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

Events

• January 5 – The Turkish government announces it will posthumously restore the citizenship it had stripped from influential poet Nâzım Hikmet, a Marxist who died in 1963 as an exile in the Soviet Union.^[1]
• January 20 – Poet Elizabeth Alexander reads "Praise Song for the Day" at presidential inauguration of President Barack Obama.
• February 9 – Eritrean poet and broadcaster Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu is arbitrarily arrested and begins 6 years imprisonment without trial.^[2]
• March 16 – Nicholas Hughes, 47, the son of the poets Ted Hughes (British poet laureate 1984–98) and Sylvia Plath, who famously committed suicide in 1963 when her son was a year old, hangs himself in his home in Alaska. He had suffered from depression.^[3]
• May 1 – Carol Ann Duffy is appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, the first woman appointed to the position in its 341-year history, a position that has been held by, among others, John Dryden (whom Charles II named the first official poet laureate ),^[4] Tennyson, Wordsworth and Cecil Day-Lewis. Duffy is also the first Scot and the first openly gay occupant of the post.^[5][6]
• May 5 – Posthumous publication of J. R. R. Tolkien's narrative poem The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún in alliterative verse based on the 13th century Poetic Edda and probably written in the 1930s.
• May 16 & May 25 – Ruth Padel becomes the first female ever elected Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford^[7] but resigns nine days later after she is alleged to have been involved in what some sources refer to as a smear campaign against Derek Walcott, her leading rival for the post.^[8][9]
• June 25 – American pop singer Michael Jackson dies of an acute propofol intoxication at the age of 50.
• July 30 – Last Post, a poem by Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, is read on the BBC Radio 4 programme Today. Commissioned by the BBC to mark the deaths of Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, two of the last three surviving British veterans of the World War I, it is read on the day of Allingham's funeral.
• September 18 – The film Bright Star, about John Keats and his relationship with Fanny Brawne, is released in the United States, and on November 6 in the United Kingdom. The film's title is a reference to a sonnet by Keats, "Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art", written at the time of the love affair. Jane Campion directed the movie.
• A Room and a Half, a Russian film directed by Andrey Khrzhanovsky and based on the life of Russian–American poet Joseph Brodsky, is released. It is distributed in the United States in 2010.^[10]

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 Adamson, The Best Australian Poems, Black Inc., ISBN 978-1-86395-452-5, anthology including works by Ivy Alvarez, Judith Beveridge, Sarah K. Bell, Jen Jewel Brown, Anne Elvey, Lisa Gorton, Clive James, Les Murray, Dorothy Porter, Peter Porter, Thomas Shapcott, Alex Skovron, John Tranter, and Chris Wallace-Crabbe.^[11][12]
• Stephen Edgar, Other Summers, 109 pp; Melbourne: Black Pepper, ISBN 978-1-876044-62-6
• Jennifer Harrison and Kate Waterhouse, editors, Motherlode: Australian Women's Poetry 1986 – 2008, 120 poets represented, 342 pp, Glebe, New South Wales: Puncher and Wattmann, ISBN 978-1-921450-16-7, anthology
• Emma Jones, The Striped World, winner of the 2009 Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award; Faber and Faber
• Martin Langford:
  • editor, Harbour City Poems: Sydney in Verse 1788–2008, Glebe, New South Wales: Puncher and Wattmann, ISBN 978-1-921450-17-4, anthology
  • The Human Project: New and Selected Poems
• John Kinsella, The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry, Penguin Group (Australia)
• Les Murray, Killing the Black Dog, Black Inc., ISBN 978-1-86395-447-1
• Dorothy Porter, The Bee Hut, Black Inc., ISBN 978-1-86395-446-4
• Nathan Shepherdson, Apples With Human Skin, St. Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-3741-6
• Alan Wearne, guest editor, The Best Australian Poetry 2009, University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-3736-2
• Les Wicks The Ambrosiacs (Island Press (Australia))
  • editor, Guide to Sydney Beaches Meuse Press

Canada

• Margaret Avison, Listening: The Last Poems, posthumously published^[13]
• Robert Bringhurst, Selected Poems^[13]
• Jan Conn, Botero's Beautiful Horses, Brick Books
• Barry Dempster, Love Outlandish,^[13] Brick Books
• Kate Eichhorn and Heather Milne, editors, Prismatic Publics: Innovative Canadian Women's Poetry and Poetics, Coach House Books, ISBN 978-1-55245-221-9; an anthology of 15 poets: Nicole Brossard, Margaret Christakos, Susan Holbrook, Dorothy Trujillo Lusk, Karen Mac Cormack, Daphne Marlatt, Erín Moure, M. NourbeSe Philip, Sina Queyras, Lisa Robertson, Gail Scott, Nathalie Stephens, Catriona Strang, Rita Wong, and Rachel Zolf
• Kim Goldberg, Red Zone, Pig Squash Press
• Chris Hutchinson, Other People's Lives, Brick Books
• Adeena Karasick, Amuse Bouche^[13]
• Douglas Lochhead, Looking into Trees^[13]
• Jeanette Lynes, The New Blue Distance
• Susan Musgrave, When the World Is Not Our Home: Selected Poems, 1985–2000^[13]
• Soraya Peerbaye, Poems for the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names
• Marguerite Pigeon, Inventory^[13]
• Sina Queyras, Expressway, Coach House Books
• James Reaney, The Essential James Reaney. Brian Bartlett, ed., Porcupine's Quill
• Laisha Rosnau, Lousy Explorers, Nightwood Editions
• Stephen Rowe, Never More There, Nightwood Editions
• Carolyn Smart, Hooked, Brick Books
• Carmine Starnino, This Way Out, Gaspereau Press
• Fred Wah, Is a Door^[13]
• David Zieroth, The Fly in Autumn,^[13] Harbour Publishing

India, Indian poetry in English

• Anju Makhija, E V Ramakrishan, editors, We Speak in Changing Languages: Indian Women Poets 1990–2007, anthology, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi^[14]
• Anthony Theodore, The Song of My Dance and Dance of My Dreams, ISBN 978-14-389511-9-5
• Arundhathi Subramaniam, editor, Hot is the Moon: Poems and Stories of Women in Kannada, Tamil, Konkani And Tulu, anthology in various languages, with translations into English; Mumbai: Sparrow^[15]
• Eunice de Souza, A Necklace of Skulls, Collected Poems ( Poetry in English), New Delhi: Penguin^[16]
• Uddipana Goswami, We Called the River Red ( Poetry in English ), Authorspress^[17]
• Yash Sharma, Tale of a Virgin River, translated into English by Anil Sehgal from the original Dogri; released with a CD of six songs composed and sung by the poet's daughter, Seema Anil Sehgal, a prominent singer; published in Singapore^[18]

Ireland

• Michael Coady, Going by Water, Oldcastle, County Meath: Gallery Press
• Ray Givans, Tolstoy in Love, 82 pages, ISBN 978-1-906614-08-9
• Kerry Hardie, Only This Room, Oldcastle, County Meath: Gallery Press
• Ron Houchin, Museum Crows, 84 pages, Cliffs of Moher, County Clare: Salmon Press, ISBN 978-1-907056-17-8
• Dorothy Molloy, Long-distance Swimmer, 60 pages, Cliffs of Moher, County Clare: Salmon Press, ISBN 978-1-907056-21-5, posthumously published (died 2004)
• Paul Muldoon, Wayside Shrines, 40 pages, Oldcastle, County Meath: Gallery Press, ISBN 978-1-85235-479-4
• Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, The Sun-fish, Oldcastle, County Meath: Gallery Press
• Matthew Sweeney, Best of Irish Poetry 2010, Southword Editions, including work by Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Paul Muldoon, Michael McKimm, Leanne O'Sullivan, Leontia Flynn, Eva Bourke and Kerry Hardie
• Peggy O'Brien, Frog Spotting, 87 pages, Dedalus Press, ISBN 978-1-906614-06-5
• Stephen Roger Powers, The Follower's Tale, 100 pages, Cliffs of Moher, County Clare: Salmon Press, ISBN 978-1-907056-20-8
• Gabriel Rosenstock, Uttering Her Name, 126 pages, Cliffs of Moher, County Clare: Salmon Press, ISBN 978-1-907056-19-2
• A.E. Stringer, Human Costume, 100 pages, Cliffs of Moher, County Clare: Salmon Press, ISBN 978-1-907056-18-5
• Enda Wyley, To Wake to This, Dedalus Press, ISBN 978-1-906614-11-9

New Zealand

• Stephanie de Montalk, Vivid Familiar, Victoria University Press ISBN 9780864735980
• Jessica Le Bas Walking to Africa, Auckland University Press ISBN 9781869404468
• Tusiata Avia, Bloodclot, Victoria University Press ISBN 9780864735935

Poets in Best New Zealand Poems

Poems from these 25 poets were selected by James Brown for Best New Zealand Poems 2008, published online this year:

United Kingdom

• James Byrne, Blood/Sugar, ISBN 978-1-906570-29-3
• Caroline Grigson, editor, The Life and Poems of Anne Hunter: Haydn's Tuneful Voice (Hunter, 1742–1821, wrote lyrics to much of Haydn's music) Liverpool University Press (Liverpool English Texts and Studies) ISBN 978-1-84631-191-8
• Brian Henry, Quarantine::Contagion, ISBN 978-1-906570-13-2
• Luke Kennard, The Migraine Hotel, Salt, 96 pages, ISBN 978-1-84471-555-8
• Herbert Lomas, A Casual Knack of Living: Collected Poems, contains all nine of the author's previous poetry books and one previously unpublished book of poems; 428 pages, ISBN 978-1-906570-41-5
• Sean O'Brien, Night Train (with artist Birtley Aris), Flambard Press
• Ruth Padel, Darwin: A Life in Poems, the author is his great-granddaughter^[19]
• Christopher Reid, A Scattering (2009 Costa Book Awards book of the year)
• Matthew Welton, We needed coffee but..., 96 pages, Carcanet Press, ISBN 978-1-84777-002-8

Anthologies in the United Kingdom

• Gerard Carruthers, editor, Scottish Poems
• Fiona Sampson, editor, A Century of Poetry Review, Carcanet Press, ISBN 978-1-84777-016-5

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom

• Zachary Leader, editor, The Movement Reconsidered: Essays on Larkin, Amis, Gunn, and Their Contemporaries, Oxford University Press (April 2009)^[20]
• Contemporary Poetry: Poets and Poetry since 1990 (Cambridge Contexts in Literature) Cambridge University Press, 1st edition ISBN 978-0-521-71248-4

United States

Anthologies in the United States

• David Lehman, general editor, David Wagoner, editor, The Best American Poetry 2009 ISBN 978-0-7432-9976-3 (September 2009)
• David Yezzi, editor, Swallow Anthology of New American Poets, (University of Ohio Press, 2009), ISBN 0-8040-1121-4
• Honor Moore, Poems from the Women's Movement (April), work from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Library of America
• Miekal And, editor, "Anthology Spidertangle", representative work of more than 50 visual poets, ISBN 978-1-4382-5818-8, Xexoxial Editions

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United States

• International Who's Who in Poetry 2009, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-85743-483-5
• Pierre Joris, Justifying the Margins, Salt Publishing, Cambridge, UK; essays, criticism via poetics
• Joshua Weiner, ed. (2009). At the Barriers: On the Poetry of Thom Gunn. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-89043-2.

Poets in The Best American Poetry 2009

These poets appeared in The Best American Poetry 2009, with David Lehman, general editor, and David Wagoner, guest editor (who selected the poetry):^[26]