The year in African American poetry, 2013

News, activities, and publishing items related to African American poetry that caught my attention this past year.  

• January: History and Other Poems by Brenda Marie Osbey is published. 

• February: Frank X Walker named Kentucky Poet Laureate.

• February: Angles of ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry edited by Charles Rowell is published.

• February: The Collected Poems of Ai is published.
 
• April: Collected Poems by Robert Hayden is re-published. 

• April: Loose Change by James E. Cherry is published.

• April: Silverchest: Poems by Carl Phillips is published.

• April: The Cineaste: Poems by A. Van Jordan is published.

• April: Autogeography by Reginald Harris is published.

• May:  The Big Smoke by Adrian Matejka is published.

• May: Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers by Frank X. Walker is published.  

• May: Dear Hero, by Jason McCall is published. 

• May: Amiri Baraka's "A Post-Racial Anthology?" - a critique of Rowell's Angles of Ascent appears in Poetry magazine

• June: Poetry Genius launches.  

• June: Eugene B. Redmond's Arkansippi Memwars is published by Third World Press.

• June: Sterling Plumpp's Home/Bass: Poems is published by Third World Press.

• July 14 - August 3: “Don’t Deny My Voice: Reading and Teaching African American Poetry,” NEH Institute held at the University of Kansas.

• September: Harmony Holiday and Phillip B. Williams are recipients of 2013 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowships. 

• September 21: Kofi Awoonor killed in attack on a mall in Nairobi, Kenya.  

• September 28: James Emanuel dies.

• October: She Has a Name by Kamilah Aisha Moon is published.

• October: Ishion Hutchinson and Rowan Ricardo Phillips receive Whiting Awards.

• October (25 - 26): "Celebrating Contemporary African American Literature: U.S. and Afro-Caribbean Poetry" conference held at Pennsylvania State University.   

• November: Adrian Matejka's The Big Smoke is finalist for National Book Award.

• November: Maya Angelou receives the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community at the National Book Award ceremony.

• November 22: Wanda Coleman dies. 

Related:
• 16 volumes of poetry published in 2013 
• The year in African American poetry, 2012  
• The year in African American poetry, 2011
• Black Poetry: A Timeline, 1854 - 2013