poets
192 notable poets on file — 10 still here, 182 not.
still with us
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Bob Dylan
aliveAmerican singer-songwriter (born 1941)
born 1941
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Alice Walker
aliveAmerican author and activist (born 1944)
born 1944
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Viggo Mortensen
aliveAmerican actor
born 1958
Patti Smith
aliveAmerican singer, songwriter, author and poet (born 1946)
born 1946
Carl Lewis
aliveUS track & field athlete
born 1961
Peter Gabriel
aliveBritish singer and musician (born 1950)
born 1950
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Mamata Banerjee
aliveFormer Chief Minister of West Bengal
born 1955
Pete Doherty
aliveEnglish musician, actor and poet (born 1979)
born 1979
Johnny Flynn
aliveBritish actor
born 1983
Charles Bronson
aliveEnglish criminal
born 1952
gone (30 of 182)
William Shakespeare
deadEnglish playwright and poet
1564 – 1616
Mao Zedong
dead1st chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and founder of the People's Republic of China
1893 – 1976
Edgar Allan Poe
deadAmerican writer and literary critic
1809 – 1849
J. R. R. Tolkien
deadEnglish writer and philologist
1892 – 1973
Emily Brontë
deadEnglish novelist and poet
1818 – 1848
James VI and I
deadKing of Scotland from 1566 to 1625, King of England and Ireland from 1603 to 1625
1566 – 1625
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Atal Bihari Vajpayee
deadPrime Minister of India in 1996 and from 1998 to 2004
1924 – 2018
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Ismail Kadare
deadAlbanian writer
1936 – 2024
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James Baldwin
deadAmerican writer
1924 – 1987
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
deadGerman Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident
1906 – 1945
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Cees Nooteboom
deadDutch writer
1933 – 2026
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Edna O'Brien
deadIrish writer
1930 – 2024
Gordon Lightfoot
deadCanadian singer-songwriter
1938 – 2023
Alfred Brendel
deadAustrian composer and pianist
1931 – 2025
Ronald Venetiaan
deadSurinamese politician
1936 – 2025
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
deadIndian politician
1883 – 1966
Breyten Breytenbach
deadSouth African writer and painter
1939 – 2024
Francis Scott Key
deadAmerican lawyer and poet who wrote The Star-Spangled Banner
1779 – 1843
Carl Andre
deadAmerican artist
1935 – 2024
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Etel Adnan
deadLebanese-American writer and artist
1925 – 2021
Dorothy Allison
deadAmerican writer, poet, novelist, critic
1949 – 2024
Assata Shakur
deadAmerican activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army
1947 – 2025
Benjamin Zephaniah
deadBritish poet
1958 – 2023
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Wendell Berry
deadAmerican writer, activist, and poet from Kentucky
1934 – 2026
James Herbert Brennan
deadIrish writer
1940 – 2024
Charles J. Guiteau
deadAmerican assassin
1841 – 1882
Nikki Giovanni
deadAmerican poet, writer and activist
1943 – 2024
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David Malouf
deadAustralian writer
1934 – 2026
Maria Teresa Horta
deadPortuguese writer, journalist and poet
1937 – 2025
Peter Sinfield
deadBritish poet, musician and record producer
1943 – 2024