2017 Poetry Roundup
There are more beautiful things than Beyonce by Morgan Parker
Morgan Parker’s second collection of poems won advance praise from the likes of Roxanne Gay and Terrance Hayes, and critical success with publications like the Paris Review and the New York Times. The thoughtful socio-political content of her work garnered much of the attention, but her formal skills bring that content to fruition in lyrical and engaging contemporary language shot through with rich and poignant cultural reference.
When I grow up I want to be a list of further possibilites by Chen Chen
Chen’s first book of poems is an introduction, to himself, his family, and the world of memories and history he finds himself in. These elements of past and present blend and bend with and over one another in conversational but no less enlightening language, allowing for moments of serious self-reflection and redefinition of experience within simple and exciting poems.
Olio by Tyehimba Jess
Published in 2016, Tyehimba Jess went on to win the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for this collection. Jess’s experience with spoken word and slam poetry shows through in the mixed forms and playful use of language you’ll read here. His skill, coupled with interests in narrative and history, evolve a series of related poems steeped in images compounding upon one another, and revolving around “the lives of mostly unrecorded African American performers directly before and after the Civil War.” (quote from the publisher)
Afterland: Poems by Mei Der Vang
Vang’s premier book of poems is a 2016 Walt Whitman Award Winner and has been longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Poetry. Her poems take their reader into a world rich in personal and historic details, revolving around the Hmong people of Laos and their immigration as refugees to the US following the Laotian Civil War. Vang won praise for the depth of her coverage of this lesser known history, and for her unsparing and powerful command of language.
The blessing of dark water by Elizabeth Lyons
Yet another debut collection, and yet another set of poems inspired by history. Here Lyon’s draws on the life and times of artist Walter Inglis Anderson to provoke reflection on mental health, imagination, and self-identity. Reviewers have praised Lyon’s poems for their ability to navigate complex and “dark” material with a nuanced trail of thought for the reader to follow. That skill makes this work great to get safely lost in.
Where now: new and selected poems by Laura Kasischke
Kasischke’s poetic work has been lavished with awards over the course of her career. This book brings together the best of her output, along with new unpublished poems. All told it presents the best of a quintessential contemporary American poet. Her poems are simply arranged meditations on often common but unexplored experiences. Her skill as a poet brings these slices of life into new contexts and juxtapositions with one another, imbuing recognizable images with new life and meaning.
The best American poetry. 2017
There will always be more books out there then you could read, not to mention all the journals and magazines publishing poetry as well. The “Best American Poetry” series provides a great annual snapshot of published work, and a unique chance to sample poems from poets with wildly different backgrounds, styles, and interests.
2017 was an especially good year for books about poetry. For readers who can’t stand the genre to lifelong fans and practitioners, there is something for everyone in the following titles.
American originality: essays on poetry
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