Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events
January 29 – Poet Dana Gioia, who had retired early from his career as a corporate executive at General Foods to write full-time, becomes chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States government's arts agency. February 12 – After First Lady Laura Bush invites a number of poets to the White House for this date, one of them, Sam Hamill, starts organizing a protest in which poets would bring anti-war poems. The conference is postponed, but Hamill organizes a "Poets Against the War" Web site with contributions from others. More than 5,000 poems are contributed, including work by John Balaban, Gregory Orr, Rita Dove, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Adrienne Rich, Stanley Kunitz, Marilyn Nelson, Jay Parini, Jamaica Kincaid, Grace Paley and U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Also on the Web site, W. S. Merwin contributes the statement: "To arrange a war in order to be re-elected outdoes even the means employed in the last presidential election. Mr. Bush and his plans are a greater danger to the United States than Saddam Hussein." The new group, "Poets Against the War", organizes poetry readings for February 12 across the country, demonstrating the strong links between many established poets and left-wing pacifism. Knowles, Joe, "Poets Against the War", In These Times, February 14, 2003, accessed January 25, 2007. July 2 – In the aftermath of public controversy ignited by state poet laureate Amiri Baraka (b. 1934) reading his incendiary and anti-Semitic poem "Somebody Blew Up America" about the September 11th Attacks, and Baraka's subsequent refusals to resign from the position, New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey signs legislation abolishing the post of Poet Laureate of New Jersey.New Jersey State Legislature. "An Act concerning the State poet laureate and repealing P.L.1999, c.228." from Laws of the State of New Jersey (P.L.2003, c.123). Approved 2 July 2003.Pearce, Jeremy. "When poetry seems to matter" in The New York Times (9 February 2003). Early November – Carl Rakosi celebrates his 100th birthday with friends at the San Francisco Public Library.
The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry is opened at Queens University, Belfast, this year. It houses the Heaney Media Archive, a unique record of Heaney's entire oeuvre, as well as a full catalogue of his radio and television presentations.Website This same year Heaney decides to lodge a substantial portion of his literary archive at Emory University. Call: Review, an American little magazine, is founded by poet John Most.
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
Judith Beveridge, Wolf Notes, winner of the 2004 Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award Pam Brown, Dear Deliria (New & Selected Poems), winner of the 2004 NSW Premier's Award for Poetry. Laurie Duggan, Mangroves Brook Emery, Misplaced Heart, Five Islands Press. John Kinsella, Peripheral Light Alison Croggon, The Common Flesh: Poems 1980–2002, Arc, Geoff Page, editor The Indigo Book of Modern Australian Sonnets, Indigo (anthology) Chris Wallace-Crabbe, A Representative Human, Brunswick: Gungurru Press
Canada Derek Beaulieu, with wax (Coach House Books) George Bowering, Baseball: A Poem in the Magic Number 9 (Coach House Books) Di Brandt, Now You Care (Coach House Books) Anne Compton, Opening the Island Joe Denham, Flux Jill Hartman, A Painted Elephant (Coach House Books) Raymond Knister, After Exile. complete poems compiled by Gregory Betts (Exile, 2003)Raymond Knister, After Exile, (Toronto: Exile, 2003). Google Books, Web, Apr. 2, 2011 Dennis Lee, Un. Toronto: Anansi."Dennis Lee: Publications ," Canadian Poetry Online, UToronto.ca, Web, Apr. 19, 2011. Tim Lilburn, Kill-site, winner of the Governor General's Award Don McKay, Varves, a chapbook W.W.E. Ross, Irrealities, Sonnets & Laconics. (Exile Editions, 2003)W.W.E. Ross, ''Irrealities, Sonnets & Laconics. (Exile Editions, 2003), Google Books, Web, Apr. 8, 2011. Anne Simpson Loop, shortlisted for the 2003 Governor General's Award, winner of the 2004 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, Raymond Souster, Twenty-three New Poems. Ottawa: Oberon Press."Notes on Life and Works ," Selected Poetry of Raymond Souster, Representative Poetry Online, UToronto.ca, Web, May 7, 2011. Nathalie Stephens, Paper City (Coach House Books) Suzanne Zelazo, Parlance (Coach House Books)
India, in English Hemant Divate, Virus Alert, translated from the original Marathi language poetry- by Dilip Chitre; Mumbai : PoetrywalaWeb page titled "Hemant Divate" , Poetry International website, retrieved July 10, 2010 Jerry Pinto, Asylum and Other Poems (Poetry in English), Allied Publishers, Web page titled "Jerry Pinto" , Poetry International website, retrieved July 11, 2010 Sudeep Sen: Distracted Geography: An Archipelago of Intent (Poetry in English), Wings Press, ; Leeds: Peepal Tree, ; (reprinted 2004, New Delhi : Indialog Publications, 2004, )Web page titled "Sudeep Sen" , Poetry International website, retrieved July 28, 2010 Prayer Flag (Poetry in English) with a compact disc and photographs; New York : Wings Press, 2003, ; Leeds: Peepal Tree, Sachin Ketkar, A Dirge for the Dead Dog and other Incantations (Poetry in English), New Delhi : Sanbun PublishersWeb page titled "Sachin Ketkar" , Poetry International website, retrieved July 27, 2010 Ajmer Rode, Selected Poems, by a Punjabi; Third Eye Publications, Web page titled "Ajmer Rode" , at the Poetry International website, retrieved July 6, 2010
Ireland Rosita Boland, Dissecting the Heart, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, Ciaran Carson, Breaking News, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, Michael Coady, One Another, (poems and prose), Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, Gerald Dawe, Lake Geneva, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press,
New Zealand Jenny Bornholdt, Summer Robin Hyde, Young Knowledge: the poems of Robin Hyde, edited and introduced by Michele Leggott, Auckland: Auckland University Press, posthumous
Poets in Best New Zealand Poems Poems from these 25 poet s were selected by Elizabeth Smither for Best New Zealand Poems 2002, published online this year:
Jenny Bornholdt Diana Bridge Rachel Bush Kate Camp Glen Colqu houn Murray Edmond Paula Green Michael Harlow David Howard Andrew Johnston Anne Kennedy Michele Leggott Emma Neale Bob Orr Chris Orsman Vincent O'Sullivan Bill Sewell Anna Smaill Kendrick Smithyman C. K. Stead Robert Sullivan Jo Thorpe Rae Varcoe Louise Wrightson Sonja Yelich
United Kingdom Gerry Cambridge, Madame Fi Fi's Farewell and other poems, Luath Press, "Publications" page , Gerry Cambridge website, retrieved December 1, 2008 Vahni Capildeo, No Traveller Returns, Caribbean poet Ciarán Carson, Breaking News, Gallery Press, Wake Forest University Press, awarded the 2003 Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection Julia Darling, Sudden Collapses in Public Places Carol Ann Duffy, The Good Child's Guide to Rock N Roll, Faber and Faber (children's poetry)O’Reilly, Elizabeth (either author of the "Critical Perspective" section or of the entire contents of the web page, titled "Carol Ann Duffy" at Contemporary Poets website, retrieved May 4, 2009. 2009-05-08. James Fenton, The Love Bomb, verse written as a libretto for a composer who rejected it; Penguin / Faber and Faber Web page titled "Books by Fenton" at the James Fenton Web site, accessed October 11, 2007 Lavinia Greenlaw, Minsk, Faber and Faber Peter Redgrove, Sheen Simawe, Saadi, editor, Iraqi Poetry Today, London: King's College,
Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom R. F. Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. II: The Arch-Poet 1915–1939, Oxford University Press Matthew Campbell, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry, Cambridge University Press
United States Dick Allen, The Day Before: New Poems (Sarabande Books) Mark Bibbins, Sky Lounge (Graywolf Press) Charles Bukowski, sifting through the madness for the Word, the line, the way (Ecco) Henri Cole, Middle Earth (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); a New York Times "notable book of the year" Cid Corman, Now/Now Annie Finch, Calendars Richard Greenfield, A Carnage in the Lovetress (University of California Press) John Hollander, Picture Window William Logan, Macbeth in Venice Howard Nemerov, The Selected Poems of Howard Nemerov, edited by Daniel Anderson (Swallow/Ohio University) published posthumously); a New York Times "notable book of the year" Mary Oliver, Owls and Other Fantasies: poems and essays Willie Perdomo, Smoking Lovely James Reiss, Riff on Six: New and Selected Poems Kenneth Rexroth, Complete Poems (posthumous) Margaret Reynolds, The Sappho History (scholarship), Palgrave Macmillan, C. J. Sage, editor, And We The Creatures: Fifty-one Contemporary American Poets on Animal Rights and Appreciation (Dream Horse Press) Charles Simic, The Voice at 3:00 a.m.: Selected Late & New Poems (Harvest Books)(Harcourt); a New York Times "notable book of the year" Tracy K. Smith, The Body's Question won the 2002 Cave Canem Prize for best first book by an African American poet (Graywolf Press) Rosmarie Waldrop, Love, Like Pronouns (Omnidawn Publishing) William Carlos Williams and Louis Zukofsky, The Correspondence of William Carlos Williams & Louis Zukofsky, edited by Barry Ahearn (Wesleyan University Press) Kirby Wright, Before the City (Lemon Shark Press); winner of the San Diego Book Award for Poetry
Poets included in The Best American Poetry 2003 The 75 poets included in The Best American Poetry 2003, edited by David Lehman, co-edited this year by Yusef Komunyakaa:
Jonathan Aaron Beth Anderson Nin Andrews Wendell Berry Frank Bidart Diann Blakely Bruce Bond Catherine Bowman Rosemary Catacalos Joshua Clover Billy Collins Michael S. Collins Carl Dennis Susan Dickman Rita Dove Stephen Dunn Stuart Dybek Charles Fort James Galvin Amy Gerstler Louise Glück Michael Goldman Ray Gonzalez Linda Gregg Mark Halliday Michael S. Harper Matthea Harvey George V. Higgins Edward Hirsch Tony Hoagland Richard Howard Rodney Jones Joy Katz Brigit Pegeen Kelly Galway Kinnell Carolyn Kizer Jennifer L. Knox Kenneth Koch John Koethe Ted Kooser Philip Levine J. D. McClatchy W. S. Merwin Stanley Moss Heather Moss Paul Muldoon Peggy Munson Marilyn Nelson Daniel Nester Naomi Shihab Nye Ishle Yi Park Robert Pinsky Kevin Prufer Ed Roberson Vijay Seshadri Myra Shapiro Alan Shapiro Bruce Smith Charlie Smith Maura Stanton Ruth Stone James Tate William Tremblay Natasha Trethewey David Wagoner Ronald Wallace Lewis Warsh Susan Wheeler Richard Wilbur C. K. Williams Terence Winch David Wojahn Robert Wrigley Anna Ziegler Ahmos Zu-Bolton II
Works published in other languages
French language
France Seyhmus Dagtekin, Couleurs démêlées du ciel, publisher: L'Harmattan; Kurdish Turkish poet writing in French Abdellatif Laabi, Moroccan author writing in French: L'automne promet, La Différence, coll. Clepsydre, Paris Les Fruits du corps, La Différence, coll. Clepsydre, Paris Œuvre poétique, La Différence, coll. Œuvre complète, Paris
Canada, in French Denise Desautels, La marathonienne, avec estampes de Maria Cronopoulos, Montréal: Éditions de la courte échelleWeb page titled "Denise Desautels" at L’Académie des lettres du Québec website (in French), retrieved October 20, 2010 2003 * Jean Royer, Demeures du silence, Trois-Rivières: Écrits des Forges / Esch-sur-Alzette: Éditions PhiWeb page titled "Jean Royer" at L’Académie des lettres du Québec website (in French), retrieved October 20, 2010
Germany