Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article: • January 7 –
Alvin Aubert (born 1930), African-
American poet and scholar • January 8 –
Madeline Gins, 72 (born 1941),
American poet, architect and long-time collaborator with artist
Arakawa • January 9 –
Amiri Baraka (
LeRoi Jones), 79 (born 1934), controversial African-
American poet and writer of drama, fiction, essays and music criticism, and former
Poet Laureate of New Jersey • January 14 –
Juan Gelman, 83 (born 1930), exiled
Argentine poet and recipient of the
Miguel de Cervantes Prize in 2007 • February 1 –
René Ricard, 67(?) (born 1946),
American poet, art critic, painter, and actor in
Andy Warhol's films • February 6 –
Maxine Kumin, 88 (born 1925),
U. S. American poet who won the
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, was Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress (today known as the
United States Poet Laureate), and wrote some seventeen books of poetry, novels, story collections, and memoirs • March 12 –
Bill Knott, 74, (born 1940),
U. S. American poet who published more than a dozen books of poetry between his first book in 1968 and his death • March 30 –
Colleen Lookingbill, 63 (born 1950),
U. S. American who edited, with
Elizabeth Robinson, the EtherDome Chapbook series for 12 years, which published emerging women poets. She also co-edited Instance Press • April 2 –
Vern Rutsala, 80 (born 1934), U.S. author and poet • April 14 –
Nina Cassian, 89 (born 1924), Romanian poet, journalist, film critic, and translator. She translated works of
William Shakespeare,
Bertolt Brecht,
Christian Morgenstern,
Yiannis Ritsos, and
Paul Celan into Romanian. She published more than fifty books of her own poetry • April 15 –
Rosemary Tonks, 85 (born 1928),
English poet and novelist • April 24 –
Tadeusz Różewicz, 92 (born 1921), Polish poet and playwright, recipient of the
Austrian State Prize for European Literature (1982) • April 28 –
Gerard Benson, 83 (born 1931),
English poet. • April 29 –
Russell Edson, 76-86 (born 1935), American poet, novelist, writer and illustrator • May 10 –
Hillary Gravendyk, 35 (born 1979), American poet and twice winner of the Eisner Prize in Poetry and author of
Harm (Omnidawn, 2012) She lived with
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and had a double lung transplant five years before her death. • May 21 –
Ruth Guimarães, 93 (born 1920), Afro-
Brazilian classicist, fiction writer and poet • May 28 –
Maya Angelou, 86 (born 1928), American author (
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings), poet ("
On the Pulse of Morning") and civil rights activist*June 22 –
Felix Dennis, 67 (born 1947),
English publisher and poet • June 27 –
Allen Grossman, 82 (born 1932),
American poet, critic and professor, winner of the
Bollingen Prize in 2009 • June 29 –
Dermot Healy, 66 (born 1947), Irish poet, playwright, short story writer, memoirist and novelist • August 5 –
Diann Blakely, 57 (born 1957), American poet, who won the
Alice Fay di Castagnola Award among many other honors • August 19 –
Samih al-Qasim, 75 (born 1939), Palestinian
Druze poet and journalist •
Simin Behbahani, 87, Iranian writer and poet •
Richard Dauenhauer, 72, American poet and translator • August 27 –
Zaccheus Jackson, 36, Vancouver based Canadian
Spoken word and
Slam poet who was the 2013 Vancouver Grand Slam Champ • September 21 –
Alastair Reid, 88 (born 1926), Scottish poet, essayist, and scholar • September 28 –
Dannie Abse, 91 (born 1923), Welsh poet and doctor • October 9 –
Carolyn Kizer, 89 (born 1925), American poet and
Pulitzer Prize winner in 1985 • October 14 –
Ron Loewinsohn, 76, American poet and university professor Since his inclusion in
Donald Allen's 1960
poetry anthology,
The New American Poetry 1945–1960, numerous volumes of his poetry (along with two novels) were published • October 28 –
Galway Kinnell, 87 (born 1927), American poet,
Pulitzer Prize winner, a
MacArthur Fellow and a former State Poet of Vermont; also served as a Chancellor of the
Academy of American Poets • November 5 –
Abdelwahab Meddeb, 68 (born 1946), Tunisian-born poet, Islamic scholar, essayist, novelist; lung cancer • November 13 –
Manoel de Barros, 97 (born 1916), Brazilian poet who, before his death, considered by many authors, critics and readers to be Brazil's greatest living poet • November 19 –
Jon Stallworthy, 79 (born 1935), English academic, poet and literary critic. Biographer of
Wilfred Owen and
Louis MacNeice • November 29 –
Mark Strand, 80 (born 1934), Canadian-born American poet and writer,
United States Poet Laureate (1990–1991) • December 4 –
Claudia Emerson, 57 (born 1957),
American poet • December 27 –
Tomaž Šalamun, 73 (born 1941), Slovenian poet ==See also==