin Prufer
  • Finalists: Susan Briante, Jill McDonough, Judge: Marie Howe
• Robert H. Winner Memorial Award: Daneen Wardrop, Archicembalo, Judge: Jean Valentine
• Norma Farber First Book Award: Cammy Thomas, Cathedral of Wish, Judge: Medbh McGuckian
• William Carlos Williams Award: Brenda Hillman, Pieces of Air in the Epic, Judge: Marjorie Welish
  • Finalists: Ethan Paquin, The Violence (Ahsahta Press); Aaron Shurin, Involuntary Lyrics (Omnidawn Press)

Deaths

Jerzy Ficowski's grave, Warsaw

Notes and references

1. ^ Wiman, Christian, "An Expert's Opinion: Influential Poets", The Atlantic Monthly, December 2006, released in November, page 75
2. ^ [1] "New Irish Anthology Series Launched", post dated December 1, 2006 at the Poetry International Web site, accessed December 18, 2006
3. ^ [2]"Celebrated Canadian poet Don McKay wins $50,000 Griffin Prize" Canadian Press article, at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Web site, June 7, 2007 accessed October 8, 2007
4. ^ Web page titled "Archive: Michael Ondaatje (1943- )" at the Poetry Foundation website, accessed May 7, 2008
5. ^ Cilla McQueen - NZ Literature File - LEARN - The University Of Auckland Library
6. ^ ^{a b} [3]Web page titled "Books by Fenton" at the James Fenton Web site, accessed October 11, 2007
7. ^ Web page titled "Theodore Roethke / Straf for the Fire" at Copper Canyon Press website, accessed April 20, 2008

• [4] "A Timeline of English Poetry" Web page of the Representative Poetry Online Web site, University of Toronto

See also

Poetry portal

• Poetry
• List of poetry awards