  We describe the observation and confirmation of \nbconfirmtext\ new strong
gravitational lenses discovered in Year 1 data from the Dark Energy Survey
(DES). We created candidate lists based on a) galaxy group and cluster samples
and b) photometrically selected galaxy samples. We selected 46 candidates
through visual inspection and then used the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph
(GMOS) at the Gemini South telescope to acquire spectroscopic follow-up of 21
of these candidates. Through analysis of this spectroscopic follow-up data, we
confirmed nine new lensing systems and rejected 2 candidates, but the analysis
was inconclusive on 10 candidates. For each of the confirmed systems, we report
measured spectroscopic properties, estimated \einsteinradiussub, and estimated
enclosed masses. The sources that we targeted have an i-band surface brightness
range of iSB ~ 22 - 24 mag arcsec^2 and a spectroscopic redshift range of zspec
~0.8 - 2.6. The lens galaxies have a photometric redshift range of zlens ~ 0.3
- 0.7. The lensing systems range in image-lens separation 2 - 9 arcsec and in
enclosed mass 10^12 - 10^13 Msol.
