The Best American Poetry 2007, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by poet Heather McHugh

Heather McHugh

-Life:Heather McHugh, a poet, translator, and educator, was born in San Diego, California, to Canadian parents, John Laurence, a marine biologist, and Eileen Francesca . They raised McHugh in Gloucester Point, Virginia. There, her father directed the marine biological laboratory on the York River...

, guest editor, who made the final selections, and 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 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

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...

, Louise Gluck

Louise Glück

Louise Elisabeth Glück is an American poet of Hungarian Jewish heritage. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2003, after serving as a Special Bicentennial Consultant three years prior in 2000....

 and Galway Kinnell

Galway Kinnell

Galway Kinnell is an American poet. He was Poet Laureate of Vermont from 1989 to 1993. An admitted follower of Walt Whitman, Kinnell rejects the idea of seeking fulfillment by escaping into the imaginary world. His best-loved and most anthologized poems are "St...

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

 and Christian Bok

Christian Bök

Christian Bök is an experimental Canadian poet. He is the author of Eunoia, which won the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, and which has been said to be "Canada's best-selling poetry book ever."-Life:...

. 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

Ben Lerner

Benjamin S. Lerner is an American poet, novelist, and critic. He was awarded the Hayden Carruth prize for his cycle of fifty-two sonnets, . In 2004, Library Journal named it one of the year's twelve best books of poetry...

 and Danielle Pafunda as evidence of this. Publishers Weekly called it a "riskier than usual volume."

Richard Wakefield

Richard Wakefield

Richard Wakefield is an American poet, and literary critic.He has taught at the University of Washington Tacoma, and The Evergreen State College.He teaches at Tacoma Community College.-Life:He is poetry critic for the Seattle Times....

, reviewing the volume in The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...

, 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

Carmine Starnino is a Canadian poet, essayist, educator, and editor.He was born in Montreal, Quebec, into an Italian heritage. His first poetry collection The New World was nominated for the 1997 A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry and the 1997 Gerald Lampert Award...

 and Brad Leithauser

Brad Leithauser

Brad E. Leithauser 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 & Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he is now on faculty at The...

, 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

The Tampa Tribune, published in Tampa, Florida, is one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area, second in circulation and readership to the St. Petersburg Times. The paper's tagline is "Life...

, 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 Hass

Robert L. Hass is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He was awarded the 2007 National Book Award and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Time and Materials.-Life:...

. However, Haymon called a poem by Brian Turner

Brian Turner (American poet)

Brian Turner is an American poet, essayist, and professor. He won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award for his debut collection, Here, Bullet, the first of many awards and honors received for this collection of poems about his experience as a soldier in the Iraq War...

, an Iraq veteran, a pleasant discovery.

Poets and poems included

Listed in alphabetical order by author's name:

Poet	Poem	Publication where poem previously appeared
Kazim Ali Kazim Ali Kazim Ali is an American poet, novelist, essayist and professor. His most recent books are The Disappearance of Seth and Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities . His honors include an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council...	"The Art of Breathing"	Barrow Street Barrow Street (magazine) Barrow Street is a twice-a-year American poetry magazine founded in 1998 and based in New York City. The small journal has published prominent poets and its poems have been reprinted in anthologies such as The Best American Poetry series....
Jeannette Allee	"Crimble of Staines"	Field FIELD (magazine) FIELD magazine is a twice-yearly literary magazine published by Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and focusing on contemporary poetry and poetics....
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...	"Scumble"	American Poet
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 Opening"	Verse
Nicky Beer	"Still Life with Half-Turned Woman and Questions"	Beloit Poetry Journal
Marvin Bell Marvin Bell Marvin Bell is an American poet and teacher who was the first Poet Laureate of the State of Iowa.Bell was born in New York City and raised in Center Moriches, Long Island...	"The Method"	Crazyhorse Crazyhorse (magazine) Crazyhorse is an American magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, and essays. It is published twice yearly by the Department of English and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina...
Christian Bok Christian Bök Christian Bök is an experimental Canadian poet. He is the author of Eunoia, which won the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, and which has been said to be "Canada's best-selling poetry book ever."-Life:...	"Vowels"	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...
Louis E. Bourgeois	"A Voice from the City"	Sentence Sentence Sentence or sentencing may refer to:* Sentence , a grammatical unit of language* Sentence , a formula with no free variables* Sentence , a particular type of musical phrase...
Geoffrey Brock Geoffrey Brock Geoffrey Brock is an American poet and translator.-Education:He received a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Florida in 1998...	"Flesh of John Brown's Flesh: Dec. 2, 1859"	Subtropics Subtropics The subtropics are the geographical and climatical zone of the Earth immediately north and south of the tropical zone, which is bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, at latitudes 23.5°N and 23.5°S...
Matthew Byrne	"Let Me Count the Ways"	Poet Lore Poet Lore Poet Lore is an English-language literary magazine based in Bethesda, Maryland. Established in 1889, Poet Lore is the oldest continuously published poetry magazine in the United States....
Macgregor Card	"Duties of an English Foreign Secretary"	Fence Fence magazine Fence is a print and online literary publication containing both original work and critical and journalistic coverage of what may be largely termed "experimental" or "avant garde" material...
Julie Carr Julie Carr Julie Carr is an American poet who has recently been awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.She graduated from Barnard College with a BA in 1988, from New York University with an MFA in 1997, and from University of California, Berkeley with a Ph.D...	"marriage"	POOL Pool -Pools of water:*Swimming pool, an artificially enclosed body of water intended for swimming*Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings:...
Michael Collier Michael Collier (poet) Michael Robert Collier is an American poet, teacher, creative writing program administrator and editor. He has published five books of original poetry, a translation of Euripedes' Medea, a book of prose pieces about poetry, and has edited three anthologies of poetry. From 2001 to 2004 he was the...	"Common Flicker"	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....
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 News Today"	Bookforum Bookforum Bookforum is a New York-based magazine devoted to books and the discussion of literature. It is edited by Albert Mobilio, Chris Lehmann, , and Michael Miller.-History: Bookforum was launched in 1994 as a literary supplement to Artforum...
Robert Creeley Robert Creeley Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...	"Valentine for You"	Crazyhorse Crazyhorse (magazine) Crazyhorse is an American magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, and essays. It is published twice yearly by the Department of English and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina...
Linh Dinh Linh Dinh Linh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow.-Biography:...	"Continuous Bullets over Flattened Earth and A Super-Clean Country"	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...
Mike Dockins Mike Dockins Mike Dockins is an American poet. He is the author of Slouching in the Path of a Comet, published in 2007 by Sage Hill Press. The book has been critically well-received. His poem "Dead Critics Society" was selected for inclusion in 2007's Best American Poetry Anthology, edited by Heather McHugh,...	"Dead Critics Society"	The Atlanta Review
Sharon Dolin	"Tea Lay"	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...
Denise Duhamel Denise Duhamel -Background:Duhamel received her B.F.A. from Emerson College and her M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. She is a New York Foundation for the Arts recipient and has been resident poet at Bucknell University...	"Language Police Report"	Sentence Sentence Sentence or sentencing may refer to:* Sentence , a grammatical unit of language* Sentence , a formula with no free variables* Sentence , a particular type of musical phrase...
Stephen Dunn Stephen Dunn Stephen Dunn is an American poet. Dunn has written fifteen collections of poetry. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 2001 collection, Different Hours and has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Dunn completed his B.A. in English at...	"Where He Found Himself"	Iowa Review
Russell Edson Russell Edson Russell Edson is an American poet, novelist, writer and illustrator, and the son of the cartoonist-screenwriter Gus Edson....	"See Jack"	Sentence Sentence Sentence or sentencing may refer to:* Sentence , a grammatical unit of language* Sentence , a formula with no free variables* Sentence , a particular type of musical phrase...
Elaine Equi Elaine Equi Elaine Equi is an American poet.Equi was born in Oak Park, Illinois and grew up in the Chicago area. Since 1988 she has lived in New York with her husband, poet Jerome Sala. She currently teaches creative writing in the Master of Fine Arts programs at City College of New York and The New School...	"Etudes"	the tiny The Tiny The Tiny is a Swedish band consisting of pianist and vocalist Ellekari Larsson, cellist Leo Svensson, and double bassist Johan Berthling . Larsson's DetErMine Records distributes the band's albums in Sweden, while they are signed to Eyeball Records in the United States...
Landis Everson Landis Everson Landis Everson was an American poet. In the late 1940s, he was a member of the Berkeley Renaissance along with his friends Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer, and Robin Blaser. Everson was the inaugural recipient of the Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Foundation.- Overview :Everson was born and grew...	"Lemon Tree"	American Poetry Review
Thomas Fink	"Yinglish Strophes IX"	Barrow Street Barrow Street (magazine) Barrow Street is a twice-a-year American poetry magazine founded in 1998 and based in New York City. The small journal has published prominent poets and its poems have been reprinted in anthologies such as The Best American Poetry series....
Helen Ransom Forman	"Daily"	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...
Louise Gluck Louise Glück Louise Elisabeth Glück is an American poet of Hungarian Jewish heritage. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2003, after serving as a Special Bicentennial Consultant three years prior in 2000....	"Archaic Fragment"	Poetry Poetry Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
Albert Goldbarth Albert Goldbarth Albert Goldbarth is an American poet born January 31, 1948 in Chicago. He is known for his prolific production, his gregarious tone, his eclectic interests and his distinctive 'talky' style. He has been a Guggenheim fellow and won the National Book Critics Circle award in 1991 and 2001, the only...	"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"	New Letters
Donald Hall Donald Hall Donald Hall is an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2006.-Personal life:...	"The Master"	American Poetry Review
Mark Halliday Mark Halliday Mark Halliday is a noted American poet, professor and critic. He is author of five collections of poetry, most recently Keep This Forever...	"Best Am Po"	POOL Pool -Pools of water:*Swimming pool, an artificially enclosed body of water intended for swimming*Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings:...
Forrest Hamer Forrest Hamer Forrest Hamer is an American poet, psychologist, and psychoanalyst. He is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Rift . His first collection, Call & Response, won the Beatrice Hawley Award, and his second, Middle Ear , received the Northern California Book Award...	"Initiation"	American Poetry Review
Matthea Harvey Matthea Harvey Matthea Harvey is a contemporary American poet, writer and professor. She has published three collections, most recently, Modern Life , which earned her the 2009 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award, and a New York Times Notable Book...	"From The Future of Terror/Terror of the Future Series"	Bomb Bomb A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
Robert Hass Robert Hass Robert L. Hass is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He was awarded the 2007 National Book Award and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Time and Materials.-Life:...	"Bush's War"	American Poetry Review
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...	"Critique of Pure Reason"	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...
Daniel Johnson Daniel Johnson Daniel Johnson may refer to* Daniel Johnson , English buccaneer* Daniel Johnson, Sr. , politician, leader of the Union Nationale party and Quebec premier, 1966–1968* Daniel Johnson, Jr...	"Do Unto Others"	Barrow Street Barrow Street (magazine) Barrow Street is a twice-a-year American poetry magazine founded in 1998 and based in New York City. The small journal has published prominent poets and its poems have been reprinted in anthologies such as The Best American Poetry series....
Richard Kenney Richard Kenney Richard L. Kenney is a poet and professor of English at the University of Washington. He is the author of four books of poetry: The Evolution of the Flightless Bird, Orrery, The Invention of the Zero, and The One-Strand River....	"Auguries"	Southwest Review Southwest Review The Southwest Review is a literary journal published quarterly, based on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. It is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States of America . The current editor-in-chief is Willard Spiegelman.The journal was formerly known as the...
Milton Kessler Milton Kessler Milton Kessler was a poet and an English professor at Binghamton University. He was one of the founders of the university's Creative Writing Program.-Life:...	"Comma of God"	Sentence Sentence Sentence or sentencing may refer to:* Sentence , a grammatical unit of language* Sentence , a formula with no free variables* Sentence , a particular type of musical phrase...
Galway Kinnell Galway Kinnell Galway Kinnell is an American poet. He was Poet Laureate of Vermont from 1989 to 1993. An admitted follower of Walt Whitman, Kinnell rejects the idea of seeking fulfillment by escaping into the imaginary world. His best-loved and most anthologized poems are "St...	"Hide-and-Seek, 1933"	Beloit Poetry Journal
David Kirby David Kirby (poet) David Kirby is an American poet and the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University . His most recent book is The Temple Gate Called Beautiful, published in 2008 by Alice James Books...	"Ode to the Personals"	Five Points Five Points Five Points may refer to:*Five Points, Alabama*Five Points, California , multiple locations*Five Points, Florida*Five Points, North Carolina*Five Points, Ohio*Five Points, Pennsylvania , multiple locations...
Julie Larios	"What Bee Did"	The Cortland Review
Brad Leithauser Brad Leithauser Brad E. Leithauser 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 & Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he is now on faculty at The...	"A Good List"	The New Criterion The New Criterion The New Criterion is a New York-based monthly literary magazine and journal of artistic and cultural criticism, edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball. It has sections for criticism of poetry, theater, art, music, the media, and books...
Ben Lerner Ben Lerner Benjamin S. Lerner is an American poet, novelist, and critic. He was awarded the Hayden Carruth prize for his cycle of fifty-two sonnets, . In 2004, Library Journal named it one of the year's twelve best books of poetry...	"From Angle of Yaw"	Beloit Poetry Journal
Joanie Mackowski Joanie Mackowski -Life:She grew up in Connecticut.She graduated from Wesleyan University, the University of Washington, was a Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University, and from University of Missouri with a Ph.D.She taught at University of Cincinnati...	"When I was a dinosaur"	POOL Pool -Pools of water:*Swimming pool, an artificially enclosed body of water intended for swimming*Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings:...
Amit Majmudar Amit Majmudar -Life:He is a diagnostic radiologist specializing in Nuclear Medicine practicing full-time in Columbus, Ohio, where he lives with his wife Ami and his twin sons, Shiv and Savya....	"By Accident"	The Antioch Review
Sabrina Orah Mark	"The 10 Stages of Beatrice"	Conduit
Campbell McGrath Campbell McGrath Campbell McGrath is a notable modern American poet. He is the author of nine full-length collections of poetry, including his most recent, Seven Notebooks , Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition , and In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys .- Life :McGrath was born in Chicago, Illinois, and...	"Ode to the Plantar Fascia"	POOL Pool -Pools of water:*Swimming pool, an artificially enclosed body of water intended for swimming*Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings:...
Leslie Adrienne Miller Leslie Adrienne Miller Leslie Adrienne Miller is the author of five collections of poems.Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, Miller holds a B.A. from Stephens College, an M.A. from the University of Missouri, and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a Ph.D...	"On Leonardo's Drawings"	The Kenyon Review The Kenyon Review The Kenyon Review is a Literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, USA, home of Kenyon College. The Review was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959...
Marilyn Nelson Marilyn Nelson Marilyn Nelson is an American poet, translator and children's book author. She is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks.-Early life:...	"Etymology"	Literary Imagination
Meghan O'Rourke Meghan O'Rourke Meghan O'Rourke is an American poet, critic, and a contributing writer for the online magazine Slate. She is a graduate of Yale. O'Rourke was formerly a fiction editor at The New Yorker and from 2005-2010 was poetry co-editor at The Paris Review...	"Peep Show"	The Kenyon Review The Kenyon Review The Kenyon Review is a Literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, USA, home of Kenyon College. The Review was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959...
Ed Ochester Ed Ochester Edwin Frank Ochester is an American poet and editor.Born September 15 in Brooklyn, New York, he was educated at Cornell University, Harvard University, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison....	"Voltaire at Cirey, 1736"	Barrow Street Barrow Street (magazine) Barrow Street is a twice-a-year American poetry magazine founded in 1998 and based in New York City. The small journal has published prominent poets and its poems have been reprinted in anthologies such as The Best American Poetry series....
Gregory Orr Gregory Orr Gregory Orr is an American writer and director of documentary and fiction films. He is the son of the late actress Joy Page and the late TV producer William T. Orr.-Career:...	"From Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved"	RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE is an award-winning poetry magazine based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1994, the magazine is published by the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation. Established writers such as Philip Levine, Jane Hirshfield, Billy Collins, Sharon Olds, Gregory Orr, and others have appeared in RATTLE,...
Danielle Pafunda	"Dear Pearce & Pearce, Inc."	Denver Quarterly Denver Quarterly The Denver Quarterly is a literary journal based at the University of Denver. Founded in 1966 by novelist John Williams.-Best American Short Stories:...
Chad Parmenter	"A Tech's Ode to Genome Computer"	The Kenyon Review The Kenyon Review The Kenyon Review is a Literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, USA, home of Kenyon College. The Review was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959...
Susan Parr	"Swooping Actuarial Fauna and Ecstatic Cling"	Alaska Quarterly Review
Peter Pereira	"Nursmaid's Elbow"	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...
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...	"Stupid Meditation on Peace"	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...
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...	"Louie Louie"	American Poetry Review
David Rivard David Rivard David Rivard is an American poet.His poems and essays have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including New England Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, and TriQuarterly. David Rivard is Poetry Editor at the Harvard Review, and teaches at the University of New Hampshire, and the Vermont College...	"The Rev. Larry Love is Dead"	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....
Marya Rosenberg	"If I Tell You You're Beautiful, Will You Report Me?: A West Point Haiku Series"	Hanging Loose
Natasha Saje Natasha Sajé -Life:She grew up in New York City, and New Jersey. She graduated from the University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Maryland, College Park.She teaches at Westminster College...	"F"	Beloit Poetry Journal
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...	"The Death of the Sha"	Raritan Quarterly Review Raritan Quarterly Review Raritan is a well-regarded literary journal that publishes poetry, fiction and essays. The journal is based at Rutgers University in New Jersey...
Alan Shapiro Alan Shapiro Alan Shapiro is an American poet and professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of nine poetry books, including Tantalus in Love, Song and Dance, and The Dead Alive and Busy. He received the Kingsley Tufts Award and the Los Angeles...	"Country Western Singer"	The Virginia Quarterly Review The Virginia Quarterly Review The Virginia Quarterly Review is a literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman...
David Shumate David Shumate -Life:He teaches at Marian College.His work has appeared in North America Review, Mid-American Review, Missouri Review, Mississippi Review, Maize, Southern Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner.He lives in Zionsville, Indiana.-Works:**...	"Drawing Jesus"	Gulf Coast
Carmine Starnino Carmine Starnino Carmine Starnino is a Canadian poet, essayist, educator, and editor.He was born in Montreal, Quebec, into an Italian heritage. His first poetry collection The New World was nominated for the 1997 A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry and the 1997 Gerald Lampert Award...	"Money"	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...
Brian Turner Brian Turner (American poet) Brian Turner is an American poet, essayist, and professor. He won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award for his debut collection, Here, Bullet, the first of many awards and honors received for this collection of poems about his experience as a soldier in the Iraq War...	"What Every Soldier Should Know"	American Poet
Arthur Vogelsang	"The Family"	Colorado Review Colorado Review Colorado Review is a major American literary journal published by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.The journal presents the annual Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction...
Cody Walker Cody Walker Cody Walker is an American poet, essayist, and educator.- Academic studies :Walker holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, an M.F.A. from the University of Arkansas, and a Ph.D...	"Coulrophobia"	Tarpaulin Sky Tarpaulin Sky Press Tarpaulin Sky Press is a small press publisher of hybrid texts as well as poetry and prose. Founded by Christian Peet in 2006 and based in Grafton, Vermont, the company produces full-length books, chapbooks, trade paperbacks, hand-bound books, and a literary journal that appears in online and paper...
Kary Wayson	"Flu Song in Spanish"	Alaska Quarterly Review
Charles Harper Webb Charles Harper Webb Charles Harper Webb is an American poet, professor, psychotherapist and former singer and guitarist. His most recent poetry collection is Shadow Ball . His honors include a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a Pushcart Prize and inclusion in The Best American...	"Big"	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...
Joe Wenderoth Joe Wenderoth Joe Wenderoth is an American poet, writer and professor. His work is widely anthologized, appearing in collections such as: The Anchor Book Of New American Short Stories, Isn't It Romantic, State of the Union, Poetry 180, The Next American Essay, The Best American Prose Poems: From Poe To Present,...	"The Home of the Brave"	Sacramento News & Review
Richard Wilbur Richard Wilbur Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....	"From Opposites and More Opposites"	American Poet
George Witte George Witte George Witte, an American poet from Madison, New Jersey, is the author of Deniability: Poems and The Apparitioners: Poems.-Career:George Witte is the author of two books of poetry: Deniability: Poems, published by Orchises Press in 2009, and The Apparitioners: Poems, published by Three Rail Press...	"At Dusk, the Catbird"	The Vocabula Review The Vocabula Review The Vocabula Review is an electronic journal about the state of the English language.-Publication:The journal is published online by the Vocabula Communications Company, on or about the third Sunday of each month. Robert Hartwell Fiske is the editor and publisher of Vocabula...
Theodor Worozbyt	"An Experiment"	Crazyhorse Crazyhorse (magazine) Crazyhorse is an American magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, and essays. It is published twice yearly by the Department of English and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina...
Harriet Zinnes	"Remiss Rebut"	Colorado Review Colorado Review Colorado Review is a major American literary journal published by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.The journal presents the annual Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction...

Publishing information

The book is published by Scribner.

224 pages

Hardcover: ISBN 978-0-7432-9972-5

Paperback: ISBN 978-0-7432-9973-2

ISBN 0-7432-9973-6

External links

• http://bestamericanpoetry.com/archive/?id=21 Web page for the book