2008 in Poetry - Events

Events

• June — the release in the United Kingdom of a new film, The Edge of Love, Dylan Thomas' relationship with two women, starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys (as Thomas)
• September — A United Kingdom exam board, Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, asked schools to withdraw copies of its anthology which contain the poem, Education for Leisure by Carol Ann Duffy after some teachers complained about the poem’s reference to knives. Other teachers opposed the move, and Duffy respoded with a new poem, Mrs Schofield’s GCSE.
• December 15 – the American Academy of Arts and Sciences begins awarding the May Sarton prize. Five "emerging poets" each year will receive a $2,000 honorarium and an opportunity to have their work published in the Academy’s journal, Daedalus (for winners, see "Awards and honors" section, below).
• Dennis Brutus is awarded the Lifetime Honourary Award by the South African Department of Arts and Culture for his lifelong dedication to African and world poetry and literary arts Brutus was also an activist who was imprisoned and incarcerated in the cell next to Nelson Mandela's on Robben Island from 1963 to 1965.
• Dmitry Vodennikov wins a Russian poetry competition television show, "King of the Poets".
• POETomu (a play on the English word "poet" and the Russian word poetomu ("because"), a glossy magazine about poetry, was founded in Russia.