# 1981 in poetry

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

## Events

* American poet Jane Greer launches Plains Poetry Journal, an advance guard of the New Formalism movement.
* Final issue of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine published in the United States.
* First issue of Conjunctions literary journal published in the United States.
* This year, "the word 'Martianism' comes into use, through the verse of Craig Raine and his associates, presenting a vision of life on Earth as seen by a visiting Martian," the 1982 Britannica Book of the Year reports (p. 504). Some note that "Martianism" is an anagram for one of Raine's associates, Martin Amis.

## 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

* R. Hall, editor, Collins Book of Australian Poetry, anthology
* H. Heseltine, editor, Penguin Book of Modern Australian Verse, anthology
* L. Kramer, Oxford History of Australian Literature (scholarship)
* Jennifer Maiden, For The Left Hand, South Head

### Canada

* Margaret Atwood, True Stories
* Alfred Bailey, Miramichi Lightning: The Collected Poems.
* Roo Borson, A Sad Device, ISBN 0-86495-011-X, American-Canadian
* Louis Dudek, Continuation I. Montréal: Véhicule Press, 1981.
* Louis Dudek, Poems from Atlantis. Ottawa: Golden Dog, 1981.
* Robert Finch, Has and Is.
* Gwen Hauser, Gophers and Swans
* George Johnston:
** Auk Redivivus: Selected Poems
** Rocky Shores.
* Irving Layton, Europe And Other Bad News. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
* Dorothy Livesay, The Raw Edges: Voices from Our Time. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press.
* Gwendolyn MacEwen, Trojan Women. 1981.
* Jay Macpherson, Poems Twice Told: The Boatman & Welcoming Disaster. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
* Anne Marriott:
** This West Shore, Toronto: League of Canadian Poets.
** The Circular Coast: Poems New and Selected, Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press.
* George McWhirter, The Island Man
* P. K. Page, Evening Dance of the Grey Flies, poetry and prose
* Stephen Scobie, A Grand Memory For Forgetting
* Stephen Scobie and Douglas Barbour:
** The Pirates of Pen's Chance: Homolinguistic Translations
** The Maple Laugh Forever: An Anthology of Canadian Comic Poetry (Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers)
* F. R. Scott, The Collected Poems of F. R. Scott. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. Governor General's Award 1981.
* Raymond Souster, Collected Poems of Raymond Souster, Volume Two, 1955-62

### India, in English

* Keki N. Daruwalla, Winter Poems ( Poetry in English ), Bombay: Allied Publishers.
* Jayanta Mahapatra, Relationship ( Poetry in English ), winner of the Central Sahitya Akademi Awardin 1982; Cuttack: Chandrabhaga Society
* Pritish Nandy, editor, Indian Poetry in English Today, New Delhi: Sterling Publication Pvt. Ltd.

### Ireland

* Dermot Bolger, Finglas Lilies
* Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin: The Rose Geranium, Dublin: The Gallery Press
* Anthony Cronin, RMS Titanic
* Seamus Heaney, Selected Poems 1965-1975, Faber & Faber, Northern Ireland native published in the United Kingdom
* Michael Longley, Patchwork, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
* Thomas McCarthy, The Sorrow Garden, Anvil Press, London, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
* Derek Mahon:
** Courtyards in Delft. Gallery Press
** The Hunt by Night
* Christopher Nolan, Dam-Burst of Dreams

### United Kingdom

* Dannie Abse, Way Out in the Centre
* Sir John Betjeman, Church Poems
* Alison Brackenbury, Dreams of Power
* Roberta Berke, Bounds out of Bounds: A Compass for Recent American and British Poetry, Oxford University Press, criticism
* Douglas Dunn, St. Kilda's Parliament
* D. J. Enright, Collected Poems
* James Fenton, Dead Soldiers, Sycamore Press,
* Roy Fisher, Consolidated Comedies
* Thom Gunn, Talbot Road
* Tony Harrison:
** Continuous
** A Kumquat for John Keats
* Seamus Heaney, Selected Poems 1965-1975, Faber & Faber, Northern Ireland native published in the United Kingdom
* John Heath-Stubbs:
** Buzz Buzz
** Editor, Selected Poems of Thomas Gray
* Ted Hughes:
** Under the North Star
** Editor, Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath (see Plath, below)
* Peter Levi, Private Ground
* Liz Lochhead, The Grimm Sisters
* Christopher Logue, Ode to the Dodo
* Michael Longley, Patchwork, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
* Derek Mahon:
** Courtyards in Delft. Gallery Press
** The Hunt by Night
* Andrew Motion, Independence
* Norman Nicholson, Sea to the West
* Brian Patten, Love Poems
* Tom Paulin, The Book of Juniper
* Sylvia Plath, Collected Poems, posthumous, containing 224 poems in chronological order, edited by Ted Hughes; poems by an American, edited by her English husband
* Peter Porter, English Subtitles
* Peter Reading, Tom O'Bedlam's Beauties
* Peter Redgrove, The Apple Broadcast, and Other New Poems
* Carol Rumens, Unplayed Music
* Elizabeth Smart, Ten Poems
* D. M. Thomas, Dreaming in Bronze
* R. S. Thomas, Between Here and Now
* The Faber Book of Christian Verse

### United States

* A.R. Ammons, A Coast of Trees
* John Ashbery, Shadow Train
* Imamu Amiri Baraka, formerly "LeRoi Jones", Reggae or Not!
* Ted Berrigan, In a Blue River
* Robert Bly, The Man in the Black Coat Turns
* Paul Bowles, Next to Nothing: Collected Poems 1926–1977
* Joseph Payne Brennan, Creep To Death
* Joseph Brodsky: Verses on the Winter Campaign 1980, translation by Alan Meyers. – London: Anvil Press Russian-American
* Gwendolyn Brooks:
** Black Love
** To Disembark
* Jared Carter, Work, for the Night Is Coming
* Gregory Corso, Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit, his first collection in 11 years
* Peter Davison, Barn Fever and Other Poems
* Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Endless Life: Selected Poems
* Carolyn Forche, The Country Between Us
* Daryl Hine, Selected Poems
* John Hollander:
** Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse, poetry
** The Figure of Echo
* Janet Kauffman, The Weather Book
* Denise Levertov, Light Up the Cave
* Philip Levine, One for the Rose
* Frederick Morgan, Northbook
* Michael Palmer, Notes For Echo Lake (North Point Press)
* Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, editor, containing 224 poems in chronological order (posthumous)
* Marie Ponsot, Admit Impediment
* Michael Ryan, In Winter (Holt)
* Anne Sexton, The Complete Poems, published posthumously (died 1974)
* Leslie Marmon Silko, Storyteller, short stories, poems and photographs
* Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic a collection of children's poetry
* Gilbert Sorrentino, Selected Poems 1958-1980
* Gerald Stern, The Red Coal
* Robert Stone, A Flag for Sunrise
* Mark Strand, The Planet of Lost Things
* Richard L. Tierney, Collected Poems
* Michael Van Walleghen, More Trouble With the Obvious
* David Wagoner, Landfall
* Rosmarie Waldrop, Nothing Has Changed (Awede Press)
* Diane Wakoski, The Magician's Feastletters
* Robert Penn Warren, Rumor Verified: Poems 1979-1980
* Richard Wilbur, Seven Poems
* Nancy Willard, A Visit to William Blake's Inn, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen

#### Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

* Colin Robert Chase, The Dating of Beowulf
* John Hollander:
** Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse, criticism
** The Figure of Echo, criticism

### Other in English

* Alistair Campbell, Collected Poems, Hazard, ISBN 1-877393-00-2, New Zealand
* C. K. Stead, In the Glass Case, criticism, New Zealand

## Works published in other languages

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

### Denmark

* Inger Christensen, Alphabet (Alfabet), translated into English by Susanna Nied in 2001
* Klaus Høeck:
** Canzone, publisher: Gyldendal
** Sorte sonetter, publisher: Gyldendal
* Søren Ulrik Thomsen, City Slang

### French language
#### Canada, in French

* Pierre Nepveu, editor, La poésie québécoise, des origines à nos jours, en collaboration avec Laurent Mailhot, Montréal: Presses de l'Université du Québec/l'Hexagone, anthology
* Madeleine Ouellette-Michalska, Entre le souffle et l'aine, Saint-Lambert: Le Noroît
* Jean Royer, L'intime soif, Montréal: Éditions du silence

#### France

* Alain Bosquet:
** Poèmes, deux
** Sonnets pour une fin de siècle
* Jean Cayrol, Poésie-Journal
* Michel Deguy, Donnant Donnant
* Emmanuel Hocquard, Une ville ou une petite ile
* Abdellatif Laabi, Sous le bâillon le poème. L'Harmattan, Paris, Moroccan author writing in and published in France
* Charles le Quintrec, La Lumière et l'argile
* Jacques Roubaud, Dors
* Jacques Roubaud and Florence Delay, Merlin l'enchanteur

### German

* Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Rolf Haufs, guest editor, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 3 ("Poetry Yearbook 3"), publisher: Claassen; anthology
* V. Hage, editor, Lyrik für Leser: Deutsche Gedichte der siebziger Jahre, anthology
* Heinz Toni Hamm, Poesie und kommunikative Praxis (scholarship)
* Klaus Weissenberger, editor, Die deutsche Lyrik, 1945-1975 (scholarship)

### Hebrew

* A. Hillel, Devareiy
* Gabriel Preil, a new collection
* Avot Yeshurun, a new collection
* S. Shalom, a new collection
* Yehuda Amichai, Shalva gedola, she'elot uteshuvot
* Robert Whitehill, Efes Makom ("No Place"), published in Israel
* Peretz Banai, a "new poet"
* Esther Ettinger, a "new poet"
* Yosef Yehezkel, a "new poet"
* Aharon Shabtai, Xut ("Thread")
* Mordecai Geldman, a new collection
* Hannah Barzilai, a new collection
* Batsheva Sharif, a new collection
* Michael Senunit, a new collection
* Menachem Ben, a new collection

### Hungary

* György Petri, Örökhétfő

### India

Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
* Hari Daryani, Amar Gitu, a verse translation into Sindhi of (and commentary on) the Gita
* K. G. Sankara Pillai, Kavitha, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: Kerala Kavita; Malayalam-language
* K. Satchidanandan, Peedana Kalam, ("Times of Torment"); Malayalam-language
* Namdeo Dhasal; Marathi-language:
** Tuhi Iyatta Kanchi?, Mumbai: Ambedkara Prabodhini
** Ambedkari Chalwal, Mumbai: Ambedkara Prabodhini
* Nilmani Phookan, Gacia Larkar Kavita, Guwahati, Assam: Bani Prakash, Assamese-language
* Nirendranath Chakravarti, Pagla Ghonti, Kolkata: Dey’s Publishing; Bengali-language
* Parsram Rohra "Nimano", Sindhi-language
* Pritish Nandy and Shakti Chattopadhyay, Pritisa Nandira kabita, Kalikata: Ananda Pabalisarsa
* Rajendra Kishore Panda, Choukathhare Chirakala, Cuttack: Friends Publishers, Oraya-language
* Rituraj, Pul aur Pani, New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan; Hindi-language
* Umashankur Joshi, Gujarati-language:
** Dharavastra
** Saptapadi
* Vinod Kumar Shukla, Vah Aadmi Chala Gaya Naya Garam Coat Pehankar Vichar Ki Tarah, Hapur: Sambhavna Prakashan; Hindi-language
* Udaya Narayana Singh, Anuttaran, Calcutta: Mithila Darshan, Maithili-language
* Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi, Rang-o-Noor (The Colour and the Light) - published by R.K.Sehgal, Bazm-e-Seemab, New Delhi, Urdu

### Italy

* Eugenio Montale, L'opera in versi
* Carlo Betocchi, Poesie del sabato
* Eugenio Montale, Altri verse e poesie disperse (originally published in 1980 under the title L'opera in versi), Milan: Arnaldo Mondadore Editore; Italy
* Maria Luisa Spaziani, Geometria del disordine
* Giovanni Guidici, Il ristorante dei morti
* Amelia Rosselli:
** Primi scritti 1952-1965
** Impromptu

### Poland

* Stanisław Barańczak, Ksiazki najgorsze 1975-1980 ("The Worst Books"), criticism; Kraków: KOS
* T. Kostkiewiczowa and Z. Goliński, editors, Swiat polprawiac—zuchwate rzemiosto, anthology
* Ryszard Krynicki, Niewiele więcej. Wiersze z notatnika 78-79 ("Not Much More. Poems From the Notebook 78-79"); Kraków: Cracowska Oficyna Studentow
* Ewa Lipska, Poezje wybrane ("Selected Poems"), Warszawa: LSW
* Bronisław Maj, Taka wolność. Wiersze z lat 1971-1975 ("Such Freedom: Poems, 1971-1975"); Warsaw: MAW
* Piotr Sommer, Przed snem

### Portuguese language
#### Portugal

* Herberto Helder, Poesia Toda
* A. Pinheiro Torre, O Ressentimento dum Ocidental

#### Brazil

* Carlos Drummond de Andrade, A paixão medida
* João Cabral de Melo Neto, A escola das faces
* Adélia Prado, Terra de Santa Cruz
* Mário da Silva, several volumes of poetry

### Spanish language
#### Spain

* Antonio Abad, Misericor de mí
* Matilde Camus:
** He seguido tus huellas ("I have followed your footprints")
** Testigo de tu marcha ("Witness of your departure")
* Concha Lagos, Teoría de la inseguridad
* Vincente Presa, Teoría de los límites
* Pablo Virumbrales, Cancionero del vaso

#### Latin America

* Mario Benedetti, Viento del exilio ("Air From Exile"), Uruguay

### Swedish

* Karl Vennberg, Bilder I-XXVI
* Goran Sonnevi, Små klanger; en rőst
* Eva Runefelt, Augusti

### Yiddish
#### Criticism, scholarship and biography in Yiddish

* Itskhak Janoswicz, Avrom Sutzkever, His Poetry and Prose
* The Lexicon of Modern Yiddish Literature, the eighth and final volume
* Khaim Leyb Fuks, Biographical Dictionary of Hebrew and Yiddish Writers in Canada

### Other

* Chen Kehua, Qijing shaonian ("Whale Boy") Chinese (Taiwan)
* Rita Kelly, Dialann sa Díseart, Ireland
* Luo Fu, Wound of Time, Chinese (Taiwan)
* Stein Mehren, Den usynlige regnbuen, Norway
* Alexander Mezhirov, Selected Works, two volumes, Russia, Soviet Union
* Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, An dealg Droighin, including "Sceala" and "Failte Bheal na Sionna don Iasc", Gaelic-language, Ireland
* Nizar Qabbani, Syrian poet writing in Arabic:
** I Write the History of Woman Like So
** The Lover's Dictionary

## Awards and honors
### Australia

* Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Alan Gould, Astral Sea

### Canada

* Gerald Lampert Award: Elizabeth Allan, The Shored Up House
* 1981 Governor General's Awards: F. R. Scott, The Collected Poems of F. R. Scott (English); Michel Beaulieu, Visages (French)
* Pat Lowther Award: M. Travis Lane, Divinations and Short Poems 1973–1978
* Prix Émile-Nelligan: Jean-Yves Collette, La Mort d’André Breton

### United Kingdom

* Cholmondeley Award: Roy Fisher, Robert Garioch, Charles Boyle
* Eric Gregory Award: Alan Jenkins, Simon Rae, Marion Lomax, Philip Gross, Kathleen Jamie, Mark Abley, Roger Crowley, Ian Gregson
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: D. J. Enright
* Hawthornden Prize: Christopher Reid

### United States

* Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Kathy Callaway, Heart of the Garfish
* AML Award for poetry to Robert A. Rees for "Gilead"
* Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Frank Bidart, "The War of Vaslav Nijinsky"
* Bollingen Prize (United States): Howard Nemerov and May Swenson
* Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Maxine Kumin appointed this year.
* MacArthur Fellowships: A.R. Ammons, Joseph Brodsky, Robert Penn Warren
* National Book Award for poetry (United States): Lisel Mueller, The Need to Hold Still
* National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry: A.R. Ammons, A Coast of Trees (Norton)
* Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress: Maxine Kumin appointed
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Schuyler: The Morning of the Poem
* Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Richard Hugo
* Walt Whitman Award: Alberto Ríos, Whispering to Fool the Wind (Sheep Meadow Press) Judge: Donald Justice

## Births

* April 6 – Marie Šťastná, Czech poet
* Emily Berry, English poet
* Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu, Eritrean poet
* Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Irish-language poet

## Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* January 29 – John Glassco (born 1909), Canadian poet, memoirist and novelist
* February 23 – Nan Shepherd (born 1893), Scottish novelist and poet
* March 15 – Horiguchi Daigaku 堀口 大学 (born 1892), Japanese, Taishō and Shōwa period poet and translator of French literature; a member of the Shinshisha ("The New Poetry Society"); accompanied his father on overseas diplomatic postings
* April 25 – Takis Sinopoulos (born 1917), Greek
* April 26 – Robert Garioch (born 1909), Scots language Scottish poet and translator
* April 29 – Leonard Mann (born 1895), Australian
* April 30 – Peter Huchel (born 1903), German
* May 8 – Uri Zvi Grinberg (born 1896), Jewish
* May 31 – Falguni Ray (born 1945), Bengali poet and youngest member of Hungryalism movement
* August 19 – Badawi al-Jabal (born 1905 or 1907), Syrian Arab
* August 27 – James Larkin Pearson (born 1879), American poet, newspaper publisher; North Carolina Poet Laureate, 1953–1981
* September 12 – Eugenio Montale, 85, Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975
* October 26 – Marie Uguay, 26 (born 1955), French-Canadian), from bone cancer
* October 30 – Georges Brassens (born 1921), French singer-songwriter and poet
* November 14 – Anton Podbevšek (born 1898), Slovene avant-garde poet
* Also:
** Adolf Beiss (born 1900), German
** Ada Verdun Howell (born 1902), Australian