# 2016 in poetry

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

## 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 (Requiem)
* March 27 – 90th birthday of Frank O'Hara. (See July 25)
* 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 (d. 2005).
* 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 ("In Dreams Begin Responsibilities")
* July 25 – semicentenary of the death of Frank O'Hara, American poet and key member of the New York School of poetry. (See March 27)
* 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
### 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

#### Anthologies in Canada
### India

* Sudeep Sen, Erotext, Penguin Books, ISBN 978-93-858905-8-1

### New Zealand

* Tusiata Avia, Fale Aiutu – Spirit House, Victoria University Press, ISBN 9781776560646

#### 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:

### 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 (Penguin Modern Poets)
* Brian Bilston, You Took the Last Bus Home
* Rachael Boast, Void Studies
* Vahni Capildeo, Measures of Expatriation (Trinidad-born poet)
* 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 (Dutch-born writer)

#### 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

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

Alphabetical listing by author name
* Jos Charles, Safe Space (Ahsahta Press)
* Matthew and Michael Dickman, Brother (Faber)
* Tyehimba Jess, Olio
* Ben Lerner, No Art (collection incorporating three previous volumes)
* Amanda Lovelace, The Princess Saves Herself in This One
* Michael Palmer, The Laughter of the Sphinx (New Directions)
* Ocean Vuong, Night Sky With Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press)
* C. D. Wright. ShallCross (Copper Canyon Press)

#### 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 (Copper Canyon Press)

#### Poets in The Best American Poetry 2016
## Works published in other languages
### German

* Antony Theodore, Du bist die Seele meins Seins (Ventura Verlag), ISBN 978-39-408533-9-4

## Awards and honors by country

Awards announced this year:

### International

* Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Laureate : Margaret Atwood

### Australia awards and honors

* C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry:
* Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry:

### 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 (English); Normand de Bellefeuille, Le poème est une maison de bord de mer (French)
* Griffin Poetry Prize:
** Canada: Liz Howard, Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent
** International: Norman Dubie, The Quotations of Bone
** Lifetime Recognition Award (presented by the Griffin trustees): 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

* Prix Goncourt de la Poésie:

### India awards and honors

* Sahitya Akademi Award : Papineni Sivasankar for Rajanigandha (Telugu)
* Jnanpith Award : Shankha Ghosh

### New Zealand awards and honors

* Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
* Montana New Zealand Book Awards (poetry category):

### United Kingdom awards and honors

* Cholmondeley Award: Maura Dooley, David Morley, Peter Sansom, Iain Sinclair
* Costa Award (formerly "Whitbread Awards") 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 (for a collection of poems by a poet under the age of 30):
* 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 (United Kingdom and Ireland): Jacob Polley, Jackself
** Shortlist (announced in November 2016): 2016 Short List
* The Times / Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry Translation:
* Wilfred Owen Poetry Award: Carol Ann Duffy

### United States awards and honors

* Arab American Book Award (The George Ellenbogen Poetry 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 (BTBA):
* 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):
** NBA Finalists:
** NBA Longlist:
** NBA Judges:
* National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry:
* The New Criterion Poetry Prize:
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (United States): 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: (Judges: )
* 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: (Judge: )
** Finalists for WCW Award:

## Deaths
### January – June

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* January 1 – Fazu Aliyeva, 83 (born 1932), Russian Avar poet and journalist
* January 6 – Nivaria Tejera, 86 (born 1929), Cuban poet and novelist
* January 9 – Zelimkhan Yaqub, 66 (born 1950), Azerbaijani poet
* January 12 – C. D. Wright, 67 (born 1949), 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 (born 1954), Chicano-American poet who was born in California and grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico
* January 19 – Laurence Lerner, 90 (born 1925), South African-born English-language poet and academic
* February 7 – Andrew Glaze, 90 (born 1920), American poet appointed 11th Poet Laureate of Alabama in 2013
* February 8 – Nida Fazli, 77 (born 1938), Indian poet and lyricist
* February 21 – Akbar Ali, 90 (born 1925), Indian Kannada poet
** Miroslav Nemirov, 54 (born 1961), Russian poet
* March 5 – Rafael Squirru, 90 (born 1925), Argentine author, art critic and poet
* April 13 – Jock Scot, 63 (born 1952), Scottish performance poet
* April 30 – Daniel Berrigan, 94 (born 1921), American Jesuit priest, poet, peace activist and recidivist (one of Catonsville Nine); winner of Lamont Prize for his book of poems Time Without Number
* June 4 – Alexander Glezer [ru], 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. (born 1936).
* June 30 – Sir Geoffrey Hill, 84, English poet

### July – December

* July 1 – Yves Bonnefoy, 93, French poet, essayist, translator, and critic (born 1923)
* September 3 – Peter Oresick, 60, American poet (born 1955)
* September 4 – Novella Matveyeva, 81, Russian poet and singer-songwriter (born 1934)
* October 14 – Brigit Pegeen Kelly, American poet (born 1951)
* October 28 – Jolanda Insana, 79, Italian poet and translator, Viareggio Prize recipient
* December 27 – Anthony Cronin, 92, Irish poet (born 1928)
* December 30 – Judith Ortiz Cofer, 64, Puerto Rican American poet and educator
* December 31 – David Meltzer, 79, American poet and musician