The Best American Poetry 2011
Guest Editor Kevin Young,
Series Editor David Lehman

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry. Books read.

How to write specific forms: Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka. Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát. Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Adam Zagajewski. Aleda Shirley. Anne Carson. Bashō. The Beowulf Poet. Billy Collins. Billy Collins exercise. Snorri's Edda. Carl Dennis. Charles Atkinson. Chase Twichell. Corey Marks. François Villon Franz Wright. Galway Kinnell. Gary Young. The Gawain Poet. J. D. McClatchy. J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka). Jack Gilbert. James Maughn. Jane Hirshfield. Jean Vengua. Jorie Graham. Karen Braucher. Karl Shapiro. Kay Ryan. Laureate Poets: Britain; USA. Len Anderson. Les Murray. Li-Young Lee. Linda Pastan. Louise Glück. Mary Oliver. Nordic Skalds. Pulitzer Poetry Prize (U.S.A). Rainer Maria Rilke Richard Hugo. Robert Bly. Sappho. Sara Teasdale. Shiki (haiku). Snorri's Edda. Stephen Dunn. Ted Kooser. W.S. Merwin.

Series Editor David Lehman. Compare with others in series: The Best American Poetry: 2011; Guest Editor Kevin Young. The Best American Poetry: 2010; Guest Editor Amy Gerstler. The Best American Poetry: 2009; Guest Editor David Wagoner. The Best American Poetry: 2008; Guest Editor Charles Wright. The Best American Poetry: 2007; Guest Editor Heather McHugh. The Best American Poetry: 2006; Guest Editor Billy Collins. The Best American Poetry: 2005; Guest Editor Paul Muldoon.

Kevin Young's Introductory Essay.
Poets. Places of first publication.

Introductory Essays to
The Best American Poetry 2011

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2011 Guest Editor Kevin Young, Series Editor David Lehman

David Lehman: Series Editor

• 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 Kevin Young as the 2011 guest editor.

Kevin Young: Guest Editor

Poets of
The Best American Poetry 2011

Of the 75 poets whose work is included (one poems each), see our web pages on:

• Billy Collins,
• Jane Hirshfield,
• Natasha Trethewey,

Best of the "Best" poems include:

• Beckian Fritz Goldberg's "Everything Is Nervous".
• Benjamin S. Grossberg's "The Space Traveler Talks Frankly About Desire".
• Jennifer Grotz' "Poppies".
• Bob Hicok's "Having Intended to Merely Pick on an Oil Company, the Poem Goes Awry".
• Katha Pollitt's "Angels".
• Gretchen Steele Pratt's "To my father on the anniversary of his death".
• Mary Ruefle's "Provenance".
• James Schuyler's "The Smallest".
• Rachel Wetzsteon's "Time Pieces".

At the end of the book, 44 pages are allocated for poets' comments. Often a poet's comments considerably illuminate — or are even more interesting than — the poem.

Birth Decades of the Poets

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2011 Guest Editor Kevin Young, Series Editor David Lehman

Notice the mode (most common) of the birth decades of the poets:

• For the 2011 issue (guest editor Kevin Young): the mode is the 1960s (after taking into account the four coy poets who declined to state their birth year for BAP despite their birth years being published on the Web; two are from the 1940s and two from the 1960s).
• For the 2010 issue (guest editor Amy Gerstler): again 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).
• For the 2008 issue (guest editor Charles Wright) the mode returns to an earlier decade: the 1950s.
• For the 2007 issue (guest editor Heather McHugh) it vaulted forward three decades to the 1970s.
• For the 2006 issue (guest editor Billy Collins, b. 1941), it was the 1940s.

In the 2006 to 2011 issues, quick glances at birth dates give this approximation:

Decade of birth.	2011 issue.	2010 issue.	2009 issue.	2008 issue.	2007 issue.	2006 issue.	1995 issue.
2000s	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1990s	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1980s	6	2	3	1	1	0	0
1970s	10+3=13	10+1=11	9	10+2=12	10+6=16	10+1=11	0
1960s	10+6+2=18	10+7=17	10+8=18	10	10+3=13	10+2=12	7
1950s	10+6=16	10+10+1=21	10+3=13	10+10+1=21	10+5=15	10+4=14	10+10+10=30
1940s	9+2=11	10+5=15	10+9=19	10+6=16	10+5=15	10+10+3=23	10+10=20
1930s	5	4	6	8	6	10	5
1920s	6	5	6	6	6	3	10+2=12
1910s	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
1900s	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Places of first publication before poems appeared in
The Best American Poetry 2011

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2011 Guest Editor Kevin Young, Series Editor David Lehman

Acknowledges first publications in 53 publications, which is also the mean of totals for the previous five years

	2011 issue	2010 issue	2009 issue	2008 issue	2007 issue	2006 issue	2005 issue
Number of publications as source of poems	53	52	57	45	45	52	60

Places of first publication for the 2011 collection are:

1. 32 Poems
2. AGNI
3. American Poetry Review (The)
4. American Scholar (The)
5. Atlantic (The)
6. At Length
7. Believer (The)
8. Beloit Poetry Journal
9. Black Warrior Review
10. Boston Review
11. Boulevard
12. Cave Wall
13. Cincinnati Review (The)
14. Court Green
15. Denver Quarterly
16. DMQ Review
17. Ecotone
18. Green Mountains Review
19. Gulf Coast
20. Hanging Loose
21. Iowa Review (The)
22. Iron Horse Literary Review
23. jubilat
24. Kenyon Review (The)
25. LIT
26. Literary Review (The)
27. London Review of Books
28. Maggy
29. McSweeny's
30. Michigan Quarterly Review
31. Nation (The)
32. New Criterion (The)
33. New England Review
34. New Ohio Review
35. New South
36. New Yorker (The)
37. New York Quarterly (The)
38. Paris Review (The)
39. Ploughshares
40. Poetry
41. Poetry Daily
42. Post Road
43. Prairie Schooner
44. Rattle
45. River Styx
46. Salmagundi
47. Sentence
48. Sewanee Review (The)
49. Southwest Review
50. Sycamore Review
51. upstreet
52. Virginia Quarterly Review (The)
53. Yale Review (The)

Links and Books

Links and Books.

• Laureate: the Poets Laureate of Britain
• Laureate: the Poets Laureate of the U.S.A.
• Best Poems by the Best Poets - Some Lists of Winners.
• Other Books of Poetry Form.

Related pages: Books of Poetry Form. Alphabetic list of poetry forms and poets. How to Write Poetry.

Copyright © 2011-2016 by J. Zimmerman, except for quotations. All rights reserved.

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