1998 in poetry

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

Events

 * May 12 — John Montague is named as first holder of The Ireland Chair of Poetry.
 * August — English poet and playwright Tony Harrison's film-poem Prometheus is first shown.
 * Fall — Skanky Possum poetry magazine founded in Austin, Texas.
 * Samizdat poetry magazine founded in Chicago (it will run until 2004).

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

 * Robert Gray, New Selected Poems
 * Jennifer Harrison, Dear B (Black Pepper)
 * Frieda Hughes, Wooroloo, English-born Australian poet, originally published in United States by Harper Flamingo
 * John Leonard, editor, Australian Verse: An Oxford Anthology, Melbourne: Oxford University Press (anthology)
 * Philip Salom, New and Selected Poems. (Fremantle Arts Centre) ISBN 978-1-86368-218-3
 * John Tranter, Late Night Radio, Polygon Press
 * Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Whirling, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Canada

 * Gary Barwin, Outside the Hat, (Coach House Books) ISBN 978-1-55245-030-7
 * Stephen Cain, dislexicon (Coach House Books) ISBN 978-1-55245-027-7
 * Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse (Knopf); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
 * Margaret Christakos, The Moment Coming (Oakville: ECW)
 * Don Domanski, Parish of the Psychic Moon
 * Louis Dudek, The Poetry of Louis Dudek. Ottawa: The Golden Dog.
 * Paul Dutton, Aurealities, (Coach House Books) ISBN 978-0-88910-414-3
 * Michael Holmes, Satellite Dishes from the Future Bakery, (Coach House Books) ISBN 978-1-55245-004-8
 * Sylvia Legris, Iridium Seeds
 * Dorothy Livesay, Archive for Our Times: Previously Uncollected and Unpublished Poems of Dorothy Livesay, Irvine Dean ed. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press.
 * Michael Ondaatje, Handwriting, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart; New York: Knopf, 1999 ISBN 0-375-40559-3
 * E. J. Pratt, Selected Poems of E. J. Pratt, Sandra Djwa, W.J. Keith, and Zailig Pollock ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Canadian anthologies

 * Allan Forrie, Patrick O'Rourke, and Glen Sorestad, editors, In the Clear: A Contemporary Canadian Poetry Anthology, Saskatoon: Thistledown Press
 * Kwame Dawes, editor, Wheel and Come Again: An Anthology of Reggae Poetry, Fredericton, New Brunswick: Goose Lane

India, in English

 * Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, The Transfiguring Places ( Poetry in English ), Ravi Dayal, New Delhi, ISBN 81-7530-019-1
 * K. Satchidanandan, How to go to the Tao Temple, Har-Anand Publications, New Delhi.
 * Dilip Chitre, The Mountain, Pune: Vijaya Chitre

Ireland

 * Dermot Bolger, Taking my Letters Back: New and Selected Poems, Dublin: New Island Books
 * Ciaran Carson:
 * The Alexandrine Plan, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1-85235-218-9
 * The Twelfth of Never, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1-85235-235-6
 * Peter Fallon, News of the World, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1-85235-214-1

New Zealand

 * Raewyn Alexander, Concrete, Auckland: Penguin
 * Alan Brunton, Moonshine, Bumper Books
 * Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie, editors, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, Melbourne; Auckland: Oxford University Press
 * Kate Camp, Unfamiliar Legends of the Stars, Victoria University Press

United Kingdom

 * Ciarán Carson: The Alexandrine Plan, (adaptations of sonnets by Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Rimbaud); Gallery :Press, Wake Forest University Press
 * Carol Ann Duffy, The Pamphlet, Anvil Press Poetry
 * Paul Farley, The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You
 * Salena Godden, The Fire People
 * Seamus Heaney:
 * Audenesque, Maeght
 * Translator, Beowulf
 * Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996, Faber & Faber; in the United States, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux; a New York Times "notable book of the year" for 1999
 * Paul Henry, The Milk Thief, Seren
 * Ted Hughes:
 * Birthday Letters, (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); a verse chronicle of the author's relationship with Sylvia Plath, his late wife; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
 * Translator, Phedre
 * Jackie Kay, Off Colour United Kingdom
 * Peter Levi, Reed Music
 * Kevin MacNeil, Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides, Scottish poet published in Scotland
 * Andrew Motion, Selected Poems 1976–1997
 * Paul Muldoon, Hay
 * Carol Rumens, Holding Pattern
 * Jo Shapcott, My Life Asleep
 * Jon Stallworthy, Rounding the Horn

Anthologies in the United Kingdom

 * Simon Armitage and Robert Crawford, editors, Penguin Book of Poetry from Britain and Ireland Since 1945, Viking, ISBN 978-0-670-86829-2
 * Sean O'Brien, editor, The Firebox: Poetry in Britain and Ireland after 1945 (Picador), anthology
 * Lloyd Searwar, editor, They Came in Ships: An Anthology of Indo-Guyanese Prose and Poetry,Leeds: Peepal Tree

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom

 * Sean O'Brien, The Deregulated Muse: Essays on Contemporary British and Irish Poetry (Bloodaxe), criticism
 * John Heath-Stubbs, The literary essays of John Heath-Stubbs, edited by A.T. Tolley
 * Michael Schmidt, Lives of the Poets, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson

United States

 * John Ashbery:
 * The Mooring of Starting Out: The First Five Books of Poetry (Ecco) collection of the poet's work from 1956 to 1972; a New York Times "notable book of the year"
 * Wakefulness
 * Renée Ashley, The Various Reasons of Light
 * Ted Berrigan, Great Stories of the Chair
 * Henri Cole, The Visible Man
 * Billy Collins, Picnic, Lightning (ISBN 0-8229-4066-3)
 * Fanny Howe, Q
 * Deborah Garrison, A Working Girl Can't Win: And Other Poems, (Random House); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
 * Lee Harwood, Morning Light
 * Kenneth Koch, Straits: Poems, New York: Knopf
 * William Logan, Vain Empires: Poems, (Penguin, paper); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
 * W. S. Merwin:
 * Translator, East Window: The Asian Translations, translated poems from earlier collections, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press
 * The Folding Cliffs: A Narrative, a "novel-in-verse" New York: Knopf
 * Michael Palmer, The Lion Bridge: Selected Poems 1972-1995 (New Directions), first retrospective of Palmer's work selected by the author himself reprinting much work that had gone out of print
 * Carl Phillips, From the Devotions
 * Marie Ponsot, The Bird Catcher, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and finalist for the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize
 * Frederick Seidel Going Fast: Poems, (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
 * Mark Strand, Blizzard of One: Poems, (Knopf); a New York Times "notable book of the year"; by a Canadian native long living in and published in the United States
 * Patti Smith, Patti Smith Complete
 * James Tate, Shroud of the Gnomes: Poems, (Ecco); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
 * Richard Tayson, The Apprentice of Fever, winner of the 1997 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize
 * Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop, Well Well Reality (The Post-Apollo Press)

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

 * Laurence Breiner, An Introduction to West Indian Poetry, Cambridge University Press, scholarship
 * Kenneth Koch, Making Your Own Days: The Pleasures of Reading and Writing Poetry, New York: Scribner
 * Eric L. Haralson, editor, Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Chicago and London: Fitzroy Dearborn
 * Mary Oliver, Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse

Anthologies in the United States

 * Barbara Tran, Monique T. D. Truong, and Luu Truong Khoi, editors, Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry & Prose, New York: Asian American Writers' Workshop

Poets in The Best American Poetry 1998
Poems from these 75 poets were in The Best American Poetry 1999, general editor David Lehman, guest editor John Hollander:


 * Jonathan Aaron
 * Agha Shahid Ali
 * Dick Allen
 * A. R. Ammons
 * Daniel Anderson
 * James Applewhite
 * Craig Arnold
 * Sarah Arvio
 * John Ashbery
 * Frank Bidart
 * Robert Bly
 * George Bradley
 * John Bricuth
 * Anne Carson
 * Turner Cassity


 * Henri Cole
 * Billy Collins
 * Alfred Corn
 * James Cummins
 * Thomas M. Disch
 * Denise Duhamel
 * Lynn Emanuel
 * Irving Feldman
 * Emily Fragos
 * Debora Greger
 * Allen Grossman
 * Thom Gunn
 * Marilyn Hacker
 * Rachel Hadas
 * Donald Hall


 * Joseph Harrison
 * Anthony Hecht
 * Daryl Hine
 * Edward Hirsch
 * Richard Howard
 * Andrew Hudgins
 * Mark Jarman
 * Donald Justice
 * Brigit Pegeen Kelly
 * Karl Kirchwey
 * Carolyn Kizer
 * Kenneth Koch
 * John Koethe
 * Rika Lesser
 * Phillis Levin


 * Philip Levine
 * Rebecca McClanahan
 * J. D. McClatchy
 * Heather McHugh
 * Sandra McPherson
 * W. S. Merwin
 * Robert Mezey
 * A. F. Moritz
 * Thylias Moss
 * William Mullen
 * Eric Ormsby
 * Jacqueline Osherow
 * Robert Pinsky
 * Reynolds Price
 * Wyatt Prunty


 * Stephen Sandy
 * Alan Shapiro
 * Robert B. Shaw
 * Charles Simic
 * Mark Strand
 * James Tate
 * Sidney Wade
 * Derek Walcott
 * Rosanna Warren
 * Rachel Wetzsteon
 * Susan Wheeler
 * Richard Wilbur
 * C. K. Williams
 * Greg Williamson
 * Charles Wright

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:

Denmark

 * Klaus Høeck; Denmark:
 * Hjem, publisher: Gyldendal
 * Honeymoon, publisher: Gyldendal
 * Inger Christensen, Samlede digte ("Collected Poems")

France

 * Olivier Barbarant, Odes dérisoires et quelques autres un peu moins, publisher: Editions Champ Vallon, ISBN 978-2-87673-272-8
 * Salah Stetie, Fievre et guerison de l'icone
 * Jean-Michel Maulpoix, Domaine public

India
Listed in alphabetical order by first name:
 * Amarjit Chandan, Chhanna, Navyug, New Delhi; Punjabi-language
 * Anamika, Anushtup, Delhi: Kitab Ghar; Hindi-language
 * Gagan Gill, Yah Akanksha Samay Nahin, New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan, New Delhi, 1998, Bharatiya Jnanpith; Hindi-language
 * K. Satchidanandan, Apoornam, ("Imperfect"); Malayalam-language
 * Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, Ban Sngewthuh ia ka Poitri ("Understanding Poetry"), Shillong: Gautam Brothers; Khasi-language
 * Mallika Sengupta; Hindi-language:
 * Meyeder Aa Aaa Ka Kha, Kolkata: Prativas Publication
 * Translator, Akaler Madhye Saras, translation from the original Hindi of Kedarnath Singh, Kolkata: Sahitya Akademi
 * Manushya Puthiran, Itamum Iruppum, Nagercoil: Kalachuvadu Pathipagam, Tamil language
 * Prathibha Nandakumar, Kavadeyata ("Game of Cowry"), Bangalore: Kannada Sangha, Christ College
 * Raghavan Atholi, Mozhimattam, Kottayam: Sahitya Pravarthaka Cooperative Society (SPCS)
 * Rajendra Bhandari, Kshar/Akshar ("Perishable/ Imperishable"), Gangtok, Sikkim: Jana Paksha Prakashan; Nepali-language
 * Varavara Rao (better known as "VV"), Aa Rojulu ("Those Days"), Hyderabad: Akruti Printers

Poland

 * Stanisław Barańczak, Chirurgiczna precyzja ("Surgical Precision"), Krakow: a5
 * Zbigniew Herbert:
 * 89 wierszy, ("89 Poems"), Kraków: a5
 * Epilog burzy ("Epilogue to a Storm"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
 * Ewa Lipska:
 * Godziny poza godzinami ("Hours Beyond Hours"), selected poems, Warsaw: PIW
 * Życie zastępcze, Kraków: Wydawnictwo literackie
 * Jan Twardowski:
 * Bóg prosi o miłość - Gott fleht um Liebe, Krakow, Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie
 * Niebo w dobrym humorze, Warsaw: PIW
 * Adam Zagajewski, Trzej aniołowie, Three Angels (sic) Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie

Serbia

 * Dejan Stojanović, Krugovanje: 1978–1987 (Circling), Second Edition, Narodna knjiga–Alfa, Beograd

Spain

 * Matilde Camus, Fuerza creativa ("Creative strength")

Other languages

 * Christoph Buchwald, general editor, and Marcel Beyer, guest editor, Jahrbuch der Lyrik 1998/99 ("Poetry Yearbook 1998/99"), publisher: Beck; anthology
 * Ndoc Gjetja, Dhjata ime ("My Testament"); Albania
 * Haim Gouri Ha-Shirim ("The Poems"), in two volumes by an Israeli writing in Hebrew
 * Chen Kehua, Yinwei siwang er jingying de fanfu shipian ("Engaging in a Complicated Poetry for the Sake of Death ") Chinese (Taiwan)
 * Maria Luisa Spaziani, La traversata dell'oasi, Italy
 * Rahman Henry, Banbhojoner Moto Aundhokar ( Darkness as Picnic is), Bengali

Australia

 * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Coral Hull, Broken Land
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: No awards were presented this year
 * Mary Gilmore Prize: Lucy Dougan, Memory Shell

Canada

 * Archibald Lampman Award: Sandra Nicholls, Woman of Sticks, Woman of Stones
 * Atlantic Poetry Prize: Carmelita McGrath, To the New World
 * Gerald Lampert Award: Mark Sinnett, The Landing
 * 1998 Governor General's Awards: Stephanie Bolster, White Stone: The Alice Poems (English); Suzanne Jacob, La Part de feu / Le Deuil de la rancune (French)
 * Pat Lowther Award: Barbara Nickel, The Gladys Elegies
 * Prix Alain-Grandbois: Paul Chanel Malenfant, Fleuves
 * Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Patricia Young, What I Remember from My Time on Earth
 * Prix Émile-Nelligan: Tony Tremblay, Rue Pétrole-Océan

India

 * Sahitya Akademi Award : Arun Kamal for Naye Ilake Mein
 * Poetry Society India National Poetry Competition : K. Srilata for In Santa Cruz, Diagnosed Home Sick

New Zealand

 * Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
 * Montana New Zealand Book Awards (no award given in poetry category this year) First-book award for poetry: Kapka Kassabova, All Roads Lead to the Sea, Auckland University Press

United Kingdom

 * Cholmondeley Award: Roger McGough, Robert Minhinnick, Anne Ridler, Ken Smith
 * Eric Gregory Award: Mark Goodwin, Joanne Limburg, Patrick McGuinness, Kona Macphee, Esther Morgan, Christiania Whitehead, Frances Williams
 * Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection: Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters (Faber and Faber)
 * Forward Poetry Prize Best First Collection: Paul Farley, The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You (Picador)
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Les Murray
 * T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters (Faber and Faber)
 * Whitbread Award for poetry and for book of the year: Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters (Faber and Faber)
 * National Poetry Competition : Caroline Carver for Horse Underwater

United States

 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Shara McCallum, The Water Between Us
 * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: X.J. Kennedy
 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Horton Foote
 * American Academy of Arts and Letters: Robert Fagles elected a member of the Literature Department
 * American Book Award: Angela Y. Davis, "Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday"
 * American Book Award: Allison Hedge Coke, "Dog Road Woman", Coffee House Press "American Book Award 1998"
 * AML Award for poetry to Alex Caldiero for Various Atmospheres: Poems and Drawings
 * Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Sherod Santos, "Elegy for My Sister", and (separately) Neil Azevedo, "Caspar Hauser Songs"
 * Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Frank Bidart, Desire
 * National Book Award for poetry: Gerald Stern, This Time: New and Selected Poems
 * Poet Laureate of Virginia: Joseph Awad, two year appointment 1998 to 2000
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Charles Wright, Black Zodiac
 * Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: W.S. Merwin
 * Wallace Stevens Award: A. R. Ammons
 * William Carlos Williams Award: John Balaban, Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems, Judge: Robert Phillips
 * Whiting Awards: Nancy Eimers, Daniel Hall, James Kimbrell, Charles Harper Webb, Greg Williamson
 * Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Charles Simic

Births

 * Amanda Gorman, American poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 23 — John Forbes, 47 (born 1915), Australian poet
 * February 8
 * Enoch Powell, 85 (born 1912), British MP from 1950 to 1987, classicist and poet
 * Niall Sheridan, 85 (born 1912), Irish poet, fiction writer and broadcaster
 * March 23 — Hilda Morley, 81 (born 1916), American poet, after a fall
 * April 19 — Octavio Paz, 84 (born 1914), Mexican writer, poet, diplomat and winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature
 * April 21 — Ivan Chtcheglov, 65 (born 1933), French political theorist, activist and poet
 * April 30 — Nizar Qabbani, 75 (born 1923), Syrian diplomat, poet and publisher of Arabic poetry
 * May 29 — Philip O'Connor, 81 (born 1916), English writer and surrealist poet
 * June 25 — John Malcolm Brinnin, 81 (born 1916), American poet and critic
 * July 1 — Martin Seymour-Smith, 70 (born 1928), English poet, critic and biographer
 * July 14 — Miroslav Holub, 75 (born 1923), Czech poet and immunologist
 * July 28 — Zbigniew Herbert, 73 (born 1924), influential Polish poet, essayist and moralist
 * August 26 — Ryūichi Tamura 田村隆, 75 (born 1923), Japanese Shōwa period poet, essayist and translator of English-language novels and poetry
 * October 25 – Dick Higgins, 60 (born 1938), English-born poet, composer and early Fluxus artist with ties to the Language poets
 * October 28 — Ted Hughes, 68 (born 1930), English poet, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom since 1984
 * Date not known
 * Aimee Joan Grunberger, 44, American poet, of cancer
 * Michalis Katsaros (born 1919), Greek poet