2016 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Events
- 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.
- American poets Hawona Sullivan Janzen and Clarence White participate in public art project Rondo Family Reunion in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Anniversaries
- January 25 – the 125th birthday of Osip Mandelstam.
- March 5 – semicentenary of the death of Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet
- March 27 – 90th birthday of Frank O'Hara.
- 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.
- 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
- July 25 – semicentenary of the death of Frank O'Hara, American poet and key member of the New York School of poetry.
- 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
Selection of works published in English
Australia
- Brook Emery, Have Been and Are, Gloria SMH Press.
Anthologies in Australia
- Disney, Dan & Kelen, Kit, Writing to the Wire, UWA Publishing.
Canada
- Gwen Benaway, Passage
- 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''
India
- Sudeep Sen, Erotext, Penguin Books,
New Zealand
- Tusiata Avia, Fale Aiutu – Spirit House, Victoria University Press,
Poets in ''Best New Zealand Poems''
These poets wrote the 25 poems selected for Best New Zealand Poems 2015 - guest editor was John Newton, published this year:- Morgan Bach
- Serie Barford
- Sarah Jane Barnett
- David Beach
- Hera Lindsay Bird
- Wystan Curnow
- John Dennison
- Belinda Diepenheim
- Murray Edmond
- Joan Fleming
- Bernadette Hall
- Dinah Hawken
- Alexandra Hollis
- Brent Kininmont
- Iain Lonie
- Selina Tusitala Marsh
- Frankie McMillan
- Gregory O'Brien
- Vincent O'Sullivan
- Frances Samuel
- kani te manukura
- Steven Toussaint
- Bryan Walpert
- Alison Wong
- Ashleigh Young
United Kingdom
England
- Jay Bernard, The Red and Yellow Nothing
- Emily Berry, Anne Carson and Sophie Collins, If I'm Scared We Can't Win
- Brian Bilston, You Took the Last Bus Home
- Rachael Boast, Void Studies
- Vahni Capildeo, Measures of Expatriation
- Melissa Lee-Houghton, Sunshine
- Hollie McNish, Nobody Told Me
- Alice Oswald, Falling Awake
- Ruth Padel, Tidings – A Christmas Journey
- Denise Riley, Say Something Back
- Kae Tempest, Let Them Eat Chaos
- Rebecca Watts, ''The Met Office Advises Caution''
Scotland
- Michel Faber, ''Undying: a love story''
Anthologies in the United Kingdom
- Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke, ''The Map and the Clock: A Laureates' Choice of the Poetry of Britain and Ireland''
United States
Alphabetical listing by author name- Jos Charles, Safe Space
- Matthew and Michael Dickman, Brother
- Tyehimba Jess, Olio
- Ben Lerner, No Art
- Amanda Lovelace, The Princess Saves Herself in This One
- Michael Palmer, The Laughter of the Sphinx
- Ocean Vuong, Night Sky With Exit Wounds
- C. D. Wright. ''ShallCross''
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''
Works published in other languages
German
- Antony Theodore, Du bist die Seele meins Seins,
Awards and honors by country
Awards announced this year:International
Australia awards and honors
Canada awards and honors
- Archibald Lampman Award: Pearl Pirie, the pet radish, shrunken
- Atlantic Poetry Prize: Susan Goyette, The Brief Reincarnation of a Girl
- 2016 Governor General's Awards: Steven Heighton, The Waking Comes Late ; Normand de Bellefeuille, Le poème est une maison de bord de mer
- Griffin Poetry Prize:
- *Canada: Liz Howard, Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent
- *International: Norman Dubie, The Quotations of Bone
- *Lifetime Recognition Award : 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
- Raymond Souster Award: Lorna Crozier, The Wrong Cat
- Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Raoul Fernandes, Transmitter and Receiver
- Prix Émile-Nelligan: Jonathan Lamy, ''La vie sauve''
France awards and honors
India awards and honors
- Sahitya Akademi Award : Papineni Sivasankar for Rajanigandha
- Jnanpith Award : Shankha Ghosh
New Zealand awards and honors
- Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
- Montana New Zealand Book Awards :
United Kingdom awards and honors
- Cholmondeley Award: Maura Dooley, David Morley, Peter Sansom, Iain Sinclair
- Costa Award for poetry:
- * Shortlist: Melissa Lee-Houghton, Sunshine; Alice Oswald, Falling Awake; Denise Riley, Say Something Back; Kae Tempest, Let Them Eat Chaos
- English Association's Fellows' Poetry Prizes:
- Eric Gregory Award :
- 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 : Stephen Sexton for The Curfew
- T. S. Eliot Prize : Jacob Polley, Jackself
- *Shortlist : 2016 Short ListThe Times / Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry Translation:
- Wilfred Owen Poetry Award: Carol Ann Duffy
United States awards and honors
- Arab American Book Award :
- *Honorable Mentions:
- Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Erin Adair-Hodges for Let's All Die Happy
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award:
- Best Translated Book Award :
- Beatrice Hawley Award from Alice James Books:
- Jackson Poetry Prize: Will Alexander (poet)
- *Judges: Elizabeth Alexander, Rae Armantrout, and Terrance Hayes
- Lambda Literary Award:
- * Gay Poetry:
- * Lesbian Poetry:
- Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize:
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize:
- *Finalists:
- National Book Award for Poetry :
- *NBA Finalists:
- *NBA Longlist:
- *NBA Judges:
- National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry: The New Criterion Poetry Prize:
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry : 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:
- Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Award:
- Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize:
- Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award:
- Walt Whitman Prize – – Judge:
- Yale Younger Series:
From the Poetry Society of America
- 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:
- *Finalists for WCW Award:
Deaths
January – June
Birth years link to the corresponding " in poetry" article:- January 1 – Fazu Aliyeva, 83, Russian Avar poet and journalist
- January 6 – Nivaria Tejera, 86, Cuban poet and novelist
- January 9 – Zelimkhan Yaqub, 66, Azerbaijani poet
- January 12 – C. D. Wright, 67, 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, Chicano-American poet who was born in California and grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico
- January 19 – Laurence Lerner, 90, South African-born English-language poet and academic
- February 7 – Andrew Glaze, 90, American poet appointed 11th Poet Laureate of Alabama in 2013
- February 8 – Nida Fazli, 77, Indian poet and lyricist
- February 21 – Akbar Ali, 90, Indian Kannada poet
- *Miroslav Nemirov, 54, Russian poet
- March 5 – Rafael Squirru, 90, Argentine author, art critic and poet
- April 13 – Jock Scot, 63, Scottish performance poet
- April 30 – Daniel Berrigan, 94, American Jesuit priest, poet, peace activist and recidivist ; winner of Lamont Prize for his book of poems Time Without Number
- June 4 –, 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..
- June 30 – Sir Geoffrey Hill, 84, English poet
July – December
- July 1 – Yves Bonnefoy, 93, French poet, essayist, translator, and critic
- September 3 – Peter Oresick, 60, American poet
- September 4 – Novella Matveyeva, 81, Russian poet and singer-songwriter
- October 14 – Brigit Pegeen Kelly, American poet
- October 28 – Jolanda Insana, 79, Italian poet and translator, Viareggio Prize recipient
- December 27 – Anthony Cronin, 92, Irish poet
- December 30 – Judith Ortiz Cofer, 64, Puerto Rican American poet and educator
- December 31 – David Meltzer, 79, American poet and musician