# 1978 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

* Bloodaxe Books is established by Neil Astley in Newcastle upon Tyne, England
* L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine, edited by Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein, is first published in the United States
* Stevie, a film based on a play about the poet Stevie Smith is released

## 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:

### Canada

* Margaret Avison, Sunblue
* Earle Birney, Fall by Fury & Other Makings. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
* Dionne Brand, Fore Day Morning: Poems
* William Wilfred Campbell, Vapour and Blue: Souster selects Campbell. Raymond Souster ed. Paget Press.
* Leonard Cohen, Death of a Lady's Man
* Don Domanski, Heaven
* Phyllis Gotlieb, The Works: Collected Poems
* George Benson Johnston, Taking a Grip: Poems 1971-78.
* Irving Layton, The Love Poems of Irving Layton. Toronto: Canadian Fine Editions.
* Irving Layton, The Tightrope Dancer. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
* Dennis Lee, The Gods. Vancouver: Kanchenjunga Press.
* Pat MacKay, The Pat Lowther Poem
* Sean O'Huigin, The Inks and the Pencils and the Looking Back
* Michael Ondaatje, Elimination Dance/La danse eliminatoire, Ilderton: Nairn Coldstream; revised edition, Brick, 1980
* Craig Powell, Rehearsal for Dancers
* Al Purdy, Being Alive
* Joe Rosenblatt, Loosely Tied Hands. Black Moss.
* A.J.M. Smith The Classic Shade: Selected Poems
* Peter Trower, Bush Poems
* Sean Virgo, Deathwatch on Skidegate Narrows
* Miriam Waddington, Mister Never
* Wilfred Watson, I Begin With Counting
* George Woodcock:
** The Kestrel and Other Poems of Past and Present. Sunderland, Durham: Coelfrith Press, Canada
** Thomas Merton, Monk and Poet: A Critical Study, Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, and Seattle: University of Washington Press, criticism

### India in English

* K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Microcosmographia Poetica, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India .
* Ketaki Kushari Dyson, Sap-wood, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India.
* Margaret Chatterjee, The Sound of Wings, New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann

### Ireland

* Seamus Heaney, After Summer, Gallery Press, Northern Ireland poet published in Dublin
* Thomas McCarthy, The First Convention, including "State Funeral" Dublin: Dolmen Press
* Tom Paulin, Personal Column, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom

### New Zealand

* Alan Brunton, Oh Ravachol, Red Mole

### United Kingdom

* Peter Ackroyd, Country Life
* Al Alvarez, Autumn to Autumn and Selected Poems 1953–1976
* Gillian Clarke, The Sundial, Welsh
* D. J. Enright, Paradise Illustrated
* Gavin Ewart, All My Little Ones (see also More Little Ones 1982)
* James Fenton, A Vacant Possession, poems, TNR Publications
* Roy Fisher, The Thing About Joe Sullivan
* Geoffrey Grigson, The Fiesta and Other Poems
* Tony Harrison, From the School of Eloquence, and Other Poems
* Seamus Heaney, After Summer, Gallery Press, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom
* John Heath-Stubbs, The Watchman's Flute
* Geoffrey Hill, Tenebrae, including the sonnet sequences "Lachrimae" and "An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England"
* Ted Hughes:
** Cave Birds
** Moon-Bells, and Other Poems, for children
* A. Norman Jeffares, W. B. Yeats: Man And Poet, United Kingdom, biography, revision of the first edition of 1948
* Jenny Joseph, The Thinking Heart
* Philip Larkin, Femmes Damnees
* Liz Lochhead, Islands
* George MacBeth, Buying a Heart (first published in the United States 1977)
* Hugh MacDiarmid, pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve (died September 9), Collected Poems 1920–1976, two volumes (posthumous)
* John Montague, The Great Cloak
* Andrew Motion, The Pleasure Steamers
* Norman Nicholson, The Shadow of Black Combe
* Tom Paulin, Personal Column, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom
* Craig Raine, The Onion, Memory
* Tom Rawling, A Sort of Killing
* Carol Rumens, A Necklace of Mirrors
* Jon Stallworthy, A Familiar Tree
* D. M. Thomas, The Honeymoon Voyage
* R. S. Thomas, Frequencies
* Jeffrey Wainwright, Heart's Desire

### United States

* Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise
* Paul Blackburn (died 1971), translator, Proensa: An Anthology of Troubadour Poetry
* Joseph Payne Brennan, As Evening Advances (Crystal Visions Press)
* Robert Creeley:
** Hello
** Later
* Ed Dorn:
** Hello, La Jolla, Wingbow Press, ISBN 978-0-914728-24-5
** Selected Poems, edited by Donald Allen, Grey Fox Press
* Cynthia Dubin Edelberg, Robert Creeley's Poetry: A Critical Introduction, Albuquerque, New Mexico (criticism)
* Nikki Giovanni, Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day
* John Hollander, Spectral Emanations
* bell hooks, And There We Wept: poems
* James McMichael, The Lover’s Familiar
* James Merrill, Mirabell: Books of Number
* W. S. Merwin, Feathers From the Hill, Iowa City, Iowa: Windhover
* Eugenio Montale, The Storm & Other Poems, translated by Charles Wright into English from the original Italian; Oberlin College Press, ISBN 0-932440-01-0
* Mary Oliver:
** The Night Traveler
** Twelve Moons
* George Oppen, Primitive (Black Sparrow Press)
* Mary Oppen (George Oppen's wife), Meaning a Life, a memoir (Black Sparrow Press)
* Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language
* Peter Seaton, Agreement (New York: Asylum's Press and Eclipse Archive)
* Patti Smith, Babel
* William Stafford, Stories That Could Be True
* Mark Strand, The Late Hour, Canadian native living in and published in the United States
* Rosmarie Waldrop, The Road Is Everywhere or Stop This Body (Open Places)
* James Wright, To a Blossoming Pear Tree
* Louis Zukofsky:
** A (University of California Press)
** 80 Flowers

### Other in English

* Jennifer Maiden, Birthstones, Angus & Robertson, Australia

## Works 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:

### Arabic language

* Nazir Qabbani, Syrian:
** I Love You, and the Rest is to Come
** To Beirut the Feminine, With My Love
** May You Be My Love For Another Year

### French language
#### France

* Noureddine Aba, Gazelle au petit matin, Algerian writer
* Yves Bonnefoy, Poèmes (1947–1975)
* Jean-Pierre Faye, Verres
* Jean Daive, Le cri-cerveau
* Philippe Denis, Revif
* Emmanuel Hocquard, Les Dernieres nouvelles de l'expédition sont datées du 15 février 17 [...]
* Edmond Jabès, Le Soupçon Le Désert
* Joyce Mansour, Faire Signe au machiniste
* Robert Marteau, Traité du blanc et des tientures
* Yves Martin, Je fais bouillir mon vin
* Claude Royet-Journoud, La Notion d'obstacle
* Jean Max Tixier, editor, Poètes de sud, anthology; publisher: Rijois
* Alain Veinstein, Vers l'absence de soutien

#### Canada

* Marcel Bélanger:
** Fragments paniques
** Infranoir
* Normand de Bellefeuille, La Belle Conduite

### German language
#### Germany

* Alfred Andersch, Empōrt euch der Himmel ist blau
* Ingeborg Bachmann, works, in a four-volume edition
* Konrad Beyer, Gesamtwerk
* Nicolas Born, Gedichte 1967-1978
* Erich Fried, Die bunten Getûme
* J. Hans, U. Herms, and R. Thenior, Lyrik-Katalog Bundesrepublik, anthology
* Thomas Mann, Tagebücher 1933-1934
* Johannes Schenk [de], Zittern
* Kurt Tucholsky, Die Q-Tagebücher 1934-1935

##### Criticism, scholarship and biography in Germany

* Walter Hinck, Von Heine zu Brecht. Lyrik im Geschichtsprozess (scholarship)
* Walter Hinderer, editor, Gesch. der politschen Lyrik in Deutschland, Stuttgart (scholarship)
* William H. Rey, Poesie der Antipoesie: Moderne deutsche Lyrik Genesis, Theorie, Struktur, Heidelberg, ISBN 3-7988-0520-2 (scholarship)

### Hebrew language

* D. Avidan, a poetry book
* P. Sadeh, a poetry book
* E. Megged, a poetry book
* M. Ben-Shaul, a poetry book
* Zelda (poet), a poetry book

### India

Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
* Buddhidhari Singha, Smrti-Sahasri, a kavya, Maithili-language
* Debarati Mitra, Jubaker Snan, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers, Kolkata; Bengali-language
* Dilip Chitre, Kavitenantarchya Kavita, Vacha Prakashan, Aurangabad; Marathi-language
* Jaya Mehta, Venetian Blind; Indian poet writing in Gujarati
* K. Satchidanandan, Indian Sketchukal ("Indian Sketches"); Malayalam-language
* K. Siva Reddy, Netra Dhanussu, Hyderabad: Jhari Poetry Circle, Telugu-language
* Nirendranath Chakravarti, Aaj Shokaaley, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers; Bengali-language
* Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Moe-n jo dado poems read on cassette; Gujarati-language
* Varavara Rao (better known as "VV"), Swechcha or Svecha ("Freedom"), Hyderabad: Yuga Prachuranalu; Telugu-language

### Italy

* Mario Luzi, Al Fuoco della controversia
* Leonardo Sinisgalli, Dimenticatoio
* Eugenio Montale, Tutte le poesie
* Franco Fortini, Una volta per sempre, poesie 1938-1973

### Norway

* Hans Børli, Dag og Drøm: Dikt i utvalg ("Day and Dream") (Norway)
* Paal Brekke, Dikt 1949-1722 (Norway)
* Halldis Moren Vesaas, Dikt i samling (Norway)

### Poland

* Stanisław Barańczak, Sztuczne oddychanie ("Artificial Respiration"), London: Aneks
* Ryszard Krynicki, Nasze zycie rośnie. Wiersze ("Our Life is Growing: Poems"); Paris: Instytut Literacki
* Ewa Lipska, Piaty wybor wierszy ("Fifth Collection of Verse"); Warsaw: Czytelnik
* Z. Jarosiński and H. Zawarska, editors, Antologia polskiego futuryzmu i Nowej Sztuki, anthology
* Adam Zagajewski, List ("A Letter"), Poznañ: Od Nowa

### Portuguese language

* Rui Knopfli, O Escriba Acocorado (Portugal)
* Waldimir Diniz, Até o 8° round (Brazilian)
* Cassiano Nunes, Madrugada (Brazilian)
* Accioly Lopes, his first volume of verse (Brazilian)

### Spanish language
#### Spain

* Eduardo Haro Ibars, Perdiddas blancas
* Féliz de Asúa, Pasar y siete canciones (he also published a novel this year, Les lecciones suspendidas)
* Luis Antonio de Villena, Viaje a Bizancio
* Pere Gimferrer, a collection of his verse translated from Catalan to Castilian by the author
* García Hortelano, editor, anthology of verse by the Generation of the '50s, including Caballero Bonald, Ángel González, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Carlos Barral

#### Latin America

* Alfonso Calderón, Poemas para Clavecin ("Poems for Harpsichord"), Chile
* Arturo Corcuera, Los Amantes, Peru
* Oscar Hahn, Arte de morir
* Pablo Neruda (died 1973), Para nacer he nacido, previously unpublished diary entries, memoirs and other writings, put out by his widow, Matilde de Neruda and Miguel Otero Silva (of Venezuela)
* Luis Alberto Spinetta, Guitarra Negra (Black Guitar) - first edition of the only book written by the singer Luis Alberto Spinetta of Argentina.

### Sweden

* Tomas Tranströmer, Sanningsbarriāren
* Tobias Berggren, Bergsmusik
* Eva Runefelt, Aldriga och barnsliga trakter

### Yiddish

* Shoyme Roitman, a poetry book
* Rachel Boymvol, a poetry book
* Jacob Shargel, a poetry book
* Hayyim Plotkin, a poetry book

### Other

* Odysseus Elytis, Μαρία Νεφέλη ("Maria Nefeli"), Greece
* Joseph Brodsky, editor of two expatriate Russian poetry anthologies:
** Konets prekrasnoy epokh: Stikhotvoreniya 1964-71
** Chast' rechi: Stkikhotvoreniya 1972-76
* Klaus Høeck, Denmark:
** Skygger, publisher: Swing
** Topia eller Che Guevara
* Seán Ó Ríordáin, Tar éis mo Bháis ("After my Death"), Ireland
* Sjón, Sýnir ("Visions"), Iceland

## Awards and honors
### Canada

* See 1978 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

### United Kingdom

* Cholmondeley Award: Christopher Hope, Leslie Norris, Peter Reading, D. M. Thomas, R. S. Thomas
* Eric Gregory Award: Ciaran Carson, Peter Denman, Christopher Reid, Paul Wilkins, Martyn A. Ford, James Sutherland-Smith

### United States

* AML Award for "Poetry Honorable Mention" Clinton F. Larson for "The Western World " and Marden J. Clark for "God's Plenty" and Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown for "Grandmother"
* Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): William Meredith appointed this year.
* National Book Award for Poetry: Howard Nemerov, The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Howard Nemerov, The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
* Walt Whitman Award: Karen Snow, Wonders
* Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Josephine Miles

### France

* Guillaume Apollinaire prize: Jean-Claude Renard, La Lumière du silence

### Other

* Cuba: Casa de las Américas prize for poetry: Claribel Alegria of El Salvador, for Sobrevivo
* Soviet Union: USSR State Prize: Andrei Voznesensky

## Births

* June 7 – Jesse Ball, American poet and writer
* October 24 – Kei Miller, Jamaican-born poet and writer
* September 4 – Natalie Diaz, Mojave American poet, language activist, professional basketball player and educator
* Also
** Jen Hadfield, English poet and visual artist
** J. O. Morgan, Scottish poet

## Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* January 20 – Gilbert Highet, 71, Scottish-American classicist, academic, writer, intellectual, critic and literary historian, of cancer
* February 2 – G. Sankara Kurup, 76 (born 1901), Indian Malayalam-language poet
* February 22 – Phyllis McGinley, 72 (born 1905), American children's story writer and poet
* March 19 – Faith Baldwin, 84, American romantic novelist and poet
* March 22 – John Hall Wheelock, 91, American poet
* April 14 – F. R. Leavis, 82, English literary critic
* April 16 – Elizabeth Rebecca Ward, 97, English versifier
* April 28 – Walter Fischer, 77, Austrian medical doctor, journalist, radio broadcaster, translator, poet, anti-fascist resistance fighter and Communist Party official
* May 1 – Sylvia Townsend Warner, 84, English novelist and poet
* May 12 – Louis Zukofsky, 74, American modernist poet
* July 2 – Aris Alexandrou, 56, Greek poet
* June 3 – Frank Stanford, 29, American poet, by suicide
* September 9 – Hugh MacDiarmid, 86, Scottish poet
* Also:
** Sankara Kurup (born 1901), Indian, Malayalam-language poet
** P. Kunhiraman Nair (born 1909), Indian, Malayalam-language poet
** J. Rodolfo Wilcock (born 1919), Argentine author and poet