The ''Best New Poets'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing fifty poems from poets without a previously published collection. The first edition of the series appeared in 2005, and was published, as all later editions have been, by Samovar Press. In 2006, the
University of Virginia Press
The University of Virginia Press (or UVaP) is a university press that is part of the University of Virginia. It was established in 1963 as the University Press of Virginia, under the initiative of the university's then President, Edgar F. Shanno ...
began distributing the anthology.
Selection and Editors
Poems are nominated for the series by creative writing programs and literary magazines, though poets can also self-nominate through an online submission system. The poems to be included in the anthology are selected by a guest editor. Previous guest editors include
George Garrett (2005),
Eric Pankey (2006),
Natasha Trethewey
Natasha Trethewey (born April 26, 1966) is an American poet who was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 2012 and again in 2013. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection ''Native Guard'', and she is a former List of U ...
(2007),
Mark Strand
Mark Strand (April 11, 1934 – November 29, 2014) was a Canadian-born American poet, essayist and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990 and received the Wallace Stevens Award in 2004 ...
(2008),
Kim Addonizio
Kim Addonizio (July 31, 1954) is an American poet and novelist.
Life
Addonizio was born in Washington, D.C., United States. She is the daughter of tennis champion Pauline Betz and sports writer Bob Addie (born Addonizio).
She briefly attended ...
(2009),
Claudia Emerson
Claudia Emerson (January 13, 1957 – December 4, 2014) was an American poet. She won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection ''Late Wife'', and was named the Poet Laureate of Virginia by Governor Tim Kaine in 2008.
Early life
Emerso ...
(2010),
D. A. Powell
Douglas A. Powell (born May 16, 1963 Albany, Georgia) is an American poet.
Life and career
Powell lived in various places growing up, then graduated high school from Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst, California. He then worked in a number of ...
(2011),
Matthew Dickman
Matthew Dickman (born August 20, 1975) is an American poet. He and his identical twin brother, Michael Dickman, also a poet, were born in Portland, Oregon.
Life
The Dickman twins (Matthew is the younger and slightly taller) were raised in the Le ...
(2012),
Brenda Shaughnessy
Brenda Shaughnessy (born 1970) is an American poet.
Life
Shaughnessy was born in Okinawa and grew up in Southern California. She received her BA in literature and women's studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and MFA at Columbia Uni ...
(2013),
Dorianne Laux
Dorianne Laux (born January 10, 1952 in Augusta, Maine) is an American poet.
Biography
Laux worked as a sanatorium cook, a gas station manager, and a maid before receiving a B.A. in English from Mills College in 1988.
Laux taught at the Univers ...
(2014)
Tracy K. Smith
Tracy K. Smith (born April 16, 1972) is an American poet and educator. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. She has published four collections of poetry, winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 volume ''Life ...
. (2015),
Mary Szybist (2016), and
Natalie Diaz
Natalie may refer to:
People
* Natalie (given name)
* Natalie (singer) (born 1979), Mexican-American R&B singer/songwriter
* Shahan Natalie
Shahan Natalie ( hy, Շահան Նաթալի; July 14, 1884 – April 19, 1983) was an Armenian wri ...
(2017).
Selected Poets
The series, begun by
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
professor
Jeb Livingood in 2005 (edited by poet
Jazzy Danziger from 2011 to 2015), has published a number of notable writers since its inception, including
Diana Vlavianos,
Deborah Ager
Deborah Ager is an American poet, essayist, and editor.
Life
Deborah Ager founded the poetry magazine known as ''32 poems'' or ''32 Poems Magazine'' in 2003 with the poet John Poch. She was educated at the University of Maryland (B.A.) and the U ...
,
Craig Blais
Craig Blais (born 1978) is an American poet and academic. He is an associate professor of English at Anna Maria College.
Early life and education
Blais was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He earned an Associate of Arts in liberal arts from ...
,
Christina Duhig,
Cynthia Lowen,
Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet,
Jennifer Militello,
Kerri French,
Seth Abramson,
Stephanie Rogers,
Rhett Iseman Trull,
Anna Journey
Anna Journey (born November 1980 in Arlington, Virginia) is an American poet and essayist who was awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. (2008
National Poetry Series The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program.
Every year since 1979, the National Poetry Series has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry. Manuscripts are solicited through an annual open competition, judged and cho ...
winner),
Zach Savich (2008
Iowa Poetry Prize winner),
Michael McGriff
Michael McGriff is an American poet.
Life
McGriff was born and raised in Coos Bay, Oregon. His work has appeared in ''Slate'', ''Field'', ''AGNI'', ''The Believer'', ''Missouri Review'', and ''Poetry''. He is the founding editor of Tavern Books, ...
(2007
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize
The Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize is a major American literary award for a first full-length book of poetry in the English language.
This prize of the University of Pittsburgh Press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States was initiated by ...
winner),
Julie Larios (2006
Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...
winner),
Alysia Nicole Harris, recent
Stegner Fellows Stegner is a German name; as a surname, it may refer to:
* Jansson Stegner (born 1972), artist based in New York
*Julia Stegner (born 1984), German model
* Page Stegner (1937–2017), writer and historian specializing in the American old west
*Ralf ...
Keith Ekiss,
Robin Ekiss,
Kai Carlson-Wee,
Edgar Kunz,
Chelsea Bunn,
Martha Greenwald,
Dina Hardy,
Sara Michas-Martin,
Peter Kline, and
Kimberly Grey, as well as
Tarfia Faizullah
Tarfia Faizullah is a Bangladeshi American poet. Born in 1980, she was raised in West Texas. She traveled to Bangladesh in 2010 to interview survivors of rape by Pakistani soldiers during the 1971 Liberation War, the birangona. ''Seam'' (SIU, 20 ...
,
Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong (born , ; October 14, 1988) is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist. Vuong is a recipient of the 2014 Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a 2016 Whiting Award, and the 2017 T.S. Eliot P ...
,
sam sax
Samuel Sax (September 5, 1880 –January 2, 1962) was an American film producer. He produced 80 films between 1925 and 1946, including the last films of Roscoe Arbuckle. From 1938 to 1941, Sax headed Warner Brothers's British subsidiary at T ...
,
Leila Chatti,
Phillip B. Williams,
Tiana Clark,
Peter LaBerge,
Jameson Fitzpatrick,
Fatimah Asghar,
Anders Carlson-Wee, and
Kaveh Akbar
Kaveh Akbar (کاوه اکبر) is an Iranian-American poet and scholar.
Early life and education
Akbar was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1989, and grew up across the United States including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Indiana. He moved ...
. To date, the youngest poets to be included in the series are
Aidan Forster,
Christina Im, and
Lily Zhou, who were all included in the 2017 edition as high school seniors.
Books
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Tracey K Smith, Jazzy Danziger, eds. (2015) ''Best New Poets 2015: 50 Poems from Emerging Writers.'' Samovar Press. .
* Mary Szybist, Jeb Livingood and Angie Hogan, eds. (2016) ''Best New Poets 2016: 50 Poems from Emerging Writers.'' Samovar Press. .
* Natalie Diaz, Jeb Livingood eds. (2017) ''Best New Poets 2017: 50 Poems from Emerging Writers.'' Samovar Press. .
Critical response
Of the 2013 edition, ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' wrote:
The work, much of it nominated by university writing programs and literary journals, is diverse in voice and subject matter, providing an effective barometer of contemporary American poetry...The poems seem to owe as much to 20th-century traditions as to the spirit of invention, and, as such, are a reminder that contemporary poetry is not only alive and well but continuing to evolve.
According to ''
The Virginia Quarterly Review
The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussion"'' ...
'':
The youthfulness of the anthology, combined with the wide scope of its contents, is apparent in the poems, which are edgy and daring. Emerging, whether intentionally or not, as a younger sibling to the Best American Poetry anthologies, this series breaks new ground and provides fresh treasures.
Poet and critic
David Wojahn
David Wojahn (born 1953, St. Paul, Minnesota) is a contemporary American poet who teaches poetry in the Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, and in the low residency MFA in Writing program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts ...
has said of the series,
It's a nervy thing for an anthology to label itself ''Best New Poets'', but...this collection lives up to its name. It's a rich and readable selection, reflecting no party-line aesthetic, and attesting to the formidable promise of the emerging generation."
Of the 2006 edition,
''ForeWord'' Magazine wrote,
With an alert ear for new voices, this anthology offers a different kind of validation: that of being well-heard. The result is a vibrant smorgasbord..."
References
{{Reflist
External links
''Best New Poets'' website
American poetry anthologies
University of Virginia
2005 establishments in Virginia
Anthology series