Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events
January – Five fragments of nine poems, some previously unknown, by Greek poet Sappho are discovered on ancient papyrus, including the Brothers Poem.[1] This news is being reported by multiple news sources by the end of the month.[2][3][4]
January 29 – Hashem Shabani, an Arab–Iranian poet,[7] was executed by hanging in an unidentified Iranian prison[8] after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani approved the sentences.[9][10]
March 7 – For the first time ever, all five poets laureate of the British Isles are women and for the first time all five perform together at the Women of the World festival in London on the eve of International Women's Day.[11][12] The poets are: Carol Ann Duffy (England), Liz Lochhead (Scotland), Gillian Clarke (Wales), Paula Meehan (Ireland), and Sinéad Morrissey (Northern Ireland).[13]
March 19 – PEN International comes out with an action appeal protesting the two-year prison sentence handed down to Egyptian poet Omar Hazek. PEN states that this poet has been "imprisoned for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and assembly." Hazek, who has won several poetry awards and is a former employee of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, has been held in custody since early December 2013.[14][15]
April 22 – The Writers' Trust of Canada announces the new Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize, a new Canadian literary award to honour the body of work of a Canadian poet who has published at least three volumes of poetry.[16] The award is slated to be presented for the first time in November.[16]
May 22 – The translation of Beowulf by J. R. R. Tolkien, which he had first completed in 1926, is published in England (after nearly 90 years) as Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary[17] (his essay On Translating Beowulf had been published in 1940).
August 22 – New Zealand celebrates its own National Poetry Day, now in its 17th year, with more than 60 events held around the country. Included among the various readings and contests are events sponsoring the current New Zealand Poet Laureate, Vincent O’Sullivan, who reads poetry in Dunedin, and 2007–2009 Poet Laureate, Michele Leggott, who MCs the annual Auckland Library event.[19]
Anniversaries
January 28 – On this day 75 years ago, W. B. Yeats died in Menton, France.[20]
February 21 – Christopher Marlowe's 450th birthday celebrated (may or may not be his birthday).[20]
October 15 [O.S. October 3] 1814 – On this day 200 years ago Mikhail Lermontov was born; he is sometimes referred to as "Russia's second-greatest poet."[26]
October 25 – On this day 100 years ago, American poet John Berryman (given name:John Allyn Smith) was born.
October 27 – On this day 100 years ago, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea.[20]
Why Poetry Sucks: Humorous Avant-Garde and Post-Avant English Canadian Poetry, Jonathan Ball & Ryan Fitzpatrick, editors. (Insomniac Press) ISBN9781554831227
Under the Mulberry Tree: poems for & about Raymond Souster, James Deahl, editor. (Quattro Books) ISBN9781927443637[27]
Kendra DeColo, Thieves in the Afterlife (Saturnalia Books)
Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, Endarkment: Selected Poems, edited by Eugene Ostashevsky, translated by Lyn Hejinian, Genya Turovskaya, Eugene Ostashevsky, Bela Shayevich, Jacob Edmund & Elena Balashova (Wesleyan University)
Shortlist: Colette Bryce, The Whole & Rain-domed Universe; Lavinia Greenlaw, A Double Sorrow: Troilus and Criseyde; Kei Miller, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion
English Association's Fellows' Poetry Prizes:
Eric Gregory Award (for a collection of poems by a poet under the age of 30):
AML Award for Poetry awarded to Kristen Eliason for Picture Dictionary
Finalists: Kimberly Johnson, Uncommon Prayer and Made Flesh: Sacrament and Poetics in Post-Reformation England; Laura Stott, In the Museum of Coming and Going
March 12 – Bill Knott, 74, (born 1940), U. S. American poet who published more than a dozen books of poetry between his first book in 1968 and his death[55]
March 30 – Colleen Lookingbill, 63 (born 1950), U. S. American who edited, with Elizabeth Robinson, the EtherDome Chapbook series for 12 years, which published emerging women poets. She also co-edited Instance Press[56][57][58]
April 29 – Russell Edson, 76-86 (born 1935), American poet, novelist, writer and illustrator[65]
May 10 – Hillary Gravendyk, 35 (born 1979), American poet and twice winner of the Eisner Prize in Poetry and author of Harm (Omnidawn, 2012)[66][67] She lived with Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and had a double lung transplant five years before her death.[68]
November 5 – Abdelwahab Meddeb, 68 (born 1946), Tunisian-born poet, Islamic scholar, essayist, novelist; lung cancer[91][92]
November 13 – Manoel de Barros, 97 (born 1916), Brazilian poet who, before his death, considered by many authors, critics and readers to be Brazil's greatest living poet[93]
^Citation reads: "for a compelling collection of poems that examine human consciousness, from birth to dementia, in a voice that is by turns witty and grave, compassionate and remorseless."
^Citation reads: "for a book of masterly poems that capture the inner experience of a man in mid-life who is troubled by mortality and the passage of time, traditional themes that are made to feel new."
^Citation reads: "foran imaginative work by a commanding poet who engages the history and mythology of larger-than-life boxer Jack Johnson"