2002 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Events
- March 16 — Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrest and jail poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and dismiss a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem "The Corrupt on Earth" which criticizes the state's Islamic judiciary, accusing some judges of being corrupt and issuing unfair rulings for their own personal benefit.
- August 22 — Poet Ron Silliman starts his popular and controversial weblog which will become one of the most popular blogs devoted largely to contemporary poetry and poetics..
- September — Amiri Baraka, an African-American poet and political activist from Newark, New Jersey who was appointed the second Poet Laureate of New Jersey, ignites a controversy and accusations of anti-Semitism with a public reading of "Somebody Blew Up America" at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival near Stanhope, New Jersey. Baraka's poem discusses the September 11 attacks in a way that is highly critical of racism in America, includes angry depictions of public figures such as Rudolph Giuliani, Trent Lott, Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Ward Connerly, accuses Israel of involvement in the World Trade Center attacks, and supports the theory that the United States government knew about the attacks in advance. Amid public outrage and pressure from state leaders, Baraka is asked to resign as the Poet Laureate by New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey who had appointed him to the post two months earlier. Baraka refuses and, because there is no legal mechanism provided in the law to remove him as poet laureate, the state legislature and governor abolishes the position to remove him effective 2 July 2003.
- After Ghazi al-Gosaibi, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Britain, publishes a poem praising a suicide bomber who had killed himself and two Israelis after blowing himself up in a supermarket, the ambassador is recalled home.
- The office of Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate is instituted.
- The office of Edinburgh Makar is instituted in Scotland, with Stewart Conn as first incumbent.
- Bowery Poetry Club, a New York City poetry performance space, is founded by Bob Holman.
- Fulcrum, An annual of poetry and aesthetics is founded in the United States.
- Influential Chinese literary magazine Tamen is revived as a webzine at www.tamen.net.
Works published in English
Australia
- Alison Croggon, Attempts at Being, Salt Publishing,.
- Robert Gray, Afterimages
- Emma Lew, Anything the Landlord Touches, won the 2003 C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry and was short-listed for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry that same year
- Chris Mansell:
- * Stalking the Rainbow
- * Fickle Brat
- Les Murray:
- * Poems the Size of Photographs, Duffy & Snellgrove and Carcanet
- * New Collected Poems, Duffy & Snellgrove; Carcanet, 2003
Canada
- Margaret Avison, Concrete and Wild Carrot
- Christian Bök, ’Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science
- Dionne Brand, thirsty
- Michael Boughn, Dislocations in Crystal
- Louis Cabri, The Mood Embosser
- Margaret Christakos, Excessive Love Prostheses
- Lise Downe, Disturbances of Progress
- Rob Fitterman, Metropolis
- Laura Lush:
- * The First Day of Winter: Poetry, Vancouver: Ronsdale Press
- * Going to the Zoo, Winnipeg: Turnstone Press
- Don McKay, Vis à Vis: Field Notes on Poetry & Wilderness
- George McWhirter, The Book of Contradictions
- Jay Millar, Mycological Studies
- P. K. Page, Planet Earth: Poems Selected and New, edited and with an introduction by Eric Ormsby, Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill
- Joe Rosenblatt, Parrot fever. collages by Michel Christensen. Toronto: Exile.
- Raymond Souster, Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Ottawa: Oberon Press.
India, in English
- Meena Alexander, Illiterate Heart, Evanston, Illinois: TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, by an Indian writing living in and published in the United States
- Smita Agarwal, Wish-granting Words, New Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publisher, 2002.
- Sujata Bhatt, A Colour for Solitude, Carcanet Press
- Keki Daruwalla, The Map-maker, Ravi Dayal
- Ranjit Hoskote, editor, Reasons for Belonging, Fourteen Contemporary Indian Poets, New Delhi: Viking/Penguin Books India; anthology including work from: Jerry Pinto, Vijay Nambisan, C. P. Surendran, Smita Agarwal, Arundhati Subramaniam, Jeet Thayil, Tabish Khair, Ranjit Hoskote and Rukhmini Bhaya Nair, Vivek Narayanan, Gavin Barrett, Anjum Hasan and H. Masud Taj
- Sudeep Sen, Monsoon, re-issued in 2005 as Rain ; London: Aark Arts,
- C. P. Surendran, Canaries on the Moon, Kozhikode: Yeti, Chennai.
- Mallika Sengupta, Carriers Of Fire, (translated from the original Bengali, Kolkata: Bhashanagar
Ireland
- Vona Groarke, Flight, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, Ireland
- Justin Quinn:
- * Fuselage Oldcastle: The Gallery Press,
- * Gathered Beneath the Storm: Wallace Stevens, Nature and Community, University College of Dublin Press, 2002
New Zealand
- James K. Baxter, The Tree House: James K. Baxter's Poems for Children, the first illustrated edition of his work for children
- Janet Charman, Snowing Down South, Auckland: Auckland University Press
- Alan Brunton, Fq, a sequence of 144 poems
- Cilla McQueen, Soundings, Otago University Press
- Mike Minehan, O Jerusalem: James K. Baxter an Intimate Memoir
- Kendrick Smithyman, posthumous:
- * Last Poems, Auckland: Holloway Press, designed by Tara hir poi a pek fhj nbb a: Auckland University Press
- Stephanie de Montalk, The Scientific Evidence of Dr Wang, Victoria University Press
- Kay McKenzie Cooke, Feeding the Dogs, Otago University Press)
Poets in ''Best New Zealand Poems''
- James K. Baxter
- Jenny Bornholdt
- Bernard Brown
- James Brown
- Alan Brunton
- Kate Camp
- Alistair Te Ariki Campbell
- Allen Curnow
- Leigh Davis
- Chloe Gordon
- Bernadette Hall
- Dinah Hawken
- Anna Jackson
- Jan Kemp
- James Naughton
- Gregory O'Brien
- Peter Olds
- Bob Orr
- Vincent O'Sullivan
- Chris Price
- Richard Reeve
- Elizabeth Smither
- Brian Turner
- Ian Wedde
- Nick Williamson
United Kingdom
- Neil Astley, editor, Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times
- Anthony Burgess, Revolutionary Sonnets and Other Poems, edited by Kevin Jackson
- Ciarán Carson: The Inferno of Dante Alighieri, Granta, awarded the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize
- Carol Ann Duffy, Feminine Gospels Picador
- Elaine Feinstein, Collected Poems and Translations, Carcanet
- James Fenton: An Introduction to English Poetry
- Paul Henry, The Slipped Leash, Seren
- Ted Hughes, Selected Poems, 1957–1994 ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- Glyn Maxwell, The Nerve ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- Sean O'Brien:
- *Cousin Coat: Selected Poems 1976–2001
- *With John Kinsella and Peter Porter, Rivers
- Alice Oswald:
- * Dart, Faber and Faber,
- * Co-editor, with Peter Oswald and Robert Woof), Earth Has Not Any Thing to Shew More Fair: A Bicentennial Celebration of Wordsworth's "Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge" Shakespeare's Globe & The Wordsworth Trust,
- John Heath-Stubbs, The Return of the Cranes
- Peter Redgrove, From the Virgil Caverns
- R.S. Thomas, Residues
- Hugo Williams, Collected Poems, Faber and Faber
United States
- Meena Alexander, Illiterate Heart, Evanston, Illinois: TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, by an Indian writing living in and published in the United States
- John Ashbery, Chinese Whispers
- Frank Bidart, Music Like Dirt, the only poetry chapbook ever nominated for a Pulitzer Prize
- Billy Collins, Nine Horses: Poems ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- Robert Creeley, guest editor, The Best American Poetry 2002
- Jim Dodge – Rain on the River
- Alan Dugan, Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- Michael S. Harper, Selected Poems, ARC Publications
- Paul Hoover, Winter Mirror,
- Kenneth Koch:
- *Sun Out: Selected Poems, 1952–1954, New York: Knopf
- *A Possible World, New York: Knopf
- Abba Kovner, Sloan-Kettering: Poems ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- Brad Leithauser, Darlington's Fall: A Novel in Verse ; a 5,700-line verse novel in 10-line stanzas, irregularly rhymed; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- Glyn Maxwell, The Nerve ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- J.D. McClatchy, Hazmat: Poems ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- Czesław Miłosz, New and Collected Poems: 1931–2001 ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- Paul Muldoon, Moy Sand and Gravel, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and Griffin Poetry Prize and shortlisted for the 2002 T. S. Eliot Prize
- Lorine Niedecker, Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works, edited by Jenny Penberthy, posthumous
- Mary Oliver, What Do We Know
- Molly Peacock, Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems
- Carl Phillips, Rock Harbor
- Marie Ponsot, Springing: New and Selected Poems ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- Claudia Rankine and Juliana Spahr, editors, American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Lyric Meets Language, Wesleyan University Press,, anthology including work by Lucie Brock-Broido, Harryette Mullen, Ann Lauterbach, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Brenda Hillman and Jorie Graham
- Margaret Reynolds, editor, The Sappho Companion Palgrave Macmillan,
- W. G. Sebald, After Nature ; a book-length poem; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
- Aharon Shabtai, Artzenu
- Adam Zagajewski, Without End: New and Selected Poems ; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
Poets in ''The Best American Poetry 2002''
- Rae Armantrout
- John Ashbery
- Amiri Baraka
- Charles Bernstein
- Anselm Berrigan
- Frank Bidart
- Jenny Boully
- T. Alan Broughton
- Michael Burkard
- Anne Carson
- Elizabeth Biller Chapman
- Tom Clark
- Peter Cooley
- Clark Coolidge
- Ruth Danon
- Diane di Prima
- Theodore Enslin
- Elaine Equi
- Clayton Eshleman
- Norman Finkelstein
- Jeffrey Franklin
- Benjamin Friedlander
- Gene Frumkin
- Forrest Gander
- Peter Gizzi
- Louise Glück
- Albert Goldbarth
- Donald Hall
- Michael S. Harper
- Everett Hoagland
- Fanny Howe
- Ronald Johnson
- Maxine Kumin
- Bill Kushner
- Joseph Lease
- Timothy Liu
- Mộng-Lan
- Jackson Mac Low
- Nathaniel Mackey
- Steve Malmude
- Sarah Manguso
- Harry Mathews
- Duncan McNaughton
- W. S. Merwin
- Philip Metres
- Jennifer Moxley
- Eileen Myles
- Maggie Nelson
- Charles North
- Alice Notley
- D. Nurkse
- Sharon Olds
- George Oppen
- Jena Osman
- Carl Phillips
- Pam Rehm
- Adrienne Rich
- Corinne Robins
- Elizabeth Robinson
- Ira Sadoff
- Hugh Seidman
- Reginald Shepherd
- Ron Silliman
- Dale Smith
- Gustaf Sobin
- Juliana Spahr
- John Taggart
- Sam Truitt
- Jean Valentine
- Lewis Warsh
- Claire Nicolas White
- Nathan Whiting
- Dara Wier
- Charles Wright
- John Yau
Works published in other languages
China
- Han Dong:
- * Baba zai tianshang kan wo, Hebei: jiaoyu chubanshe,
- *Jiaocha paodong, Dunhuang: wenyi chubanshe
- He Xiaozhu, 6 ge dongci, huo pingguo, Hebei: jiaoyu chubanshe
- Jimu Langge, Jingqiaoqiao de zuolun, Hebei: jiaoyu chubanshe
French language
Canada, in French
- Denise Desautels, Pendant la mort;;, Montréal: Québec Amérique
- Madeleine Gagnon, Le chant de la terre : Poèmes choisis 1978–2002, anthologie préparée par Paul Chanel Malenfant, Montréal, Typo
- Pierre Nepveu, Lignes aériennes, Montréal: Éditions du Noroît
- Madeleine Ouellette-Michalska, Le cycle des migrations, Montréal: Le Noroît
- Jean Royer, Poèmes de veille, Montréal: Le Noroît
France
- Chris Wallace-Crabbe, La Poésie Australienne, Valenciennes: Presses Universitaires,, French translation of the work of this Australian poet
India
Hindi
- Gulzar, Raat Pashmine Ki, New Delhi: Rupa& Co.; in both Urdu and Hindi
- Kunwar Narain, In Dino, New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan,
- Rituraj, Leela Mukharvinda, New Delhi: Medha Books
- Vinod Kumar Shukla, Atrikt Nahin, New Delhi: Vani Prakashan
Other in India
- Bharat Majhi, Saralarekha, Bhubaneswar: Paschima; Oriya-language
- Chandrakanta Murasingh, Ruphaini Buduk Ani Nogo, Agartala: Tripura Publisher: Agartala; Kokborok-language
- Gulzar, Raat Pashmine Ki, New Delhi: Rupa& Co.; in both Urdu and Hindi
- Joy Goswami, Horiner Jonyo Ekok, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers, ; Bengali-language
- K. Satchidanandan, Malayalam-language:
- * Bharateeya Kavitayile Pratirodha Paramparyam, ; scholarship
- * Vikku,
- K. Siva Reddy; Telugu-language:
- * Antarjanam, Hyderabad: Jhari Poetry Circle
- * Vrittalekhini, Hyderabad: Jhari Poetry Circle
- Kutti Revathi, Mulaigal. Chennai: Thamizhini; Tamil-language
- Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih; Kahsi-language:
- * Ka Samoi jong ka Lyer, Shillong: Author
- * Ki Mawsiang ka Sohra, Shillong: Author
- * Ki Jingkynmaw, Shillong: S. R. Lanong
- Nirendranath Chakravarti, Dekha Hobey, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers; Bengali-language
- Yash Sharma, Bedi Pattan Sanjh Mallah'', publisher: Vaasu Prakashan, Jammu; Dogri-language
Poland
- Ewa Lipska, Uwaga: stopień, Krakow: Wydawnictwo literackie
- Czesław Miłosz, Druga przestrzen ; Cracow: Znak
- Tadeusz Różewicz, Szara strefa, Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
- Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz, Zachód słońca w Milanówku, Warsaw: Sic!
Other languages
- Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Lutz Seiler, guest editor, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 2003, publisher: Beck; anthology
- Klaus Høeck, Projekt Perseus, publisher: Arena; Denmark
- Rami Saari, Kamma, Kamma milxama, Israel
- Maria Luisa Spaziani, Poesie dalla mano sinistra, Italy
- Wisława Szymborska: Chwila, Poland
- Søren Ulrik Thomsen, Det værste og det bedste, illustrated by Ib Spang Olsen; Denmark
Awards and honors
Australia
- C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Robert Gray, Afterimages
- Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize: After Images by Robert Gray
- Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Alan Wearne, The Lovemakers
- Mary Gilmore Prize: Geraldine McKenzie, Duty
Canada
- Gerald Lampert Award: Aislinn Hunter, Into the Early Hours
- Archibald Lampman Award: Armand Garnet Ruffo, At Geronimo's Grave
- Atlantic Poetry Prize: M. Travis Lane, Keeping Afloat
- The office of Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate is instituted, George Bowering is the first appointee and will serve until 2004
- 2002 Governor General's Awards: Roy Miki, Surrender ; Robert Dickson, Humains paysages en temps de paix relative
- Griffin Poetry Prize: Canada: Christian Bök, Eunoia; International, in the English Language: Alice Notley, Disobedience
- Pat Lowther Award: Heather Spears, Required Reading: A Witness in Words and Drawings to the Reena Virk Trials 1998-2000
- Prix Alain-Grandbois: Michel Beaulieu, Trivialités
- Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Karen Solie, Short Haul Engine
- Prix Émile-Nelligan: Benoît Jutras, Nous serons sans voix
New Zealand
- Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
- Montana New Zealand Book Awards First-book award for poetry: Chris Price, Husk, Auckland University Press
United Kingdom
- Cholmondeley Award: Moniza Alvi, David Constantine, Liz Lochhead, Brian Patten
- Eric Gregory Award: Caroline Bird, Christopher James, Jacob Polley, Luke Heeley, Judith Lal, David Leonard Briggs, Eleanor Rees, Kathryn Simmonds
- Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection): Peter Porter, Max is Missing ; Best First Collection: Tom French, Touching the Bones
- Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Peter Porter
- T. S. Eliot Prize : Alice Oswald, Dart
- Whitbread Award for poetry :
United States
- Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to Shao Wei for Pulling a Dragon's Teeth
- Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, Grace Schulman
- AML Awards for poetry to Kimberly Johnson for Leviathan with a Hook
- Arthur Rense Prize for poetry awarded to B.H. Fairchild by the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Timothy Donnelly, "His Long Imprison'd Thought"
- Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, Alice Fulton for Felt
- Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Anna George Meek, Acts of Contortion
- Frost Medal: Galway Kinnell
- National Book Award for poetry : Ruth Stone, In the Next Galaxy
- Poet Laureate of Virginia: George Garrett, two year appointment 2002 to 2004
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carl Dennis, Practical Gods
- Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award: Paul Fussell
- Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Lisel Mueller
- Wallace Stevens Award: Ruth Stone
- Whiting Awards: Elizabeth Arnold, David Gewanter, Joshua Weiner
- William Carlos Williams Award: Li-Young Lee, Book of My Nights, Judge: Carolyn Kizer
- Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Sharon Olds
Other
- Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature : Gert Jonke
Deaths
- February 9 – Ale Ahmad Suroor, 90, Indian Urdu-language poet
- May 1 – Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh , Bahraini poet
- June 14 – June Jordan, 65, Jamaican American poet, of breast cancer
- June 27 – Alan Brunton, 55, New Zealand poet and scriptwriter, died on visit to Amsterdam
- July 6 – Kenneth Koch, 77, American poet, of leukemia
- July 14 – Nabakanta Barua, also known as Ekhud Kokaideu, 75, Indian Assamese-language novelist and poet
- August 25 – Dorothy Hewett 79, Australian feminist writer
- September 27 – Charles Henri Ford, 89, American novelist, poet, filmmaker, photographer and collage artist
- October 21 – Harbhajan Singh, 82, Punjabi poet, critic, cultural commentator and translator
- October 28 – Annada Shankar Ray, 98, Bengali poet
- December 9 – Stan Rice, 60, American painter, educator, poet, husband of author Anne Rice, of brain cancer