The Best American Poetry

The Best American Poetry
Name	The Best American Poetry
Editors	David Lehman (series editor); various guest editors
Country	United States
Language	English
Discipline	Poetry anthology
Publisher	Scribner
Firstdate	1988
Media type	Print

The Best American Poetry is an annual anthology series collecting contemporary English-language poems published in American periodicals. Conceived as a survey and showcase, the series has involved hundreds of poets, editors, magazines, and institutions across decades. It intersects with major literary prizes, university programs, and cultural journals while reflecting shifts in poetic styles and publication venues.

Overview

The series has been associated with editors such as David Lehman and guest editors including John Ashbery, Rita Dove, Louise Glück, Robert Bly, Adrienne Rich, Mark Strand, Jorie Graham, Billy Collins, Stephen Dobyns, Heather McHugh, Seamus Heaney, Sharon Olds, and Lucille Clifton. It has drawn from magazines like The New Yorker, Poetry, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The Nation, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, The Harvard Review, The Yale Review, The New Republic, Slate, The London Review of Books, Tin House, The American Scholar, Granta, The Missouri Review, Fence, ZYZZYVA, Raritan, AGNI, and Boston Review. Institutions and programs frequently represented include Columbia University, Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, University of Iowa, Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Stanford University, University of Michigan, University of California (Berkeley), New York University, Brown University, University of Arizona, and University of Virginia. The anthology intersects with awards and events like the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, T.S. Eliot Prize, Griffin Poetry Prize, MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, Academy of American Poets, PEN America, Library of Congress, and Poetry Foundation.

History and Series Development

The series launched in 1988 amid conversations at publishing houses such as Scribner and Simon & Schuster and periodicals such as Poetry and The New Yorker. Its founding reflects the late 20th-century consolidation of literary networks involving editors like Harold Bloom, Helen Vendler, Christopher Ricks, and Helen Vendler-aligned critics, and institutions including the Modern Language Association and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Over time, guest editors from the Beat movement, the New York School, the confessional school, the Black Arts Movement, the Nuyorican poets, and various diasporic poets have shaped annual selections—examples include influences linked to Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara, Sylvia Plath, Amiri Baraka, Nicolás Guillén, Derek Walcott, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Gwendolyn Brooks. The series evolved alongside small presses such as Graywolf Press, Copper Canyon Press, Faber & Faber, New Directions, City Lights, Bloodaxe Books, Carcanet, and Pushkin Press, and literary organizations like PEN Center US, Poets House, Academy of American Poets, and the Poetry Society of America. Technological and cultural shifts brought online journals such as Electronic Poetry Center, Jacket, Poetry Daily, and Verse to prominence, altering the pool of available work and dialogue with editors from journals like The Believer, The Rumpus, and The Millions.

Editorial Process and Selection Criteria

Each volume features a guest editor who selects poems from eligible periodicals; the series editor compiles and curates the pool. Selection criteria have traditionally included considerations tied to publication venue, originality, craft, and perceived cultural resonance—criteria debated by figures like Helen Vendler, Harold Bloom, Terry Eagleton, John Guillory, and Marjorie Perloff. The process has engaged editors and institutions including The New Yorker’s fiction and poetry editors, Poetry magazine’s editorial board, Ploughshares editors, The Paris Review staff, Granta editors, The Kenyon Review editors, and university presses that run literary journals. Debates over inclusion and exclusion have invoked discussions in venues such as The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Atlantic, and The New Republic. Professional roles implicated include editors from Knopf, Norton, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and university presses, along with funders like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation.

Notable Volumes and Contributors

Volumes edited by guest editors such as John Ashbery, Louise Glück, Seamus Heaney, Rita Dove, Louise Erdrich, and Sharon Olds are frequently cited. Contributors across years include established figures and emerging voices: Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Robert Frost, W.S. Merwin, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Wright, Derek Walcott, Louise Glück, Mark Strand, John Ashbery, Jorie Graham, Sharon Olds, Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Louise Erdrich, Terrance Hayes, Natasha Trethewey, Tracy K. Smith, Ocean Vuong, Claudia Rankine, Ada Limón, Rae Armantrout, Carl Phillips, Louise Glück, Kay Ryan, Seamus Heaney, Philip Levine, Lucille Clifton, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, Robert Hayden, Langston Hughes, James Merrill, Frank O’Hara, Ted Hughes, Anne Carson, Denise Levertov, John Berryman, Stanley Kunitz, Mary Oliver, Czesław Miłosz, Yusef Komunyakaa, Kevin Young, Adrienne Rich, Li-Young Lee, Marilyn Nelson, Kay Ryan, Dorianne Laux, Mark Doty, A. R. Ammons, Katha Pollitt, and Sharon Olds. The anthology has also showcased poets affiliated with movements and groups like the New York School, the Black Arts Movement, the San Francisco Renaissance, and younger cohorts from MFA programs at Iowa, Columbia, and NYU.

Reception and Critical Response

Critical reception has ranged from praise for accessibility and broad representation to critiques of editorial taste, institutional bias, and regional concentration. Reviewers and critics including Helen Vendler, Harold Bloom, Marjorie Perloff, Helen Sword, John Freeman, Dan Chiasson, Stephanie Burt, Adam Kirsch, and Claire Messud have weighed in across venues such as The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The London Review of Books, and The Guardian. Debates often reference the politics of canon formation and diversity as discussed by scholars at conferences like the MLA Annual Convention, AWP Conference, Pen World Voices Festival, and Academy of American Poets events. Commentators from National Public Radio, BBC Radio, and CBC have also featured discussions and interviews.

Influence and Legacy

The anthology has influenced curricula at institutions such as Columbia University, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, and creative writing programs worldwide. It has affected publishing trajectories for poets connected to presses like Graywolf, Copper Canyon, New Directions, Carcanet, Bloodaxe, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and it figures in considerations for prizes like the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, T.S. Eliot Prize, and Griffin Poetry Prize. The series has become a reference point in literary studies, cited in scholarship by critics and theorists such as Harold Bloom, Helen Vendler, Marjorie Perloff, John Guillory, Paul de Man, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak; it continues to shape conversations at festivals including the Dodge Poetry Festival, Poetry International, and PEN America literary events.

Category:American poetry anthologies