The Best American Poetry 2004, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by general editor David Lehman

David Lehman

David Lehman is a poet and the series editor for The Best American Poetry series. He teaches at The New School in New York City.-Career:...

. The guest editor for the year was Lyn Hejinian

Lyn Hejinian

Lyn Hejinian is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is well known for her landmark work My Life , as well as her book of essays, The Language of Inquiry .-Life:Hejinian was born in the San...

.

Hejinian, a "partisan of the Language School and the New York poets", according to Jacob Stockinger, editor of the culture desk at The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin, "seems to have gotten caught up in a poet-as-political activist or social commentator point of view [...] Perhaps that's why she even seems hostile to the notion of beauty, favoring relevance instead." Stockinger found much of the poetry in the volume, a "graduate school inscrutability without either meaning or music." Some of the pleasant surprises in the volume, for Stockinger, were "Here 2" by Bob Perelman

Bob Perelman

Bob Perelman is an American poet, critic, editor and teacher. He is often associated with the Language School group of poets. Perelman is Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania.-Life and work:...

 and Jean Day's "Prose of the World Order".

Ron Smith, writer-in-residence at St. Christopher's School and director of its Writers Institute, wrote in the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Richmond Times-Dispatch is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond the capital of Virginia, United States, and is commonly considered the "newspaper of record" for events occurring in much of the state...

that the strong points of the collection are its "wit, humor and comedy". He added: "Ms. Hejinian's aesthetic is certainly an intellectual one, rather than an emotional one. The aim is not to move a reader, but to rev up his cognitive functions." Smith thought the volume's best poems were the contributions from Kim Addonizio

Kim Addonizio

Kim Addonizio is an award-winning American poet and novelist.-Life:Addonizio is the daughter of tennis champion Pauline Betz and sports writer Bob Addie....

, Craig Arnold

Craig Arnold

Craig Arnold was an American poet and professor. His first book of poems, Shells , was selected by W. S. Merwin for the Yale Series of Younger Poets...

, Billy Collins

Billy Collins

Billy Collins 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 and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida...

, Carla Harryman

Carla Harryman

Carla Harryman is an American poet, essayist, and playwright often associated with the Language poets. She teaches Creative Writing at Eastern Michigan University and serves on the MFA faculty of the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College...

, Jane Hirshfield

Jane Hirshfield

Jane Hirshfield is an American poet.-Biography:Jane Hirshfield was born in New York City and received her bachelor's degree from Princeton University in the school's first graduating class to include women. She later studied at the San Francisco Zen Center, including three years of monastic...

, Danielle Pafunda, James Tate

James Tate (writer)

James Tate is an American poet whose work has earned him the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters...

, Paul Violi

Paul Violi

Paul Randolph Violi was an American poet born in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of eleven books of poetry, including Splurge, Fracas, The Curious Builder, Likewise, and most recently Overnight...

, and David Wagoner

David Wagoner

David Russell Wagoner is an American poet who has written many poetry collections and ten novels. Two of his books have been nominated for National Book Awards....

.

Poets and poems included

Poet	Poem	Publication(s) where poem previously appeared
Kim Addonizio Kim Addonizio Kim Addonizio is an award-winning American poet and novelist.-Life:Addonizio is the daughter of tennis champion Pauline Betz and sports writer Bob Addie....	"Chicken"	Five Points
Will Alexander	from "Solea of the Simooms"	No: a journal of the arts
Bruce Andrews Bruce Andrews Bruce Andrews is a U.S. poet who is one of the key figures associated with the Language poets .-Life and work:...	from "Dang Me"	SHINY
Rae Armantrout Rae Armantrout Rae Armantrout is an American poet generally associated with the Language Poets. Armantrout was born in Vallejo, California but grew up in San Diego. She has published ten books of poetry and has also been featured in a number of major anthologies...	"Almost"	Mississippi Review
Craig Arnold Craig Arnold Craig Arnold was an American poet and professor. His first book of poems, Shells , was selected by W. S. Merwin for the Yale Series of Younger Poets...	"Your friend's arriving on the bus"	Open City
John Ashbery John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...	"Wolf Ridge"	Conjunctions Conjunctions Conjunctions, is a biannual American literary journal based at Bard College. It was founded in 1981 and is currently edited by Bradford Morrow....
Mary Jo Bang Mary Jo Bang -Life:She grew up in Ferguson, Missouri. She graduated from Northwestern University, in Sociology, from the Polytechnic of Central London, and from Columbia University, with an M.F.A. She teaches at Washington University in St...	"The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity"	Ploughshares Ploughshares Ploughshares is an American literary magazine founded in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College in the heart of Boston...
Alan Bernheimer Alan Bernheimer Alan Bernheimer , is an American poet, often associated with the San Francisco Language poets.-Biography:He attended Horace Mann School, and graduated in 1970 from Yale College, where he became friends with poets Steve Benson, Kit Robinson, Rodger Kamenetz, and Alex Smith and studied literature...	"20 Questions"	SHINY, The Forward
Charles Bernstein Charles Bernstein Charles Bernstein is an American poet, theorist, editor, and literary scholar. Bernstein holds the Donald T. Regan Chair in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the most prominent members of the Language poets . In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the American...	"Sign Under Test"	Michigan Quarterly Review Michigan Quarterly Review The Michigan Quarterly Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1962 and published at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.The quarterly publishes art, essays, interviews, memoirs, fiction, poetry, and book reviews as well as writing "in a wide variety of research areas", according to...
Anselm Berrigan Anselm Berrigan Anselm Berrigan is a poet and teacher. He grew up in New York City, where he currently resides with his wife, poet Karen Weiser. From 2003 to 2007, he served as artistic director at the St. Mark's Poetry Project...	"Token Enabler"	Rattapallax, Mississippi Review, Can We Have Our Ball Back?
Mark Bibbins	from "Blasted Fields of Clover Bring Harrowing and Regretful Sighs"	Boston Review Boston Review Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
Oni Buchanan Oni Buchanan Oni Buchanan is an American poet, and pianist. Her most recent poetry collection is Spring , a 2007 National Poetry Series winner. Her discography includes three solo piano CDs on the independent Velvet Ear Records label. Her concert programming is often interdisciplinary in nature. She has...	"The Walk"	Conduit
Michael Burkard Michael Burkard -Life:He graduated from Hobart College and from the Iowa Writers' Workshop with an MFA in 1973. He taught at Kirkland College and Sarah Lawrence College , and has taught in the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at Syracuse University since 1997...	"a cloud of dusk"	Lyric
Anne Carson Anne Carson Anne Carson is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator and professor of Classics. Carson lived in Montreal for several years and taught at McGill University, the University of Michigan, and at Princeton University from 1980-1987....	"Gnosticism"	The New Yorker The New Yorker The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
T.J. Clark	"Landscape with a Calm"	The Threepenny Review The Threepenny Review The Threepenny Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1980. It is published in Berkeley, California by founding editor Wendy Lesser. Maintaining a quarterly schedule , it offers fiction, memoirs, poetry, essays and criticism to a readership of 10,000...
Billy Collins Billy Collins Billy Collins 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 and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida...	"The Centrifuge"	Fulcrum
Jack Collom Jack Collom Jack Collom is an American poet, teacher and essayist. His twenty-three books include Blue Heron & IBC, The Fox, Arguing with Something Plato Said, Red Car Goes By: Selected Poems 1955-2000, Exchanges of Earth and Sky and Situation Sings...	"3-4-00"	Ecopoetics
Michael Costello	"Ode to My Flint and Boom Bolivia"	Columbia Poetry Review
Michael Davidson Michael Davidson (poet) Michael Davidson is an American poet.-Overview:Davidson has written eight books of poetry as well as numerous historical, cultural and critical works...	"Bad Modernism"	No: a journal of the arts
Olena Kalytiak Davis Olena Kalytiak Davis Olena Kalytiak Davis is an American poet.She is the author of two poetry collections, most recently, Shattered Sonnets, Love Cards, And Other Off-And-Back Handed Importunities . Her first book, And Her Soul Out Of Nothing, won the Brittingham Prize...	"You Art A Scholar, Horation, Speak To It"	Tin House Tin House Tin House is an American literary magazine and book publisher based in Portland, Oregon and New York City. The Tin House magazine was conceived in the summer of 1998 by Portland publisher Win McCormack. He envisioned a journal that would be graphically appealing and free of the stale substance...
Jean Day Jean Day -Life and work:Born in Syracuse, New York, and raised in Middletown, Rhode Island, Day graduated from Antioch College in 1977. Since then she has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and worked in literary publishing, currently as associate editor of...	"Prose of the World Order"	26: A Journal of Poetry and Poetics
Linh Dinh Linh Dinh Linh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow.-Biography:...	"13"	American Poetry Review
Rita Dove Rita Dove Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993-1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now popularly known as "U.S. Poet Laureate"...	"All Souls"	The New Yorker The New Yorker The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
Rachel Blau DuPlessis Rachel Blau DuPlessis Rachel Blau DuPlessis an American poet and essayist, is known as a feminist critic and scholar with a special interest in modernist and contemporary poetry.-Life and work:...	"Draft 55:Quiptych"	Conjunctions Conjunctions Conjunctions, is a biannual American literary journal based at Bard College. It was founded in 1981 and is currently edited by Bradford Morrow....
kari edwards Kari edwards kari edwards was a poet, artist and gender activist. He won the New Langton Art's Bay Area Award in literature .He authored have been blue for charity ; obedience ; iduna kari edwards (1954-2006) was a poet, artist and gender activist. He won the New Langton Art's Bay Area Award in literature...	"short sorry"	Aufgabe
Kenward Elmslie Kenward Elmslie Kenward Gray Elmslie is an American writer, performer, editor and publisher associated with the New York School of poetry.-Life and career:...	"Sibling Rivalry"	New American Writing New American Writing New American Writing is a once-a-year American literary magazine emphasizing contemporary American poetry, including a range of innovative contemporary writing. The magazine is published in association with San Francisco State University. New American Writing is published by OINK! Press, a...
Aaron Fogel Aaron Fogel -Life:He was raised in New York City.He graduated from Columbia University, Cambridge University, and Columbia University, with a Ph.D.,Fogel has been on the faculty at Boston University since 1978....	"337,000, December, 2000"	Pataphysics
Ariel Greenberg	"Saints"	The Canary
Ted Greenwald	"Anyway"	SHINY
Barbara Guest Barbara Guest Barbara Guest née Barbara Ann Pinson was an American poet and prose stylist. Guest first gained recognition as a member of the first generation New York School of poetry....	"Nostalgia of the Infinite"	No: a journal of the arts
Carla Harryman Carla Harryman Carla Harryman is an American poet, essayist, and playwright often associated with the Language poets. She teaches Creative Writing at Eastern Michigan University and serves on the MFA faculty of the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College...	"from Baby"	Sal Mimeo
Jane Hirshfield Jane Hirshfield Jane Hirshfield is an American poet.-Biography:Jane Hirshfield was born in New York City and received her bachelor's degree from Princeton University in the school's first graduating class to include women. She later studied at the San Francisco Zen Center, including three years of monastic...	"Poe: An Assay (I)"	The Threepenny Review The Threepenny Review The Threepenny Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1980. It is published in Berkeley, California by founding editor Wendy Lesser. Maintaining a quarterly schedule , it offers fiction, memoirs, poetry, essays and criticism to a readership of 10,000... , Poetry Daily
John Hollander John Hollander John Hollander is a Jewish-American poet and literary critic. As of 2007, he is Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University...	"For Fiddle-De-Dee"	Hotel Amerika
Fanny Howe Fanny Howe Fanny Howe is an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She has written many novels in prose collection. Howe was awarded the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, presented annually by the Poetry Foundation to a living U.S...	"Catholic"	Chicago Review Chicago Review The Chicago Review is a literary magazine published four times per year in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. It was founded in 1946. Three stories published in the Chicago Review have won the O. Henry Prize...
Kenneth Irby Kenneth Irby Kenneth Irby is an American poet. He won a 2010 Shelley Memorial Award.He is sometimes associated with the Black Mountain poets, especially with Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, and Ed Dorn....	"[Record]"	No: a journal of the arts
Major Jackson Major Jackson Major Jackson is an American poet and professor. He is the author of three collections of poetry: Holding Company and Hoops Major Jackson (born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American poet and professor. He is the author of three collections of poetry: Holding Company (W.W. Norton, 2010)...	from "Urban Renewal"	Provincetown Arts, Poetry Daily
Marc Jaffee	"King of Repetition"	Hanging Loose
Kenneth Koch Kenneth Koch Kenneth Koch was an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77...	"The Man"	SHINY
John Koethe John Koethe John Koethe is an American poet and essayist. Originally from San Diego, California, he was educated at Princeton University and Harvard University, and is currently a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee....	"To an Audience"	TriQuarterly TriQuarterly TriQuarterly Online is a not-for-profit American literary magazine published twice a year at Northwestern University that features fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, literary essays, reviews, a blog, and graphic art....
Yusef Komunyakaa Yusef Komunyakaa Yusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who currently teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Ruth Lilly...	"Ignis Fatuus"	The New Republic The New Republic The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
Sean Manzano Labrador	"The Dark Continent"	Rapidfeed
Ann Lauterbach Ann Lauterbach Ann Lauterbach is an American poet, essayist, and professor. Her most recent poetry collection is Or to Begin Again , a 2009 National Book Award finalist. Her other honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the John D. and Catherine C. MacArthur...	"After Mahler"	No: a journal of the arts
Nathaniel Mackey Nathaniel Mackey Nathaniel Mackey is an American poet, novelist, anthologist, literary critic, editor and Professor of Literature at UC Santa Cruz. Mackey is a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets. Mackey is currently teaching a poetry workshop at Duke University....	"Sound and Cerement"	Hotel Amerika
Harry Mathews Harry Mathews Harry Mathews is an American author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays.-Life:Born in New York City to an upper class family, Mathews was educated at private schools there and at the Groton School in Massachusetts before enrolling at Princeton University in 1947...	"Lateral Disregard"	SHINY
Steve McCaffery Steve McCaffery Steven McCaffery is a Canadian poet and scholar who was a professor at York University. He currently holds the Gray Chair at SUNY Buffalo . McCaffery was born in Sheffield, England and lived in the UK for most of his youth attending University of Hull. He moved to Toronto in 1968...	"Some Versions of Pastoral"	TriQuarterly TriQuarterly TriQuarterly Online is a not-for-profit American literary magazine published twice a year at Northwestern University that features fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, literary essays, reviews, a blog, and graphic art....
K. Silem Mohammad	"Mars Needs Terrorists"	Kiosk
Erín Moure Erin Mouré Erin Mouré is a Canadian poet and translator of poetry from languages which include, French, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish to English. Her mother Mary Irene was born 1924 in Galicia, Poland and moved to Canada in 1929. Erin’s father is William Moure born in Ottawa Canada in 1925...	"8 Little Theatres of the Cornices"	No: a journal of the arts
Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon is an Irish poet. He has published over thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He held the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1999 - 2004. At Princeton University he is both the Howard G. B. Clark ’21 Professor in the Humanities and...	"The Last Time I Saw Chris"	The New Yorker The New Yorker The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
Eileen Myles Eileen Myles Eileen Myles is an American poet who has also worked in fiction, non-fiction, and theater.She won a 2010 Shelley Memorial Award.-Early life and career:...	"No Rewriting"	Mississippi Review
Alice Notley Alice Notley Alice Notley is an American poet. She was born in Bisbee, Arizona and grew up in Needles, California. She received a B.A. from Barnard College in 1967 and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1969. She married poet Ted Berrigan in 1972, with whom she was active in...	"State of the Union"	Columbia Poetry Review
Jeni Olin	"Blue Collar Holiday"	Hanging Loose, Exquisite Corpse, Jacket Jacket (magazine) Jacket is an on-line literary periodical edited by the Australian poet John Tranter. The first issue was in October 1997.Each new number of the magazine is posted at the Web site piece by piece until the new issue is full, when the next issue starts. Past issues remain posted as well...
Danielle Pafunda	"RSVP"	Pleiades Pleiades (magazine) Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing is a literary semiannual, non-profit publisher of contemporary American poetry, fiction, essays, and extensive reviews of recent small/university press titles. First published in . The journal is published by the University of Central Missouri's English and...
Heidi Peppermint	"Real Toads"	La Petite Zine
Bob Perelman Bob Perelman Bob Perelman is an American poet, critic, editor and teacher. He is often associated with the Language School group of poets. Perelman is Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania.-Life and work:...	"Here 2"	DCPoetry Anthology 2003
Carl Phillips Carl Phillips Carl Phillips is an American writer and poet. He is a Professor of English and of African and Afro-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis....	"Pleasure"	Tin House Tin House Tin House is an American literary magazine and book publisher based in Portland, Oregon and New York City. The Tin House magazine was conceived in the summer of 1998 by Portland publisher Win McCormack. He envisioned a journal that would be graphically appealing and free of the stale substance...
Robert Pinsky Robert Pinsky Robert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry...	"Samba"	The Threepenny Review The Threepenny Review The Threepenny Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1980. It is published in Berkeley, California by founding editor Wendy Lesser. Maintaining a quarterly schedule , it offers fiction, memoirs, poetry, essays and criticism to a readership of 10,000...
Carl Rakosi Carl Rakosi Carl Rakosi was the last surviving member of the original group of poets who were given the rubric Objectivist. He was still publishing and performing his poetry well into his 90s.-Early life:...	"In the First Circle of Limbo"	American Poetry Review
Ed Roberson Ed Roberson -Life:He was born and raised in Pittsburgh.Roberson lives in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he worked at Rutgers University, until 2002. In 2007, he was Visiting Writer in Residence at Northwestern University.His work appears in Callaloo-Awards:...	"Ideas Gray Suits Bowler Hats Baal"	Chicago Review Chicago Review The Chicago Review is a literary magazine published four times per year in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. It was founded in 1946. Three stories published in the Chicago Review have won the O. Henry Prize...
Kit Robinson Kit Robinson Kit Robinson is an American poet and translator. An early member of the San Francisco Language poets circle, he has published 20 books of poetry.-Life and work:...	"The 3D Matchmove Artist"	DCPoetry Anthology 2003
Carly Sachs	"the story"	PMS
Jennifer Scappettone	"III"	Boston Review Boston Review Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
Frederick Seidel Frederick Seidel -Career:In 1962, his first book, Final Solutions, was chosen by a jury of Louise Bogan, Stanley Kunitz, and Robert Lowell for an award sponsored by the 92nd Street Y, with a $1,500 prize...	"Love Song"	Fence, Harper's
David Shapiro David Shapiro (poet) David Shapiro is an American poet, literary critic, and art historian. He has written some twenty volumes of poetry, literary, and art criticism...	"A Burning Interior"	SHINY
Ron Silliman Ron Silliman Ron Silliman is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wrote a single poem, The Alphabet...	"Compliance Engineering"	Antennae
Bruce Smith Bruce Smith (poet) -Life:Smith was born and raised in Philadelphia. He has since taught at the University of Alabama, and now teaches at Syracuse University. He has been a co-editor of the Graham House Review and a contributing editor of Born Magazine.-Awards:...	"Song of the Ransom of the Dark"	POOL
Brian Kim Stefans Brian Kim Stefans Brian Kim Stefans is an American poet. He was born in Rutherford, New Jersey in 1969. He is best known for his work in digital poetry.He has published several books of poetry including Free Space Comix , Gulf , Angry Penguins , What Is Said to the Poet Concerning Flowers , and...	"They're Putting a New Door In"	Boston Review Boston Review Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
Gerald Stern Gerald Stern Gerald Stern is an American poet. His work became widely recognized after the 1977 publication of Lucky Life, which was that year's Lamont Poetry Selection, and of a series of essays on writing poetry in American Poetry Review. He has subsequently been given many prestigious awards for his...	"Dog That I Am"	Lyric
Virgil Suarez Virgil Suárez Virgil Suárez is a Cuban American poet and novelist. He is a professor of English at Florida State University. He is one of the leading writers in the Cuban American community, known for such novels as Latin Jazz and Going Under....	"La Florida"	New England Review New England Review The New England Review is a quarterly literary magazine published by Middlebury College. Founded in New Hampshire in 1978 by poet, novelist, editor and professor Sydney Lea and poet Jay Parini, it was published as New England Review & Bread Loaf Quarterly from 1982 , until 1991 as a formal...
Arthur Sze Arthur Sze Arthur Sze is a second-generation Chinese American poet.-Background:Sze was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author of eight books of poetry...	"Acanthus"	The Butcher Shop
James Tate James Tate (writer) James Tate is an American poet whose work has earned him the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters...	"Bounden Duty"	American Poetry Review
Edwin Torres Edwin Torres (poet) Edwin Torres is a "Nuyorican" poet.-Early years:Torres's parents moved from Puerto Rico and settled in the borough of The Bronx in New York City. His father died when he was young and he was then raised by his mother and her brother Martin. Martin provided comfort and family support...	"The Theorist Has No Samba!"	Van Gogh's Ear
Rodrigo Toscano Rodrigo Toscano -Life:He lived in San Francisco from 1995- 1999. He works in Manhattan at the Labor Institute, and lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.-Poetry:* * Partisans * Arbiter -External links:***...	"Meditatio Lectoris"	Kiosk, Rattapallax
Paul Violi Paul Violi Paul Randolph Violi was an American poet born in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of eleven books of poetry, including Splurge, Fracas, The Curious Builder, Likewise, and most recently Overnight...	"Appeal to Grammarians"	Green Mountains Review Green Mountains Review Green Mountains Review is a literary journal that publishes biannually out of Johnson State College in Vermont and is headed by founder and senior editor, Neil Shepard.Past contributors of note include Agha Shahid Ali, Jacob M...
David Wagoner David Wagoner David Russell Wagoner is an American poet who has written many poetry collections and ten novels. Two of his books have been nominated for National Book Awards....	"Trying to Make Music"	Hanging Loose
Charles Wright Charles Wright (poet) Charles Wright is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award Charles Wright (born August 25, 1935) is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award Charles Wright (born August 25, 1935) is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award (19830 for...	"In Praise of Han Shan"	Five Points

External links

• Web page for contents of the book, with links to each publication where the poems originally appeared
• Best American Poetry Web site main page
• http://www.bostoncomment.com/bostonc9.htm A review by Joan Houlihan in Boston Comment
• http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE2DE1F3CF932A15752C1A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print A review by David Orr
  David Orr (journalist)
  David Orr is an American journalist, attorney, and poet who is noted for his reviews and essays on poetry.Orr grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Princeton University in 1996, and subsequently a law degree from Yale University. While still...
  
  in The New York Times Book Review.