2017 in poetry explained

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

Events

• May 23 – English poet Tony Walsh reads his 2013 poem "This is the place" to the crowds gathered in Albert Square, Manchester for a public vigil following this week's Manchester Arena bombing.
• June 23 – English-resident writer Ben Okri publishes his poem "Grenfell Tower, June 2017" in the Financial Times following this month's Grenfell Tower fire in London.

Anniversaries

• March 1 – Centenary of the birth of the American poet Robert Lowell.

Selection of works published in English

Australia

• Michael Farrell, I Love Poetry
• Alan Wearne, These Things Are Real
• Fiona Wright, Domestic Interior

Canada

• Billy-Ray Belcourt, This Wound Is a World
• Lorna Crozier, What the Soul Doesn't Want
• Nora Gould, Selah
• Aisha Sasha John, I have to live
• Benjamin Hertwig, Slow War
• Donato Mancini, Same Diff
• Julia McCarthy, All the Names Between
• Joshua Whitehead, Full-Metal Indigiqueer

Anthologies in Canada

New Zealand

• Airini Beautrais, Flow: Whanganui River Poems, Victoria University Press
• Kate Camp, The Internet of Things, Victoria University Press
• Paula Green, New York Pocket Book, Seraph Press

Poets in Best New Zealand Poems

These poets wrote the 25 poems selected for Best New Zealand Poems 2016 (guest editor was Jenny Bornholdt), published this year:

• Nick Ascroft
  • Tusiata Avia Airini Beautrais
• Hera Lindsay Bird
• James Brown

• Rachel Bush
• John Dennison
  • Ish Doney Lynley Edmeades
• Rata Gordon

• • Bernadette Hall Scott Hamilton
• Adrienne Jansen
• Andrew Johnston
• Anna Livesey

• Bill Manhire
• Leslie McKay
• Bill Nelson
• Claire Orchard
• Vincent O’Sullivan

• Kerrin P. Sharpe
• Marty Smith
• Oscar Upperton
• Tim Upperton
• Ashleigh Young

United Kingdom

England

• Megan Beech, You Sad Feminist
• Emily Berry, Stranger, Baby
• Kayo Chingonyi, Kumukanda
• Helen Dunmore (d. June 5), Inside the Wave
• Michael Longley, Angel Hill (Northern Irish poet published in England)
• Robert Macfarlane, The Lost Words: A Spell Book (illustrated by Jackie Morris)
• Hollie McNish, Plum
• Sinéad Morrissey, On Balance (Northern Irish poet published in England)
• Richard Osmond, Useful Verses

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom

United States

Alphabetical listing by author name

• Clark Coolidge, Selected Poems: 1962-1985, Station Hill Press
• Shara McCallum, Madwoman, Alice James Books
• Morgan Parker, There are More Beautiful Things than Beyoncé, Tin House Books

Poets in The Best American Poetry 2017

Awards and honors by country

• See also: List of poetry awards

Awards announced this year:

International

• Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Laureate:

Australia awards and honors

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

Canada awards and honors

• Archibald Lampman Award: Stephen Brockwell, All of Us Reticent, Here, Together
• Atlantic Poetry Prize: Jennifer Houle, The Back Channels
• 2017 Governor General's Awards: Richard Harrison, On Not Losing My Father's Ashes in the Flood (English), Louise Dupré, La Main hantée (French)
• Griffin Poetry Prize:
  • Canada: Jordan Abel, Injun
  • International: Alice Oswald, Falling Awake
  • Lifetime Recognition Award (presented by the Griffin trustees): Frank Bidart
• Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize: Louise Bernice Halfe
• Gerald Lampert Award: Ingrid Ruthig, This Being
• Pat Lowther Award: Sue Sinclair, Heaven's Thieves
• Prix Alain-Grandbois: Marie-Célie Agnant, Femmes des terres brûlées
• Raymond Souster Award: Louise Bernice Halfe, Burning in this Midnight Dream
• Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Adèle Barclay, If I Were in a Cage I’d Reach Out for You
• Prix Émile-Nelligan: François Guerrette, Constellation des grands brûlés

France awards and honors

• Prix Goncourt de la Poésie

New Zealand awards and honors

• Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:^[1]
  • Fiction: Witi Tame Ihimaera-Smiler
  • Nonfiction: Peter Simpson
  • Poetry: Paula Green
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards (poetry category):

United Kingdom awards and honors

• Cholmondeley Award: Caroline Bergvall, Sasha Dugdale, Philip Gross, Paula Meehan
• Costa Award (formerly "Whitbread Awards") for poetry:
  • Shortlist: Kayo Chingonyi, Kumukanda; Helen Dunmore (d. June 5), Inside the Wave (also overall Book of the Year winner); Sinéad Morrissey, On Balance; Richard Osmond, Useful Verses
• 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:
  • Best First Collection:
    • Shortlist:
  • Best Poem:
    • Shortlist:
• Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize for poetry:
  • Shortlist:
• Manchester Poetry Prize:
• National Poet of Wales:
• National Poetry Competition 2017:
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Paul Muldoon
• T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland):
  • Shortlist (announced in November 2017): 2017 Short List
• The Times / Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry Translation:

United States awards and honors

• Arab American Book Award (The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award):
  • Honorable Mentions:
• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize:
• Anisfield-Wolf Book Award:
• Best Translated Book Award (BTBA):
• Beatrice Hawley Award from Alice James Books:
• Bollingen Prize: to Jean Valentine
• Jackson Poetry Prize: to Patricia Spears Jones^[2]
  • Judges: Henri Cole, Kwame Dawes, and Mary Szybist^[3]
• 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 Tyehimba Jess for Olio
  • Finalists: XX by Campbell McGrath; Collected Poems: 1950-2012, by Adrienne Rich^[4]
• Wallace Stevens Award:
• Whiting Awards:
• PEN Award for Poetry in Translation:
• PEN Center USA 2017 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:

From the Poetry Society of America

• Frost Medal: to Susan Howe^[5]
• Shelley Memorial Award: to Gillian Conoley^[6]
• 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:

Conferences and workshops by country

United States

Deaths

January – June

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

• January 2 – John Berger, 90, English novelist, painter and art critic, and poet (b. 1926)
• January 25 – Harry Mathews, 86, American novelist and poet (b. 1930)^[7]
• February 5 – Thomas Lux, 70, American poet and teacher (b. 1946)
• February 8 – Tom Raworth, 78, British poet, visual artist, publisher, and teacher (b. 1938)
• March 10 – Mari Evans, 93, American poet.^[8] (b. 1923)
• March 16 – Wojciech Młynarski, 75, Polish poet, singer and songwriter (born 1941)^[9]
• March 17 – Derek Walcott, 87, Saint Lucian poet and playwright, Nobel Laureate in 1992 (b. 1930)^[10]
• March 22 – Joanne Kyger, 82, American poet who had ties to the poets of Black Mountain, the San Francisco Renaissance, and the Beat generation, (b. 1934)^[11]
• April 1 – Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet, 84 (b. 1933)^[12]
• May 24 – Denis Johnson, American poet (The Incognito Lounge), novelist (Tree of Smoke), and short story writer (Jesus' Son), 67 (b. 1947).
• June 5 – Helen Dunmore, English poet, novelist and children's writer, 64 (born 1952)
• June 8 - Shinichiro Hagihara, Japanese tanka poet

July – December

• November 15 – Michelle Boisseau, 62, American poet (b. 1955)^[13]

See also

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

Notes and References

1. News: 2017 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement: winners announced. Creative NZ. 13 November 2017. en. 18 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190518124640/http://www.creativenz.govt.nz/news/2017-prime-minister-s-awards-for-literary-achievement-winners-announced. live.
2. Web site: PATRICIA SPEARS JONES WINS $50,000 JACKSON POETRY PRIZE Poets & Writers . 2017-11-08 . 2018-10-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181006183718/https://www.pw.org/about-us/news-releases/patricia_spears_jones_wins_50000_jackson_poetry_prize . live .
3. Web site: Jackson Poetry Prize – Poets & Writers. www.pw.org. 12 February 2008 . 2017-06-02. 2017-07-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20170713011656/https://www.pw.org/about-us/jackson_poetry_prize. live.
4. Web site: Olio, by Tyehimba Jess (Wave Books). www.pulitzer.org. 2017-04-12. 2017-04-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20170412234952/http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/tyehimba-jess. live.
5. Web site: Announcing the 2017 Frost Medalist, Susan Howe - Poetry Society of America. www.poetrysociety.org. 2017-02-10. 2017-02-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20170211082754/http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/poetry/blog/announcing-the-2017-frost-medali/. live.
6. Web site: Gillian Conoley - Poetry Society of America. www.poetrysociety.org. 2018-01-06. 2018-01-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20180107061927/http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/awards/frost_and_shelley/shelley_winners/2017/. live.
7. Web site: Harry Mathews, 1930–2017. The Paris. Review. www.theparisreview.org. 26 January 2017 . 2017-02-04. 2017-02-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20170202035917/https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/01/25/harry-mathews-1930-2017/. live.
8. Web site: Late Indianapolis poet Mari Evans leaves legacy of social justice. 2017-03-18. 2019-02-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20190214182928/https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2017/03/11/famed-indianapolis-poet-mari-evans-leaves-legacy-social-justice/99055190/. live.
9. http://kultura.gazeta.pl/kultura/7,114526,21265584,wojciech-mlynarski-legenda-polskiej-piosenki-i-kabaretu.html Wojciech Młynarski nie żyje. Był legendą polskiej piosenki i kabaretu
10. News: Nobel laureate, poet and playwright Derek Walcott dead, aged 87. Richard. Lea. 17 March 2017. The Guardian. 17 March 2017. 18 March 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170318004458/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/17/nobel-laureate-poet-and-playwright-derek-walcott-dead-aged-87. live.
11. Web site: Joanne Kyger, trailblazing Beat poet, dies at 82. 23 March 2017 . 2017-03-25. 2017-03-24. https://web.archive.org/web/20170324223546/http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Joanne-Kyger-trailblazing-Beat-poet-dies-at-82-11021799.php. live.
12. News: Acclaimed Russian Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko Dead At 84. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. April 2017 . 2017-06-20. 2017-06-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20170609003402/https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-poet-yevgeny-yevtushenko-dies-84/28404937.html. live.
13. Web site: Michelle Boisseau . Guggenheim Foundation . 3 June 2019 . 2 June 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190602160720/https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/michelle-boisseau/ . live .