January 29 – Poet Dana Gioia, who had retired early from his career as a corporate executive at General Foods to write full-time, becomes chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States government's arts agency.
February 12 – After First Lady Laura Bush invites a number of poets to the White House for this date, one of them, Sam Hamill, starts organizing a protest in which poets would bring anti-war poems. The conference is postponed, but Hamill organizes a "Poets Against the War" Web site with contributions from others. More than 5,000 poems are contributed, including work by John Balaban, Gregory Orr, Rita Dove, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Adrienne Rich, Stanley Kunitz, Marilyn Nelson, Jay Parini, Jamaica Kincaid, Grace Paley and U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Also on the Web site, W. S. Merwin contributes the statement: "To arrange a war in order to be re-elected outdoes even the means employed in the last presidential election. Mr. Bush and his plans are a greater danger to the United States than Saddam Hussein." The new group, "Poets Against the War", organizes poetry readings for February 12 across the country, demonstrating the strong links between many established poets and left-wing pacifism.[1]
July 2 – In the aftermath of public controversy ignited by state poet laureate Amiri Baraka (b. 1934) reading his incendiary and anti-Semitic poem "Somebody Blew Up America" about the September 11th Attacks, and Baraka's subsequent refusals to resign from the position, New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey signs legislation abolishing the post of Poet Laureate of New Jersey.[2][3]
Early November – Carl Rakosi celebrates his 100th birthday with friends at the San Francisco Public Library.
The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry is opened at Queens University, Belfast, this year. It houses the Heaney Media Archive, a unique record of Heaney's entire oeuvre, as well as a full catalogue of his radio and television presentations.[4] This same year Heaney decides to lodge a substantial portion of his literary archive at Emory University.[5]
Howard Nemerov, The Selected Poems of Howard Nemerov, edited by Daniel Anderson (Swallow/Ohio University) published posthumously); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
Mary Oliver, Owls and Other Fantasies: poems and essays
William Carlos Williams and Louis Zukofsky, The Correspondence of William Carlos Williams & Louis Zukofsky, edited by Barry Ahearn (Wesleyan University Press)
Kirby Wright, Before the City (Lemon Shark Press); winner of the San Diego Book Award for Poetry
L'automne promet, La Différence, coll. Clepsydre, Paris
Les Fruits du corps, La Différence, coll. Clepsydre, Paris
Œuvre poétique, La Différence, coll. Œuvre complète, Paris
Canada, in French
Denise Desautels, La marathonienne, avec estampes de Maria Cronopoulos, Montréal: Éditions de la courte échelle[19]
2003 * Jean Royer, Demeures du silence, Trois-Rivières: Écrits des Forges / Esch-sur-Alzette: Éditions Phi[20]
Germany
Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Michael Krueger, guest editor, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 2004 ("Poetry Yearbook 2004"), publisher: Beck; anthology[21]
Daniel Falb, Daniela Seel, and Andrew Potterof, die räumung dieser parks ("the clearance of these parks"), Kookbooks
Bjoern Kuligk and Jan Wagner, editors, Lyrik von Jetzt ("Poetry of Now"), publisher: Dumont Verlag, featuring poetry by 74 authors born since 1965 (Lyrik von Jetzt 2) followed in 2008
Nepal
Bengali language
Bangladesh
Chandan Chowdhury, Jabe he majhi, diksonnopur, Balaka prakash, Chittagong, Bangladesh
India
In each section, listed in alphabetical order by first name:
Ipswich Poetry Feast: RT Edwards Awards – Open - Other Poetry First Prize, Denis Kevans, Dots Before the Eyes;[45] Chairperson's Encouragement Award, Dan O’Donnell, Sydney's Central Station[46]
^[1]Archived 2008-09-06 at the Wayback Machine Knowles, Joe, "Poets Against the War", In These Times, February 14, 2003, accessed January 25, 2007.
^New Jersey State Legislature. "An Act concerning the State poet laureate and repealing P.L.1999, c.228." from Laws of the State of New Jersey (P.L.2003, c.123). Approved 2 July 2003.
^Pearce, Jeremy. "When poetry seems to matter" in The New York Times (9 February 2003).
^O’Reilly, Elizabeth (either author of the "Critical Perspective" section or of the entire contents of the web page, titled "Carol Ann Duffy"at Contemporary Poets website, retrieved May 4, 2009. 2009-05-08.
^[2] Web page titled "Books by Fenton" at the James Fenton Web site, accessed October 11, 2007
^Web page titled "Jean Royer"Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine at L’Académie des lettres du Québec website (in French), retrieved October 20, 2010
^Web pages titled "Lipska Ewa" (in EnglishArchived 2011-09-16 at the Wayback Machine and PolishArchived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine), at the Instytut Książki ("Books Institute") website, "Bibliography" sections, retrieved March 1, 2010
^Web pages titled "Miłosz Czesław" (both English versionArchived 2011-09-16 at the Wayback Machine [for translated titles] and Polish versionArchived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine [for diacritical marks]), at the Institute Ksiazki ("Book Institute") website, "Bibliography: Poetry" section, retrieved February 26, 2010
^Web page titled Zagajewski Adam"Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine, at the Instytut Ksiazki website (in Polish), "Bibliografia: Poezja:" section, retrieved February 19, 2010
