The Best American Poetry 2009
Guest Editor David Wagoner,
Series Editor David Lehman
Poets.
Places of first publication.
Introductory Essays to
The Best American Poetry 2009.
David Lehman:
- Began
The Best American Poetry series in 1988.
The controversial Best of the title
probably helped the series get even more press
than the worthiness of the contents.
- Continues as the series editor.
- Selected David Wagoner as the 2009 guest editor.
Selection criteria
by editor David Wagoner
for The Best American Poetry 2009
Notice the mode (most common) of the birth decades of the poets:
- For the 2006 issue (guest editor Billy Collins), it was the 1940s.
- For the 2007 issue (guest editor Heather McHugh) it vaulted forward three decades to the 1970s.
- For the 2008 issue (guest editor Charles Wright)
the mode returns to an earlier decade: the 1950s.
- For the 2009 issue (guest editor David Wagoner): bimodal with the 1940s (as for the 2006 issue)
and the 1960s (the strongest represented that the 60s have been).
In the 2006 to 2009 issues, quick glances at birth dates give this approximation:
Decade
of birth.
| 2009 issue
(Estimated for Pastan
and Sleigh who
decline to state).
| 2008 issue.
| 2007 issue.
| 2006 issue.
| 1995 issue.
|
2000s
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
|
1990s
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
|
1980s
| 3
| 1
| 1
| 0
| 0
|
1970s
| 9
| 10+2=12
| 10+6=16
| 10+1=11
| 0
|
1960s
| 10+8=18
| 10
| 10+3=13
| 10+2=12
| 7
|
1950s
| 10+3=13
| 10+10+1=21
| 10+5=15
| 10+4=14
| 10+10+10=30
|
1940s
| 10+9=19
| 10+6=16
| 10+5=15
| 10+10+3=23
| 10+10=20
|
1930s
| 6
| 8
| 6
| 10
| 5
|
1920s
| 6
| 6
| 6
| 3
| 10+2=12
|
1910s
| 0
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 0
|
1900s
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
|
Poets of
The Best American Poetry 2009
Of the 75 poets whose work is included (one poems each), we have web pages on:
Best of these "Best" poems include:
- John Ashbery's "They Knew What They Wanted".
- Caleb Barber's "Beasts and Violins".
- Mark Bibbins's "Concerning the Land to the South of Our Neighbors to the North".
- Catherine Carter's "The Book of Steve".
- Denise Duhamel's "How It Will End".
- Barbara Hamby's "Ode to Airheads, Hairdos, Trains to and from Paris".
- J.D.McClatchy's "Lingering Doubts".
- Linda Pastan's "Insomnia".
Places of first publication before poems appeared in
The Best American Poetry 2009
Acknowledges first publications in 57 publications:
- 27% more than each of the previous two years
- 13% above the mean of 50.5 for previous four years
Places of first publication for the 2009 collection are:
- AGNI
- Alaska Quarterly Review
- American Literary Review
- American Poetry Review
- The American Scholar
- Antioch Review
- Asheville Poetry Review
- Barrow Street
- Callaloo
- CALYX
- Cimaron Review
- The Cincinnati Review
- Fence
- FIELD
- Five Points
- Fulcrum
- The Georgia Review
- The Gettysburg Review
- Gulf Coast
- Harper's
- The Hudson Review
- Image
- Indiana Review
- The Iowa Review
- Jacket
- The Journal
- The Kenyon Review
- La Petite Zine
- London Review of Books
- Margie: The American Journal of Poetry
- Measure
- Mid-American Review
- The Missouri Review
- The Nation
- The New Criterion
- New England Review
- The New Republic
- The New York Quarterly
- The New Yorker
- No Tell Motel
- OCHO
- Painted Bride Quarterly
- The Paris Review
- Parnassus: Poetry in Review
- Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing
- Ploughshares
- Poet Lore
- Poetry
- Prairie Schooner
- Provincetown Arts
- Salthill
- Shenandoah
- The Southern Review
- Southwest Review
- Third Coast
- Vanitas
- The Virginia Quarterly Review
-
Links and Books.
-
[Thanks for visiting.]