''The Best American Poetry 2007'', a volume in ''

The Best American Poetry series ''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems. Background The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the general ...

'', was edited by poet

Heather McHugh Heather McHugh (born August 20, 1948) is an American poet notable for the independent ranges of her aesthetic as a poet, and for her working devotion to teaching and translating literature. Life Heather McHugh, a poet, translator, educator and ...

, guest editor, who made the final selections, and

David Lehman David Lehman (born June 11, 1948David Lehman
at poets.org) is an American poet, non-fiction writer, and li ...

, the general editor for the series. This book is the 20th volume in the most popular annual poetry anthology in the United States. Along with popular poets who have often appeared in previous editions, such as

Billy Collins William James Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York (retired, 2016). Collins ...

Louise Gluck Louise or Luise may refer to: * Louise (given name) Arts Songs * Louise (Bonnie Tyler song), "Louise" (Bonnie Tyler song), 2005 * Louise (The Human League song), "Louise" (The Human League song), 1984 * Louise (Jett Rebel song), "Louise" (Jett ...

and

Galway Kinnell Galway Mills Kinnell (February 1, 1927 – October 28, 2014) was an American poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1982 collection, ''Selected Poems'' and split the National Book Award for Poetry with Charles Wright. From 1989 to 19 ...

, the book includes poets of "off-center traditions" such as

Rae Armantrout Rae Armantrout (born April 13, 1947) is an American poet generally associated with the Language poets. She has published ten books of poetry and has also been featured in a number of major anthologies. Armantrout currently teaches at the Univers ...

and Christian Bok. Some of McHugh's selections from newer poets "tend toward the experimental," according to a review in ''Publishers Weekly'', which pointed to poems from

Ben Lerner Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the National Bo ...

and

Danielle Pafunda Danielle Pafunda is an American writer and poet. She has taught for the University of Wyoming, University of California San Diego, and is 2018-19 Visiting Assistant Professor of Poetry and Poetics at the University of Maine. She also teaches for M ...

as evidence of this. ''Publishers Weekly'' called it a "riskier than usual volume."

Richard Wakefield Richard Wakefield is an American poet, literary critic, and a Professor of Humanities. He is the author of three collections of poetry (see below), as well as hundreds of articles published both in print and online. He has taught at the Universi ...

, reviewing the volume in ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...

'', wrote that McHugh's selections were "as eccentric, sometimes as unabashedly goofy, as any in the series' two decades," but among them were a couple of dozen "very fine" poems. Wakefield in particular praised the poems by

Carmine Starnino Carmine Starnino is a Canadian poet, essayist, educator and editor. Biography He was born in 1970 in Montreal, Quebec, into an Italian heritage. His first poetry collection ''The New World'' (1997) was nominated for the 1997 A. M. Klein Priz ...

and

Brad Leithauser Brad E. Leithauser (born February 27, 1953) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher. After serving as the Emily Dickinson Lecturer in the Humanities at Mount Holyoke College and visiting professor at the MFA Program for Poets & Writ ...

, but called the Nicky Beer selection merely "clever prose arranged as questions and answers," and that poem's inclusion probably due to a common "weakness" among poets for wordplay. McHugh's essay introducing the volume was briefer than those of most of her predecessors, according to Wakefield, but was itself almost worth the cost of the book and contains some phrasing "as good as anything in the volume." In her review of the book for ''

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. Pe ...

'', Karen Haymon wrote that the poems by established poets generally outshone the work of the lesser-known writers, with plenty of poems "good and worth reading" by established names such as Billy Collins, Donald Hall, and

Robert Hass Robert L. Hass (born March 1, 1941) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He won the 2007 National Book Award and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for the collection ''Time and Materials: Poems 1997 ...

. However, Haymon called a poem by Brian Turner, an Iraq veteran, a pleasant discovery.
Via Newsbank Web site: Long, Karen Haymon, "Best Of The Best 2007 Poems / Come From Familiar Poets", ''

'', Tampa, Florida, September 16, 2007, accessed October 6, 2007

Poets and poems included

Listed in alphabetical order by author's name:

Publishing information

The book is published by Scribner. 224 pages Hardcover: Paperback:

Notes

External links

Web page for the book {{DEFAULTSORT:Best American Poetry 2007, The Best American Poetry series 2007 poetry books

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

American poetry anthologies

Poets and poems included

Publishing information

See also

Notes

External links