1982 in poetry

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

Events

 * March 1 – Dylan Thomas posthumously honoured by a floor plaque in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey
 * September – The New Criterion founded in New York City
 * October – Canadian documentary film Poetry in Motion released
 * Final edition of This magazine published in Canada

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:

Australia

 * M. Duwell, editor, A Possible Contemporary Poetry (scholarship)
 * Chris Mansell, Head, Heart & Stone (Fling Publishers)
 * Les Murray:
 * Equanimities
 * The Vernacular Republic: Poems 1961-1981, Angus & Robertson; Edinburgh, Canongate; New York, Persea Books, 1982 and (enlarged and revised edition) Angus & Robertson, 1988
 * A. Paolucci and L. Dobrez, editors, Review of National Literatures: Australia (scholarship)

Canada

 * Margaret Atwood, The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English (anthology)
 * Margaret Avison, Winter Sun /The Dumbfounding: Poems 1940-66
 * Dionne Brand, Primitive Offensive
 * Don Domanski, War in an Empty House
 * Robert Finch, Twelve for Christmas.
 * Diane Keating, No Birds or Flowers
 * Irving Layton, A Wild Peculiar Joy: Selected Poems, 1945-82 Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
 * Gwendolyn MacEwen:
 * The Fire Eaters.
 * The T. E. Lawrence Poems
 * Earth-Light: Selected Poetry 1963-1982. Toronto: General Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7736-1117-7
 * Elizabeth Smart, Eleven Poems
 * Michael Ondaatje, Running in the Family, memoir, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-01637-4, ISBN 0-7710-6884-0
 * Wilfred Watson, Mass on Cowback.
 * Phyllis Webb, The Vision Tree: Selected Poems

India, in English

 * Keki Daruwalla, The Keeper of the Dead ( Poetry in English ), winner of the Central Sahitya Academy Award in 1984; Delhi: Oxford University Press
 * Nissim Ezekiel, Latter-Day Psalms ( Poetry in English ),
 * Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Distance in Statute Miles ( Poetry in English ),
 * Suniti Namjoshi, The Authentic Lie ( Poetry in English ), Fredericton, New Brunswick: Fiddlehead, ISBN 0-86492-010-5

Ireland

 * Dermot Bolger, No Waiting America
 * Harry Clifton, Comparative Lives, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 978-0-904011-33-3
 * Pearse Hutchinson, Selected Poems, including "Malaga" and "Gaeltacht", Oldcastle: The Gallery Press
 * Paul Muldoon, Out of Siberia, Northern Ireland native published in the United Kingdom
 * Seamus Heaney: Poems and a Memoir, Limited Editions Club, Northern Ireland native living at this time in the United States
 * Derek Mahon:
 * The Hunt by Night, including "Courtyards in Delft", "Rathlin" and "Tractatus", Oxford University Press, Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
 * Translator, The Chimeras, Gallery Press, translation from the French of Les Chimères by Nerval
 * John Montague, Selected Poems, including "A Drink of Milk", "Family Conference" and "The Cave of Night"

New Zealand

 * Fleur Adcock (New Zealand poet who moved to England in 1963), editor, Oxford Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry, Auckland: Oxford University Press
 * Allen Curnow, You Will Know When You Get There: Poems 1979–81
 * W. Ihimaera and D. S. Long, Into the World of Light: An Anthology of Maori Writing
 * Bill Manhire, Good Looks, New Zealand
 * Cilla McQueen, Homing In, winner of the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry and the 1983 Jessie MacKay Award
 * W. H. Oliver, Poor Richard: Poems, Wellington: Port Nicholson Press, New Zealand

United Kingdom

 * Peter Ackroyd, The Great Fire of London
 * James Berry, Lucy's Letters and Loving
 * Sir John Betjeman, Uncollected Poems
 * Roald Dahl, Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes
 * Patric Dickinson, A Rift in Time
 * Carol Ann Duffy, Fifth Last Song, Headland
 * Douglas Dunn, Europa's Lover
 * Gavin Ewart, More Little Ones (see All My Little Ones, 1978)
 * U. A. Fanthorpe, Standing To
 * James Fenton, The Memory of War: Poems 1968-1982, Salamander Press,
 * Geoffrey Grigson:
 * Collected Poems, 1963–1980
 * The Cornish Dancer, and Other Poems
 * Thom Gunn, The Passages of Joy
 * Seamus Heaney: Poems and a Memoir, Limited Editions Club, Northern Ireland native living at this time in the United States
 * Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, editors, The Rattle Bag, Faber, anthology
 * John Heath-Stubbs, Naming the Beasts
 * Alan Hollinghurst, Confidential Chats with Boy
 * Ted Hughes, Selected Poems 1957–1981
 * Kathleen Jamie, Black Spiders
 * Roger McGough, Waving at Trains
 * Derek Mahon, The Hunt By Night. Oxford University Press
 * Paul Muldoon, Out of Siberia, Northern Ireland native published in the United Kingdom
 * Nerval, The Chimeras, a version of Les Chimères, translated from French by Derek Mahon, Gallery Press
 * Norman Nicholson, Selected Poems 1940–82
 * Tom Rawling, Ghosts At My Back
 * Jeremy Reed, A Man Afraid
 * E. J. Scovell, The Space Between
 * Muriel Spark, Going Up to Sotheby's and Other Poems

United States

 * A. R. Ammons, Worldly Hopes
 * Louise Simone Bennett, Selected Poems
 * Hayden Carruth, The Sleeping Beauty
 * Nicholas Christopher, On Tour with Rita
 * Robert Creeley:
 * Echoes
 * The Collected Poems, 1945–1975
 * James Dickey, Puella
 * Jack Gilbert, Monolithos
 * Allen Ginsberg, Plutonian Ode: Poems 1977–1980
 * H.D. (Hilda Doolittle, died 1961), Notes on Thought and Vision (written in 1919)
 * Seamus Heaney: Poems and a Memoir, Limited Editions Club, Northern Ireland native living at this time in the United States
 * Jane Hirshfield, Alaya
 * Phyllis Janowitz, Visiting Rites
 * Galway Kinnell, Selected Poems
 * Denise Levertov, Candles in Babylon
 * William Logan, Sad-faced Men
 * James Merrill:
 * The Changing Light at Sandover, an epic poem
 * From the First Nine Poems
 * W. S. Merwin, Finding the Islands, San Francisco: North Point Press
 * Reynolds Price, Vital Provisions
 * Peter Seaton, The Son Master (New York: Roof Books, The Segue Foundation)
 * Gjertrud Schnackenberg, Portraits and Elegies
 * Mona Van Duyn, Letters from a Father and Other Poems
 * Theodore Weiss, Recoveries
 * James Wright, This Journey

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

 * William Meredith, Reasons for Poetry, and The Reason for Criticism

Other in English

 * Edward Brathwaite, Sun Poem, Caribbean poet living and publishing in the United States
 * Mafika Gwala, No More Lullabies, South Africa
 * Dennis Scott, Dreadwalk, Jamaica

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

France

 * Aimé Césaire, Moi, laminaire, Martinique author published in France; Paris: Editions du Seuil
 * Odysseus Elytis, Marie de Brumes translated by Xavier Bordes into French from the original Greek
 * Abdellatif Laabi, translator, Rires de l'arbre à palabre from the original Arabic of Abdallah Zrika into French; Paris: L'Harmattan

India
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
 * Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Sare Sukhan Hamare, Indian, Urdu-language
 * Gitaujali Badruddin, Poems of Gitaujali (posthumously published)
 * Jayant Kaikini, Kotitirtha, Sagar, Karnataka: Akshara Prakashana, Indian, Kannada-language poet, short-story writer, and screenwriter
 * K. Satchidanandan, Malayalam-language:
 * Janatayum Kavitayum, ("Poetry and the People"); criticism
 * Venal Mazha, ("The Summer Rain")
 * Rajendra Kishore Panda, Shailakalpa ("Mountainesque"), Cuttack: Grantha Mandir, Oraya-language
 * Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi, Soch ka Safar (The Journey of Thought) - published by R.K.Sehgal, Bazm-e-Seemab, J 5/21, Rajouri Garden, New Delhi in 1982. Urdu
 * Saroop Dhruv, Mara Hathni Vat, Ahmedabad: Nakshatra Trust, Ahmedabad; Gujarati-language

Poland

 * Ryszard Krynicki, Jeżeli w jakimś kraju ("If in Some Country). Underground publisher S.i.s.n.
 * Ewa Lipska, Nie o śmierć tutaj chodzi, lecz o biały kordonek ("Death Is Not at Stake, But the White Cord"), selected poems, Kraków: Wydawnictwo literackie
 * Czesław Miłosz, Hymn o Perle ("The Poem of the Pearl"); Paris: Instytut Literacki
 * Tadeusz Różewicz, Pułapka ("The Trap"), Warszawa: Czytelnik
 * Adam Zagajewski, List - Oda do wielosci ("Letter - An Ode to Quantity"), Kraków: Pólka Poetów, (republished in 1983, Paris: Instytut literacki)

Spain

 * Matilde Camus:
 * Testimonio ("Testimony")
 * La preocupación de Miguel Ángel ("The concern of Miguel Angel")

Other

 * Arturo Corcuera, Puente de los Suspiros, Peru
 * Odysseus Elytis, Three Poems under a Flag of Convenience (Τρία ποιήματα με σημαία ευκαιρίας), Greece
 * Ndoc Gjetja, E përditshme ("The Daily"), Albania
 * Klaus Høeck, Eno Zebra, with Asger Schnack, Denmark
 * Alexander Mezhirov, Проза в стихах ("Prose in Verse") (winner of the USSR State Prize, 1986), Russia, Soviet Union
 * Nizar Qabbani, A Poem For Balqis, Syrian poet writing in Arabic
 * Rajendra Shah, Prasang-Spatak, Indian, writing in Gujarati
 * Søren Ulrik Thomsen, Ukendt under den samme måne ("Unknown Under the Same Moon"), Denmark
 * Marie Uguay, Autoportraits, French-Canadian (posthumous)
 * Silvia Volckmann, Zeit der Kirschen? Das Naturbild in der deutschen Gegenwartslyrik (scholarship), West Germany

Australia

 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Fay Zwicky, Kaddish and Other Poems

Canada

 * Gerald Lampert Award: Abraham Boyarsky, Schielber and Edna Alford, A Sleep Full of Dreams
 * 1982 Governor General's Awards: Phyllis Webb, The Vision Tree: Selected Poems (English); Michel Savard, Forages (French)
 * Pat Lowther Award: Rona Murray, Journey
 * Prix Émile-Nelligan: Jocelyne Felx, Orpailleuse and Philippe Haeck - La Parole verte

United Kingdom

 * Cholmondeley Award: Basil Bunting, Herbert Lomas, William Scammell
 * Eric Gregory Award: Steve Ellis, Jeremy Reed, Alison Brackenbury, Neil Astley, Chris O'Neill, Joseph Bristow, John Gibbens, James Lasdun

United States

 * Academy of American Poets Fellowship: John Ashbery and John Frederick Nims
 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Lawrence Joseph, Shouting at No One
 * National Book Award: William Bronk for Life Supports (April 27)
 * Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Gerald Stern, "Father Guzman"
 * Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Anthony Hecht appointed this year.
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Sylvia Plath: The Collected Poems
 * Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: John Frederick Nims and John Ashbery
 * North Carolina Poet Laureate: Sam Ragan appointed.

Births

 * January 14
 * Joe Dunthorne, Welsh novelist and poet
 * Luke Wright, English performance poet
 * April 27 – Patricia Lockwood, American poet
 * Paul-Henri Campbell, German American poet
 * Roger Robinson, British dub poet
 * Chris Tse, New Zealand poet, short story writer and editor

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 19 – Marya Zaturenska, 80 (born 1902), American lyric poet, of heart failure
 * March 11 – Horace Gregory, 83 (born 1898), American poet
 * March 15 – Edgell Rickword, 83 (born 1898), English poet, critic, journalist and literary editor, a leading communist intellectual active in the 1930s
 * March 18 – Yao Kitabatake 北畠 八穂, 78 (born 1903), Japanese, Shōwa period poet and children's fiction writer
 * April 20
 * Archibald MacLeish, 89 (born 1892), American poet
 * Aco Šopov, 59 (born 1923), Macedonian poet
 * June 5 – Junzaburō Nishiwaki 西脇順三郎, 88 (born 1894), Japanese, Shōwa period poet and literary critic
 * June 6 – Kenneth Rexroth, 76 (born 1905), American poet, of a heart ailment
 * June 18 – Djuna Barnes, 90 (born 1892), American writer and poet
 * July 20 – Okot p'Bitek, 51 (born 1931), Ugandan poet
 * October 22 – Richard Hugo, 58 (born 1923), American poet, of leukemia
 * November 13 – Babette Deutsch, 87 (born 1895), American poet
 * December 3 – Bishnu Dey, 73 (born 1909), Bengali poet, prose writer and movie critic