Poetry newslog August 2004

January 18, 2006 August 15, 2004
Czeslaw Milosz, 1911-2004
Polish Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz died at his home in Krakow, the BBC reports. Milosz, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1980, was known for his stance against totalitarianism, and the communist rule in Poland in particular. He is considered one of the greatest Polish poets and intellectuals of the 20th century. Another Nobel laureate, Russian poet Joseph Brodsky – quoted in a lengthy obituary in the New York Times – said of Milosz: “I have no hesitation whatsoever in stating that Czeslaw Milosz is one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the greatest.”

August 12, 2004
Kooser US poet laureate
Poet Ted Kooser has been made the new US poet laureate, the BBC reports. The eight-month position is currently taken by Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Gluck. Kooser, 65, who is from Lincoln, Nebraska, has written ten volumes of poetry.

Dylan Thomas Prize
The Swansea Dylan Thomas Prize, worth £60,000, will be launched in Swansea this autumn. The prize, awarded for the best book published in English anywhere in the world is open to writers under 30 of novels, poetry, plays and even travel books, writes the BBC. It is to be launched on 27 October, the anniversary of Thomas’ birthday.

August 11, 2004
Pound honoured with plaque
Ezra Pound, the American poet who changed the course of modern poetry in the 20th century, but whose reputation was overshadowed by his anti-semitism and support for fascism, has been honoured with an official blue plaque outside the London house where he lived in between 1909 and 1914, The Guardian reports. According to the BBC,English Heritage, which awards the plaques, had originally turned down a request in 1988 as Pound’s politics were deemed too controversial.

August 10, 2004
Hundreds of Larkin poems found
Hundreds of unpublished works by British poet Philip Larkin have been found in library archives in Hull, writes the BBC. A total of 250 pages of poems have been discovered.

Donald Justice, 1925-2004
American formalist poet and Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Justice died last Friday at an Iowa City nursing home, writes the New York Times in this obituary. He was 78 and lived in Iowa City. Justice, acclaimed as a poet and teacher, had just checked the the review copies of the last of 14 volumes of his poetry, Collected Poems, which will be published by Knopf on August 18.

August 5, 2004
Owen Prize for Pinter
British playwright Harold Pinter has been awarded the Wilfred Owen award for poetry for his 2003 collection War, the BBC reports. The prize is awarded every two years by the Wilfred Owen Association to a poet seen to be standing in Owen’s tradition of anti-war poetry. According to the chairman of the Association, the award was “partly in recognition of Pinter’s lifelong contribution to literature,” writes the BBC.

August 1, 2004
Forward Prizes
The shortlist for the Forward Prizes for Poetry 2004 has been announced. The UK’s most valuable poetry prize, the Forward offers 10.000 British pounds for Best collection, a 5.000 pounds Felix Dennis award for Best first collection, and a 1.000 pound prize for Best single poem. In the last category, the poem Conversation by Mario Susko has been shortlisted, which can be read on this site. An overview of the other shortlisted works can be found on the Guardian website.
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