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]
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]
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]
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]
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A Casual Knack of Living: Collected Poems, contains all nine of the author's previous poetry books and one previously unpublished book of poems; 428 pages, ISBN978-1-906570-41-5
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]
The Unfinished Poems, C.P. Cavafy, 30 poems, left in various stages of completion by Cavafy when he died in 1933, discovered in the Cavafy Archive in the 1960s by George Savidis, the poet's editor, and published in a scholarly Greek edition by Renata Lavagnini in 1994; Knopf, ISBN978-0-307-26546-3[23]
Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927), Victi Resurgunt. Published posthumously. A 26-page pamphlet of fifteen "fugitive" patriotic and war poems written by Mrs. Coates. The poems were originally published in various periodicals and texts between the years 1915 and 1922, and have been compiled and organized into pamphlet format.[24]ISBN978-0-615-30926-2[23]
Fred Wah, The False Laws of Narrative: The Poetry of Fred Wah, selected with an introduction by Louis Cabri; Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Anne Waldman, Manatee/ Humanity, Penguin, ISBN978-0-14-311521-2 book-length poem taking its form and concerns from a Tibetan Buddhist ritual and from the poet's close encounter with a Manatee[23]
Translator from the original French of Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen: Little Poems in Prose, Wesleyan University Press (May)[21]
Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy, University of California Press, ISBN978-0-520-25878-5 Waldrop has long been a major force in American avant-garde poetics, and this substantial new volume is big news indeed. Comprising three sequences—each almost a book in itself—plus an epilogue,[23] and received the National Book Award (see below)
Peter Waterhouse, Language Death Night Outside: Poem / Novel, translated by Rosmarie Waldrop; Burning Deck, Providence, Rhode Island
Patrice Delbourg, editor, L'année poétique 2009 ("Poetry Year 2000"), French-language poetry published in the past 12 months, Publisher: Seghers; ISBN978-2-232-12308-5. an anthology
René Lapierre, Traité de physique, Publisher: Les Herbes rouges; ISBN978-2-89419-280-1; a finalist for the Governor General's Awards in French poetry[28]
Hélène Monette, Thérèse pour joie et orchestre, Publisher: Les Éditions du Boréal; ISBN978-2-7646-0625-4; a finalist for the Governor General's Awards in French poetry[28]
Philippe More, Brouillons pour un siècle abstrait, Publisher: Poètes de brousse; ISBN978-2-923338-20-0; a finalist for the Governor General's Awards in French poetry[28]
Christoph Janacs, Zärtlichkeit mit Stacheln. Gedichte zu Adalbert Stifter ("The Tenderness of Quills: Poems by Adalbert Stifter"), Salzburg: Edition Tandem, 88 pages, ISBN978-3-902606-17-4[30]
S. Joseph, Uppante Kooval Varakkunnu, winner of a Thiruvananthapuram Book Fair award for one of the ten best books of this year; Kottayam: DC Books, ISBN978-81-264-2447-4; Malayalam-language[36]
Tadeusz Dąbrowski, Czarny kwadrat, winner of the 2009 Koscielski Foundation Prize (popularly known in Poland as the nagrodą Kościelskich, or "Koscielski award") for works by Polish writers under 40 years old
January 18 – Grigore Vieru, 73 (born 1935), a Moldovan poet writing in Romanian, strong promoter of the Romanian language in Moldova; died from a car accident[67]
January 27 – John Updike, 76 (born 1932), American novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet and writer[68]
January 30 – James Schevill, 88 (born 1920), American poet, critic, playwright and professor at San Francisco State and Brown University[69]
April 29, but date uncertain – Craig Arnold (born 1967), 41, American poet, fell climbing a volcano in Japan while collecting material for his next book.
May 1 –3 – Bantu Mwaura, 40, Kenyan human-rights activist, actor, director, poet and storyteller who wrote poetry in English, Swahili and Gikuyu[85]
September 27 – Gaya Prasad Tiwari, 89, Hindi poet in India and twice winner of the Hindi Sahitya Akademi Award, died after being hit by a train as he was crossing the tracks (hard of hearing, he apparently did not hear the train coming)[105]
December 10 – Dilip Chitre, 71 (born 1938), Indian writer who wrote in Marathi and English. He was also a painter and filmmaker. His Ekun Kavita or Collected Poems were published in the 1990s. His most famous translation is of the celebrated 17th century Marathi bhakti poet Tukaram.[111]
^"Dogri book released in Singapore", August 28,
"Tribune News Service", as published at the "J&K Plus" website of The Tribune of Chandigarh, India, retrieved July 6, 2010
^Web page titled Zagajewski Adam"Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine, at the Instytut Książki website (in Polish), "Bibliografia: Poezja:" section, retrieved February 19, 2010
^Loewe, Mike, "Poet and playwright Maclennan dies at 79", article, February 12, 2009, Independent Online website of the Independent newspaper, article "was originally published on page 9 of Cape Argus on February 12, 2009", according to the Web page, retrieved February 13, 2009
^Article, "Human rights activist Bantu Mwaura found dead" May 4, 2009, The Standard of Nairobi, Kenya; also Kimani, Peter, "Brave struggle that gave way to bleak end", May 5, 2009, The Standard of Nairobi, Kenya retrieved May 4 (different time zone)
^Умер поэт-фронтовик Александр Межиров (Google translation: "He died the poet-veteran Alexander Mezhirov"), May 22, 2009, ITAR/TASS news report, retrieved May 27, 2009
^Millar, Paul (August 24, 2009). "Alistair Te Ariki Campbell". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 25 August 2009. Retrieved September 4, 2009.
Britannica Book of the Year 2010 (events of 2009), published by the Encyclopædia Britannica, online edition (subscription required), "Literature/Year in Review 2009" section