- Seth Abramson (born 1976), American poet, editor, literary critic, and freelance journalist
- Kosta Abrašević (1879–1898), Serbian poet
- Dannie Abse (born 1923), Welsh poet
- Diane Ackerman (born 1948), American author, poet, and naturalist
- Duane Ackerson (born 1942), American writer of speculative poetry and fiction
- Milton Acorn (1923–1986), Canadian poet, writer, and playwright
- Harold Acton (1904–1994), English writer, scholar and
- Kim Addonizio (born 1954) American poet, novelist
- Endre Ady (1877–1919), Hungarian poet
- Aeschylus (525–456 BC), Athenian tragedian
- Lucius Afranius (fl. c. 94 BC), Roman comic poet
- John Agard (born 1949), Afro-Guyanese poet and children’s writer
- James Agee (1909–1955), American novelist, screenwriter, journalist, poet, film critic
- Deborah Ager (born 1977), American poet, editor
- Kelli Russell Agodon (born 1969), American poet
- Dritëro Agolli (born 1931), Albanian poet
- Ai (1947–2010), American poet whose original name was Florence Anthony
- Ama Ata Aidoo (born 1940), Ghanaian novelist, poet, playwright and academic
- Conrad Aiken (1889–1973), American poet and author
- Alcaeus of Messene (fl. late 3rd/early 2nd century BC), Greek author of a number of epigrams in the Greek Anthology
- Alcaeus of Mytilene (c. 620 – 6th century BC), Greek lyric poet from Lesbos Island
- Ammiel Alcalay (born 1956), American poet, scholar, critic, translator, and prose stylist
- Alcman (fl. 7th century BC), Ancient Greek lyric poet
- Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer
- Richard Aldington (1892–1962), English writer and poet
- Vasile Alecsandri (1821–1890), Romanian poet
- Claribel Alegría (born 1924), Central American poet
- Vicente Aleixandre (1898–1984), Spanish poet, Nobel Laureate 1977
- Josip Murn Aleksandrov (1879–1901), Slovene symbolist poet
- Sherman Alexie (born 1966), American poet, writer, filmmaker, and occasional comedian
- Felipe Alfau (1902–1999), Catalan American novelist and poet
- Agha Shahid Ali Indian, Kashmiri, American poet
- Dick Allen (born 1939), American poet, literary critic and academic
- Donald Allen (1912–2004), American poet, publisher, editor, and translator
- Elizabeth Chase Allen (1832–1911), American author, journalist and poet
- Ron Allen (1947–2010), American playwright and poet
- Zamounde S. Allie Jr. (born 1965), American poet
- Anacreon (570 BC–488 BC), Greek lyric poet
- Alfred Andersch (1914–1980), German writer, publisher.
- Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), Danish poet
- Victor Henry Anderson (1917–2001), American poet, kahuna, and leader and teacher of the Feri Tradition
- Mário de Andrade (1893–1945), Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art historian and critic, and photographer
- Bernard André (1450–1522), French Augustinian poet, poet laureate for Henry VII of England
- Peter Andrej (born 1959), Slovenian poet, musician, guitar player, and producer
- Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1919–2004), award-winning Portuguese poet and writer
- Bruce Andrews (born 1948), American Language poet
- David Antin (born 1932), American poet and critic
- Antler (born 1946), American poet
- Susanne Antonetta (born 1956), American poet and author
- Brother Antoninus (1912–1994), American poet
- Chairil Anwar (1922–1949), Indonesian poet
- Johannes Anyuru (born 1979), Swedish poet
- Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918), French poet
- Apollo Poetry (aka Sevan Aydinian) (born 1983), Armenian American poet
- Walter Conrad Arensberg (1878–1954), American Dada–ist; art collector, critic and poet
- Tudor Arghezi (1880–1967), Romanian poet