1978 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events

 * Bloodaxe Books is established by Neil Astley in Newcastle upon Tyne, England
 * L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine, edited by Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein, is first published in the United States
 * Stevie, a film based on a play about the poet Stevie Smith is released

Works published in English
Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

Canada

 * Margaret Avison, Sunblue
 * Earle Birney, Fall by Fury & Other Makings. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
 * Dionne Brand, Fore Day Morning: Poems
 * William Wilfred Campbell, Vapour and Blue: Souster selects Campbell. Raymond Souster ed. Paget Press.
 * Leonard Cohen, Death of a Lady's Man
 * Don Domanski, Heaven
 * Phyllis Gotlieb, The Works: Collected Poems
 * George Benson Johnston, Taking a Grip: Poems 1971-78.
 * Irving Layton, The Love Poems of Irving Layton. Toronto: Canadian Fine Editions.
 * Irving Layton, The Tightrope Dancer. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
 * Dennis Lee, The Gods. Vancouver: Kanchenjunga Press.
 * Pat MacKay, The Pat Lowther Poem
 * Sean O'Huigin, The Inks and the Pencils and the Looking Back
 * Michael Ondaatje, Elimination Dance/La danse eliminatoire, Ilderton: Nairn Coldstream; revised edition, Brick, 1980
 * Craig Powell, Rehearsal for Dancers
 * Al Purdy, Being Alive
 * Joe Rosenblatt, Loosely Tied Hands. Black Moss.
 * A.J.M. Smith The Classic Shade: Selected Poems
 * Peter Trower, Bush Poems
 * Sean Virgo, Deathwatch on Skidegate Narrows
 * Miriam Waddington, Mister Never
 * Wilfred Watson, I Begin With Counting
 * George Woodcock:
 * The Kestrel and Other Poems of Past and Present. Sunderland, Durham: Coelfrith Press, Canada
 * Thomas Merton, Monk and Poet: A Critical Study, Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, and Seattle: University of Washington Press, criticism

India in English

 * K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Microcosmographia Poetica, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India.
 * Ketaki Kushari Dyson, Sap-wood, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India.
 * Margaret Chatterjee, The Sound of Wings, New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann

Ireland

 * Seamus Heaney, After Summer, Gallery Press, Northern Ireland poet published in Dublin
 * Thomas McCarthy, The First Convention, including "State Funeral" Dublin: Dolmen Press
 * Tom Paulin, Personal Column, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom

New Zealand

 * Alan Brunton, Oh Ravachol, Red Mole

United Kingdom

 * Peter Ackroyd, Country Life
 * Al Alvarez, Autumn to Autumn and Selected Poems 1953–1976
 * Gillian Clarke, The Sundial, Welsh
 * D. J. Enright, Paradise Illustrated
 * Gavin Ewart, All My Little Ones (see also More Little Ones 1982)
 * James Fenton, A Vacant Possession, poems, TNR Publications
 * Roy Fisher, The Thing About Joe Sullivan
 * Geoffrey Grigson, The Fiesta and Other Poems
 * Tony Harrison, From the School of Eloquence, and Other Poems
 * Seamus Heaney, After Summer, Gallery Press, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom
 * John Heath-Stubbs, The Watchman's Flute
 * Geoffrey Hill, Tenebrae, including the sonnet sequences "Lachrimae" and "An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England"
 * Ted Hughes:
 * Cave Birds
 * Moon-Bells, and Other Poems, for children
 * A. Norman Jeffares, W. B. Yeats: Man And Poet, United Kingdom, biography, revision of the first edition of 1948
 * Jenny Joseph, The Thinking Heart
 * Philip Larkin, Femmes Damnees
 * Liz Lochhead, Islands
 * George MacBeth, Buying a Heart (first published in the United States 1977)
 * Hugh MacDiarmid, pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve (died September 9), Collected Poems 1920–1976, two volumes (posthumous)
 * John Montague, The Great Cloak
 * Andrew Motion, The Pleasure Steamers
 * Norman Nicholson, The Shadow of Black Combe
 * Tom Paulin, Personal Column, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom
 * Craig Raine, The Onion, Memory
 * Tom Rawling, A Sort of Killing
 * Carol Rumens, A Necklace of Mirrors
 * Jon Stallworthy, A Familiar Tree
 * D. M. Thomas, The Honeymoon Voyage
 * R. S. Thomas, Frequencies
 * Jeffrey Wainwright, Heart's Desire

United States

 * Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise
 * Paul Blackburn (died 1971), translator, Proensa: An Anthology of Troubadour Poetry
 * Joseph Payne Brennan, As Evening Advances (Crystal Visions Press)
 * Robert Creeley:
 * Hello
 * Later
 * Ed Dorn:
 * Hello, La Jolla, Wingbow Press, ISBN 978-0-914728-24-5
 * Selected Poems, edited by Donald Allen, Grey Fox Press
 * Cynthia Dubin Edelberg, Robert Creeley's Poetry: A Critical Introduction, Albuquerque, New Mexico (criticism)
 * Nikki Giovanni, Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day
 * John Hollander, Spectral Emanations
 * bell hooks, And There We Wept: poems
 * James McMichael, The Lover’s Familiar
 * James Merrill, Mirabell: Books of Number
 * W. S. Merwin, Feathers From the Hill, Iowa City, Iowa: Windhover
 * Eugenio Montale, The Storm & Other Poems, translated by Charles Wright into English from the original Italian; Oberlin College Press, ISBN 0-932440-01-0
 * Mary Oliver:
 * The Night Traveler
 * Twelve Moons
 * George Oppen, Primitive (Black Sparrow Press)
 * Mary Oppen (George Oppen's wife), Meaning a Life, a memoir (Black Sparrow Press)
 * Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language
 * Peter Seaton, Agreement (New York: Asylum's Press and Eclipse Archive)
 * Patti Smith, Babel
 * William Stafford, Stories That Could Be True
 * Mark Strand, The Late Hour, Canadian native living in and published in the United States
 * Rosmarie Waldrop, The Road Is Everywhere or Stop This Body (Open Places)
 * James Wright, To a Blossoming Pear Tree
 * Louis Zukofsky:
 * A (University of California Press)
 * 80 Flowers

Other in English

 * Jennifer Maiden, Birthstones, Angus & Robertson, Australia

Works in other languages
Listed by language and often by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

Arabic language

 * Nazir Qabbani, Syrian:
 * I Love You, and the Rest is to Come
 * To Beirut the Feminine, With My Love
 * May You Be My Love For Another Year

France

 * Noureddine Aba, Gazelle au petit matin, Algerian writer
 * Yves Bonnefoy, Poèmes (1947–1975)
 * Jean-Pierre Faye, Verres
 * Jean Daive, Le cri-cerveau
 * Philippe Denis, Revif
 * Emmanuel Hocquard, Les Dernieres nouvelles de l'expédition sont datées du 15 février 17 [...]
 * Edmond Jabès, Le Soupçon Le Désert
 * Joyce Mansour, Faire Signe au machiniste
 * Robert Marteau, Traité du blanc et des tientures
 * Yves Martin, Je fais bouillir mon vin
 * Claude Royet-Journoud, La Notion d'obstacle
 * Jean Max Tixier, editor, Poètes de sud, anthology; publisher: Rijois
 * Alain Veinstein, Vers l'absence de soutien

Canada

 * Marcel Bélanger:
 * Fragments paniques
 * Infranoir
 * Normand de Bellefeuille, La Belle Conduite

Germany

 * Alfred Andersch, Empōrt euch der Himmel ist blau
 * Ingeborg Bachmann, works, in a four-volume edition
 * Konrad Beyer, Gesamtwerk
 * Nicolas Born, Gedichte 1967-1978
 * Erich Fried, Die bunten Getûme
 * J. Hans, U. Herms, and R. Thenior, Lyrik-Katalog Bundesrepublik, anthology
 * Thomas Mann, Tagebücher 1933-1934
 * Johannes Schenk (writer), Zittern
 * Kurt Tucholsky, Die Q-Tagebücher 1934-1935

Criticism, scholarship and biography in Germany

 * Walter Hinck, Von Heine zu Brecht. Lyrik im Geschichtsprozess (scholarship)
 * Walter Hinderer, editor, Gesch. der politschen Lyrik in Deutschland, Stuttgart (scholarship)
 * William H. Rey, Poesie der Antipoesie: Moderne deutsche Lyrik Genesis, Theorie, Struktur, Heidelberg, ISBN 3-7988-0520-2 (scholarship)

Hebrew language

 * D. Avidan, a poetry book
 * P. Sadeh, a poetry book
 * E. Megged, a poetry book
 * M. Ben-Shaul, a poetry book
 * Zelda (poet), a poetry book

India
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
 * Buddhidhari Singha, Smrti-Sahasri, a kavya, Maithili-language
 * Debarati Mitra, Jubaker Snan, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers, Kolkata; Bengali-language
 * Dilip Chitre, Kavitenantarchya Kavita, Vacha Prakashan, Aurangabad; Marathi-language
 * Jaya Mehta, Venetian Blind; Indian poet writing in Gujarati
 * K. Satchidanandan, Indian Sketchukal ("Indian Sketches"); Malayalam-language
 * K. Siva Reddy, Netra Dhanussu, Hyderabad: Jhari Poetry Circle, Telugu-language
 * Nirendranath Chakravarti, Aaj Shokaaley, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers; Bengali-language
 * Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Moe-n jo dado poems read on cassette; Gujarati-language
 * Varavara Rao (better known as "VV"), Swechcha or Svecha ("Freedom"), Hyderabad: Yuga Prachuranalu; Telugu-language

Italy

 * Mario Luzi, Al Fuoco della controversia
 * Leonardo Sinisgalli, Dimenticatoio
 * Eugenio Montale, Tutte le poesie
 * Franco Fortini, Una volta per sempre, poesie 1938-1973

Norway

 * Hans Børli, Dag og Drøm: Dikt i utvalg ("Day and Dream") (Norway)
 * Paal Brekke, Dikt 1949-1722 (Norway)
 * Halldis Moren Vesaas, Dikt i samling (Norway)

Poland

 * Stanisław Barańczak, Sztuczne oddychanie ("Artificial Respiration"), London: Aneks
 * Ryszard Krynicki, Nasze zycie rośnie. Wiersze ("Our Life is Growing: Poems"); Paris: Instytut Literacki
 * Ewa Lipska, Piaty wybor wierszy ("Fifth Collection of Verse"); Warsaw: Czytelnik
 * Z. Jarosiński and H. Zawarska, editors, Antologia polskiego futuryzmu i Nowej Sztuki, anthology
 * Adam Zagajewski, List ("A Letter"), Poznañ: Od Nowa

Portuguese language

 * Rui Knopfli, O Escriba Acocorado (Portugal)
 * Waldimir Diniz, Até o 8° round (Brazilian)
 * Cassiano Nunes, Madrugada (Brazilian)
 * Accioly Lopes, his first volume of verse (Brazilian)

Spain

 * Eduardo Haro Ibars, Perdiddas blancas
 * Féliz de Asúa, Pasar y siete canciones (he also published a novel this year, Les lecciones suspendidas)
 * Luis Antonio de Villena, Viaje a Bizancio
 * Pere Gimferrer, a collection of his verse translated from Catalan to Castilian by the author
 * García Hortelano, editor, anthology of verse by the Generation of the '50s, including Caballero Bonald, Ángel González, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Carlos Barral

Latin America

 * Alfonso Calderón, Poemas para Clavecin ("Poems for Harpsichord"), Chile
 * Arturo Corcuera, Los Amantes, Peru
 * Oscar Hahn, Arte de morir
 * Pablo Neruda (died 1973), Para nacer he nacido, previously unpublished diary entries, memoirs and other writings, put out by his widow, Matilde de Neruda and Miguel Otero Silva (of Venezuela)
 * Luis Alberto Spinetta, Guitarra Negra (Black Guitar) - first edition of the only book written by the singer Luis Alberto Spinetta of Argentina.

Sweden

 * Tomas Tranströmer, Sanningsbarriāren
 * Tobias Berggren, Bergsmusik
 * Eva Runefelt, Aldriga och barnsliga trakter

Yiddish

 * Shoyme Roitman, a poetry book
 * Rachel Boymvol, a poetry book
 * Jacob Shargel, a poetry book
 * Hayyim Plotkin, a poetry book

Other

 * Odysseus Elytis, Μαρία Νεφέλη ("Maria Nefeli"), Greece
 * Joseph Brodsky, editor of two expatriate Russian poetry anthologies:
 * Konets prekrasnoy epokh: Stikhotvoreniya 1964-71
 * Chast' rechi: Stkikhotvoreniya 1972-76
 * Klaus Høeck, Denmark:
 * Skygger, publisher: Swing
 * Topia eller Che Guevara
 * Seán Ó Ríordáin, Tar éis mo Bháis ("After my Death"), Ireland
 * Sjón, Sýnir ("Visions"), Iceland

Canada

 * See 1978 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

United Kingdom

 * Cholmondeley Award: Christopher Hope, Leslie Norris, Peter Reading, D. M. Thomas, R. S. Thomas
 * Eric Gregory Award: Ciaran Carson, Peter Denman, Christopher Reid, Paul Wilkins, Martyn A. Ford, James Sutherland-Smith

United States

 * AML Award for "Poetry Honorable Mention" Clinton F. Larson for "The Western World " and Marden J. Clark for "God's Plenty" and Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown for "Grandmother"
 * 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 Meredith appointed this year.
 * National Book Award for Poetry: Howard Nemerov, The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Howard Nemerov, The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
 * Walt Whitman Award: Karen Snow, Wonders
 * Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Josephine Miles

France

 * Guillaume Apollinaire prize: Jean-Claude Renard, La Lumière du silence

Other

 * Cuba: Casa de las Américas prize for poetry: Claribel Alegria of El Salvador, for Sobrevivo
 * Soviet Union: USSR State Prize: Andrei Voznesensky

Births

 * June 7 – Jesse Ball, American poet and writer
 * October 24 – Kei Miller, Jamaican-born poet and writer
 * September 4 – Natalie Diaz, Mojave American poet, language activist, professional basketball player and educator
 * Also
 * Jen Hadfield, English poet and visual artist
 * J. O. Morgan, Scottish poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 20 – Gilbert Highet, 71, Scottish-American classicist, academic, writer, intellectual, critic and literary historian, of cancer
 * February 2 – G. Sankara Kurup, 76 (born 1901), Indian Malayalam-language poet
 * February 22 – Phyllis McGinley, 72 (born 1905), American children's story writer and poet
 * March 19 – Faith Baldwin, 84, American romantic novelist and poet
 * March 22 – John Hall Wheelock, 91, American poet
 * April 14 – F. R. Leavis, 82, English literary critic
 * April 16 – Elizabeth Rebecca Ward, 97, English versifier
 * April 28 – Walter Fischer, 77, Austrian medical doctor, journalist, radio broadcaster, translator, poet, anti-fascist resistance fighter and Communist Party official
 * May 1 – Sylvia Townsend Warner, 84, English novelist and poet
 * May 12 – Louis Zukofsky, 74, American modernist poet
 * July 2 – Aris Alexandrou, 56, Greek poet
 * June 3 – Frank Stanford, 29, American poet, by suicide
 * September 9 – Hugh MacDiarmid, 86, Scottish poet
 * Also:
 * Sankara Kurup (born 1901), Indian, Malayalam-language poet
 * P. Kunhiraman Nair (born 1909), Indian, Malayalam-language poet
 * J. Rodolfo Wilcock (born 1919), Argentine author and poet