2002 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Events

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" which criticizes the state's Islamic judiciary, accusing 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 which will become one of the most popular blogs devoted largely to contemporary poetry and poetics..
September — Amiri Baraka, 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 discusses the September 11 attacks in a way that is highly critical of racism in America, includes angry depictions of public figures such as Rudolph Giuliani, Trent Lott, Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Ward Connerly, accuses Israel of involvement in the World Trade Center attacks, and supports the theory that the United States government knew about the attacks in advance. Amid public outrage and pressure from state leaders, Baraka is asked to resign as the Poet Laureate by New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey who had appointed him to the post two months earlier. Baraka refuses and, because there is no legal mechanism provided in the law to remove him as poet laureate, the state legislature and governor abolishes the position to remove him effective 2 July 2003.
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.
The office of Edinburgh Makar is instituted in Scotland, with Stewart Conn as first incumbent.
Bowery Poetry Club, a New York City poetry performance space, is founded by Bob Holman.Fulcrum, An annual of poetry and aesthetics is founded in the United States.
Influential Chinese literary magazine Tamen is revived as a webzine at www.tamen.net.

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

Alison Croggon, Attempts at Being, Salt Publishing,.
Robert Gray, Afterimages
Emma 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 year
Chris Mansell:
* Stalking the Rainbow
* Fickle Brat
Les Murray:
* Poems the Size of Photographs, Duffy & Snellgrove and Carcanet
* New Collected Poems, Duffy & Snellgrove; Carcanet, 2003

Canada

Margaret Avison, Concrete and Wild Carrot
Christian Bök, ’Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science
Dionne Brand, thirsty
Michael Boughn, Dislocations in Crystal
Louis Cabri, The Mood Embosser
Margaret Christakos, Excessive Love Prostheses
Lise Downe, Disturbances of Progress
Rob Fitterman, Metropolis
Laura Lush:
* The First Day of Winter: Poetry, Vancouver: Ronsdale Press
* Going to the Zoo, Winnipeg: Turnstone Press
Don McKay, Vis à Vis: Field Notes on Poetry & Wilderness
George McWhirter, The Book of Contradictions
Jay Millar, Mycological Studies
P. K. Page, Planet Earth: Poems Selected and New, edited and with an introduction by Eric Ormsby, Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill
Joe Rosenblatt, Parrot fever. collages by Michel Christensen. Toronto: Exile.
Raymond Souster, Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Ottawa: Oberon Press.

India, in English

Meena Alexander, Illiterate Heart, Evanston, Illinois: TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, by an Indian writing, living, and publishing in the United States
Smita Agarwal, Wish-granting Words, New Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publisher, 2002.
Sujata Bhatt, A Colour for Solitude, Carcanet Press
Keki Daruwalla, The Map-maker, Ravi Dayal
Ranjit Hoskote, editor, Reasons for Belonging, Fourteen Contemporary Indian Poets, 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 Taj
Sudeep Sen, Monsoon, re-issued in 2005 as Rain ; London: Aark Arts,
C. P. Surendran, Canaries on the Moon, Kozhikode: Yeti, Chennai.
Mallika Sengupta, Carriers Of Fire, (translated from the original Bengali, Kolkata: Bhashanagar

Ireland

Vona Groarke, Flight, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, Ireland
Justin Quinn:
* Fuselage Oldcastle: The Gallery Press,
* Gathered Beneath the Storm: Wallace Stevens, Nature and Community, University College of Dublin Press, 2002

New Zealand

James K. Baxter, The Tree House: James K. Baxter's Poems for Children, the first illustrated edition of his work for children
Janet Charman, Snowing Down South, Auckland: Auckland University Press
Alan Brunton, Fq, a sequence of 144 poems
Cilla McQueen, Soundings, Otago University Press
Mike Minehan, O Jerusalem: James K. Baxter an Intimate Memoir
Kendrick Smithyman, posthumous:
* Last Poems, Auckland: Holloway Press, designed by Tara hir poi a pek fhj nbb a: Auckland University Press
Stephanie de Montalk, The Scientific Evidence of Dr Wang, Victoria University Press
Kay McKenzie Cooke, Feeding the Dogs, Otago University Press)

Poets 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:

United Kingdom

Neil Astley, editor, Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times
Anthony Burgess, Revolutionary Sonnets and Other Poems, edited by Kevin Jackson
Ciarán Carson: The Inferno of Dante Alighieri, Granta, awarded the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize
Carol Ann Duffy, Feminine Gospels Picador
Elaine Feinstein, Collected Poems and Translations, Carcanet
James Fenton: An Introduction to English Poetry
Paul Henry, The Slipped Leash, Seren
Ted Hughes, Selected Poems, 1957–1994 ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
Glyn Maxwell, The Nerve ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
Sean O'Brien:
*Cousin Coat: Selected Poems 1976–2001
*With John Kinsella and Peter Porter, Rivers
Alice Oswald:
* Dart, Faber and Faber,
* Co-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,
John Heath-Stubbs, The Return of the Cranes
Peter Redgrove, From the Virgil Caverns
R.S. Thomas, Residues
Hugo Williams, Collected Poems, Faber and Faber

United States

Meena Alexander, Illiterate Heart, Evanston, Illinois: TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, by an Indian writing living in and published in the United States
John Ashbery, Chinese Whispers
Frank Bidart, Music Like Dirt, the only poetry chapbook ever nominated for a Pulitzer Prize
Billy Collins, Nine Horses: Poems ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
Robert Creeley, guest editor, The Best American Poetry 2002
Jim Dodge – Rain on the River
Alan Dugan, Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
Michael S. Harper, Selected Poems, ARC Publications
Paul Hoover, Winter Mirror,
Kenneth Koch:
*Sun Out: Selected Poems, 1952–1954, New York: Knopf
*A Possible World, New York: Knopf
Abba Kovner, Sloan-Kettering: Poems ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
Brad Leithauser, Darlington's Fall: A Novel in Verse ; 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 ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
J.D. McClatchy, Hazmat: Poems ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
Czesław Miłosz, New and Collected Poems: 1931–2001 ; 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 Prize
Lorine Niedecker, Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works, edited by Jenny Penberthy, posthumous
Mary Oliver, What Do We Know
Molly Peacock, Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems
Carl Phillips, Rock Harbor
Marie Ponsot, Springing: New and Selected Poems ; 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,, anthology including work by Lucie Brock-Broido, Harryette Mullen, Ann Lauterbach, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Brenda Hillman and Jorie Graham
Margaret Reynolds, editor, The Sappho Companion Palgrave Macmillan,
W. G. Sebald, After Nature ; a book-length poem; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
Aharon Shabtai, Artzenu
Adam Zagajewski, Without End: New and Selected Poems ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"

Poets in ''The Best American Poetry 2002''

Poems from these 75 poets were in The Best American Poetry 2002, David Lehman, editor; Robert Creeley, guest editor:

Works published in other languages

China

Han Dong:
* Baba zai tianshang kan wo, Hebei: jiaoyu chubanshe,
*, Dunhuang: wenyi chubanshe
He Xiaozhu,, Hebei: jiaoyu chubanshe
Jimu Langge,, Hebei: jiaoyu chubanshe

French language

Canada, in French

Denise Desautels, Pendant la mort, Montréal: Québec Amérique
Madeleine Gagnon, Le chant de la terre : Poèmes choisis 1978–2002, anthologie préparée par Paul Chanel Malenfant, Montréal, Typo
Pierre Nepveu, Lignes aériennes, Montréal: Éditions du Noroît
Madeleine Ouellette-Michalska, Le cycle des migrations, Montréal: Le Noroît
Jean Royer, Poèmes de veille, Montréal: Le Noroît

France

Chris Wallace-Crabbe, La Poésie Australienne, Valenciennes: Presses Universitaires,, French translation of the work of this Australian poet

India

In each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:

Hindi

Gulzar, Raat Pashmine Ki, New Delhi: Rupa& Co.; in both Urdu and Hindi
Kunwar Narain, In Dino, New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan,
Rituraj, Leela Mukharvinda, New Delhi: Medha Books
Vinod Kumar Shukla, Atrikt Nahin, New Delhi: Vani Prakashan

Other in India

Bharat Majhi, Saralarekha, Bhubaneswar: Paschima; Oriya-language
Chandrakanta Murasingh, Ruphaini Buduk Ani Nogo, Agartala: Tripura Publisher: Agartala; Kokborok-language
Gulzar, Raat Pashmine Ki, New Delhi: Rupa& Co.; in both Urdu and Hindi
Joy Goswami, Horiner Jonyo Ekok, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers, ; Bengali-language
K. Satchidanandan, Malayalam-language:
* Bharateeya Kavitayile Pratirodha Paramparyam, ; scholarship
* Vikku,
K. Siva Reddy; Telugu-language:
* Antarjanam, Hyderabad: Jhari Poetry Circle
* Vrittalekhini, Hyderabad: Jhari Poetry Circle
Kutti Revathi, Mulaigal. Chennai: Thamizhini; Tamil-language
Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih; Kahsi-language:
* Ka Samoi jong ka Lyer, Shillong: Author
* Ki Mawsiang ka Sohra, Shillong: Author
* Ki Jingkynmaw, Shillong: S. R. Lanong
Nirendranath Chakravarti, Dekha Hobey, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers; Bengali-language
Yash Sharma, Bedi Pattan Sanjh Mallah, publisher: Vaasu Prakashan, Jammu; Dogri-language

Poland

Ewa Lipska, Uwaga: stopień, Krakow: Wydawnictwo literackie
Czesław Miłosz, Druga przestrzen ; Cracow: Znak
Tadeusz Różewicz, Szara strefa, Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz, Zachód słońca w Milanówku, Warsaw: Sic!

Other languages

Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Lutz Seiler, guest editor, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 2003, publisher: Beck; anthology
Klaus Høeck, Projekt Perseus, publisher: Arena; Denmark
Rami Saari,, Israel
Maria Luisa Spaziani, Poesie dalla mano sinistra, Italy
Wisława Szymborska: Chwila, Poland
Søren Ulrik Thomsen, Det værste og det bedste, illustrated by Ib Spang Olsen; Denmark

Awards and honors

Australia

C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Robert Gray, Afterimages
Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize: After Images by Robert Gray
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Alan Wearne, The Lovemakers
Mary Gilmore Prize: Geraldine McKenzie, ''Duty''

Canada

Gerald Lampert Award: Aislinn Hunter, Into the Early Hours
Archibald Lampman Award: Armand Garnet Ruffo, At Geronimo's Grave
Atlantic Poetry Prize: M. Travis Lane, Keeping Afloat
The office of Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate is instituted, George Bowering is the first appointee and will serve until 2004
2002 Governor General's Awards: Roy Miki, Surrender ; Robert Dickson, Humains paysages en temps de paix relative
Griffin Poetry Prize: Canada: Christian Bök, Eunoia; International, in the English Language: Alice Notley, Disobedience
Pat Lowther Award: Heather Spears, Required Reading: A Witness in Words and Drawings to the Reena Virk Trials 1998-2000
Prix Alain-Grandbois: Michel Beaulieu, Trivialités
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Karen Solie, Short Haul Engine
Prix Émile-Nelligan: Benoît Jutras, ''Nous serons sans voix''

New Zealand

Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
Montana New Zealand Book Awards First-book award for poetry: Chris Price, Husk, Auckland University Press

Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding " in poetry" article:

February 9 – Ale Ahmad Suroor, 90, Indian Urdu-language poet
March 9 – Hamish Henderson, 81, Scottish poet, folk song collector and soldier
May 1 – Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh, Bahraini poet
June 14 – June Jordan, 65, Jamaican American poet, of breast cancer
June 27 – Alan Brunton, 55, New Zealand poet and scriptwriter, died on visit to Amsterdam
July 6 – Kenneth Koch, 77, American poet, of leukemia
July 14 – Nabakanta Barua, also known as Ekhud Kokaideu, 75, Indian Assamese-language novelist and poet
August 25 – Dorothy Hewett 79, Australian feminist writer
September 27 – Charles Henri Ford, 89, American novelist, poet, filmmaker, photographer and collage artist
October 21 – Harbhajan Singh, 82, Punjabi poet, critic, cultural commentator and translator
October 28 – Annada Shankar Ray, 98, Bengali poet
December 9 – Stan Rice, 60, American painter, educator, poet, husband of author Anne Rice, of brain cancer