In Nazi Germany, the Reichsschrifttumskammer (the National Socialist authors' association) banned German expressionist poet Gottfried Benn from further writing.
The Arbujad ("Soothsayers") group of Estonian poets was formed.
Works published in English
Australia
Sun-freedom, Adelaide
Jindyworobak Anthology, edited by Rex Ingamells, Adelaide
R. D. Fitzgerald, Moonlight Acre (won the ALS Gold Medal in 1938)
Canada
Kenneth Leslie, By Stubborn Stars (Toronto: Ryerson) — winner of the Governor-General's Award 1938
L. A. MacKay, Viper's Bugloss
Shaw Neilson, Beauty Imposes: Some Recent Verse (Angus & Robertson)
Virna Sheard, Leaves in the Wind
Arthur Stringer, The Old Woman Remembers and Other Irish Poems (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill)
India (in English)
Joseph Furtado, Songs in Exile (Bombay: self-published)
Cyril Modak (editor), The Indian Gateway to Poetry (Calcutta: Longmans, Green) — an anthology
K. S. R. Sastry, The Light of Life
United Kingdom
Louis MacNeice, The Earth Compels (Faber and Faber, 28 April 1938) — his second poetry collection, including poems such as "Carrickfergus," "The Sunlight on the Garden," "Bagpipe Music," and "Epilogue" (for W. H. Auden)
Louis MacNeice, I Crossed the Minch (prose with verse)
United States
W. B. Yeats, New Poems (including "Lapis Lazuli") — Irish poet published in the United Kingdom
Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren (editors), Understanding Poetry — criticism and anthology (subsequently revised through 1976)
E. E. Cummings, Collected Poems
Donald Davidson, Lee in the Mountains
Kenneth Fearing, Dead Reckoning
John Gould Fletcher, Selected Poems
Archibald MacLeish, Land of the Free
Ogden Nash, I'm a Stranger Here Myself
Ezra Pound, Guide to Kulchur (dedicated "To Louis Zukofsky and Basil Bunting strugglers in the desert")
Frederic Prokosch, The Carnival
Laura Riding, Collected Poems
Muriel Rukeyser, U.S. 1
Delmore Schwartz, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities
E. B. White, The Fox of Peapack
William Carlos Williams, The Complete Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, 1906-1938 (New Directions)
Other in English
Robin Hyde (New Zealand): Nor the Years Condemn and The Godwits Fly
Works published in other languages
France
Paul Éluard (pen name of Paul-Eugène Grindel), Cours naturel
Pierre Emmanuel (pen name of Noël Mathieu), Christ au tombeau — the author's first poem
Luc Estang, Au-delà de moi-même
Pierre Jean Jouve, Kyrie
Jules Supervielle, La Fable du monde
Indian subcontinent
Ramnarayan Vishvanath Pathak (Gujarati): Sesnan Kavyo (73 Gujarati poems including sonnets, bhajans and muktaks) and Arvacin Kavyasahityanan Vaheno (five lectures on modern Gujarati poetry)
Other languages
Nathan Alterman (Israel), Stars Outside
Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi (Urdu), Zia Ke Sau Sher (A Hundred Verses of Zia)
Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek), The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel
Kersti Merilaas (Estonia), Maantee tuuled
Gabriela Mistral (Chile, published in Argentina), Tala ("Harvesting," Buenos Aires: Sur)
María Pemán (Spain), Poema de la bestia y el angel ("Poem of the Beast and the Angel")
Emil Staiger (Germany), Die Zeit als Einbildungskraft des Dichters (scholarship)
Tin Ujević (Croatian), Skalpel kaosa ("Scalpel of Chaos")
Xavier Villaurrutia (Mexico), Nostalgia de la muerte
Awards and honors
Hawthornden Prize: David Jones for In Parenthesis
Newdigate Prize: Michael Thwaites
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Marya Zaturenska for Cold Morning Sky
Governor General's Award (poetry or drama): Kenneth Leslie for By Stubborn Stars
Rugby School poetry prize: John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Births
February 22 — Ishmael Reed (American poet, essayist and novelist); George Thaniel (died 1991, Greek poet and classical scholar working in Canada)
July 19 — Dom Moraes (died 2004, Indian writer, poet and columnist); Tom Raworth (died 2017, English poet and visual artist, influential in the British Poetry Revival movement)
Deaths
March 1 — Gabriele D'Annunzio (born 1863), Italian poet, writer, novelist, dramatist, soldier and political figure
March 10 — Angiolo Silvio Novaro (born 1866), Italian poet and children's writer
March 31 — Willem Kloos (born 1859), Dutch poet and critic
April 15 — César Vallejo (born 1892), Peruvian poet
April 19 — Sir Henry Newbolt (born 1862), English author and poet
April 21 — Sir Muhammad Iqbal (also known as Allama Iqbal; born 1877), Indian Muslim poet, philosopher and politician writing in Persian and Urdu; his birthday is commemorated in Pakistan as "Iqbal Day"
June 9 — Ovid Densusianu (born 1873), Romanian poet, philologist, linguist, folklorist, literary historian, critic, academic and journalist
June 26 — James Weldon Johnson (born 1871), African-American author, poet, early civil rights activist and prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance
August 4 — Rudolf G. Binding (born 1867), German poet
August 26 — Millosh Gjergj Nikolla ("Migjeni"; born 1911), Albanian poet and writer
October 5 — Chieko Takamura (born 1886), Japanese poet
October 27 — Lascelles Abercrombie (born 1881), British poet and literary critic, one of the "Dymock poets"
December 7 — Osip Mandelstam (born 1891), Russian poet, essayist and a foremost member of the Acmeist school of poets
