1999 in poetry.html



Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events

• July 1 — Scotland's Parliament opened with the singing of Robert Burns' "A Man's a Man For A'That," instead of "God Save The Queen"
• The Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award is established at the Fifth Annual West Chester University Poetry Conference. The award is given to scholars who have made a lasting contribution to the art and science of versification. Derek Attridge was the first winner.
• Andrew Motion becomes Poet Laureate of England
• Carl Rakosi's 99th birthday celebrated at the Kelly Writers House with a live audiocast
• A new grave slab is installed at the Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh over the final resting place of William Topaz McGonagall (1825–1904), comically renowned as the worst poet in the English language; the slab is inscribed:

William McGonagall

Poet and Tragedian

"I am your gracious Majesty

ever faithful to Thee,

William McGonagall, the Poor Poet,

That lives in Dundee."

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 Black Water: Approaching Zukofsky
• Les Murray:
  • Fredy Neptune, verse novel, winner of the 2005 Premio Mondello (in Italy)¹
  • New Selected Poems, Duffy & Snellgrove¹
  • Conscious and Verbal, Carcanet, Duffy & Snellgrove¹

Canada

• Ken Babstock, Mean, his first book of poetry, winner of the Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Milton Acorn People’s Poet Award (Canada)²
• George Elliott Clarke, Gold Indigoes. Durham: Carolina Wren, ISBN 0-932112-40-4
• Tim Lilburn, To the River, winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for Book of the Year
• Jeffery Donaldson, Waterglass, McGill-Queen's University Press

Ireland

• Ciaran Carson, The Ballad of HMS Belfast, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 9781852352462
• Vona Groarke, Other People’s Houses, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press,
• Thomas McCarthy, Mr Dineen’s Careful Parade: New and Selected Poems, Anvil Press, London, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom³
• Medbh McGuckian and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, translators, The Water Horse: Poems in Irish Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press

New Zealand

• Alistair Campbell, Gallipoli & Other Poems, Wellington: Wai-te-ata Press
• Janet Charman, Rapunzel Rapunzel, Auckland: Auckland University Press⁴
• Michele Leggott, As far as I can see, Auckland: Auckland University Press
• Robin Hyde, The book of Nadath, introduction and notes by Michele Leggott; Auckland: Auckland University Press, posthumous
• Bill Manhire, What to Call Your Child
• Sarah Quigley, Raewyn Alexander and Anna Jackson, AUP New Poets 1: Sarah Quigley, Raewyn Alexander and Anna Jackson, Auckland: Auckland University Press⁵

United Kingdom

• Gerry Cambridge, Nothing But Heather!, Luath Press ISBN 0946487499⁶
• Seamus Heaney:
  • The Light of the Leaves, Bonnefant Press
  • Translator: Beowulf, Faber & Faber
  • Translator: Diary of One Who Vanished, a song cycle by Leoš Janáček of poems by Ozef Kalda, Faber & Faber
• John Heath-Stubbs, The Sound of Light
• Andrew Johnston (poet), The Open Window, Arc Publications, a New Zealand poet living in Paris, France
• Derek Mahon, Collected Poems. Gallery Press
• Peter Redgrove, Selected Poems
• Mary Jo Salter, A Kiss in Space, Knopf
• Marina Tsvetayeva, The Selected Poems of Marina Tsvetayeva, translated by Elaine Feinstein, fifth edition, with new poems and a new introduction, Oxford University Press/Carcanet
• Hugo Williams, Billy's Rain, Faber and Faber

Anthologies in the United Kingdom

• Richard Caddel and Peter Quartermain, editors, Other: British and Irish Poetry since 1970, an anthology of poetry outside The Movement (essentially the mainstream) of English and Irish poetry (Wesleyan University Press)
• Elaine Feinstein, editor, After Pushkin, "versions by contemporary poets", published by the Folio Society and Carcanet
• Michael Schmidt, The Harvill Book of Twentieth-Century Poetry in English

United States

• John Ashbery, Girls on the Run, a book-length poem inspired by the work of artist Henry Darger
• Joseph Brodsky: Discovery, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux⁷ Russian-American
• Riohard Caddel and Peter Quartermain, editors, Other: British and Irish Poetry since 1970 Wesleyan University Press
• Robert Dassanowsky, Telegrams from the Metropole. Selected Poems 1980-1998 ISBN 13 978-3-901993-02-2; ISBN 103-901993-02-9
• Ed Dorn and Gordon Brotherston, editors (and Brotherston, translator), Sun Unwound: Original Texts from Occupied America, North Atlantic Books⁸ anthology
• Rita Dove, On the Bus with Rosa Parks (Norton); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
• Geoffrey Hill, The Triumph of Love (Houghton Mifflin); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
• John Hollander, Figurehead and Other Poems
• Fanny Howe, Forged
• William Logan, Night Battle
• Glyn Maxwell, The Breakage, (Houghton Mifflin); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
• W.S. Merwin, The River Sound: Poems (Knopf); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
• Eugenio Montale, Collected Poems: 1920-1954 (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); a New York Times "notable book of the year"; translated from Italian
• Mary Oliver, Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems
• Michael Palmer, The Danish Notebook (Avec Books); memoir/poetic essay
• Carl Rakosi, The Old Poet's Tale
• Kenneth Rexroth, Swords That Shall Not Strike: Poems of Protest and Rebellion (Glad Day; posthumous}
• Charles Simic, Jackstraws: Poems (Harcourt Brace); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
• Melvin B. Tolson, Harlem Gallery: And Other Poems (University Press of Virginia); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
• Rosmarie Waldrop, Reluctant Gravities (New Directions)

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

• Charles Bernstein, A Poetics (Cambridge: Harvard University Press)

Poets in The Best American Poetry 1999

Poems from these 75 poets are in The Best American Poetry 1999, edited by David Lehman, guest editor, Robert Bly:

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:

Spain

• Matilde Camus:
  • Clamor del pensamiento ("Clamour of thought")
  • Cancionero multicolor ("Multicolour collection of verses")
  • La estrellita Giroldina ("Giroldina the star")

Other languages

• Aharon Shabtai, Politiqa (Hebrew: "Politics")
• Lo Fu (poet) (Luo Fu),Silent Falls the Snow, Chinese (Taiwan) ⁹
• Yu Jian, Yi mei chuanguo tiankong de dingzi China¹⁰

Awards and honors

• Nobel prize: Günter Grass

Australia

• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Gig Ryan, Pure and Applied
• Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize: The Impossible, and other Poems by R. A. Simpson
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Lee Cataldi, Race Against Time
• Miles Franklin Award: Murray Bail, Eucalyptus

Canada

• Gerald Lampert Award
• Archibald Lampman Award
• Atlantic Poetry Prize
• See 1999 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Pat Lowther Award
• Prix Alain-Grandbois
• Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award

New Zealand

• Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards (no poetry winner this year) First-book award for poetry: Kate Camp, Unfamiliar Legends of the Stars, Victoria University Press

United Kingdom

• Cholmondeley Award: Vicki Feaver, Geoffrey Hill, Elma Mitchell, Sheenagh Pugh
• Eric Gregory Award: Ross Cogan, Matthew Hollis, Helen Ivory, Andrew Pidoux, Owen Sheers, Dan Wyke
• Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection: Jo Shapcott, My Life Asleep (Oxford University Press)
• Forward Poetry Prize Best First Collection: Nick Drake, The Man in the White Suit (Bloodaxe)
• Poet Laureate of Great Britain: Andrew Motion appointed
• Samuel Johnson Prize: Antony Beevor, Stalingrad
• T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Hugo Williams, Billy's Rain
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Daisy Fried, She Didn't Mean To Do It
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: George Garrett
• Arthur Rense Prize awarded to James McMichael by the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: J.D. McClatchy, "Tattoos"
• Bollingen Prize: Robert Creeley
• Frost Medal: Barbara Guest
• National Book Award for poetry: Ai, Vice: New & Selected Poems
• Special Bicentential Consultants in Poetry to the Library of Congress: Rita Dove, Louise Glück, and W.S. Merwin appointed
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Mark Strand, Blizzard of One
• Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award: Derek Attridge
• Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Maxine Kumin
• Wallace Stevens Award: Jackson Mac Low
• William Carlos Williams Award: B.H. Fairchild, The Art of the Lathe (Working Classics), Judge: Garrett Hongo
• Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Gwendolyn Brooks

Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• January 13 – John Frederick Nims, United States
• February 22 – William Bronk, 81, United States
• May 10 – Shel Silverstein, 68, children's poet
• August 15 – Patricia Beer, 79, British poet and critic
• September 8 – Moondog, 83, street poet (aka Louis T. Hardin)
• October 9 – João Cabral de Melo Neto, 79, Brazilian poet and diplomat
• December 10 – Edward Dorn, 70, American poet associated with the Black Mountain poets
• date not known:
  • December – Ida Affleck Graves, 97
  • Felipe Alfau (born 1902), Spanish-American poet, translator and author
  • Sufia Kamal (born 1911), Bengali poet, writer, organizer, feminist and activist

See also

Poetry portal

• Poetry
• List of years in poetry
• List of poetry awards

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} [1]Les Murray Web page at The Poetry Archive Web site, accessed October 15, 2007
2. ^ [2]Web page titled "Griffin Poetry Prize/ Canadian Shortlist" at the Griffen Poetry Award Web site, accessed October 6, 2007
3. ^ Web page titled "Thomas McCarthy" at the Poetry International Website, accessed May 2, 2008
4. ^ Robinson, Roger and Wattie, Nelson, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, 1998, "Janet Charman" article
5. ^ Web page titled "Raewyn Alexander / New Zealand Literature File" at the University of Aukland Library website, accessed April 30, 2008
6. ^ "Publications" page, Gerry Cambridge website, retrieved December 1, 2008
7. ^ [3] Web page titled "Joseph Brodsky / Nobel Prize in Literature 1987 / Bibliography" at the "Official Web Site of the Nobel Foundation", accessed October 18, 2007
8. ^ Web page titled "Archive / Edward Dorn (1929-1999)" at the Poetry Foundation website, retrieved May 8, 2008
9. ^ Balcom, John, "Lo Fu", article on Poetry International website, retrieved November 22, 2008
10. ^ Patten, Simon, "Yu Jian", article at Poetry International retrieved November 22, 2008