2016 in poetry

• January 14 – Egyptian poet Omar Hazek, who was released from prison in September 2015, is prevented from leaving Egypt to receive the 2016 Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression.^[1][2]
• January 26 – Egyptian poet Fatima Naoot is sentenced to three years in prison, found guilty of "contempt of religion." Naoot goes to prison immediately and must appeal from there.^[3][4]
• American poets Hawona Sullivan Janzen and Clarence White participate in public art project Rondo Family Reunion in Saint Paul, Minnesota.^[5]

• January 25 – the 125th birthday of Osip Mandelstam.^[6]
• March 5 – semicentenary of the death of Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet (Requiem)
• March 27 – 90th birthday of Frank O'Hara.^[7] (See July 25)
• April 24 – centenary of the start of the Easter Rising in Dublin, which inspired W. B. Yeats’s poem "Easter, 1916".
• May 21 – 90th birthday of Robert Creeley (d. 2005).
• June 7 – semicentenary of the death of Jean Arp, French sculptor, painter and poet, leader in Dadaism
• July 11 – semicentenary of the death of Delmore Schwartz, American poet, Bollingen Prize winner and short story writer ("In Dreams Begin Responsibilities")
• July 25 – semicentenary of the death of Frank O'Hara, American poet and key member of the New York School of poetry. (See March 27)
• August 29 – semicentenary of the death of Melvin Tolson, American poet Modernist poet, educator, columnist, and politician
• September 25 – semicentenary of the death of Mina Loy, British-born American artist, poet, Futurist and actor
• September 28 – semicentenary of the death of André Breton, French poet, essayist and theorist; the leading exponent of Surrealism in literature

• Brook Emery, Have Been and Are, Gloria SMH Press. ISBN 978-0-9945-2753-0

• Disney, Dan & Kelen, Kit (eds.) (2016), Writing to the Wire, UWA Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7425-8866-7

• Gwen Benaway, Passage
• Joe Denham, Regeneration Machine
• Steven Heighton, The Waking Comes Late
• Susan Holbrook, Throaty Wipes
• Garry Thomas Morse, Prairie Harbour
• Rachel Rose, Marry & Burn
• Gregory Scofield, Witness, I Am

• Sudeep Sen, Erotext, Penguin Books, ISBN 978-93-858905-8-1

• Tusiata Avia, Fale Aiutu – Spirit House, Victoria University Press, ISBN 9781776560646

These poets wrote the 25 poems selected for Best New Zealand Poems 2015 - guest editor was John Newton, published this year:

• Jay Bernard, The Red and Yellow Nothing
• Emily Berry, Anne Carson and Sophie Collins, If I'm Scared We Can't Win (Penguin Modern Poets)
• Brian Bilston, You Took the Last Bus Home^[8]
• Rachael Boast, Void Studies
• Vahni Capildeo, Measures of Expatriation (Trinidad-born poet)
• Melissa Lee-Houghton, Sunshine
• Hollie McNish, Nobody Told Me
• Alice Oswald, Falling Awake
• Ruth Padel, Tidings – A Christmas Journey
• Denise Riley, Say Something Back
• Kae Tempest, Let Them Eat Chaos
• Rebecca Watts, The Met Office Advises Caution

• Michel Faber, Undying: a love story (Dutch-born writer)

• Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke, The Map and the Clock: A Laureates' Choice of the Poetry of Britain and Ireland

Alphabetical listing by author name

• Jos Charles, Safe Space (Ahsahta Press)
• Matthew and Michael Dickman, Brother (Faber)
• Tyehimba Jess, Olio
• Ben Lerner, No Art (collection incorporating three previous volumes)
• Amanda Lovelace, The Princess Saves Herself in This One
• Michael Palmer, The Laughter of the Sphinx (New Directions)
• Ocean Vuong, Night Sky With Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press)
• C. D. Wright. ShallCross (Copper Canyon Press)

• J.D. McClatchy. Sweet Theft: A Poet's Commonplace Book
• C. D. Wright. The Poet, The Lion, Talking Pictures, El Farolito, A Wedding in St. Roch, The Big Box Store, The Warp in the Mirror, Spring, Midnights, Fire & All (Copper Canyon Press)

• Antony Theodore, Du bist die Seele meins Seins (Ventura Verlag), ISBN 978-39-408533-9-4

Awards announced this year:

• Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Laureate : Margaret Atwood

• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry:
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry:

• Archibald Lampman Award: Pearl Pirie, the pet radish, shrunken
• Atlantic Poetry Prize: Susan Goyette, The Brief Reincarnation of a Girl
• 2016 Governor General's Awards: Steven Heighton, The Waking Comes Late (English); Normand de Bellefeuille, Le poème est une maison de bord de mer (French)
• Griffin Poetry Prize:
  • Canada: Liz Howard, Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent^[9]
  • International: Norman Dubie, The Quotations of Bone^[10]
  • Lifetime Recognition Award (presented by the Griffin trustees): Adam Zagajewski.^[11]
• Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize: Gregory Scofield^[12]
• Gerald Lampert Award: Ben Ladouceur, Otter
• Pat Lowther Award: Lorna Crozier, The Wrong Cat
• Prix Alain-Grandbois: Rosalie Lessard, L'observatoire
• Raymond Souster Award: Lorna Crozier, The Wrong Cat
• Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Raoul Fernandes, Transmitter and Receiver
• Prix Émile-Nelligan: Jonathan Lamy, La vie sauve

• Prix Goncourt de la Poésie:

• Sahitya Akademi Award : Papineni Sivasankar for Rajanigandha (Telugu)
• Jnanpith Award : Shankha Ghosh

• Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards (poetry category):

• Cholmondeley Award: Maura Dooley, David Morley, Peter Sansom, Iain Sinclair
• Costa Award (formerly "Whitbread Awards") for poetry:
  • Shortlist: Melissa Lee-Houghton, Sunshine; Alice Oswald, Falling Awake; Denise Riley, Say Something Back; Kae Tempest, Let Them Eat Chaos
• English Association's Fellows' Poetry Prizes:
• Eric Gregory Award (for a collection of poems by a poet under the age of 30):
• Forward Poetry Prize:
  • Best Collection:
    • Shortlist: Vahni Capildeo, Measures of Expatriation
  • Best First Collection:
    • Shortlist: Tiphanie Yanique, Wife
  • Best Poem:
    • Shortlist:
• Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize for poetry:
  • Shortlist:
• Manchester Poetry Prize:
• National Poet of Wales:
• National Poetry Competition : Stephen Sexton for The Curfew
• T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Jacob Polley, Jackself
  • Shortlist (announced in November 2016): 2016 Short List
• The Times / Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry Translation:
• Wilfred Owen Poetry Award: Carol Ann Duffy

• Arab American Book Award (The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award):
  • Honorable Mentions:
• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Erin Adair-Hodges for Let's All Die Happy^[13]
• Anisfield-Wolf Book Award:
• Best Translated Book Award (BTBA):
• Beatrice Hawley Award from Alice James Books:
• Jackson Poetry Prize: Will Alexander (poet)^[14]
  • Judges: Elizabeth Alexander, Rae Armantrout, and Terrance Hayes ^[15]
• Lambda Literary Award:
  • Gay Poetry:
  • Lesbian Poetry:
• Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize:
• Los Angeles Times Book Prize:
  • Finalists:
• National Book Award for Poetry (NBA):
  • NBA Finalists:
  • NBA Longlist:
  • NBA Judges:
• National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry:
• The New Criterion Poetry Prize:
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (United States): to Ozone Journal by Peter Balakian
  • Finalists: to Four-Legged Girl by Diane Seuss; and to Alive: New and Selected Poems by Elizabeth Willis
• Wallace Stevens Award:
• Whiting Awards:
• PEN Award for Poetry in Translation:
• PEN Center USA 2016 Poetry Award:
• PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry: (Judges: )
• Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Award:
• Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize:
• Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award:
• Walt Whitman Prize – – Judge:
• Yale Younger Series:

• Frost Medal:
• Shelley Memorial Award:
• Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award:
• Lyric Poetry Award:
• Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award:
• Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Student Poetry Award:
• George Bogin Memorial Award:
• Robert H. Winner Memorial Award:
• Cecil Hemley Memorial Award:
• Norma Farber First Book Award:
• Lucille Medwick Memorial Award:
• William Carlos Williams Award: (Judge: )
  • Finalists for WCW Award:

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• January 1 – Fazu Aliyeva, 83 (born 1932), Russian Avar poet and journalist
• January 6 – Nivaria Tejera, 86 (born 1929), Cuban poet and novelist
• January 9 – Zelimkhan Yaqub, 66 (born 1950), Azerbaijani poet
• January 12 – C. D. Wright, 67 (born 1949), American poet who was the former poet laureate of Rhode Island and winner of the 2009 International Griffin Poetry Prize^[16]
• January 15 – Francisco X. Alarcón, 61 (born 1954), Chicano-American poet who was born in California and grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico^[17][18]
• January 19 – Laurence Lerner, 90 (born 1925), South African-born English-language poet and academic
• February 7 – Andrew Glaze, 90 (born 1920), American poet appointed 11th Poet Laureate of Alabama in 2013
• February 8 – Nida Fazli, 77 (born 1938), Indian poet and lyricist^[19]
• February 21 – Akbar Ali, 90 (born 1925), Indian Kannada poet^[20]
  • Miroslav Nemirov, 54 (born 1961), Russian poet
• March 5 – Rafael Squirru, 90 (born 1925), Argentine author, art critic and poet
• April 13 – Jock Scot, 63 (born 1952), Scottish performance poet
• April 30 – Daniel Berrigan, 94 (born 1921), American Jesuit priest, poet, peace activist and recidivist (one of Catonsville Nine); winner of Lamont Prize for his book of poems Time Without Number
• June 4 – Alexander Glezer [ru], 82, Russian poet.^[21]
• June 16 – Bill Berkson, 76, American poet and art critic, heart attack.^[22]
• June 25 – Adam Small, 79, South African writer and poet, winner of the Hertzog Prize. (born 1936).^[23]
• June 30 – Sir Geoffrey Hill, 84, English poet

• July 1 – Yves Bonnefoy, 93, French poet, essayist, translator, and critic (born 1923)^[24]
• September 3 – Peter Oresick, 60, American poet (born 1955)
• September 4 – Novella Matveyeva, 81, Russian poet and singer-songwriter (born 1934)
• October 14 – Brigit Pegeen Kelly, American poet (born 1951)
• October 28 – Jolanda Insana, 79, Italian poet and translator, Viareggio Prize recipient^[25]
• December 27 – Anthony Cronin, 92, Irish poet (born 1928)
• December 30 – Judith Ortiz Cofer, 64, Puerto Rican American poet and educator^[26]
• December 31 – David Meltzer, 79, American poet and musician^[27]

• Poetry
• List of years in poetry
• List of poetry awards