The Best American Poetry 2007, a volume in The Best American Poetry series , was edited by poet Heather McHugh, guest editor, who made the final selections, and David Lehman, the general editor for the series.
This book is the 20th volume in the most popular annual poetry anthology in the United States.[ citation needed ] Along with popular poets who have often appeared in previous editions, such as Billy Collins, Louise Gluck and Galway Kinnell, the book includes poets of "off-center traditions" such as Rae Armantrout and Christian Bok. 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 and Danielle Pafunda as evidence of this. Publishers Weekly called it a "riskier than usual volume." [1]
Richard Wakefield, reviewing the volume in 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 and Brad Leithauser, 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." [2]
In her review of the book for The Tampa Tribune , 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. However, Haymon called a poem by Brian Turner, an Iraq veteran, a pleasant discovery. [3]
Listed in alphabetical order by author's name:
The book is published by Scribner.
224 pages
Hardcover: ISBN 978-0-7432-9972-5
Paperback: ISBN 978-0-7432-9973-2
William James 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. Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004 through 2006. In 2016, Collins was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. As of 2020, he is a teacher in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.
Kim Addonizio is an American poet and novelist.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Pattiann Rogers is an American poet, and a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry. In 2018, she was awarded a special John Burroughs Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Nature Poetry.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
The Best American Poetry 2005, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Paul Muldoon.
The Best American Poetry 2004, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by general editor David Lehman. The guest editor for the year was Lyn Hejinian.
The Best American Poetry 2001, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Robert Hass.
The Best American Poetry 2000 (ISBN 0-7432-0033-0), a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Rita Dove.
The Best American Poetry series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems.
Bob Hicok is an American poet.
Heather McHugh is an American poet notable for the independent ranges of her aesthetic as a poet, and for her working devotion to teaching and translating literature.
Rattle is an American poetry magazine, based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1994, Rattle is published by the Rattle Foundation.
Joanie V. Mackowski is an American poet.
Mary Jo Bang is an American poet.
Amit Majmudar is an American novelist and poet. In 2015, he was named the first Poet Laureate of Ohio.
David Shumate is an American poet.
Lynne McMahon is an American poet.
Steve Kistulentz is an American novelist, poet, and screenwriter. He is the founding director of the graduate creative writing program at Saint Leo University in Florida. He currently serves as the Poet Laureate of Safety Harbor, FL.
Beth Ann Fennelly is an American poet and prose writer and was the Poet Laureate of Mississippi.