2003 in poetry

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in?=in poetry
in2?=in literature
cp=20th century
c=21st century
cf=22nd century

yp1=2000
yp2=2001
yp3=2002
year=2003
ya1=2004
ya2=2005
ya3=2006
dp3=1970s
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Events

* 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.
* After First Lady Laura Bush invited a number of poets to the White House, one of them, Sam Hamill started organizing a protest in which poets would bring anti-war poems. The February 12 conference was postponed, but Hamill organized a "Poets Against the War" Web site with contributions from others. More than 5,000 poems were 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 even U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Also on the Web site, W.S. Merwin contributed the highly emotional 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", organized poetry readings for February 12 across the country, demonstrating the strong links between many established poets and left-wing pacifism. [ [http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/49/] Knowles, Joe, "Poets Against the War", "In These Times", February 14, 2003, accessed January 25, 2007]
* Early November — Carl Rakosi celebrates his 100th birthday with friends at the San Francisco Public Library.
* "", an American little magazine, is founded by poet John Most.

Works published

=Australia=

* Pam Brown, "Dear Deliria (New & Selected Poems)," winner of the 2004 NSW Premier’s Award for Poetry. [ [http://australia.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=685 Poetry International Web - Pam Brown ] ]
* Alison Croggon, "The Common Flesh: Poems 1980-2002", Arc, ISBN 1900072726
* Geoff Page, editor "The Indigo Book of Modern Australian Sonnets", Indigo (anthology)
* Chris Wallace-Crabbe, "A Representative Human", Brunswick: Gungurru Press

=Canada=

* Anne Compton, "Opening the Island"
* Tim Lilburn, "Kill-site", winner of the Governor General’s Award
* Don McKay, "Varves", a chapbook
* Anne Simpson "Loop", shortlisted for the 2003 Governor General's Award, winner of the 2004 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, ISBN 0-7710-8075-1

New Zealand

* Jenny Bornholdt, "Summer"
* Robin Hyde, "Young Knowledge: the poems of Robin Hyde", edited and introduced by Michele Leggott, Auckland: Auckland University Press, posthumous

Poets in "Best New Zealand Poems"

Poems from these 25 poet s were selected by Elizabeth Smither for "Best New Zealand Poems 2002", published online this year:

*Jenny Bornholdt
*Diana Bridge
*Rachel Bush
*Kate Camp
*Glen Colqu houn
*Murray Edmond
*Paula Green
*Michael Harlow
*David Howard
*Andrew Johnston
*Anne Kennedy
*Michele Leggott
*Emma Neale
*Bob Orr
*Chris Orsman
*Vincent O'Sullivan
*Bill Sewell
*Anna Smaill
*Kendrick Smithyman
*C.K. Stead
*Robert Sullivan
*Jo Thorpe
*Rae Varcoe
*Louise Wrightson
*Sonja Yelich

=United Kingdom=

* Ciarán Carson: "Breaking News", Gallery Press, Wake Forest University Press, awarded the 2003 Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection
* James Fenton: "The Love Bomb", verse written as a libretto for a composer who rejected it; Penguin / Faber and Faber [http://www.jamesfenton.com/books/] Web page titled "Books by Fenton" at the James Fenton Web site, accessed October 11, 2007]
* Lavinia Greenlaw, "Minsk", Faber and Faber
* Peter Redgrove, "Sheen"
* Simawe, Saadi, editor, "Iraqi Poetry Today", London: King's College, ISBN 0-9533824-6-X

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom

* R. F. Foster, "W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. II: The Arch-Poet 1915–1939", Oxford University Press ISBN 0198184654
* Matthew Campbell, editor, "The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry", Cambridge University Press

United States

* Dick Allen, "The Day Before: New Poems" (Sarabande Books)
* Charles Bukowski, "sifting through the madness for the Word, the line, the way" (Ecco)
* Henri Cole, "Middle Earth" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); a "New York Times" "notable book of the year"
* Cid Corman, "Now/Now"
* Annie Finch, "Calendars"
* John Hollander, "Picture Window"
* Wi lliam Logan, "Macbeth in Venice"
* 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 a nd Other Fantasies: poems and essays"
* Kenneth Rexroth, "Complete Poems" (posthumous}
* Margaret Reynolds, "The Sappho History" (scholarship), Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 9780333971703 ISBN-10: 0-333-97170-1
* C. J. Sage, editor, "And We The Creatures: Fifty-one Contemporary American Poets on Animal Rights and Appreciation" (Dream Horse Press)
* Charles Simic, "The Voice at 3:00 a.m.: Selected Late & New Poems" (Harvest Books)(Harcourt)); a "New York Times" "notable book of the year"
* Tracy K. Smith, "The Body’s Question" won the 2002 Cave Canem Prize for best first book by an African American poet (Graywolf Press)
* Rosmarie Waldrop, "Love, Like Pronouns" (Omnidawn Publishing)
* 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

Poets included in "The Best American Poetry 2003"

The 75 poets included in "The Best American Poetry 2003", edited by David Lehman, co-edited this year by Yusef Komunyakaa:
*Jonathan Aaron
*Beth Anderson
*Nin Andrews
*Wendell Berry
*Frank Bidart
*Diann Blakely
*Bruce Bond
*Catherine Bowman
*Rosemary Catacalos
*Joshua Clover
*Billy Collins
*Michael S. Collins
*Carl Dennis
*Susan Dickman
*Rita Dove
*Stephen Dunn
*Stuart Dybek
*Charles Fort
*James Galvin
*Amy Gerstler
*Louise Glück
*Michael Goldman
*Ray Gonzalez
*Linda Gregg
*Mark Halliday
*Michael S. Harper
*Matthea Harvey
*George V. Higgins
*Edward Hirsch
*Tony Hoagland
*Richard Howard
*Rodney Jones
*Joy Katz
*Brigit Pegeen Kelly
*Galway Kinnell
*Carolyn Kizer
*Jennifer L. Knox
*Kenneth Koch
*John Koethe
*Ted Kooser
*Philip Levine
*J. D. McClatchy
*W. S. Merwin
*Stanley Moss
*Heather Moss
*Paul Muldoon
*Peggy Munson
*Marilyn Nelson
*Daniel Nester
*Naomi Shihab Nye
*Ishle Yi Park
*Robert Pinsky
*Kevin Prufer
*Ed Roberson
*Vijay Seshadri
*Myra Shapiro
*Alan Shapiro
*Bruce Smith
*Charlie Smith
*Maura Stanton
*Ruth Stone
*James Tate
*William Tremblay
*Natasha Trethewey
*David Wagoner
*Ronald Wallace
*Lewis Warsh
*Susan Wheeler
*Richard Wilbur
*C. K. Williams
*Terence Winch
*David Wojahn
*Robert Wrigley
*Anna Ziegler
*Ahmos Zu-Bolton II

Other

* Wisława Szymborska: "Rymowanki dla dużych dzieci" ("Rhymes for Big Kids"), Poland

Awards and honors

Australia

* C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Emma Lew, "Anything the Landlord Touches"
* Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize: "Mangroves" by Laurie Duggan
* Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Jill Jones, "Screens Jets Heaven"

=Canada=

* Gerald Lampert Award
* Archibald Lampman Award
* Atlantic Poetry Prize
* Giller Prize: M.G. Vassanji - "The In-Between World of Vikram Lall"
* See 2003 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of the winners of those awards.
* Griffin Poetry Prize Canada: Margaret Avison, "Concrete and Wild Carrot"; International, in the English Language: Paul Muldoon, "Moy sand and gravel"
* Pat Lowther Award
* Prix Alain-Grandbois
* Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award

New Zealand

* Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
* Montana New Zealand Book Awards First-book award for poetry: Kay McKenzie Cooke, "Feeding the Dogs", University of Otago Press

=United Kingdom=

* Cholmondeley Award: Ciaran Carson, Michael Donaghy, Lavinia Greenlaw, Jackie Kay
* Eric Gregory Award: Jen Hadfield, Zoe Brigley, Paul Batchelor, Olivia Cole, Sasha Dugdale, Anna Woodford
* Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection: Ciaran Carson, "Breaking News" (The Gallery Press); Best First Collection): A. B. Jackson, "Fire Stations" (Anvil Press)
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: U. A. Fanthorpe
* T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Don Paterson, "Landing Light"
* Whitbread Award for poetry: Mark Haddon, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"

United States

* Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to David Shumate for "High Water Mark"
* American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, W.S. Merwin
* Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Julie Sheehan for “Brown-headed Cow Birds”
* Bollingen Prize for Poetry, Adrienne Rich
* Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Brian Teare, "The Room Where I Was Born"
* Frost Medal: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
* National Book Award for poetry: C.K. Williams, "The Singing"
* Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress: Louise Glück appointed
* Pulitzer Prize for poetry (United States): Paul Muldoon, "Moy Sand and Gravel"
* Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award: George T. Wright
* Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Linda Pastan
* Wallace Stevens Award: Richard Wilbur
* William Carlos Williams Award: Gary Young, "No Other Life", Judge: Angela Jackson
* Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Li-Young Lee

=Deaths=

*September 3 – Alan Dugan (born 1923), American poet
*November 3 – Rasul Gamzatov, Avarian/Soviet/Russian poet, called the "People's poet of Dagestan" (aged 80)
*November 27 – Talal al-Rasheed, Saudi poet (aged 41?)
*December 12 – Fadwa Toukan, 86, Palestinian poet
*December 23 – John Newlove (born 1923), Canadian poet
* Date not known – Heinz Piontek (born 1925), German [Hofmann, Michael, editor, "Twentieth-Century German Poetry: An Anthology", Macmillan/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006]

Notes

* [http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/timeline/] "A Timeline of English Poetry" Web page of the "Representative Poetry Online" Web site, University of Toronto

ee also

*Poetry
*List of years in poetry
*List of poetry awards