2008 in poetry

Events

• June 18 – Release in the United Kingdom of a new film, The Edge of Love, concerning Dylan Thomas' relationship with two women, starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys.
• September – A United Kingdom examination board, Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, asks schools to withdraw copies of its anthology which contain the poem, Education for Leisure by Carol Ann Duffy after some teachers complained about the poem's reference to knives. Other teachers oppose the move, and Duffy responds with a new poem, Mrs Schofield's GCSE.
• December 15 – The American Academy of Arts and Sciences begins awarding the May Sarton prize. Five "emerging poets" each year will receive a $2,000 honorarium and an opportunity to have their work published in the Academy's journal, Daedalus.
• Dennis Brutus is awarded the Lifetime Honorary Award by the South African Department of Arts and Culture for his lifelong dedication to African and world poetry and literary arts Brutus was also an activist who was imprisoned and incarcerated in the cell next to Nelson Mandela's on Robben Island from 1963 to 1965.
• Complaints about Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Education for Leisure" cause it to be withdrawn from the AQA Anthology studied in English schools.
• Dmitry Vodennikov wins a Russian poetry competition television show, "King of the Poets".
• POETomu, a glossy magazine about poetry, is founded in Russia.

  Works published in English

Australia

• Robert Adamson, The Golden Bird, winner of the C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry in the 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, shortlisted for the 2009 Age Book of the Year Awards
• Michael Brennan, Unanimous Night
• David Brooks, The Balcony, finalist for the 2008 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry; University of Queensland Press,
• Elizabeth Hodgson, Skin Painting, winner of the 2007 David Unaipon Award; University of Queensland Press,
• Sarah Holland-Batt, Aria, University of Queensland Press, winner of the Judith Wright Prize and the Anne Elder Award
• Yvette Holt, Anonymous Premonition, winner of the 2005 David Unaipon Award for an unpublished manuscript, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Indigenous Writing Prize, and the Poets Union Scanlon Prize for Aboriginal Poetry
• Clive James, Opal Sunset: Selected Poems, 1958–2008, W.W. Norton
• Carol Jenkins, Fishing in the Devonian, Puncher & Wattmann
• John Kinsella, Divine Comedy, University of Queensland Press,
• Anthony Lawrence, Bark, University of Queensland Press,
• Bronwyn Lea, The Other Way Out, Giramondo Publishing
• David Malouf, Revolving Days, University of Queensland Press,
• Peter Rose, The Best Australian Poems 2008, including work from: Dorothy Porter, Robert Adamson, Judith Beveridge, Rosemary Dobson, Laurie Duggan, Stephen Edgar, Clive James, John Kinsella, Les Murray, Lisa Gorton, Geoffrey Lehmann, Tracy Ryan and Brenda Walker, Chris Wallace-Crabbe and Fay Zwicky; Black Inc.,

  Canada

• Kyle Buckley, The Laundromat Essay, a long poem
• Margaret Christakos, What Stirs,
• Jen Currin, Hagiography
• Jeramy Dodds, Crabwise to the Hounds
• Nancy Holmes, Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems, Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Randall Maggs, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems
• George McWhirter, The Anachronicles
• Joe Rosenblatt & Catherine Owen, Dog; photos by Karen Moe. Toronto: Mansfield Press.
• Jordan Scott, Blert
• David Silverberg, editor, Mic Check: An Anthology Of Canadian Spoken Word Poetry, Quattro Books,
• Todd Swift, Seaway: New and Selected Poems
• R. M. Vaughan, Troubled,
• Zachariah Wells, editor, Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets,

  India, Indian poetry in English

• Meena Alexander, Quickly Changing River, Triquarterly Books, by an Indian writing living in and published in the United States
• Eunice de Souza, editor, Both Sides of the Sky, Post-Independence Poetry in English, New Delhi: National Book Trust,
• Arundhathi Subramaniam, translator, The Absent Traveller: Prākrit love poetry from the Gāthāsaptaśatī of Sātavāhana Hāla, New Delhi: Penguin India,
• Jeet Thayil:
• * These Errors Are Correct, Delhi: Tranquebar Books
• * Editor, The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets, Bloodaxe, anthology of Indian poetry in English, published in the United Kingdom
• Sujata Bhatt. "Pure Lizard", Carcanet Press. Retrieved 2008-09-13.

  Ireland

• Guzstáv Báger, Object Found, translated by Thomas Kabdebo; Hungarian poet published in Ireland
• Ciaran Berry, The Sphere of Birds, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press,
• Dermot Bolger, External Affairs, 80 pages, New Island Press,
• Andrew Carpenter, editor, Thornfield: Poems by the Thornfield Poets
• Ciarán Carson:
• * Collected Poems, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press,
• * For All We Know, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press,
• Eileen Casey, Drinking the Colour Blue
• Gerald Dawe, Points West, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press,
• Frank Golden, In Daily Accord
• Maurice Harmon, The Mischievous Boy and other poems
• Anne Le Marquand Hartigan, To Keep the Light Burning: Reflections in Times of Loss, poetry and prose
• Kevin Higgins, Time Gentlemen, Please
• Peter van de Kamp, In Train, Dutch native living in Ireland
• Caroline Lynch, Lost in the Gaeltacht
• Alan Jude Moore, Lost Republics
• Patrick Moran, Green
• Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin: Selected Poems Gallery Press, London: Oldcastle and Faber, Irish work published in the United Kingdom
• Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, The Fifty Minute Mermaid, translated from Irish by Paul Muldoon, Gallery Press,
• Ulick O'Connor, The Kiss: New and Selected Poems and Translations
• Lorna Shaughnessy, Torching the Brown River
• Eamon Wall, A Tour of Your Country'' Irish native living in the United States, published in Ireland

  New Zealand

• Jenny Bornholdt, The Rocky Shore, winner of the Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry
• Kevin Ireland, How To Survive The Morning, Cape Catley Ltd,
• C. K. Stead, Collected Poems 1951–2006, winner of the"reference and anthology" category of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards
• Vladimir Nabokov, edited by Brian Boyd and Stanislav Shvabrin, ' 'Verses and Versions: Three Centuries of Russian Poetry Selected and translated by Vladimir Nabokov' ', English translations of Russian poetry, presented next to the Russian originals, Harcourt
• Sam Sampson, Everything Talks, Auckland University Press and Shearsman Books; winner of the 2009 New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry

  Best New Zealand Poetry 2007

• Johanna Aitchison
• Angela Andrews
• Serie Barford
• Sarah Jane Barnett
• Jenny Bornholdt
• Alistair Te Ariki Campbell
• Janet Charman
• Geoff Cochrane
• Fiona Farrell
• Cliff Fell
• Bernadette Hall
• Anna Jackson
• Andrew Johnston
• Anne Kennedy
• Jessica Le Bas
• Dora Malech
• Alice Miller
• Emma Neale
• Vincent O’Sullivan
• Vivienne Plumb
• Richard Reeve
• Elizabeth Smither
• C. K. Stead
• Robert Sullivan
• Alison Wong

  United Kingdom

• Paul Thomas Abbott, FLOOD
• Moniza Alvi:
• * Europa, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize; Bloodaxe Books
• * Split World: Poems 1990–2005, Bloodaxe Books
• Annemarie Austin, Very: New and Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books, Bloodaxe Books
• Mourid Barghouti, Midnight and Other Poems, translated by Radwa Ashour, Palestinian poet published in the United Kingdom,
• Paul Batchelor, The Sinking Road
• Marck L. Beggs, Catastrophic Chords
• Robyn Bolam, New Wings
• Zoe Brigley, The Secret
• Constantine Cavafy, The Selected Poems of Cavafy, translated from the original Greek by Avi Sharon, Penguin Classic,
• Felix Dennis, Homeless in my Heart, Ebury Press,
• Menna Elfyn, Perfect Blemish, translated by Elin Ap Hywel from the original Welsh; Bloodaxe Books
• Janet Frame, Storms Will Tell: Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books; posthumously published
• Anne Gorrick, Kyotologic, Shearsman Books,
• Chris Greenhalgh, The Invention of Zero, Bloodaxe Books
• Jane Griffiths, Another Country: New and Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books
• Liam Guilar, Lady Godiva and Me
• Jen Hadfield, Nigh-no-place, Bloodaxe Books
• David Harsent, Selected Poems 1969–2005,
• Selima Hill:
• * Gloria: Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books
• * The Hat, Bloodaxe Books
• Mick Imlah, The Lost Leader, Faber and Faber,
• Clive James, Angels Over Elsinore: Collected Verse 2003–2008
• Esther Jansma, What It Is, edited and translated by Francis R. Jones from the original Dutch, Bloodaxe Books
• Daniel Kane, Ostentation of Peacocks,
• Jackie Kay:
• * Darling: New and Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books
• * The Lamplighter, Bloodaxe Books
• Agnes Lehoczky, Budapest to Babel,
• Ira Lightman, Duetcetera
• Jack Mapanje, Beasts of Nalunga, Bloodaxe Books
• Robert Minhinnick, King Driftwood, Carcanet Welsh poet, writing in English
• Kenji Miyazawa, Strong in the Rain: Selected Poems, translated from the original Japanese by Roger Pulvers, Bloodaxe Books
• Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin: Selected Poems Gallery Press, London: Oldcastle and Faber, Irish work published in the United Kingdom
• Stephanie Norgate, Hidden River, Bloodaxe Books
• Naomi Shihab Nye, Tender Spot: Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books
• Sean O'Brien, Andrew Marvell: poems selected by Sean O'Brien
• Julie O'Callaghan, Tell Me This Is Normal: New & Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books
• Pamela Robertson-Pearse, editor, In Person: 30 Poets, including two DVDs,, Bloodaxe Books
• Anne Rouse, The Upshot: New and Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books
• John Sears, Reading George Szirtes, Bloodaxe Books
• Yi Sha, Starve the Poets!, edited and translated from the original Chinese by Simon Patton and Tao Naikan, Bloodaxe Books
• Elena Shvarts, Birdsong on the Seabed, edited and translated from the original Russian by Sasha Dugdale, Bloodaxe Books
• Pauline Stainer, Crossing the Snowline, Bloodaxe Books
• George Szirtes, New and Collected Poems, Bloodaxe Books
• Edward Thomas, The Annotated Collected Poems, Bloodaxe Books
• Ruth Thompson, The Flaggy Shore, Northern Irish poet published in United Kingdom
• Tomas Venclova, The Junction, translated from the original Lithuanian by Ellen Hinsey, Bloodaxe Books
• Rab Wilson, Life Sentence: More Poems Chiefly in the Scots Dialect

  Anthologies in the United Kingdom

• Lesley Duncan, editor, 100 Favourite Poems of the Day
• Mark Richardson, editor, The Big Green Poetry Machine Poems from Scotland
• Jeet Thayil, editor, The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets, Bloodaxe Books
• Forward Book of Poetry 2009, Faber and Faber,

  Criticism, biography and scholarship in the United Kingdom

• Bloodaxe Poetry Lectures: a series of talks by poets at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne about the craft and practice of poetry, published by Bloodaxe Books:
• * Maura Dooley, editor, Life Under Water
• * Jane Hirshfield, Hiddenness, Uncertainty, Surprise
• * Jo Shapcott, The Transformers: Newcastle
• Josephine Nock-Hee Park, Apparitions of Asia: Modernist Form and Asian American Poetics, Oxford University Press, scholarship
• James Persoon and Robert R. Watson, editors, The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry, 1900 to the Present
• Shira Wolosky, The Art of Poetry: How to Read a Poem, Oxford University Press, scholarship

  United States

• Meena Alexander, Quickly Changing River, Triquarterly Books, by an Indian writing living in and published in the United States
• Rae Armantrout:Versed
• Mary Jo Bang, Elegy, Graywolf Press
• Ed Barrett, Bosston, Boston: Pressed Wafer,
• Frank Bidart, Watching the Spring Festival,
• Charles Bukowski, The People Look Like Flowers At Last: New Poems, purportedly the "fifth and final" posthumous collection
• William Corbett, Opening Day
• Robert Creeley, Selected Poems, 1945–2005, edited by Benjamin Friedlander, University of California Press
• Mark Doty:
• * Theories and Apparitions, London: Jonathan Cape
• * Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, New York, HarperCollins
• Elvis Dino Esquivel, Sólo lloré en otoño, Solar Empire Publishing,
• Reginald Gibbons, Creatures of a Day, Louisiana State University Press,
• Anne Gorrick, Kyotologic, Shearsman Books,
• Jorie Graham, Sea Change Ecco/HarperCollins
• Geoffrey Hill, A Treatise of Civil Power, Yale University Press,
• John Hollander, A Draft of Light, Knopf, his 19th book of poems
• Richard Howard, Without Saying
• Kimberly Johnson, "A Metaphorical God"
• Devin Johnston, Sources,
• George Johnston, The Essential George Johnston, selected by Robyn Sarah, The Porcupine's Quill,
• August Kleinzahler, ' 'Sleeping It Off in Rapid City' ', Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Ted Kooser, Valentines, University of Nebraska Press
• David Lehman, editor, The Best American Erotic Poems: From 1800 to the Present, Scribner
• Sarah Lindsay, Twigs and Knucklebones, Copper Canyon Press
• Magus Magnus, Verb Sap, Narrow House
• Jackson Mac Low, Thing of Beauty: New and Selected Works,
• James Merrill, Selected Poems, edited by J. D. McClatchy and Stephen Yenser
• W. S. Merwin, The Shadow of Sirius; Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press; awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2009
• Rusty Morrison, true keeps calm biding its story, Small Press Distribution,.
• George Oppen, Selected Prose, Daybooks, and Papers,
• Peter Oresick, Warhol-o-rama, Carnegie Mellon University Press
• Danielle Pafunda, ' 'My Zorba' ', Bloof Books
• Grace Paley, Fidelity, posthumous
• Kenneth Patchen, The Walking-Away World, New Directions,
• Alan Michael Parker, Elephants & Butterflies, BOA Editions,
• Jacqueline Risset, Sleep's Powers, translated from French by Jennifer Moxley, Ugly Duckling Presse
• Aram Saroyan, Complete Minimal Poems, Ugly Duckling Presse
• Leslie Scalapino, It's go in horizontal: Selected Poems, 1974–2006,
• Susan M. Schultz, Dementia Blog,
• Ron Silliman, The Alphabet, University of Alabama Press,
• Patricia Smith, Blood Dazzler
• Jack Spicer, my vocabulary did this to me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, edited by Peter Gizzi and Kevin Killian, Wesleyan University Press,
• Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons, introduction by Steve McCaffery, BookThug, Toronto
• Richard Tayson, The World Underneath
• David Wagoner, A Map of the Night
• Francis X. Walker, When Winter Come: The Ascension of York, University of Kentucky Press
• John Witte, Second Nature, University of Washington Press,
• Mark Yakich, The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine, Penguin

  Anthologies in the United States

• Tina Chang and Nathalie Handal, editors, Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond,W. W. Norton & Company,
• Vladimir Nabokov, edited by Brian Boyd and Stanislav Shvabrin, Verses and Versions: Three Centuries of Russian Poetry Selected and translated by Vladimir Nabokov, English translations of Russian poetry, presented next to the Russian originals, Harcourt
• Nguyen Do and Paul Hoover, editors, Black Dog, Black Night, anthology of contemporary Vietnamese poetry from 21 poets, many of whom had never previously been translated into English; Milkweed
• Leslie Pockell and Celia Johnson, editors, 100 Poems to Lift Your Spirits, Grand Central Publishing,
• Reginald Shepherd, editor, Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetries, Counterpath Press,
• Jason Shinder, John Lithgow, Billy Collins, editors, The Poem I Turn To: Actors and Directors Present Poetry That Inspires Them,
• Mark Strand and Jeb Livingood, editors, Best New Poets 2008, including work by Zach Savich, Heidi Poon, and Malachi Black
• Carolyne Wright, editor and translator, Majestic Nights: Love Poems of Bengali Women, Buffalo, New York: White Pine Press,

  Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

• Michael Almereyda, editor, Night Wraps the Sky: Writings by and about Mayakovsky,
• Robert Frost, The Collected Prose of Robert Frost, edited by Mark Richardson; Frost was reluctant to publish his collected prose and even said he lost his notes to the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures he delivered at Harvard in 1936
• Donald Hall, Unpacking the Boxes: A Memoir of a Life in Poetry, Houghton Mifflin
• Michael Heller, Speaking the Estranged: Essays on the Work of George Oppen, Cambridge UK: Salt Publishing
• Michael Palmer, Active Boundaries: Selected Essays and Talks, New Directions, 2008.
• Reginald Shepherd, Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry, University of Michigan Press
• Jan Ziolkowski and Bridget K. Balint, editors, A Garland of Satire, Wisdom, and History: Latin Verse from Twelfth-Century France , Harvard University Press,

  Poets in ''The Best American Poetry 2008''

• Tom Andrews
• Ralph Angel
• Rae Armantrout
• John Ashbery
• Joshua Beckman
• Marvin Bell
• Charles Bernstein
• Ciaran Berry
• Frank Bidart
• Robert Bly
• John Casteen
• Laura Cronk
• Kate Daniels
• Lydia Davis
• Erica Dawson
• Cornelius Eady
• Moira Egan
• Peter Everwine
• Carolyn Forche
• Chris Forhan
• John Gallaher
• James Galvin
• Louise Gluck
• Robert Hass

• Bob Hicok
• Brenda Hillman
• Tony Hoagland
• Garrett Hongo
• Richard Howard
• Mark Jarman
• George Kalamars
• Mary Karr
• Maxine Kumin
• Adrie Kusserow
• Alex Lemon
• Philip Levine

• J.D. McClatchy
• Davis McCombs
• W. S. Merwin
• Susan Mitchell
• Paul Muldoon
• D. Nurkse
• Debra Nystrom
• Meghan O'Rourke
• Ron Padgett
• Michael Palmer
• D. A. Powell
• Alberto Rios
• Tim Ross
• John Rybicki
• Ira Sadoff
• Sherod Santos
• Frederick Seidel
• Charles Simic
• R. T. Smith
• Patti Smith
• Dave Snyder
• Lisa Ross Sparr
• David St. John
• Kathryn Starbuck
• Alan Sullivan
• Chad Sweeney
• Mary Szybist
• James Tate
• Natasha Trethewey
• Lee Upton
• Dara Wier
• C. K. Williams
• Franz Wright
• Lynn Xu
• C. Dale Young
• David Young
• Dean Young
• Kevin Young

  Works published in other languages

French language

France

• Stéphane Bataillon, Sylvestre Clancier and Bruno Doucey, editors, Poésies de langue française: 144 poètes d'aujourd'hui autour du monde, Éditions Seghurs,, anthology
• Yves Bonnefoy, La Longue Chaîne de l'Ancre, publisher: Mercure de France
• Hélène Dorion, Le Hublot des heures, Paris, Éditions de La Différence; Canadian poet published in France
• Haïjin, translated from her Japanese edition, Du rouge aux lèvres, publisher: La Table Ronde, short poems to be read aloud in a single breath
• Philippe Jaccottet, Ce peu de bruits, publisher: Gallimard
• Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Les Obscurcis, publisher: Mercure de France
• Abdellatif Laabi, Tribulations d'un rêveur attitré, coll. La Clepsydre, La Différence, Paris, Moroccan author writing French and published in France
• Jacques Prévert, Grand bal du printemps, publisher: Le Cherche midi
• Jean Max Tixier, Le grenier à sel, publisher: Encres vives
• Jean-Vincent Verdonnet, Mots en maraude, illustrated by Marie-Claude Enevoldsen-Bussat, Publisher: Voix d'Encre

  Canadian poetry in French

• Roger Des Roches, Dixhuitjuilletdeuxmillequatre, winner of the Prix Chasse-Spleen
• Hélène Dorion, Le Hublot des heures, Paris, Éditions de La Différence; Canadian poet published in France

  Germany

• Christoph Buchwald, series editor, and Ulf Stolterfoht, guest editor, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 2008, Frankfurt: Fischer, 215 pages,, anthology
• Christoph Janacs:
• * die Ungewissheit der Barke/la barca sin certidumbre, publisher: Arovell
• * Nachtwache, Edition Thanhäuser, 37 poems; St. Georgs Presse
• Bjoern Kuligk and Jan Wagner, editors, Lyrik von Jetzt 2, publisher: Berlin Verlag, featuring poetry by 50 authors born after 1969, Kookbooks, 59 pages,
• Sabine Scho:
• * Album: Gedichte, Kookbooks, 62 pages,
• * Farben, Kookbooks, 78 pages,

Greece

• Michael Longley, Το χταπόδι του Ομήρου, translated from the original English of the Irish author by Harris Vlavianos, Athens: Patakis
• Katerina Iliopoulou, Asylum, Melani editions
• George Koropoulis, Αντιύλη, Athens: Upsilon
• Dionysis Kapsalis, Όλα τα δειλινά του κόσμου, Athens: Agra
• Stamatis Polenakis, Notre Dames, publisher: Odos Panos Editions

  India

• Bharat Majhi, Highware Kuhudi, Bhubaneswar: Pakshighara Prakasani; Oriya
• Jiban Narah, Momaideur Phulani, Guwahati, Assam: Banalata; Assamese-language
• K. Siva Reddy, Posaganivannee, Hyderabad: Jhari Poetry Circle, Telugu-language
• P. P. Ramachandran, Kalamkaari, Kottayam: DC Books; Malayalam
• Raghavan Atholi, Chavumazhakal, Kottayam: DC Books; Malayalam
• Rituraj, Chuni Huin Kavitayen, Hindi-language
• Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Vakhar, Mumbai and Ahmedabad: R R Sheth & Co.; Gujarati
• Teji Grover, Maitri, Bikaner: Surya Prakashan Mandir, Hindi-language

  Iran

• Sarvenaz Heraner, Sarrizha-yi sukut
• Mohammad Reza Shafi'i Kadkani, editor, Gozideh-ye Ghazaliyat-e Shams extensive, annotated selections from Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi by Rumi; Persian, published in Iran
• Ru'ya Muqaddas, Ru'yaha-yi 'ashiqanah: 'ashiqanahha-yi Ru'ya

  Poland

• Kazimierz Brakoniecki, Glosolalie
• Ryszard Kapuściński, Wiersze zebrane, posthumously published
• Ludwik Jerzy Kern, Litery cztery. Wiersze prawie wszystkie
• Krzysztof Koehler, Porwanie Europy
• Tadeusz Różewicz, Kup kota w worku, Wrocław: Biuro Literackie
• Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki, Piosenka o zależnościach i uzależnieniach, winner of both the Gdynia Literary Prize, for poetry and the Nike Award for literature in 2009

  Russia

• Yelena Fanailova, Baltisky dnevnik
• Yelena Shvarts, Collected Works, Volumes 3 and 4
• Books of poetry were published by Mikhail Aizenberg, Vasily Borodin, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Alla Gorbunova, Vadim Mesyats, Andrey Rodionov and Aleksey Tsvetkov

  Other languages

• Herberto Helder, A faca não corta o fogo: súmula e inédita; Portugal
• Jang Jin-sung, I Am Selling My Daughter for 100 Won, Korea
• Tarawa Machi, Japanese tanka poet, translated into French by Yves-Marie Allioux, Salad Anniversary, Éditions Philippe Picquier
• Pia Tafdrup, Boomerang, Copenhagen: Gyldendal Publishers, Denmark
• Rahman Henry, Gottrobhumikaheen, Bhasachitra, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladesh; Shrestha Kabita, NODEE publishing and Media House, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Ghassan Zaqtan, Like a Straw Bird it Follows Me, Palestinian

  Awards and honors

International

• Golden Wreath of Poetry: Fatos Arapi
• Beca Internacional Antonio Machado de creación poética: Subhro Bandopadhyay

  Australia awards and honors

• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Robert Adamson, The Golden Bird ; finalists: Carol Jenkins – Fishing in the Devonian ; Bronwyn Lea, The Other Way Out
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry
• Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award
• Arts ACT Judith Wright Prize
• Fellowship of Australian Writers Anne Elder Award

  Canada awards and honors

• Lampman-Scott Award: Shane Rhodes, The Bindery
• Gerald Lampert Award: Alex Boyd, Making Bones Walk
• Governor General's Awards:
• * English language: Jacob Scheier, More to Keep Us Warm
• * French language: Michel Pleau, La Lanteur du monde
• Griffin Poetry Prize: Canadian: Robin Blaser, The Holy Forest: Collected Poems
• Griffin Poetry Prize: International, in the English Language: John Ashbery, Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems
• * Others on the shortlist: David Harsent, Selected Poems 1969–2005 ; Elaine Equi, Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems ; Clayton Eshleman, translating from the Spanish by César Vallejo, The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition
• Pat Lowther Award: Anne Simpson, Quick
• Prix Alain-Grandbois: Nathalie Stephens, ...s'arrête? Je
• Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Rita Wong, Forage
• Prix Émile-Nelligan: Catherine Lalonde, Corps étranger

  New Zealand awards and honors

• Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards :

  United Kingdom awards and honors

• Cholmondeley Award: John Burnside, David Harsent, John Greening and Sarah Maguire
• Costa Award for poetry: Jean Sprackland, Tilt
• * Shortlist : Ian Duhig, The Speed of Dark, John Fuller, The Space of Joy, Daljit Nagra, Look We Have Coming to Dover!
• English Association's Fellows' Poetry Prizes: Tony Flynn, Kim Rooney and Peter Cash and Simon Jackson
• Eric Gregory Award : Emily Berry, Rhiannon Hooson, James Midgley, Adam O'Riordan and Heather Phillipson
• Forward Poetry Prize:
• *Best Collection:
• **Shortlist: Sujata Bhatt, Pure Lizard ; Jane Griffiths, Another Country ; Jen Hadfield, Nigh-No-Place ; Mick Imlah, The Lost Leader, Jamie McKendrick, Crocodiles & Obelisks ; and Catherine Smith, Lip
• *Best First Collection:
• **Shortlist: Simon Barraclough, Andrew Forster, Frances Leviston, Allison McVety, Stephanie Norgate and Kathryn Simmonds
• Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize for poetry:
• *Shortlist: Paul Batchelor, The Sinking Road ; Ciaran Berry, The Sphere of Birds ; Adam Foulds, The Broken Word ; Frances Leviston, Public Dream ; Stephanie Norgate, Hidden River
• Manchester Poetry Prize: Lesley Saunders and Mandy Coe
• National Poet of Wales: Gillian Clarke succeeds Gwyn Thomas
• National Poetry Competition 2007:
• T. S. Eliot Prize : Sean O'Brien The Drowned Book
• *Shortlist : Ian Duhig, Alan Gillis, Sophie Hannah, Mimi Khalvati, Frances Leviston, Sarah Maguire, Edwin Morgan, Poetry Review's Fiona Sampson, and Matthew Sweeney
• The Times/Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry Translation:
• Wigtown Poetry Competition : Jane Weir, first prize

  United States awards and honors

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Cheryl Dumesnil for In Praise of Falling
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences prize for poetry: Arda Collins, Matthew Dickman, Dawn Lundy Martin, Meghan O'Rourke, Matthew Zapruder; Judges : Paul Muldoon, Carl Phillips, Charles Simic, C. D. Wright, and Adam Zagajewski
• AML Award for poetry to Neil Aitken for The Lost Country of Sight and Warren Hatch for Mapping the Bones of the World
• Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize awarded to Paul Martínez Pompa for My Kill Adore Him
• Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize: Henri Cole for Blackbird and Wolf
• National Book Award for Poetry: Mark Doty for Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems
• The New Criterion Poetry Prize:
• The Poetry Center Book Award : – Barbara Guest for The Collected Poems of Barbara Guest ; Judge: Eileen Tabios
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry : Robert Hass for Time and Materials; and Philip Schultz for Failure
• Poet Laureate of Virginia: Claudia Emerson, two year appointment 2008 to 2010
• Wallace Stevens Award: Louise Gluck
• PEN Award for Poetry in Translation: Rosmarie Waldrop for Lingos I – IX by Ulf Stolterfoht
• Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize : Gary Snyder
• Whiting Awards: Rick Hilles, Douglas Kearney, Julie Sheehan

  From the Poetry Society of America

• Frost Medal: Michael S. Harper
• Shelley Memorial Award: Ed Roberson, Judges: Lyn Hejinian & C.D. Wright
• Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award: Joanie Mackowski, Judge: Donald Revell
• Lyric Poetry Award: Wayne Miller, Judge: Elizabeth Macklin
• Lucille Medwick Memorial Award: Christina Pugh, Judge: Timothy Donnelly; finalist: Sally Ball
• Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award: Natasha Sajé, Judge: Dean Young; finalists: Kevin Prufer & James Richardson
• Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Student Poetry Award: Carey Powers, Judge: David Roderick; finalists: Willa Granger & Philip Sparks
• George Bogin Memorial Award: Theresa Sotto, Judge: by Prageeta Sharma
• Robert H. Winner Memorial Award: Jocelyn Emerson, Judge: by Annie Finch; finalists: Rachel Conrad & Marsha Pomerantz
• Cecil Hemley Memorial Award: Brian Henry, Judge: Norma Cole
• Norma Farber First Book Award: Catherine Imbriglio for Parts of the Mass, published by Burning Deck, Judge: Thylias Moss); finalist: Alena Hairston for The Logan Topographies, published by Persea
• William Carlos Williams Award: Aram Saroyan for Complete Minimal Poems, published by Ugly Duckling Presse; Judge: Ron Silliman; finalists: Roberta Beary for The Unworn Necklace, published by Snapshot Press; and Eileen Myles for Sorry, Tree, published by Wave Books

  Other awards and honors

• Japan: Akutagawa Prize for works published in the second half of 2007: Mieko Kawakami, Chichi to Ran

  Deaths

• January 1 – Wanda Sieradzka de Ruig, 85, Polish author, poet, journalist and translator.
• January 3:
• * Henri Chopin, 85, French poet
• * Petru Dugulescu, 62, Romanian Baptist pastor, poet and politician, heart attack.
• * John O'Donohue, 52, Irish poet, philosopher and priest
• January 4 – Stig Claesson, Swedish
• January 5 – Rowan Ayers English television producer and poet
• January 12:
• * Ángel González Muñiz, 82, Spanish
• *Adriano González León, 76, Venezuelan writer and poet
• January 16 – Hone Tuwhare, 85, New Zealander
• January 21 – Burton Hatlen, 71, American scholar, founding member of the National Poetry Foundation, mentor and teacher to Stephen King, who promoted the work of the Objectivist poets
• February 7 – Frank Geerk, German
• February 13 – Raúl Salinas, 73, American Chicano poet, complications of liver cancer
• February 28 – Max Nord ) Dutch
• March 10 – Ana Kalandadze, 83, Georgian
• March 16 – Jonathan Williams, 79, American poet, publisher and founder of The Jargon Society
• March 19 – Hugo Claus, Flemish novelist, poet, playwright, painter, film director writing primarily in Dutch
• March 23 – E. A. Markham, 68, Montserrat-born British poet and writer.
• March 26 – Robert Fagles, 74, American professor, poet and translator of ancient epics, prostate cancer.
• April 3 – Andrew Crozier, 64, English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival, with connections to American poetry, who edited volumes by American poet Carl Rakosi After Rakosi's Selected Poems, published in 1941, Rakosi dedicated himself to social work and apparently neither read nor wrote any poetry at all. A letter from Crozier to Rakosi asking about his early poetry was the trigger that started Rakosi writing again. His first book in 26 years, Amulet was published by New Directions in 1967 and his Collected Poems in 1986 by the National Poetry Foundation; of a brain tumour.
• April 13 – Robert Greacen, 87, Irish poet
• April 14 – Horst Bingel, German writer, poet, graphic artist and publisher
• April 15 – Parvin Dowlatabadi, 84, Iranian children's author and poet, of heart attack
• April 17:
• * Aimé Césaire, 94, French-Martiniquan poet and politician
• * April 17 – Werner Dürrson, German
• * Mikhail Tanich, 84, Russian poet, kidney problems
• April 24 – Jason Shinder, 53, American poet, editor, anthologist and teacher who founded the Y.M.C.A. National Writer's Voice program, one of the country's largest networks of literary-arts centers, at one time an assistant to Allen Ginsberg
• May 1 – Alberto Estima de Oliveira, 74, Portuguese poet
• May 2 – Ilyas Malayev, 72, Uzbek musician, wedding entertainer and poet. "His performances in stadiums drew tens of thousands of Uzbeks, and his appeal reached beyond his native republic", according to The New York Times.
• May 19 – Rimma Kazakova, 76, Russian poet.
• May 25:
• * George Garrett, 78, American novelist and poet, cancer
• *Alejandro Romualdo, 82, Peruvian
• May 29 – Paula Gunn Allen, 68, Native American poet, novelist, and activist, lung cancer
• June 5:
• * Angus Calder Scottish academic, writer, historian, poet and literary editor
• * Eugenio Montejo, 70, Venezuelan poet, essayist and ambassador, of stomach cancer
• June 8 – Peter Rühmkorf, German writer and poet
• June 11 – James Reaney Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic
• June 16 – Aleda Shirley American poet
• June 29 – William Buchan, 3rd Baron Tweedsmuir, also known as "William Tweedsmuir", an English peer and author of novels, short stories, memoirs and verse
• July 4 – Thomas M. Disch, 68, American poet and novelist; suicide
• July 16 – Richard Exner German and American poet, academic and translator who moved to the United States in 1950, then moved to Germany after his retirement
• July 19 – Samudra Gupta, 62, Bangladeshi poet, gallbladder cancer
• July 9 – Kilin, pen name of Mikiel Spiteri, 90, Maltese poet and novelist; fluent in six languages and published in English, Spanish and other languages
• July 24 – Alain Suied, 51, French poet, from cancer
• August 9 – Mahmoud Darwish, 67, Palestinian poet; complications following heart surgery.
• August 24 – Wei Wei, 88, Chinese poet and writer, liver cancer
• August 25 – Ahmed Faraz, pseudonym of Syed Ahmad Shah, 77, Pakistani Urdu-language poet and son of Agha Syed Muhammad Shah Bark Kohati, a leading traditional poet, from kidney failure
• August 28 – İlhan Berk, 89, Turkish
• September 10 – Reginald Shepherd, 44, American poet, complications from colon cancer
• September 15 – John Matshikiza, 53, South African actor, writer and poet; heart attack
• September 20 – Duncan Glen, 75, British poet, critic and literary historian
• September 28 – Konstantin Pavlov, 75, Bulgarian poet and screenwriter who was defiant against his country's communist regime; When censors prevented his works from being published officially in the country from 1966 to 1976, his popularity didn't wane, as Bulgarians clandestinely copied and read his poems.
• September 29 – Hayden Carruth, 87, American poet and literary critic
• September 30 – Christa Reinig, German
• October 6 – Paavo Haavikko, 77, Finnish poet and playwright, after long illness
• October 15 – Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, 94, Turkish poet; chronic renal failure
• October 25 – Tahereh Saffarzadeh, 72, Iranian poet and academic, cancer
• November 5 -- James Liddy, 74, Irish American poet, cancer.
• November 10 – Fries de Vries Dutch
• November 15, – Donald Finkel, 79, American poet, husband of poet and novelist Constance Urdang, complications from Alzheimer's disease
• November 16 – Tibor Gyurkovics, 77, Hungarian poet, writer and publicist
• November 20 – Gyula Takáts, 97, Hungarian poet, writer and translator
• December 1 – Peter Maiwald German
• December 2 – Ann Darr American poet and World War II pilot.
• December 5 – Altaf Nia, 44, Kashmiri poet and academic
• December 10 – Dorothy Porter, 54, Australian
• December 14 – Tajal Bewas, pen name of Taj Mohammed Samoo, 70, bucolic Sufi poet, novelist, short-story writer, teacher and Pakistani government official
• December 15 – Jwalamukhi, 71, Indian poet and president of the India-China Friendship Association
• December 20 – Adrian Mitchell, 74,, English poet, playwright, children's author, journalist and political activist, of heart failure
• December 22 – Nanao Sakaki, Japanese poet and leading personality of "the Tribe", a counter-cultural group
• December 24 – Harold Pinter, 78, English playwright, poet, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, human rights activist, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature