Overview of the events of 2015 in poetry
Overview of the events of 2015 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Selection of works published in English
Africa
Australia
Canada
Anthologies in Canada
New Zealand
Poets in Best New Zealand Poems
These poets wrote the 25 poems selected for Best New Zealand Poems 2014 (guest editor was Vincent O'Sullivan), published this year:
United Kingdom
England
- Mona Arshi, Small Hands
- Sarah Crossan, One (young adult novel in verse, Irish author published in UK)
- George the Poet, Search Party
- Thomas Grey (died 1928), Poems on the Great War
- Sarah Howe, Loop of Jade
- Clive James
- Sentenced to Life
- Latest Readings
- Bhanu Kapil, Ban en Banlieue
- Frances Leviston, Disinformation
- Sean O'Brien, The Beautiful Librarians
- Sam Riviere, Kim Kardashian’s Marriage
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Anthologies in the United Kingdom
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom
United States
Anthologies in the United States
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States
- David Biespiel, A Long High Whistle: Selected Columns on Poetry (Antilever Press)
- David Schneider, Crowded by beauty: The Life and Zen of Poet Philip Whalen (University California Press)
Poets in The Best American Poetry 2015
The 2015 edition of The Best American Poetry is guest-edited by Native American poet and novelist Sherman Alexie
Awards and honors by country
Awards announced this year:
International
Australia awards and honors
Canada awards and honors
- Archibald Lampman Award: Shane Book, Congotronic
- Atlantic Poetry Prize: Susan Paddon, Two Tragedies in 429 Breaths
- 2014 Governor General's Awards: Robyn Sarah, My Shoes Are Killing Me (English); Joël Pourbaix, Le mal du pays est un art oublié (French)
- Griffin Poetry Prize: (Judges: Tim Bowling, Fanny Howe, Piotr Sommer)
- Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize: Karen Solie
- Gerald Lampert Award: Kayla Czaga, For Your Safety Please Hold On
- Pat Lowther Award: Sina Queyras, MxT
- Prix Alain-Grandbois: André Roy, La très grande solitude de l'écrivain pragois Franz Kafka
- Raymond Souster Award: Patrick Lane, Washita
- Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Cecily Nicholson, From the Poplars
- Prix Émile-Nelligan: Rosalie Lessard, L'observatoire
France awards and honors
Italian awards and honors
- Premio Letterario Camaiore:
- Italy: Nicola Vacca, Luce nera (Milano, Marco Saya, 2015)
- International: Claribel Alegría, Voci(Samuele Editore, 2015)
- Special award: Franco Marcoaldi, Il mondo sia lodato (Torino, Einaudi, 2015)
- Honorable mentions:
- Italian poetry: Antonio Porta, Carmelo Pistillo Perché tu mi dici: poeta? (edited by Carmelo Pistillo & Fabio Jermini, Milano, La Vita Felice, 2015)
- Russian Poetry: Solomon Volkov, Dialoghi con Josif Brodskij (edited by Gala Dobrynina, Roma, Lieto Colle, 2015)
- Section "Vittorio Grotti": Davide Maria Quarracino, Frangiflutti (Roma, LietoColle, 2015)
New Zealand awards and honors
United Kingdom awards and honors
United States awards and honors
- Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize:
- AML Award for Poetry awarded to Hive by Christina Stoddard
- Finalists: Glyphs by Colin Douglas, Lake of Fire: Landscape Meditations from the Great Basin Deserts of Nevada by Justin Evans, Let Me Drown With Moses by James Goldberg
- Arab American Book Award (The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award):
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award: Marilyn Chin for Hard Love Province
- Best Translated Book Award (BTBA):
- Beatrice Hawley Award from Alice James Books:
- Bollingen Prize: to Nathaniel Mackey
- Jackson Poetry Prize:
- Lambda Literary Award:
- Gay Poetry: Danez Smith, [insert] boy
- Lesbian Poetry: Valerie Wetlaufer, Mysterious Acts by My People
- Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize:
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize:
- National Book Award for Poetry (NBA)
- NBA Longlist; Finalists (†); Winner (
)
- Ross Gay, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude;†
- Amy Gerstler, Scattered at Sea;
- Marilyn Hacker, A Stranger’s Mirror: New and Selected Poems, 1994-2014;
- Terrance Hayes, How to Be Drawn;†
- Jane Hirshfield, The Beauty;
- Robin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable Venus;†
![Blue ribbon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Blueribbon_icon.png)
- Ada Limón, Bright Dead Things;†
- Patrick Phillips, Elegy for a Broken Machine;†
- Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Heaven;
- Lawrence Raab, Mistaking Each Other for Ghosts.
- NBA Judges: Sherman Alexie, Willie Perdomo, Katha Pollitt, and Tim Seibles[12]
- National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry:
- Finalists (Winner -
)
- The New Criterion Poetry Prize:
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (United States): Digest by Gregory Pardlo
- Wallace Stevens Award: Joy Harjo[14]
- Whiting Awards: Anthony Carelli, Aracelis Girmay, Jenny Johnson, Roger Reeves
- PEN Award for Poetry in Translation: to Eliza Griswold, I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan, translated from the Pashto.[15] – Judge: Ana Božičević[15]
- PEN Center USA 2015 Poetry Award: Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric[16]
- PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry: (Judges: )
- Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Award:
- Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Alice Notley[17]
- Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award:
- Walt Whitman Prize – - Judge:
- Yale Younger Series:
From the Poetry Society of America
Deaths
January – June
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
- January 1 – Miller Williams, 84 (born 1930), American poet, maybe best known for reading the inaugural poem at US President Bill Clinton's second inauguration.[19][20]
- January 4 – Michele Serros, 48 (born 1966), American novelist and poet, who was a staff writer for the George Lopez Show.[21][22]
- January 29 – Rod McKuen, 81 (born 1933), American poet, singer and songwriter ("Jean", "Seasons in the Sun") who was one of the bestselling poets of the 1960s[23]
- February 4 – Martin Green, 82 (born 1932), English author, poet and publisher
- February 14 – Philip Levine, 87 (born 1928), American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and a former Poet Laureate of the United States.[24][25]
- April 15 – Tomas Tranströmer, 83 (born 1931), Swedish poet and translator who gained significant recognition during his lifetime. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature (1990), and the Nobel Prize in Literature (2011).[26][27]
- May 14 – Franz Wright, 62, US poet who received the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, an award his father, poet James Wright, also received in 1972.[28]
July – December
- July 8 – James Tate, 71 (born 1943), American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (for his Selected Poems published in 1991).[29]
- July 26 – Lee Harwood, 76 (born 1939) British poet associated with the British Poetry Revival.
- July 30 – Kenneth Irby, 78 (born 1936), American poet who received the Shelley Memorial Award, and was sometimes associated with the Black Mountain poets.[30]
- August 22:
- November 8 – Abdul Razzak Abdul Wahid, 85 (born 1930), Iraqi poet.
- November 11 – Madeline DeFrees, 95 (born 1919), Canadian-born American poet who was awarded the 2002 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.[34]
- November 23 – Jamiluddin Aali, 90 (born 1925), Pakistani Urdu poet, critic, playwright, essayist, columnist and scholar.
- November 25 – Judith Fitzgerald, 63 (born 1952), Canadian poet and journalist.[35]
- November 29 – Christopher Middleton, 89 (born 1926), British poet and translator.
- December 5 – William McIlvanney, 79 (born 1936), Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet.
- December 24 – Justin Chin, 46, San Francisco-based poet who was born in Malaysia, but had been active in the Bay Area since the early 1990s[36]