1999 in poetry

SS undefined

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

Events

 * July 1 â€” 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 (1825â€“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
 * Jennifer Maiden, Mines, Paper Bark, ISBN 90-5704-046-8
 * Les Murray:
 * Fredy Neptune, verse novel, winner of the 2005 Premio Mondello (in Italy)
 * New Selected Poems, Duffy & Snellgrove
 * Conscious and Verbal, Carcanet, Duffy & Snellgrove

Canada

 * Ken Babstock, Mean, his first book of poetry, winner of the Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Milton Acorn People's Poet Award (Canada)
 * Fred Cogswell, A Double Question.
 * Afua Cooper, editor, Utterances and Incantations: Women, Poetry and Dub, Toronto: Sister Vision Press (scholarship)
 * Jeffery Donaldson, Waterglass, McGill-Queen's University Press
 * 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
 * A. F. Moritz, Rest on the Flight into Egypt
 * Andy Quan and Jim Wong-Chu, editors, Swallowing Clouds: An Anthology of Chinese-Canadian Poetry, Vancouver, British Columbia: Arsenal Pulp Press

India, in English

 * Rukmini Bhaya Nair, The Ayodhya Cantos ( Poetry in English ), New Delhi: Penguin
 * C. P. Surendran, Posthumous Poems ( Poetry in English ), New Delhi: Penguin (Viking); not posthumously published
 * Sudeep Sen:
 * Bodytext: Dramatic Monologues in Motion, London Borough of Harrow: Harrow Arts and Leisure Service
 * Retracing American Contours, Columbia: University of South Carolina
 * Eunice de Souza, editor, Talking Poems: Conversations with Poets, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195647823
 * E.V. Ramakrishnan, editor, The Tree of Tongues: An Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry, Arundhathi Subramaniam called the volume "a landmark book of translations of modern Indian poetry"; Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, ISBN 81-85952-70-1

Ireland

 * Ciaran Carson, The Ballad of HMS Belfast, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1-85235-246-2
 * Vona Groarke, Other People's Houses, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press,
 * Joan McBreen, editor, The White Page an bhileog bh'an: Twentieth-Century Irish Women Poets Cliffs of Moher, County Clare: Salmon
 * Thomas McCarthy, Mr Dineen's Careful Parade: New and Selected Poems, Anvil Press, London, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
 * Medbh McGuckian and EilÃ©an NÃ­ ChuilleanÃ¡in, translators, The Water Horse: Poems in Irish Nuala NÃ­ Dhomhnaill'', Oldcastle: The Gallery Press

New Zealand

 * Alistair Campbell, Gallipoli & Other Poems, Wellington: Wai-te-ata Press
 * Janet Charman, Rapunzel Rapunzel, Auckland: Auckland University Press
 * Leigh Robert Davis, Te Tangi a te Matuhi, Auckland: Jack Books
 * 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 Press

United Kingdom

 * Mark Bryant, editor, Literary Hymns: An Anthology, London: Hodder & Stoughton
 * Gerry Cambridge, Nothing But Heather!, Luath Press ISBN 0-946487-49-9
 * Carol Ann Duffy:
 * Meeting Midnight, Faber and Faber (children's poetry)
 * The World's Wife, Anvil Press Poetry
 * Seamus Heaney:
 * The Light of the Leaves, Bonnefant Press
 * Translator: Beowulf, Faber & Faber
 * Translator: Diary of One Who Vanished, a song cycle by LeoÅ¡ JanÃ¡Äek of poems by Ozef Kalda, Faber & Faber
 * John Heath-Stubbs, The Sound of Light
 * Ted Hughes, translator:
 * Aeschylus: The Oresteia
 * Alcestis
 * Kathleen Jamie, Jizzen
 * Andrew Johnston (poet), The Open Window, Arc Publications, a New Zealand poet living in Paris, France
 * Derek Mahon, Collected Poems, Gallery Press
 * Don Paterson, The Eyes
 * Tom Paulin, The Wind Dog
 * Peter Reading, Apophthegmatic
 * 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)
 * Carol Ann Duffy, editor, Time's Tidings: Greeting the 21st Century, Anvil Press Poetry
 * 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
 * Adam Schwartzman, editor, Ten South African poets, Manchester: Carcanet

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 & Giroux Russian-American
 * Robert Dassanowsky, Telegrams from the Metropole. Selected Poems 1980-1998 ISBN 978-3-901993-02-2
 * 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, New York: 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"
 * Mark Strand, Chicken, Shadow, Moon & More, by a Canadian native long living in and published in the United States
 * Eleanor Ross Taylor, Late Leisure
 * 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)
 * Jesse Lee Kercheval, World as Dictionary

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

 * M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms (first published in 1958), goes into its seventh edition, Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace
 * Charles Bernstein, A Poetics (Cambridge: Harvard University Press)
 * Molly Peacock, How to Read a Poem ... and Start a Poetry Circle, New York: Riverhead Books

Anthologies in the United States

 * Riohard Caddel and Peter Quartermain, editors, Other: British and Irish Poetry since 1970 Wesleyan University Press
 * Ed Dorn and Gordon Brotherston, editors (and Brotherston, translator), Sun Unwound: Original Texts from Occupied America, North Atlantic Books anthology
 * Tanure Ojaide and Tijan M. Sallah, editors, The New African Poetry: An Anthology, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Reinner Publishers
 * A. L. Soens, editor, I, the Song : Classical Poetry of Native North America, Salt Lake City: University of Utah 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:


 * Dick Allen
 * John Balaban
 * Coleman Barks
 * George Bilgere
 * Elizabeth Bishop
 * Chana Bloch
 * Philip Booth
 * John Brehm
 * Hayden Carruth
 * Lucille Clifton
 * Billy Collins
 * Robert Creeley
 * Lydia Davis
 * Debra Kang Dean
 * Chard deNiord


 * Russell Edson
 * Lawrence Ferlinghetti
 * Dan Gerber
 * Louise GlÃ¼ck
 * Ray Gonzalez
 * John Haines
 * Donald Hall
 * Jennifer Michael Hecht
 * Bob Hicok
 * Jane Hirshfield
 * Tony Hoagland
 * John Hollander
 * Amy Holman
 * David Ignatow
 * Gray Jacobik


 * Josephine Jacobsen
 * Louis Jenkins
 * Mary Karr
 * X. J. Kennedy
 * Galway Kinnell
 * Carolyn Kizer
 * Ron Koertge
 * Yusef Komunyakaa
 * William Kulik
 * James Laughlin
 * Dorianne Laux
 * Li-Young Lee
 * Denise Levertov
 * Philip Levine
 * David Mamet


 * Gigi Marks
 * William Matthews
 * Wesley McNair
 * CzesÅ‚aw MiÅ‚osz
 * Joan Murray
 * Sharon Olds
 * Mary Oliver
 * Franco Pagnucci
 * Molly Peacock
 * Alberto RÃ­os
 * David Ray
 * Adrienne Rich
 * Kay Ryan
 * Sonia Sanchez
 * Revan Schendler


 * Myra Shapiro
 * Charles Simic
 * Louis Simpson
 * Thomas R. Smith
 * Marcia Southwick
 * William Stafford
 * Peggy Steele
 * Ruth Stone
 * Larissa Szporluk
 * Diane Thiel
 * David Wagoner
 * Richard Wilbur
 * C.K. Williams
 * Charles Wright
 * Timothy Young

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:

French language

 * Yves Bonnefoy, La Pluie d'Ã©tÃ©, France
 * Claude Esteban, Janvier, fÃ©vrier, mars. Pages, Farrago; France
 * Madeleine Gagnon, RÃªve de pierre, MontrÃ©al, VLB; Canada
 * Michel Houellebecq, Renaissance, poÃ¨mes, Flammarion; France

Hungary

 * GyÃ¶rgy Petri, AmÃ­g lehet

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

Bengali

 * Joy Goswami Suryo-Pora Chhai'', Kolkata: Ananda Publishers, ISBN 81-7215-773-8
 * Mallika Sengupta, Kathamanabi, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers
 * Nirendranath Chakravarti, Onno Gopal, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers
 * Udaya Narayana Singh, Anukriti, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi
 * NOBBOIER KOBITA, An anthology of poetry 1990s Bangladesh, edited by Mahbub Kabir, Loak Prokashana, Shahbag, Dhaka.

Malayalam

 * K. Satchidanandan, Theranjedutha Kavithakal, selected poems; Malayalam-language
 * P. P. Ramachandran, ''Kanekkane, winner of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for poetry: Kottayam: DC Books
 * Veerankutty, Jalabhoopadam ("Mapping the Waters"), Kozhikode: Papillon

Marathi

 * Dilip Chitre, Ekoon Kavita â€“ 3, Mumbai: Popular Prakashan
 * Malika Amar Sheikh:
 * Deharutu, Mumbai: Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Prabodhini
 * Mahanagar, Mumbai: Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Prabodhini

Oriya

 * Basudev Sunani, Mahula Bana, Nuapada: Eeshan-Ankit Prakashani
 * Bharat Majhi, ''Agadhu Duari, Varsapallavi, Kendrapara
 * Rajendra Kishore Panda, Ishakhela, Cuttack: Cuttack Students' Store

Other in India

 * Ajmer Rode, Leela, considered by critics "a landmark volume in modern Punjabi poetry", according to Arundhathi Subramaniam; London, Vancouver: The Rainbird Press, ISBN 0-9690504-9-6
 * Amarjit Chandan, Guthli, Kitab Tirinjan, Lahore; Punjabi-language
 * Chandrakanta Murasingh; Kokborok-language:
 * Lok Chethuwang Lok, Krishnanagar: Akshar Publications
 * Pindi Watawi Pin, Agartala: Hachukni Khorang Publisher
 * Jiban Narah, Suwaranir San, Guwahati, Assam: Jyoti-Prakashan; Assamese-language
 * Mamta Sagar, Nadiya Neerina Teva, Bangalore: Ila Prakashana, Kannada-language
 * K. Siva Reddy, Telugu-language:
 * Varsham, Varsham, Hyderabad: Jhari Poetry Circle
 * Jaitrayatra, Hyderabad: Sivareddy Mithrulu
 * Thangjam Ibopishak Singh, Mayadesh ("The Land of Maya"), Imphal: Writerâ€™s Forum; Manipuri-language poet and academic
 * Vaidehi, pen name of Janaki Srinivasa Murthy, Parijatha, Bangalore: Christ College Kannada Sangha, Kannada-language

Poland

 * Zbigniew Herbert, PodwÃ³jny oddech. Prawdziwa historia nieskoÅ„czonej miÅ‚oÅ›ci. Wiersze dotÄ…d niepublikowane, Gdynia: MaÅ‚gorzata Marchlewska Wydawnictwo (posthumous)
 * Tymoteusz Karpowicz, SÅ‚oje zadrzewne ("Tree Rings"), the work stirred "a literary sensation" in Poland, according to critic Tomasz Tabako WrocÅ‚aw: Wydawnictwo DolnoÅ›lÄ…skie
 * Ewa Lipska, 1999, Krakow: Wydawnictwo literackie
 * Tadeusz RÃ³Å¼ewicz, Matka odchodzi ("Mother Departs"), WrocÅ‚aw: Wydawnictwo DolnoÅ›lÄ…skie
 * Tomasz RÃ³Å¼ycki, Anima, Zielona Sowa, KrakÃ³w
 * JarosÅ‚aw Marek Rymkiewicz, Znak niejasny, baÅ›Å„ pÃ³Å‚Å¼ywa ("The Unclear sign, a Half-living Legend"), Warsaw: PaÅ„stwowy Instytut Wydawniczy
 * Piotr Sommer, Piosenka pasterska
 * Jan Twardowski, MiÅ‚oÅ›Ä‡ miÅ‚oÅ›ci szuka, t. 1-2, Warsaw: PIW, KsiÄ™garnia i Drukarnia ÅšwiÄ™tego Wojciecha
 * Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki, KamieÅ„ peÅ‚en pokarmu. KsiÄ™ga wierszy z lat 1987-1999
 * Adam Zagajewski, Pragnienie, KrakÃ³w: a5

Serbia

 * Dejan StojanoviÄ‡, Sunce sebe gleda (The Sun Watches Itself), KnjiÅ¾evna reÄ, Beograd, 1999

Spain

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

Other languages

 * Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Raoul Schrott, guest editor, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 1999/2000 ("Poetry Yearbook 1999/2000"), publisher: Beck; anthology
 * Lo Fu (poet), also spelled "Luo Fu", Silent Falls the Snow, Chinese (Taiwan)
 * Aharon Shabtai, Politiqa (Hebrew: "Politics")
 * Maria Luisa Spaziani, Italy:
 * Un fresco castagneto
 * La radice del mare
 * Marie Å Å¥astnÃ¡, JarnÃ­m pokrytcÅ¯m ("To Spring Hypocrites"), Czech Republic
 * Yu Jian, Yi mei chuanguo tiankong de dingzi China

Awards and honors

 * Nobel prize: GÃ¼nter 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 GlÃ¼ck, 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 â€“ John Frederick Nims, United States
 * February 22 â€“ William Bronk, 81, United States
 * May 10 â€“ Shel Silverstein, 68, children's poet
 * August 15 â€“ Patricia Beer, 79, British poet and critic
 * September 8 â€“ Moondog, 83, street poet (aka Louis T. Hardin)
 * October 9 â€“ JoÃ£o Cabral de Melo Neto, 79, Brazilian poet and diplomat
 * December 10 â€“ Edward Dorn, 70, American poet associated with the Black Mountain poets
 * date not known:
 * December â€“ 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