ke Hoon Samne Poetry Society India National Poetry Competition : Rajlukshmee Debee Bhattacharya for Punarnava United Kingdom Cholmondeley Award: James Berry, Sujata Bhatt, Michael Hulse, Derek Mahon Eric Gregory Award: Roddy Lumsden, Glyn Maxwell, Stephen Smith, Wayne Burrows, Jackie Kay Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Judith Wright Whitbread Award for poetry (United Kingdom): Michael Longley, Gorse Fires National Poetry Competition : John Levett for A Shrunken HeadUnited States Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Julia Kasdorf, Sleeping Preacher Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: John Frederick Nims AML Award for poetry Philip White for "Island Spring" American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, Richard Wilbur Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Donald Hall, "Museum of Clear Ideas" Bollingen Prize: Laura Riding Jackson and Donald Justice Frost Medal: Donald Hall National Book Award for poetry: Philip Levine, What Work Is Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress: Joseph Brodsky Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Mona Van Duyn: Near Changes'' Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: David Wagoner Whiting Awards: Thylias Moss, Franz Wright Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: J. D. McClatchy Births January 14 – George the Poet (George Mpanga), English spoken word artist Deaths Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article: January 5 – Vasko Popa (born 1921), Serbian poet January 22 – Robert Choquette (born 1905), Canadian novelist and poet January 29 – John Glassco (born 1909), Canadian poet, memoirist and novelist February 21 – Dorothy Auchterlonie (born 1915), Australian poet, academic and literary critic March 10 – Etheridge Knight (born 1931), American poet March 22 – Paul Engle (born 1908), American poet, writer, editor, and novelist April 7 – R. F. Brissenden (born 1928), Australian poet, novelist, critic and academic April 12 – James Schuyler, 67, American poet and a central figure in the New York School, of a stroke June 22 – George Thaniel (born 1938), Canadian poet July 5 – Howard Nemerov, 71, former U.S. Poet Laureate, of cancer September 2 – Laura Riding Jackson, 90, American poet and writer, of a heart attack September 24 – Dr. Seuss, 87, American author of children's verse September 27 – Roy Fuller (born 1912), English poet and writer October 11 – Steven "Jesse" Bernstein (born 1950), American performance poet, suicide October 27 – George Barker (born 1913), English poet December 14 – John Arlott (born 1914), English cricket commentator and