2009 in Poetry - Deaths

Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding " in poetry" article:

• January 2 – Inger Christensen, 73 (born 1935), Danish poet, writer, novelist, essayist and children's book author
• January 4 – Gert Jonke, 62, (born 1946), Austrian poet, novelist playwright and screenwriter, of cancer
• January 10 – Mario Augusto Rodriguez Velez, 92 (born 1917), Panamanian journalist, essayist, dramatist, poet and storyteller, of a heart ailment (surname: Rodriguez Velez)
• January 11 – Milan Rufus, 80 (born 1928), Slovak poet and academic
• January 12 – Mick Imlah, 52 (born 1956), British poet
• January 13 – W. D. Snodgrass, 83 (born 1926), American poet and academic
• January 15 – Maurice Chappaz, 92 (born 1916), Swiss, French-language poet, writer and translator
• 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
• January 27 – John Updike, 76 (born 1932), American novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet and writer
• January 30 – James Schevill, 88 (born 1920), American poet, critic, playwright and professor at San Francisco State and Brown University
• February 4 – Arnljot Eggen, (born 1923), Norwegian poet, playwright and author of children's books
• February 5 – Subedar Mahmoodmiya Mohammad Imam, popularly known as "Asim Randeri", 104 (born 1904), Indian, Gujarati-language ghazal poet
• February 9:
  • Kazys Bradūnas, 91, Lithuanian poet and editor
  • Don Maclennan, 80 (born 1929), English-born South African poet, critic and academic
• February 13 – Bahtiyar Vahabzade (born 1925), Azerbaijani poet, philologist
• February 20 – Christopher Nolan, 43 (born 1965), Irish poet and author
• February 23 – Peter Wild, 68, (born 1940), American poet and historian, professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson
• February 25 – Bill Holm, 65 (born 1943), American poet, writer and academic, from complications of pneumonia
• March 4 – Triztán Vindtorn (born 1942), Norwegian poet and performance artist
• March 12 – Blanca Varela, 82 (born 1926), Peruvian poet
• March 13 – James Purdy, 94, (born 1914), American novelist, poet and playwright
• March 17 – Jane Mayhall, 90, (born 1918), American poet and novelist
• April 3 – Alexei Parshchikov, 54,(born 1954), Russian poet, critic and translator
• April 8 – Henri Meschonnic, 77, (born 1932), French poet, linguist, translator and theoretician
• April 10 – Deborah Digges (born 1950), American poet and academic
• April 12 – Franklin Rosemont (born 1943), American Surrealist poet, labor historian and co-founder of the Chicago Surrealist Group
• April 13 – Stefan Brecht (born 1924), 84, German-born American poet, critic and scholar of theater; son of Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel
• April 28 – U. A. Fanthorpe (born 1929), 79, English poet
• 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
• May 7 – Robin Blaser, (born 1925), 83, American-born Canadian poet, Griffin Poetry Prize winner
• May 10 – James Kirkup, 91, English poet, translator and travel writer, from a stroke
• May 17 – Mario Benedetti, 88 (born 1920), Uruguayan, poet, author and journalist
• May 22 – Alexander Mezhirov, 86, (born 1923), Russian poet, translator and critic
• May 31 – Kamala Das, 75, (born 1934), Indian short-story writer and poet who wrote in English and Malayalam
• June 3 – David Bromige, 75, (born 1933), English-born Canadian poet who resided in California, winner of the Pushcart Prize.
• June 8:
  • Harold Norse, 92, (born 1916), American poet and memoirist. Considered among Beat poets.
  • Habib Tanvir, 85 (born 1923), popular Hindi playwright, theatre director, poet and actor
• June 24 – Steven Wells, 49 (born 1960), English music critic, journalist, screenwriter, poet, novelist, film producer and publisher
• July 3 – Alauddin Al-Azad, 77 (born 1932), Bengali novelist, writer, poet, literary critic and academic
• August 6 – Wahyu Sulaiman Rendra, born Willibrordus Surendra Broto Rendra, popularly known as W. S. Rendra and also known as "Si Burung Merak" and "The Peacock", 74 (born 1935), Indonesian poet
• August 8 – Alfonso Calderon Squadritto, 78 (born 1930), Chilean poet, writer, memoirist and poetry anthologist
• August 16 – Alistair Campbell, 84 (born 1925), New Zealand poet, writer and editor, and once the husband of fellow poet Fleur Adcock
• August 19:
  • Dic Jones, 75, Welsh poet
  • Lina Kasdagli (also spelled "Lina Kasdaglē"), 88 (born 1912), Greek poet and translator
• August 27 – Sergey Mikhalkov, 96 (born 1913), Russian writer and poet, co-author of the lyrics of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union and National Anthem of Russia
• September 3 – *Christine D'Haen, 85, Belgian poet
• September 11:
• *Sarane Alexandrian, 82, French art historian, philosopher and poet
  • Jim Carroll, 59 (born 1949), American poet, author and musician.
• September 15 – Wayne Brown, 65 (born 1944), Trinidadian writer and poet
• 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 didn't hear the train coming)
• September 30 – Rafael Arozarena, 86, Spanish writer and poet
• October 1 – Cintio Vitier, 88, Cuban
• October 18 – Lenore Kandel, 77, American, died of lung cancer
• November 1 – Alda Merini, 78, Italian
• November 15 – Anna Mendelssohn, 61, British poet and political activist, brain tumour
• 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.
• December 20 – Vera Rich, 73 (born 1936), British poet, journalist, historian, and translator
• December 24 – Jim Chastain, 46 (born 1963), American poet,
• December 24/25? – Rachel Wetzsteon, 42 (born 1967), American poet, poetry editor of The New Republic at the time of her death, from suicide
• December 26 – Dennis Brutus, 85 (born 1924), South African poet and anti-Apartheid activist. He was imprisoned and incarcerated in the cell next to Nelson Mandela's on Robben Island from 1963 to 1965.
• December 30 –Ruth Lilly, 94, American philanthropist (Eli Lilly and Company), established $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and donated $200 million to Poetry magazine