The Best American Poetry 2013
Guest Editor Denise Duhamel,
Series Editor David Lehman

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2013 Guest Editor Denise Duhamel, 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: 2013; Guest Editor Denise Duhamel. The Best American Poetry: 2012; Guest Editor Mark Doty. 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.

David Lehman's Introductory Essay. Poets. Places of poems' first publication.

Introductory Essays to
The Best American Poetry 2013

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2013 Guest Editor Denise Duhamel, 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 Denise Duhamel as the 2013 guest editor.
• Comments in his foreword:

  T.S. Eliot once wrote: "Upon giving the matter a little attention, we perceive that criticism, far from being a simple and orderly field of beneficent activity, from which impostors can be readily ejected, is no better than a Sunday park of contending and contentious orators, who have not even arrived at the articulation of their differences."

Denise Duhamel: Guest Editor

Poets of
The Best American Poetry 2013

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2013 Guest Editor Denise Duhamel, Series Editor David Lehman

Of the 76 poets whose work is included (74 have one poem each while one poem has two authors), see our web pages on:

• Billy Collins.
• Louise Glück.
• Stephen Dunn.
• James Tate.
• Rae Armantrout.

Birth Decades of the Poets

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2013 Guest Editor Denise Duhamel, Series Editor David Lehman

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

• For the 2013 issue (guest editor Denise Duhamel): median 1960. Omits date for three DTS poets (declined-to-state birth year)
• For the 2012 issue (guest editor Mark Doty): again the mode returns to an earlier decade: the 1950s. Omits date for three DTS poets (declined-to-state birth year): Steve Heighton, Brenda Hillman, and Rick Bardot.
• 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.

From 2006 to the current issue, quick glances at birth dates give this approximation:

Birth decade	2013 issue [omits 8 DTS]	2012 issue [omits 3 DTS]	2011 issue.	2010 issue.	2009 issue.	2008 issue.	2007 issue.	2006 issue.	1995 issue.
2000s	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1990s	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1980s	8	5	6	2	3	1	1	0	0
1970s	10	10+5=15	10+3=13	10+1=11	9	10+2=12	10+6=16	10+1=11	0
1960s	10+4=14	10+5=15	10+6+2=18	10+7=17	10+8=18	10	10+3=13	10+2=12	7
1950s	10+4=14	10+7=17	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	10+3=13	9+2=11	9+2=11	10+5=15	10+9=19	10+6=16	10+5=15	10+10+3=23	10+10=20
1930s	2	7	5	4	6	8	6	10	5
1920s	4	2	6	5	6	6	6	3	10+2=12
1910s	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0

Places of first publication before poems appeared in
The Best American Poetry 2013

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2013 Guest Editor Denise Duhamel, Series Editor David Lehman

Acknowledges first appearance in 55 publications, which is the slightly higher than the mean of 51 for the last nine years and third highest in that period:

	2013 issue	2012 issue	2011 issue	2010 issue	2009 issue	2008 issue	2007 issue	2006 issue	2005 issue
Number of publications as source of poems	55	41	53	52	57	45	45	52	60

Places of first publication for this collection are:

1. ANGI
2. Alaska Quarterly Review
3. American Poetry Review (The)
4. American Scholar (The)
5. Antioch Review (The)
6. Awl (The)
7. Barrow Street
8. Believer (The)
9. Boston Review
10. Carbon Copy Magazine
11. Columbia Poetry Review
12. Common (The)
13. Conduit
14. Court Green
15. Ecotone
16. FIELD
17. Fifth Wednesday Journal
18. Five Points
19. Georgia Review (The)
20. Granta
21. Gulf Coast
22. Gulfshore Life
23. Hanging Loose
24. Harper's
25. Harpur Palate
26. Harvard Review
27. House Organ
28. jubliat
29. Los Angeles Review (The)
30. MAKE
31. MiPOesias
32. Mid-American Review
33. Nation (The)
34. New American Writings
35. New England Review
36. New Ohio Review
37. New Yorker (The)
38. PEN America
39. Ploughshares
40. Plume
41. Poetry
42. Poetry Daily
43. Poetry London
44. Public Space (A)
45. Redivider
46. River Styx
47. Slate
48. Southampton Review (The)
49. Southern Review (The)
50. Southwest Review
51. Subtropics
52. Terrain.org
53. Verse Daily
54. Virginia Quarterly Review (The)
55. Vitrine: a printed museum

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 © 2013-2016 by J. Zimmerman, except for quotations. All rights reserved.

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