1968 in poetry

yearbox2
in?=in poetry
in2?=in literature
cp=19th century
c=20th century
cf=21st century

yp1=1965
yp2=1966
yp3=1967
year=1968
ya1=1969
ya2=1970
ya3=1971
dp3=1930s
dp2=1940s
dp1=1950s
d=1960s
da=0
dn1=1970s
dn2=1980s
dn3=1990s|

Events

* The Belfast Group, a grouping of poets in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which was started in 1963 in poetry, lapsed in 1966 when founder Philip Hobsbaum left for Glasgow, is reconstituted this year by Michael Allen, Arthur Terry, and Seamus Heaney. At one time or another, the grouping also includes Michael Longley, James Simmons, Paul Muldoon, Ciaran Carson, Stewart Parker, Bernard MacLaverty and the critic Edna Longley. Meetings are held at Seamus and Marie Heaney's house on Ashley Avenue. The group will last until 1972.
* The Honest Ulsterman, a long running Northern Ireland literary magazine, is established this year by James Simmons. It was then edited for 20 years by Frank Ormsby.
* November 23 — Roy Fuller was elected professor of poetry at Oxford University (with 385 votes) to succeed Edmund Blunden, who unexpectedly left the post. Other nominees: Kathleen Raine, Enid Starkie and Yevgeni Yevtushenko.

Works published in English

=Canada=

* Joe Rosenblatt, "Winter of the Luna Moon"
* Irving Layton, "The Shattered Plinths", 60 new poems
* Leonard Cohen, "Selected Poems, 1956-1968"
* Alfred Purdy, "Wild Grape Wine"
* Dorothy Livesay, "The Documentaries", poems from the 1930s and 1940s, and including "Roots", a long poem

Anthologies in Canada

* Mary Alice Downie and Barbara Robertson, editors, "The Wind Has Wings", anthology of 77 Canadian poems for children
* Dennis Lee, editor, "T. O. Now", anthology of 13 "apprentice poets living in Toronto"

=United Kingdom=

* Dannie Abse, "A Small Desperation"
* Kingsley Amis, "A Look Round the Estate"
* Edward Brathwaite, "Masks"
* Charles Causley, "Underneath the Water"
* Stewart Conn, "Stoats in Sunlight"
* Tony Connor, "Kon in Springtime"
* Maureen Duffy, "Lyrics for the Dog Hour"
* D. J. Enright, "Unlawful Assembly"
* James Fenton, "Our Western Furniture" [http://www.jamesfenton.com/books/] Web page titled "Books by Fenton" at the James Fenton Web site, accessed October 11, 2007]
* Roy Fuller, "New Poems"
* William R. P. George - "Cerddi'r Neraig"
* Zulfikar Ghose, "Jets from Orange"
* Norman Jackson, "Beyond the Habit of Sense"
* A. Norman Jeffares, "A New Commentary On The Poems Of W.B. Yeats", criticismUnited Kingdom [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,11617,1506107,00.html "Obituary: A. Norman Jeffares"] , "The Guardian", by John Sutherland, June 14, 2005, accessed April 22, 2008]
* George MacBeth, "The Night of Stones"
* Derek Mahon, "Night-Crossing." Oxford University Press
* Adrian Mitchell, "Out Loud"
* Edwin Morgan, "The Second Life", his first collection and the first in Britain to be typeset by computer"Britannica Book of the Year 1969", covering events of 1968, published in 1969, "Literature" article, "English" subsection, page 473]
* Richard Murphy, "The Battle of Aughrim"
* Muriel Spark, "Collected Poems" Volume 1
* R. S. Thomas, "Not That He Brought Flowers"

Anthologies in the United Kingdom

* John Bishop, "Music and Sweet Poetry", poems about music
* Rodney Hall and Thomas Shapcott, editors, "New Impulses in Australian Poetry"
* Howard Sergeant, "Poetry from Africa" (published in the United Kingdom), including work from Gabriel Okara (Nigeria), Gaston Bart-Williams (Sierra Leone), Kwesi Brew (Ghana) and David Rubadiri (Malawi)
* Jean Sergeant and Howard Sergeant, "Poems from Hospital"
* Joan Murray Simpson, "Without Adam: The Femina Anthology of Poetry", poems by women

United States

* James Agee, "The Collected Poems of James Agee", including 60 poems previously unpublished in books (posthumous)
* A. R. Ammons, "Selected Poems"
* Paul Blackburn, "In. On. Or About The Premises"
* Gwendolyn Brooks, "In the Mecca"
* Raymond Carver, "Near Klamath"
* Stanley Cooperman, "The Day of the Parrot and Other Poems"
* Robert Creeley, "Pieces"
* Ed Dorn and Gordon Brotherston, translators, "Our Word: Guerilla Poems From Latin America", GrossmanWeb page titled [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=1837"Archive / Edward Dorn (1929-1999)"] at the Poetry Foundation website, retrieved May 8, 2008]
* Ed Dorn, "Gunslinger", Black Sparrow Press
* Robert Duncan, "Bending the Bow"
* Allen Ginsberg, "T.V. Baby Poems"
* John Hollander, "Types of Shape"
* LeRoi Jones and Larry Neal, editors, "Black Fire", an anthology of African-American poetry
* Etheridge Knight, "Poems from Prison"
* Archibald MacLeish, "The Wild Wicked Old Man and Other Poems"
* Rod McKuen, "Lonesome Cities"
* Ogden Nash, "There's Always Another Windmill"
* Howard Nemerov, "The Winter Lightning: Selected Poems"
* Lorine Niedecker, "North Central" (Fulcrum Press: London)
* Ned O'Gorman, "The Harversters' Vase"
* George Oppen, "Of Being Numerous"
* Charles Reznikoff, second "Testimony" collection
* Kenneth Rexroth, "Collected Longer Poems"
* Aram Saroyan, "Aram Saroyan", Random House
* Karl Shapiro, "Selected Poems" (more than 200, including 25 previously unpublished)
* Alice Walker, "Once"

Anthologies in the United States

* Phyllis McGinley, editor, "Wonders and Surprises", anthology for juveniles, including poems by Elinor Wylie, E. B. White, Langston Hughes and T. S. Eliot
* Paul Carroll, editor, "The Young American Poets", anthology of 54 poets

Other in English

* Kendrick Smithyman, "Flying to Palmerston", Christchurch: Auckland University & Oxford University Press, New Zealand
* R. Hall and T. Shapcott, editors, "New Impulses in Australian Poetry", anthology, Australia [Preminger, Alex and T.V.F. Brogan, et al., editors, "The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics", 1993, Princeton University Press and MJF Books, "Australian Poetry" article, Anthologies section, p 108]

Works published in other languages

=Denmark=

* Per Højholt, "Turbo"
* Hans Jørgen Nielsen, "Fra luften i munden"
* Thorkild Bjørnvig, "Ravnen"

French language

=France=

* J. Roubaud, "E"
* Marc Alyn, "La Nuit majeure"
* A. Bosquet, "Quatre Testaments et autres poèmes"
* Denis Roche, "Eros ènergumène"
* L. Foucher, "Argyne et les Gypaètes", third part of a trilogy
* Armel Lubin, "Feux contre feux"
* R. Queneau, "Battre la campagne"
* G. Puel, "La Lumière du jour"
* J. Berthet:
** "Poèsiepures"
** "Quelconqueries"
* C. Fourcade, "De Lumière et de nuit"
* F. Millepierres, "Cheval noir et cheval blanc"
* J. Bancal, "L'Épreuve du feu"
* P. Albert-Birot, "Poètes d'aujourd'hui" (posthumous), edited by J. Follain

=Canada=

* Yves Préfontaine, "Pays sans parole"

=Hebrew=

* A. Shlonsky, "Mishiai ha-Perozdor ha-Aroch" ("From the Poems of the Long Corridor")
* A. Gilboa, "Lichtov Siftai Yeshainim" ("To Write from the Lips of the Sleepers"), Israel
* Haim Gouri, "Tenua le-Maga" ("A Move to Touch") [ [http://www.ithl.org.il/author_info.asp?id=101] Web page titled "Haim Gouri" at the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature Web site, accessed October 6, 2007]
* A. Halfi, "Mivhar Shirimx" ("Selected Poems")
* A. Kovner, "Ahot Ketana" ("Little Sister")
* B. Galai, "Massa Zafonah" ("Northward Journey")
* D. Pagis, "Shirai Levi Ibn Altabban" (prose), a study of the Medieval Hebrew poet's work

=Italy=

* Giorgio Vigolo, "La luce ricorda", collection of poems from 1923 and after
* Sergio Solmi, "Dal balcone"
* Giovanni Testori, "L'amore"
* Giuseppe Guglielmi, "Panglosse blandimentis oramentis coeteris meretriciis"
* Andrea Zalzotto, "La beltà"
* Franco Fortini, "Una volta per sempre"
* Angela Giannitrapani, "Professione di poesia"

=Norway=

* Arnulf Øverland, "De hundrede fioliner: Dikt i utvalg" (posthumous)
* Tor Obrestad, "Vårt daglige brød"
* Arnljot Eggen, "Roller og røynd"
* Hallvard Lie, "Norsk verslære", a scholarly study on Norwegian poetry

Portuguese language

Brazil

* João Cabral de Melo Neto, "Complete Works"
* Augusto de Campos, Haroldo de Campos and Boris Schnaiderman, editors:
** An anthology of modern Russian poetry from Symbolism to the present in Portuguese
** "Traduzir e Trovar", an anthology of translated poetry, including poetry from France, Italy and England.

Criticism and theory

* Augusto de Campos, "O balanço da Bossa", a study of the relationship of Brazilian popular music to "vanguardist" poetry
* Luiz Costa Lima, "Lira e Antilira", essays on modern Brazilian poetry
* Décio Pignatari, "Informação, Linguagem, Communicação", critical study of vanguardist art and mass culture

Russia

* A. Tvardovski, "Selected Lyrics 1959-67"
* A. Mezhov, "Horseshoe"
* Robert Rozhdestvenski, "Poem from Various Points of View"
* Yarlov Smelyakov, "December", poems published serially in the periodical "Friendship Between the Peoples" last year and this year

panish language

=Latin America=

* Nicanor Parra, "Canciones rusas" (Chile)
* Emma Godoy, a book interpreting of "Muerte sin fin" by José Gorostiza (Mexico)

=Sweden=

* Lars Forssell, a book of poetry
* Johannes Edfelt, a book of poetry
* Petter Bergman, a book of poetry
* Lars Gustalfsson, a book of poetry

=Yiddish=

United States

* Yaykev Glatshteyn, a book of poems
* Aron Tseytlin, "Poems of the Holocaust and Poems of Faith"
* Efroyim Oyerbakh, a book of poems
* I. J. Shvarts, a book of poems
* Itsik Manger, a book of poems
* Eliezer Grinberg, a book of poems
* Rokhl Korn, a book of poems
* A. Glants-Leyeles, "I Do Remember" (posthumous)

Israel

* Malke Loker, a book of poems
* Leyb Olitski, a book of poems
* Avrom Lev, a book of poems
* I. Manik, a book of poems
* Binem Heler, a book of poems
* Rivke Basman, a book of poems
* Abraham Sutzkever, "Square Letters and Miracles"

oviet Union

* Itsik Fefer, a book of poems
* Zyame Telesin, a book of poems
* Mendl Lifshits, a book of poems

Poland

* Eliyohu Reyzman, a book of poems
* P. Tsibulski, a book of poems (posthumous)

Awards and honors

=Canada=

* See 1968 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
* Canadian Centennial Commission poetry competition: First prize: Margaret Atwood, "The Animals in That Country"

=United Kingdom=

* Cholmondeley Award: Harold Massingham, Edwin Morgan
* Eric Gregory Award: James Aitchison, Douglas Dunn, Brian Jones
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Robert Graves

United States

* American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, W. H. Auden
* 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 Jay Smith appointed this year.
* National Book Award for Poetry: Robert Bly, "The Light Around the Body"
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Anthony Hecht, "The Hard Hours"
* Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Stanley Kunitz

Births

*Dates not known:
** Nan Cohen
** A. E. Stallings, American poet [ [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=80619 Web page titled "Archive: A. E. Stallings (1968- )"] at the Poetry Foundation website, accessed April 24, [2008]
** Michael Teig, American poet

Deaths

*January 14 — Dorothea Mackellar, 82, Australian poet and writer
* January 20 — David Stacton, 42
* January 25 — Yvor Winters, 67, American literary critic and poet
* February 16 — Jaime Sabartés, Spanish poet and longtime secretary to Pablo Picasso
* March 16 — Gunnar Ekelöf, 60, Swedish poet
* March 25 — Arnulf Øverland, 78, Norwegian poet
* April 26 — Donald Davidson, 74, American poet, essayist, social and literary critic, and author who organized the Nashville circle of poets called the Fugitives and an overlapping group, the Southern Agrarians.
* April 28 — Winfield Townley Scott, 58, American poet
* May — Erik Lindegren 58, Swedish poet
* May 9 — George Hill Dillon, 62
* June 1 — Witter Bynner, 86, American poet, writer and scholar
* June 12 — Sir Herbert Edward Read, at 74, English poet and critic of literature and art.
* June 14 — Salvatore Quasimodo, 66, Italian poet
* November 17 — Mervyn Peake, 57, British modernist writer, artist, poet and illustrator.

ee also

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

References