Chairperson's Encouragement Award, Dan O’Donnell, Sydney's Central Station Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Jill Jones, Screens Jets Heaven Canada Gerald Lampert Award: Kathy Mac, Nail Builders Plan for Strength and Growth Archibald Lampman Award: Shane Rhodes, Holding Pattern Atlantic Poetry Prize: Anne Compton, Opening the Island Governor General's Award for English-language poetry: Tim Lilburn, Kill-site Governor General's Award for French-language poetry: Pierre Nepveu, Lignes aériennes Griffin Poetry Prize Canada: Margaret Avison, Concrete and Wild Carrot; International, in the English Language: Paul Muldoon, Moy sand and gravel Pat Lowther Award: Dionne Brand, thirsty Prix Alain-Grandbois: Danielle Fournier, Poèmes perdus en Hongrie Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: bill bissett, Prix Émile-Nelligan: Jean-Simon DesRochers, Parle seul New Zealand Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement: Montana New Zealand Book Awards First-book award for poetry: Kay McKenzie Cooke, Feeding the Dogs, University of Otago Press United Kingdom Cholmondeley Award: Ciaran Carson, Michael Donaghy, Lavinia Greenlaw, Jackie Kay David Cohen Prize: Thom Gunn (joint winner with novelist Beryl Bainbridge) (joint winners) Eric Gregory Award: Jen Hadfield, Zoë Brigley, Paul Batchelor, Olivia Cole, Sasha Dugdale, Anna Woodford Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection: Ciaran Carson, Breaking News (The Gallery Press); Best First Collection: A. B. Jackson, Fire Stations (Anvil Press) Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: U. A. Fanthorpe T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Don Paterson, Landing Light Whitbread Award for poetry: Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time United States Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to David Shumate for High Water Mark American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, W.S. Merwin Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Julie Sheehan for “Brown-headed Cow Birds” Bollingen Prize for Poetry, Adrienne Rich Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Brian Teare, The Room Where I Was Born Frost Medal: Lawrence Ferlinghetti National Book Award for poetry: C.K. Williams, The Singing Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress: Louise Glück appointed Pulitzer Prize for poetry (United States): Paul Muldoon, Moy Sand and Gravel Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award: George T. Wright Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Linda Pastan Wallace Stevens Award: Richard Wilbur Whiting Awards: Major Jackson William Carlos Williams Award: Gary Young, No Other Life, Judge: Angela Jackson Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Li-Young Lee Deaths Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article: March 16 – Susan McGowan (born 1907), Australian poet June 28 – Clem Christesen (born