Bestest Poetry Books of 2011

This year over 400 No Tell Motel, Bedside Guide contributors and other poets were invited to contribute their selections for "best poetry books of 2011" (however they chose to define such a pronouncement). Of those invited, 36 responded with lists.

Titles included on multiple lists:

(6 lists) Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

(5 lists) Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)

(4 lists) Either Way I'm Celebrating by Sommer Browning (Birds, LLC)

(4 lists) The Trees The Trees by Heather Christle (Octopus Books)

(4 lists) California by Jennifer Denrow (Four Way Books)

(4 lists) All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books)

(4 lists) Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil (Nightboat)

(4 lists) The Hermit by Laura Solomon (Ugly Duckling Presse)

(3 lists) Notes from Irrelevance by Anselm Berrigan (Wave Books)

(3 lists) Correct Animal by Rebecca Farivar (Octopus Books)

(3 lists) The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey (Cleveland State University)

(3 lists) Threshold Songs by Peter Gizzi (Wesleyan)

(3 lists) Things Come On {an amneoir} by Joseph Harrington (Wesleyan)

(3 lists) This Isa Nice Neighborhood by Farid Matuk (Letter Machine Editions)

(3 lists) Studying Hunger Journals by Bernadette Mayer (Station Hill)

(3 lists) You and Three Others are Approaching a Lake by Anna Moschovakis (Coffee House Press)

(3 lists) MOUTH: EATS COLOR Sagawa Chika Translations, Anti-Translations, & Originals by Sawako Nakayasu & Chika Sagawa (Rouge Factorial)

(3 lists) Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes by Jennifer Tamayo (Switchback Books)

(3 lists) Address by Elizabeth Willis (Wesleyan University Press)

(2 lists) Money Shot by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan)

(2 lists) People are Tiny in Paintings of China by Cynthia Arrieu-King (Octopus Books)

(2 lists) Scared Text by Eric Baus (Center for Literary Publishing)

(2 lists) Utopia Minus by Susan Briante (Ahsahta Press)

(2 lists) Words Facing East by Kimberly L. Becker (WordTech Editions)

(2 lists) The Kings of the F**king Sea by Dan Boehl (Birds, LLC)

(2 lists) not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them by Jenny Boully (Tarpaulin Sky)

(2 lists) Rust or Go Missing by Lily Brown (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)

(2 lists) Roseate, Points of Gold by Laynie Browne (Dusie Press)

(2 lists) Laked, Fielded, Blanked by Brooklyn Copeland (alice blue books)

(2 lists) Click and Clone by Elaine Equi (Coffee House)

(2 lists) The Many Woods of Grief by Lucas Farrell (University of Massachussetts Press)

(2 lists) FABRIC: Preludes to the Last American Book by Richard Froude (Horse Less Press)

(2 lists) Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You by Lea Graham (No Tell Books)

(2 lists) Called by Kate Greenstreet (Delete Press)

(2 lists) Little Winter Theater by Nancy Kuhl (Ugly Duckling Presse)

(2 lists) The Wide Road by Carla Harryman and Lyn Hejinian (Belladonna*)

(2 lists) Wolf Face by Matt Hart (H_NGM_N BKS)

(2 lists) Negro League Baseball by Harmony Holiday (Fence Books)

(2 lists) A Beautiful Name for a Girl by Kirsten Kaschock (Ahsahta)

(2 lists) No Eden by Sally Rosen Kindred (Mayapple Press)

(2 lists) Beauty Was the Case that They Gave Me by Mark Leidner (Factory Hollow)

(2 lists) Discipline by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat)

(2 lists) White-Collar Worker: I Am A Destiny by Dan Magers (H_NGM_N)

(2 lists) Becoming Weather by Chris Martin (Coffee House Press)

(2 lists) Black Peculiar by Khadijah Queen (Noemi Press)

(2 lists) Drizzle Pocket by Tim Roberts (BlazeVOX)

(2 lists) How Phenomena Appear to Unfold by Leslie Scalapino (Litmus Press)

(2 lists) How We Saved the City by Kate Schapira (Stockport Flats)

(2 lists) O Bon by Brandon Shimoda (Litmus Press)

(2 lists) the new black by Evie Shockley (Wesleyan)

(2 lists) Well Then There Now by Juliana Spahr (Black Sparrow)

(2 lists) Applies to Oranges by Maureen Thorson (Ugly Duckling Presse)

(2 lists) I Am a Very Productive Entrepreneur by Mathias Svalina (Mud Luscious Press)

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Reb Livingston

Reb Livingston's selections:

not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them by Jenny Boully (Tarpaulin Sky)

Sinead O'Connor and her Coat of a Thousand Bluebirds by Neil de la Flor & Maureen Seaton (Firewheel Editions)

The Weary World Rejoices by Steve Fellner (Marsh Hawk Press)

Things Come On {an amneoir} by Joseph Harrington (Wesleyan)

WHO ARE THE TRIBES by Terrance Hayes (Pilot Books)

All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books)

A Beautiful Name for a Girl by Kirsten Kaschock (Ahsahta)

This Isa Nice Neighborhood by Farid Matuk (Letter Machine Editions)

Mule by Shane McCrae (Cleveland State University Press)

Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)

Applies to Oranges by Maureen Thorson (Ugly Duckling Presse)

* * *

Reb Livingston is the author of God Damsel (No Tell Books, 2010) and Your Ten Favorite Words (Coconut Books, 2007).

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Daniela Olszewska

Daniela Olszewska's selections:

The Wide Road by Carla Harryman and Lyn Hejinian (Belladonna*)

Thirteen Designer Vaginas by Juliet Cook (Hyacinth Girl Press)

Man Years by Sandra Doller

Negro League Baseball by Harmony Holiday (Fence Books)

All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books)

Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil (Nightboat)

I Want To Make You Safe by Amy King (Litmus)

Re- by Kristi Maxwell (Ahsahta)

Black Peculiar by Khadijah Queen (Noemi Press)

Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes by Jennifer Tamayo (Switchback Books)

* * *

Daniela Olszewska is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, Citizen J (Artifice Books, forthcoming) and cloudfang : : cakedirt (Horse Less Press, forthcoming). She sits on Switchback Books' Board of Directors and serves as Associate Poetry Editor of H_NGM_N. Daniela is pursuing her MFA at the University of Alabama, where she teaches creative writing in conjunction with The Alabama Prison Arts & Education Project.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Timothy Bradford

Timothy Bradford's selections:

Money Shot by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan)

Utopia Minus by Susan Briante (Ahsahta Press)

Threshold Songs by Peter Gizzi (Wesleyan)

Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You by Lea Graham (No Tell Books)

Things Come On {an amneoir} by Joseph Harrington (Wesleyan)

This Isa Nice Neighborhood by Farid Matuk (Letter Machine Editions)

Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)

the new black by Evie Shockley (Wesleyan)

Birds of Tifft by Jonathan Skinner (BlazeVOX [books])

SABORAMI by Cecilia Vicuña (ChainLinks)

* * *

Timothy Bradford’s Nomads with Samsonite was published by BlazeVOX [books] in 2011. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Tulsa and lives with his wife, two sons, and an ever-changing menagerie just outside of Oklahoma City.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Michael Meyerhofer

Michael Meyerhofer's selections:

About the Dead by Travis Mossotti (Utah State University Press)

Poetry! Poetry! Poetry! by Peter Davis (Bloof Books)

The Book of Men by Dorianne Laux (Norton)

Brushstrokes and Glances by Djelloul Marbrook (Deerbrook Editions)

Illinois, My Apologies by Justin Hamm (Rocksaw Press)

Poems for an Empty Church by Tom Holmes (Palettes and Quills)

Winter’s Journey by Stephen Dobyns (Copper Canyon)

Imaginary Logic by Rodney Jones (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Saint Monica by Mary Biddinger (Black Lawrence Press)

American Busboy by Matthew Guenette (U. of Akron Press)

* * *

Michael Meyerhofer’s third book, Damnatio Memoriae, won the Brick Road Poetry Book Contest. His previous books are Blue Collar Eulogies (Steel Toe Books) and Leaving Iowa (winner of the Liam Rector First Book Award). He has also won the James Wright Poetry Award, the Laureate Prize, the Annie Finch Prize for Poetry, the Marjorie J. Wilson Best Poem Contest, and five chapbook prizes. His work has appeared in Ploughshares, North American Review, Arts & Letters, River Styx, Quick Fiction and other journals, and can be read online at www.troublewithhammers.com. He is the Poetry Editor of Atticus Review.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Deborah Poe

Deborah Poe's selections:

O Bon by Brandon Shimoda (Litmus Press)

Territories of Folding by TC Tolbert (Kore Press)

People Are Tiny In Paintings of China by Cynthia Arrieu-King (Octopus Books)

More Radiant Signal by Juliana Leslie (Letter Machine Press)

How We Saved the City by Kate Schapira (Stockport Flats)

Studying Hunger Journals by Bernadette Mayer (Station Hill Press)

Little Winter Theater by Nancy Kuhl (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Roseate, Points of Gold by Laynie Browne (Dusie Press)

poem for the house by Katie Yates (Stockport Flats)

Flood Letters by Karin Gottshall (Argos Books)

* * *

Deborah Poe is the author of the poetry collections Elements (Stockport Flats Press 2010), Our Parenthetical Ontology (CustomWords 2008), and “the last will be stone, too” as well as a hybrid novella, "Hélène." Her writing is forthcoming or has recently appeared in journals such as Shampoo, Mantis, Horse Less Review, Open Letters Monthly, Peep/Show, and Denver Quarterly.

Deborah is assistant professor of English at Pace University, guest curator for Trickhouse, and curator of the annual Handmade/Homemade exhibit at Pace University Westchester’s Mortola Library. For more information, please visit www.deborahpoe.com.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Evie Shockley

Evie Shockley's selections:

Best, schmest. : ) Here are 10 (actually, 11 -- but I'm hoping Reb will let me get away with it) terrific books from 2011 that I would want someone to tell me about, if I didn't already know about them. Not included: other terrific books that: (1) I think you've surely (surely!) heard about already, (2) I didn't get to read even part of yet, and so feel sadly unable to recommend personally at this point, (3) I don't know about myself, but will be searching for on the other lists Reb's publishing this month, or (4) I finally just couldn't fit into a list of 10 (well, 11) without turning it into a list of 20. Okay, here goes, in alpha order:

Called by Kate Greenstreet (Delete Press)

Kingdom Animalia by Aracelis Girmay (BOA Editions)

Vocabulary of Silence by Veronica Golos (Red Hen)

Things Come On {an amneoir} by Joseph Harrington (Wesleyan)

Neighborhood Register by Marcus Jackson (Cavan Kerry)

A Beautiful Name for a Girl by Kirsten Kaschock (Ahsahta)

Nod House by Nathaniel Mackey (New Directions) --

Slot by Jill Magi (Ugly Duckling)

Discipline by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat Books)

Black Peculiar by Khadijah Queen (Noemi Press)

Howell by Tyrone Williams (Atelos)

Have a Happy Poetry Reading Interlude, and a Joyous New Year!

* * *

Evie Shockley is the author of two books of poetry -- the new black (Wesleyan, 2011) and a half-red sea (Carolina Wren Press, 2006) -- and a book of criticism, Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry. She teaches African American literature and creative writing at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Bernadette Geyer

Bernadette Geyer's selections:

Applies to Oranges by Maureen Thorson (Ugly Duckling Presse)

No Eden by Sally Rosen Kindred, (Mayapple Press)

After the Ark by Luke Johnson (NYQ Books)

The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception by Martha Silano (Saturnalia Books)

Sightseer by Cynthia Marie Hoffman (Persea Books)

* * *

Bernadette Geyer is the author of the poetry chapbook, What Remains (Argonne House Press), and recipient of a 2010 Strauss Fellowship from the Arts Council of Fairfax County. Her poems have appeared in No Tell Motel, Oxford American, North American Review, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. Geyer works as a freelance writer and copy editor in the Washington, DC, area, and serves as an instructor at The Writer's Center. Her web site is http://bernadettegeyer.homestead.com

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Bruce Covey

Bruce Covey's selections:

Notes from Irrelevance by Anselm Berrigan (Wave Books)

not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them by Jenny Boully (Tarpaulin Sky)

The Trees The Trees by Heather Christle (Octopus Books)

California by Jennifer Denrow (Four Way Books)

Click and Clone by Elaine Equi (Coffee House)

Herso by Susana Gardner (Black Radish Books)

Of Lamb by Matthea Harvey, Paintings by Amy Jean Porter (McSweeneys)

MOUTH: EATS COLOR Sagawa Chika Translations, Anti-Translations, & Originals by Sawako Nakayasu & Chika Sagawa (Rouge Factorial)

Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)

How Long by Ron Padgett (Coffee House)

The Hermit by Laura Solomon (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Well Then There Now by Juliana Spahr (Black Sparrow)

Dear Prudence — New and Selected Poems by David Trinidad (Turtle Point Press)

* * *

Bruce Covey's fifth book of poetry, Reveal, will be published by Bitter Cherry Books at the beginning of 2012; his next-most-recent titles are Glass Is Really a Liquid (No Tell Books, 2010) and Elapsing Speedway Organism (No Tell Books, 2006). He lives in Atlanta, GA, where he edits Coconut Poetry and curates the What's New in Poetry Reading Series.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 Lists will Resume on December 26th

We still have more lists to go -- we're posting new ones all the way until the end of the year.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Joseph Massey

Joseph Massey's selections:

Money Shot by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan)

Rust or Go Missing by Lily Brown (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)

Uncertain Time by Richard Caddel (Pressed Wafer)

MOTES by Craig Dworkin (Roof Books)

Threshold Songs by Peter Gizzi (Wesleyan)

The Nineteenth Century and Other Poems by Chris Glomski (The Cultural Society)

SEWN by Nathan Hauke (Horseless Press)

Deseret by Kirsten Jorgenson (Horseless Press)

Book of the Given by Rusty Morrison (Noemi Press)

How's the Cows by Jess Mynes (Cannot Exist)

Metropole by Geoffrey G. O'Brien (University of California Press)

The Larger Nature by Pam Rehm (Flood Editions)

Wharf Hypothesis by Ron Silliman (Lines)

The Hermit by Laura Solomon (Ugly Duckling Presse)

The Method by Rob Stanton (Penned in the Margins)

The Cost of Walking by Shannon Tharp (Skysill Press)

Anew: Complete Shorter Poetry by Louis Zukofsky (New Directions)

* * *

Joseph Massey is the author of Areas of Fog (Shearsman Books, 2009) and At the Point (Shearsman Books, 2011), as well as eleven chapbooks: Minima St. (Range, 2002), Eureka Slough (Effing Press, 2005), Bramble (Hot Whiskey, 2005), Property Line (Fewer & Further Press, 2006), November Graph (Longhouse, 2007), Within Hours (The Fault Line Press, 2008), Out of Light (Kitchen Press, 2008), The Lack Of (Nasturtium Press, 2009), Exit North (Book Thug, 2010), Mock Orange (Longhouse, 2010) and Another Rehearsal for Morning (Longhouse, 2011). He lives in Arcata, California.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Brandon Shimoda

Brandon Shimoda's selections:

All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books)

Collected Poems, 1944-1949 by Nelly Sachs, translated from the German by Michael Hamburger, Ruth and Matthew Mead, and Michael Roloff, introduction by Hans Magnus Enzensberger (Green Integer Books)

The Eternal Wall by Dot Devota (Cannibal Books)

The Hole by Thom Donovan (Displaced Press)

How Phenomena Appear to Unfold by Leslie Scalapino (Litmus Press)

Into the Snow by Gennady Aygi, translated from the Chuvash and Russian by Sarah Valentine. (Wave Books)

The Many Woods of Grief by Lucas Farrell (University of Massachussetts Press)

Notes on Sea & Shore by Greta Wrolstad (Tavern Books)

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

Spring and All by William Carlos Williams, introduction by C.D. Wright (New Directions)

Studying Hunger Journals and The Formal Field of Kissing by Bernadette Mayer (Station Hill and Monk Books, respectively). The Formal Field of Kissing including an introduction by Dorothea Lasky.

Tamura Ryuichi: On the Life & Work of a 20th Century Master Edited by Takako Lento and Wayne Miller (Pleiades Press)

Tantra Song: Tantric Paintings from Rajasthan Selected and with writings by Franck André Jamme, translated from the French by Michael Tweed. Introduction by Lawrence Rinder, interview by Bill Berkson, essay by André Padoux (Siglio Press)

A Wiser, More Beautiful Death by Miklós Radnóti, translated from the Hungarian by Solomon Rino (Editions Michel Eyquem)

* * *

Brandon Shimoda's most recent publications include O Bon (Litmus Press) and the limited edition The Pines: Bubble, with Phil Cordelli & friends.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Alice Fogel

Alice Fogel's selections:

lie down too by Lesle Lewis (Alice James Books)

Strata by Ewa Chrusciel (Emergency Press)

Flies by Michael Dickman (Copper Canyon)

* * *

Alice Fogel's third book of poems, Be That Empty, was a national poetry bestseller in 2008, and in 2009 Strange Terrain (a guide for nonpoet readers and teachers, as well as for poets) came out. A recipient of a fellowship from the NEA and five-time Pushcart nominee, her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry, former Poet Laureate Robert Hass’s Poet’s Choice, TriQuarterly, Third Coast, Crazyhorse, Hotel Amerika, and No Tell Motel. A freelance proof reader and copy editor, she teaches writing for all ages and levels, and is a passionate hiker and backpacker. She is also an award-winning designer and creator of custom clothing, particularly from “upcycled” materials (www.lyriccouture.com). Alice will be the 2012 Writer in Residence at the Carl Sandburg homestead in Flat Rock, NC.

Holiday Buying Guide - Alice Fogel

Alice Fogel's suggestions:

Spillway #17 editor Susan Terris (Tebot Bach Press) is loosely on the theme of "Crossing Borders." This magazine shows the hand and eye of its editor (as opposed to journals that are arranged merely alphabetically, and whose poems could interchange their authors without anyone noticing) with a truly varied range of works that have depth and gravitas, and are genuinely interesting in craft and thought. Without being on some kind of poetic acid trip, these poems still wake you up to that elusive experience of being touched by something beyond the wall.

Inaudible Trumpeters by Elizabeth Robinson (Harbor Mountain Press, 2008). In this lovely book of poems, with her matching initials and last name, Elizabeth Robinson takes the titles and end words from works of the famous E. A. Robinson (1869-1935) and fills in her own original lines to make new, moving poems. They are totally worth it whether you find this structural relationship cool or not.

Cold Pluto by Mary Ruefle (Carnegie-Mellon, 1996). Pretty much all of Mary Ruefle's books are interesting, but this one just won't let go. Figures that it is not available, but you can get her new Selected from Wave Books.

Paradise Lost by John Milton (Penguin Classics). Even though this is basically 17th century soap opera, it is mind-blowing how accurately Milton gets men and women, sex and marriage, desire and fear. Lots of fun to read aloud at parties.

* * *

Alice Fogel's third book of poems, Be That Empty, was a national poetry bestseller in 2008, and in 2009 Strange Terrain (a guide for nonpoet readers and teachers, as well as for poets) came out. A recipient of a fellowship from the NEA and five-time Pushcart nominee, her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry, former Poet Laureate Robert Hass’s Poet’s Choice, TriQuarterly, Third Coast, Crazyhorse, Hotel Amerika, and No Tell Motel. A freelance proof reader and copy editor, she teaches writing for all ages and levels, and is a passionate hiker and backpacker. She is also an award-winning designer and creator of custom clothing, particularly from “upcycled” materials (www.lyriccouture.com). Alice will be the 2012 Writer in Residence at the Carl Sandburg homestead in Flat Rock, NC.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Nathan Logan

Nathan Logan's selections:

Either Way I'm Celebrating by Sommer Browning (Birds, LLC)

Laked, Fielded, Blanked by Brooklyn Copeland (alice blue books)

Arousing Notoriety / Your Trouble is Ballooning by A. Minetta Gould / Amber Nelson (Publishing Genius)

Wolf Face by Matt Hart (H_NGM_N BKS)

How Like Foreign Objects by Alexis Orgera (H_ngm_n Books)

* * *

Nathan Logan is the author of three chapbooks, the most recent being Arby's Combo Roundup (Mondo Bummer, 2010). He manages Spooky Girlfriend Press and is a Ph.D. student in Creative Writing at the University of North Texas.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Leigh Stein

Leigh Stein's selections:

Smiles of the Unstoppable by Jason Bredle (Magic Helicopter Press)
"Sometimes I imagine everyone I know discussing the last time they saw me/before I disappeared." Bredle's poems are like if an anxiety attack and a Grimm fairy tale got together and had a love child inside a supermarket.

Either Way I'm Celebrating by Sommer Browning (Birds, LLC)
"I collect books found in celebrities' bathrooms; so far my life sucks." Birds LLC publishes just the right amount of books by just the right people in just the right way. This collection contains poems for people who like looking at pictures, and pictures for people who like reading poems.

sorry it's so small by Lauren Ireland, illustrated by Krysten Brown (Factory Hollow Press)
"I fucked you right through the dream catcher." The most beautiful chapbook of the year. If you have ever felt sad or brave or wished you were anywhere but here, buy this.

California by Jennifer Denrow (Four Way Books)
"I don't feel like I'm crazy, / I just feel like someone who wants to go to California." In 2009, Thermos published the title poem to this collection (http://www.thermosmag.com/poetry/denrow.html) and it changed my life forever. I reviewed the collection for NOO Journal here.

* * *

Leigh Stein is the author of four chapbooks of poetry, including The Future Comes to Those who Wait (Grey Book Press, 2011). Her first novel, The Fallback Plan, and full-length poetry collection, Dispatch from the Future, are both forthcoming from Melville House in 2012.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Noah Eli Gordon

Noah Eli Gordon's selections:

Threshold Songs by Peter Gizzi (Wesleyan)
I think this is Peter’s most intimate work to date.
Poems on the threshold of love, loss, and looking.

You and Three Others are Approaching a Lake by Anna Moschovakis (Coffee House Press)
Ethics in action.
Experiments in thought.

I Am a Very Productive Entrepreneur by Mathias Svalina (Mud Luscious Press)
Mathias has a masterful imagination.
Calvino meets Bill Gates.

Discipline by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat)
Stunning prose.
Stellar poems.

Either Way I'm Celebrating by Sommer Browning (Birds, LLC)
Um, this is my wife’s book.
I bet she’d be mad if I didn’t mention it.

lucky coat anywhere by Michael Burkard (Nightboat)
What Do I Know

I was going to read your new book tonight going to start
on the balcony where I go to smoke standing next
to a square of light let out by the little window there
which gives enough to see if all the apartment lights are on
since I still haven’t changed the bulb above the porch a waste
I know I was going to read but the snow was too strong
it blew right into the first few pages so I closed the book
and smoked with my back to the wind which felt
deliberate and defiant at the same time I mean the act
not the weather although I know either way works really
ten years ago I wrote “gushing self-pity” next to a poem
in one of your books I’m sorry ten years ago I thought I knew
everything about what poems should do now I know I know
very little and that it’s better this way standing here in the dark

One Sleeps the Other Doesn’t by Jacqueline Waters (UDP)
What an ear.
What an eye.

Scared Text by Eric Baus (Center for Literary Publishing)
Baus is getting weirder & weirder.
Part human, half sound rain.

To Be Human Is to Be a Conversation by Andrea Rexilius (Rescue)
Genre-bending, investigative work.
.The double : elbuod ehT.

Drizzle Pocket by Tim Roberts (Blazevox)
Writing the body is already old hat.
Welcome to being the writing.

FABRIC: Preludes to the Last American Book by Richard Froude (Horse Less)
A foreigner writes America.
The future of poetry in prose.

* * *

Noah Eli Gordon is the author of several books, including The Source (Futurepoem, 2011) and Novel Pictorial Noise (Harper Perennial, 2007). Gordon is the co-publisher of Letter Machine Editions, and teaches in the MFA program in Creative Writing at The University of Colorado–Boulder. His recent work can be found in the following anthologies: Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology, 2nd Edition (W.W. Norton, forthcoming), A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line (University of Iowa Press, 2011), Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing (Northwestern University Press, 2011), and Poets on Teaching (University of Iowa Press, 2010).

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Cindy St. John

Cindy St. John's selections:

Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)
for your future self, “grown very tall and large, and may not fit into the métro.”

Headlamp limited edition broadsides: Hoa Nguyen/Ronaldo Wilson or Mary Ruefle/Abi Daniel
for you and “your your your” and yours.

Matchbook Volume 3
for the gardener who "hides the picture/ of the naked/ blonde with saucer/ nipple tits hanging."

Becoming Weather by Chris Martin (Coffee House Press)
for those who “still want to be as real as a hamburger.”

July Oration by Dale Smith (Fact Simile)
for “Abraham Lincoln in a stovepipe hat” and anyone who is “hungry.”

Bumpers by Kyle Schlesinger (Cuneiform Press)
for someone who has "killed an afternoon in Mamaroneck just to watch it die."

Oz by Nancy Eimers (Carnegie Mellon University Press)
for those who “feel other sentences yielding to seismic vibrations that could mean the underground presence of nothing or something.”

Stanzas in Meditation by Gertrude Stein, edited by Susannah Hollister and Emily Setina
for a friend who "likes it that there is no chance to misunderstand pansies." (Yale University Press)

I Am a Very Productive Entrepreneur by Mathias Svalina (Mud Luscious Press)
"for the most delicate of osteoporotic pianists.”

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)
for those who "embrace the solid and particular with a mind of glass and broken bricks."

Sand Theory by Bill Olsen (Northwestern University Press)
for “the neighbor across the street who picks up every twig on her sidewalk / because secretly she wishes to put a tree back together."

The Market is a Parasite That Looks Like a Nest by Susan Briante (Dancing Girl Press)
for you, if you live on “a street named for revolution.”

* * *

Cindy St. John is the author of three chapbooks: Be the Heat (forthcoming from Slash Pine Press), City Poems (Effing Press) and People Who Are in Love Will Read This Book Differently (Dancing Girl Press). She lives in Austin, TX, where she prints Headlamp, letterpress postcards of poetry and art.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Lily Ladewig

Lily Ladewig's selections:

California by Jennifer Denrow (Four Way Books)

The Enthusiast by Noah Gershman (Snail Press)

Beauty Was the Case That They Gave Me by Mark Leidner (Factory Hollow Press)

If I Falter at the Gallows by Edward Mullany (Publishing Genius)

Goat in the Snow by Emily Pettit (Birds LLC)

Mercury by Ariana Reines (Fence)

Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes by Jennifer Tamayo (Switchback Books)

Finally, issues #3 & #4 of SUPERMACHINE magazine, which closed it's beautiful doors this year:

* * *

Lily Ladewig’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Conduit, Denver Quarterly, H_NGM_N, Salt Hill, Sixth Finch, and Spinning Jenny. She is the author of the chapbooks You Are My Favorite Person of the Year (Mondo Bummer Press, 2010) and, with Anne Cecelia Holmes, I Am A Natural Wonder (Blue Hour Press, 2011). Her first full-length book, The Silhouettes, will be published by SpringGun Press in 2012.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - John Findura

John Findura's selections:

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

Testify by Joseph Lease (Coffee House)

Click and Clone by Elaine Equi (Coffee House)

Destroyer and Preserver by Matthew Rohrer (Wave Books)

Birds of Tokyo by Nicole Steinberg (Dancing Girl Press)

Lessness by Brian Henry (Ahsahta)

Rust or Go Missing by Lily Brown (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)

* * *

John Findura holds an MFA from The New School and is currently working on a degree and licensure in psychotherapy. A Pushcart Prize nominee and a guest blogger for The Best American Poetry, his poetry and criticism appear in journals such as Verse, Fugue, Fourteen Hills, Copper Nickel, No Tell Motel, H_NGM_N, Jacket, and Rain Taxi, among others. Born in Paterson, he lives in Northern New Jersey with his wife and daughter.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Scott Abels

Scott Abels' selections:

Homage to Homage to Homage to Creeley by Joshua Ware (2010 Furniture Press Poetry Prize)

The Louisiana Purchase by Jim Goar (Rose Metal Press)

Micrograms by Jorge Carrera Andrade, translated by Alejandro de Acosta and Joshua Beckman (Wave Books)

Mined Muzzle Velocity by Jennifer Fortin (Lowbrow Press)


* * *

Scott Abels currently lives and teaches in Honolulu, where he edits the online journal of poetry Country Music. His poems can be found in Sink Review, H_NGM_N, DIAGRAM, Best New Poets, Word for/ Word, Juked, Sixth Finch, RealPoetik, LEVELER, and others. His first book, Rambo Goes to Idaho, is available with BlazeVOX [books].

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Tiffany Midge

Tiffany Midge's selections:

Words Facing East by Kimberly L. Becker (Of Cherokee/Celtic/Teutonic descent) (WordTech)
In Words Facing East, Kimberly Becker aligns us with rose lines, ley lines leading language reclamation along the riverway serpent she locks onto with the subtle force of finding her natural family course after lifetimes away." -- Allison Hedge Coke

Night Cradle by Sy Hoahwah (Yappituka Comanche and Southern Arapaho) (USPOCO BOOKS)

Killing the Murnion Dogs by Joe Wilkins (Black Lawrence Press)
"In Killing the Murnion Dogs, the old lonelinesses, bodied forth by whisky in jam jars and rotting porches, highways, wolves, the dream of escape, are reinhabited and updated by Joe Wilkins' own urgent interrogations." -- Lia Purpura

What the Alder Told Me by Anita K. Boyle (Moonpath Press).
"Anita K. Boyle is a poet daring to the rigors of describing the indescribable. Articulate, lush and with a precision of a raindrop falling from eaves of a barn that lists to its side, Boyle's work attends to a still life portrait of perpetual astonishment." -- Tiffany Midge

Our Blood Remembers by Lois Red Elk (Descended from the Isanti, Hunkpapa, and Ihanktowan bands of the Dakota/Lakota Sioux Nation) (Many Voices Press)
"The poems in The Blood Remembers by Lois Red Elk make a circle from the old days and old ways to the present where ghosts of the past walk with the living." -- Adrian C. Louis

A Large Dent in the Moon by Monty Campbell (Cayuga Tribe of the Six Nations) (FootHills Publishing)

Anthology: Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas edited by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke (University of Arizona Press)
"What a diverse feast of poetry! Indigenous poets from Puru, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Canada--as well as the United States--serve up delicious unforgettable poems. A good number of the poems are composed in indigenous languages, which make this collection especially valuable." -- Leslie Marmon Silko

Journal: South Dakota Review: Vol 49 Issue 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2011 edited by Lee Anne Roripaugh (University of South Dakota)


* * *

Tiffany Midge is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. She is the recipient of the Diane Decorah Poetry Award from The Native Writers Circle of the Americas for her collection, Outlaws, Renegades and Saints: Diary of a Mixed-Up Halfbreed published by Greenfield Review Press. The chapbook, Guiding the Stars to Their Campfire, Driving the Salmon to Their Beds, was published in 2005 by Gazoobi Tales. She lives in Moscow, Idaho, is a graduate from University of Idaho's MFA writing program and teaches part time for Northwest Indian College.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Elizabeth Savage

Elizabeth Savage's selections:

Address by Elizabeth Willis (Wesleyan University Press)
A loving confrontation of the memes, music, and memory shaping the state of our nation. For every member of Congress.

Beauty is a Verb editors Jennifer Bartlett, Sheila Black, & Michael Northern (Cinco Puntos Press)
Essays and poetry encountering the frustrations and fertility of the compromised body. For everyone you know with a body.

No Eden by Sally Rosen Kindred (Mayapple Press)
A wrenching, gorgeous collection that corrects (again) the notion that narrative poetry=easy poetry. For those trying to convert childhood into a useable past.

Weaving a New Eden by Sherry Chandler (Wind Publications)
A smart, compassionate capture of disarticulated voices. For loved ones who read Susan Howe with dirt under their nails.

When the Water Came: Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina by Cynthia Hogue, Interview-poems & Rebecca Ross, Photographs (UNO Press)
A model of respectful intimacy that restores humans erased by the weight of event. For friends who have been extra-good or need to learn how to be.

Three Novels by Elizabeth Robinson (Omnidawn)
A book of grieving and reading. For the bereft for whom magical thinking doesn’t cut it.

The Woman without Experiences by Patricia Dienstfrey (Kelsey Street Press)
A book too long under-read. For anyone tired of narrow visions of self and sexuality.

The Human Abstract by Elizabeth Willis (Penguin USA/National Poetry Series)
After Address, you’ll want to read more Willis, and you most certainly should. For the very deserving, lovers of Blake, saints in the making.

* * *

Elizabeth Savage is author of Jane & Paige or Sister Goose (2011, Furniture Press) and poetry editor for Kestrel: A Journal of Literature & Art. Her poetry appears (or will soon appear) in Appalachian Heritage, Court Green, No Tell Motel, Prime Number, the New Sound, and Wallace Stevens Journal. Find her essays about other people's poetry in Journal of Modern Literature, Tulsa Studies, and Contemporary Women's Writing.

Holiday Buying Guide - Lucy Biederman

Lucy Biederman's suggestions:

For the daughter on your list: Granted by Mary Szybist (Alice James Books)
This book ROCKS. E.g., "When I Was a Spoon In My Mother's Kitchen": "I can think so clearly, / it's like dreaming."

For anyone reading this who doesn't already have it: The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel (No Tell Books)
A poem in it by Noah Eli Gordon has THIS in it: "The perfect companion's a photograph of sand // Unexpanding, elegant universe / something something something the end" and a poem by Reb has THIS: "Love in a hand basket. / Hell in my heart," and the last poem in the book is absolutely amazing.

For the human on your list: It's Not You, It's Me: The Poetry of Breakup ed. Jerry Williams (Overlook)
The worst thing about this book is being seen with a book called "It's Not You, It's Me: The Poetry of Breakup," but I am seen with it ALL THE TIME because it includes so many excellent poems by contemporary poets I love (like J. Allyn Rosser, Amy Gerstler, Kevin Prufer).

For your post-avant-garde associates: American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics ed. by Claudia Rankine & Lisa Sewell (Wesleyan University Press)
I believe that everything is a construction except deals, and this book comes with a bonus CD. It also feature analytical essays and beautiful poems by writers like Susan Wheeler, Stacy Doris, and Myung Mi Kim.

For the 900 people you know who say, I just don't understand poetry: The Making of a Poem by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland (Norton)
I love this book, because Strand and Boland do a really thorough but un-condescending job of explaining the various poetic forms, and their examples of the forms are wide-ranging and awesome, like for the "Open Forms" section, Sharon Olds's poem "The Language of the Brag": "I have done with you wanted to do, Walt Whitman, / Allen Ginsberg"

For the smarty-pants on your list: One Kind of Everything: Poem and Person in Contemporary America by Dan Chiasson (U of Chicago Press)
Chiasson talks so freshly and intelligently about poets like Frank Bidart and Frank O'Hara that it almost‚ almost, makes me want to write a paper or something.


* * *

Lucy Biederman's life is like an episode of Queen for a Day, but still she buys small-press poetry books from independent sellers. Her chapbook The Other World is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press in Spring 2012.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Lucy Biederman

Lucy Biederman's selections:

Say So by Dora Malech (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)
"full blown and come to blows and left / full well enough alone, rose from the playing dead / to heads"

Correct Animal by Rebecca Farivar (Octopus Books)
"This morning you said / my hair is always / perfect. Meaning, / you have loved someone / other than me."

The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey (Cleveland State University)
"In the sun / pants riding / my hips I was / so beautiful // Why did you leave / me open / like that?"

Light-Headed by Matt Hart (BlazeVOX)
"Amazing how it happens, the ever forever / I don't intend to get all minimal on your ass, but / the fact that I'm running meant I'm running out of gas"

The Bigger World by Noelle Kocot (Wave Books)
"Saskia was afraid to look outside. / So instead she looked into the void, / And there were rose petals."

I Heart Your Fate by Anthony McCann (Wave Books)
"I'm down in my life / With you name in my face"

The City, Our City by Wayne Miller (Milkweed Editions)
"Smoke // rises from the chimneys, / then the air conditioners whirr // against the descended / heat. While all around us, / folks keep lying down / inside their parents' fears--"

Poet by Default by Tristan Corbiere (trans. Noelle Kocot) (Wave Books)
"In the twisted marrow / A tear springs / Within it I see paradise"

Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You by Lea Graham (No Tell Books)
"But I keep thinking of you like Columb & Williams thought of Wayne C. Booth, writing his voice into the third edition of The Craft of Research years after he died."

Rambo Goes to Idaho by Scott Abels (BlazeVOX)
"I could feel a question, / a good bridge for everyone, / coming on, / I saw it as a smile / incapable of simple declarative sentences, / and the answer was love."

* * *

Lucy Biederman's life is like an episode of Queen for a Day, but still she buys small-press poetry books from independent sellers. Her chapbook The Other World is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press in Spring 2012.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Joshua Marie Wilkinson

Joshua Marie Wilkinson's selections:

Notes from Irrelevance by Anselm Berrigan (Wave Books)

Roseate, Points of Gold by Laynie Browne (Dusie Press)

The Odicy by Cyrus Console (Omnidawn)

Woodnote by Christine Deavel (Bear Star Press)

My rice tastes like the lake by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa (Apogee Press)

Chrysanthemums, Rowers by Hans Faverey, translated from the Dutch by Francis R. Jones (Leon Works)

The Source by Noah Eli Gordon (Futurepoem)

Negro League Baseball by Harmony Holiday (Fence Books)

Come and See by Fanny Howe (Graywolf Press)

Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil (Nightboat)

MOUTH: EATS COLOR Sagawa Chika Translations, Anti-Translations, & Originals by Sawako Nakayasu & Chika Sagawa (Rouge Factorial)

O Bon by Brandon Shimoda (Litmus Press)

Address by Elizabeth Willis (Wesleyan University Press)

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

* * *

Joshua Marie Wilkinson is the author of five books, the editor of two anthologies, and the director of a new film about the band Califone. He lives in Tucson, where he teaches at the University of Arizona.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Steven Karl

Steven Karl's selections:

The Kings of the F**king Sea by Dan Boehl (Birds, LLC)

Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes by Jennifer Tamayo (Switchback Books)

The Trees The Trees by Heather Christle (Octopus Books)

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

The Girl Without Arms by Brandon Shimoda (Black Ocean)

Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil (Nightboat Books)

The Hermit by Laura Solomon (Ugly Duckling Presse)

The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey (Cleveland State University)

The Peace Conference by Thomas Fink (Marsh Hawk Press)

White-Collar Worker: I Am A Destiny by Dan Magers (H_NGM_N)

& finally two late 2011 releases that I am dying to read:
MOUTH: EATS COLOR Sagawa Chika Translations, Anti-Translations, & Originals by Sawako Nakayasu & Chika Sagawa (Rouge Factorial)

Scared Text by Eric Baus (Center for Literary Publishing)

* * *

Steven Karl is the author with Angela Veronica Wong of the forthcoming chapbook, Don't Try This On Your Piano or am i standing here with my hair down (Lame House Press, 2012). His other chapbooks include emissions/ of (H_NGM_N portable chapbooks, 2011), (Ir)Rational Animals (Flying Guillotine Press, 2010) and with Joseph Lappie, State(s) of Flux (Peptic Robot Press, 2009). He has poems in or forthcoming from EOAGH, Forklift, Ohio, and We Are So Happy To Know Something.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Megan Kaminski

Megan Kaminski's selections:

This is a list of ten wonderful new books of poetry that I loved this past year. I am sure that I am forgetting more than a few great books, though.

Feralscape by Michelle Detorie (Dusie Kollektiv & Hex Presse)

The Wide Road by Carla Harryman & Lyn Hejinian (Belladonna*)

Study in Pavilions and Safe Rooms by Paul Foster Johnson (Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs)

(a poem-essay, or precursor: NOTES: for a novel: Ban en Banlieues) by Bhanu Kapil (Belladonna*)

Little Winter Theater by Nancy Kuhl (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Hordes of Writing by Chus Pato, trans. Erín Moure (Shearsman Books)

the new black by Evie Shockley (Wesleyan)

Come Such Frequency by Ash Smith (Dusie Kollektiv)

Well Then There Now by Juliana Spahr (Black Sparrow)

Maybe Malibu, Maybe Beowulf by Elizabeth Workman (Dusie Kollektiv)

* * *

Megan Kaminski's first book, Desiring Map, is forthcoming from Coconut Books in 2012. She is also the author of five chapbooks, including most recently Favored Daughter (Dancing Girl Press). Her writing has recently appeared in Everyday Genius, Puerto del Sol, Eleven Eleven, American Letters & Commentary and Post Road. She teaches poetry at the University of Kansas.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Rob MacDonald

Rob MacDonald's selections:

The Kings of the F**king Sea by Dan Boehl (Birds, LLC)

Either Way I'm Celebrating by Sommer Browning (Birds, LLC)

The Trees The Trees by Heather Christle (Octopus)

Correct Animal by Rebecca Farivar (Octopus)

The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey (Cleveland State University)

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

Cursivism by Will Hubbard (Ugly Duckling)

Beauty Was the Case that They Gave Me by Mark Leidner (Factory Hollow)

White-Collar Worker: I Am A Destiny by Dan Magers (H_NGM_N)

Polaroid Parade by Paige Taggart (Greying Ghost)

* * *

Rob MacDonald lives in Boston and is the editor of the online journal Sixth Finch. His poems have appeared in Everyday Genius, notnostrums, No Tell Motel and other journals. Last New Death, a chapbook, is available from Scantily Clad Press.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Trina Burke

Trina Burke's selections:

Rag & Bone by Kathryn Nuernberger (Elixer Press)
The devil is in the details. The dark and science-y details.

Campeche by Joshua Edwards (Noemi Press)
Words and pictures for lovers of Galveston.

Building the Barricade by Anna Swir (Calypso Editions)
A nice introduction to the work of Anna Swir. The book includes the original Polish as well as the English translation.

The Many Woods of Grief by Lucas Farrell (University of Massachussetts Press)
Farrell layers images that will make your head spin in the best possible way.

The Bulk of the Mailable Universe by Jules Gibbs (Dancing Girl Press)
Timely-yet-playful songs for the digital age.


* * *

Trina Burke is the author of Great America (Dancing Girl Press, 2011). Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in NOO Journal, Bone Bouquet, Hunger Mountain, and RHINO.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Gina Myers

Gina Myers' selections:

Notes from Irrelevance by Anselm Berrigan (Wave Books)

My Common Heart by Anne Boyer (Spooky Girlfriend Press)

Utopia Minus by Susan Briante (Ahsahta Press)

California by Jennifer Denrow (Four Way Books)

Old News by Ryan Eckes (Furniture Press)

S E W N by Nathan Hauke (Horse Less Press)

Wolf Face by Matt Hart (H_NGM_N BKS)

Diary of When Being With Friends is Like Watching TV by Amber Nelson (Slash Pine Press)

Sweet Nothing by Nate Pritts (Lowbrow Press)

The Hermit by Laura Solomon (Ugly Duckling Presse)

* * *

Gina Myers is the author of A Model Year (Coconut Books, 2009) and several chapbooks, including False Spring (forthcoming from Spooky Girlfriend Press, 2012). She lives in Atlanta, GA where she makes books for Lame House Press.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Tamiko Beyer

Tamiko Beyer's selections:

People are Tiny in Paintings of China by Cynthia Arrieu-King (Octopus Books)

Voyager by Srikanth Reddy (University of California Press)

Lucky Fish by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Tupelo)

called by Kate Greenstreet (Delete Press)

* * *

Tamiko Beyer is the author of bough breaks (Meritage Press, 2011), and her poems have appeared in DIAGRAM, PANK, South Dakota Review, and elsewhere. She is a former Kundiman Fellow, a contributing editor to Drunken Boat, and the Advocacy Writer at Corporate Accountability International. Find her online at wonderinghome.com.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Joshua Ware

Joshua Ware's selections:

Erik Satie Watusies His Way Into Sound by Jeff Alessandrelli (Ravenna Press)
Satie is Alessandrelli, Alessandrelli is Satie: an interesting character-examination of an historical figure and contemporary poet.

Micrograms by Jorge Carrera Andrade (Wave Books)
Small poems coupled with a manifesto about small poems.

Laked, Fielded, Blanked by Brooklyn Copeland (alice blue books)
A fine little chapbook with poems that remind me of Niedecker; I love Niedecker, so this is a good thing.

Correct Animal by Rebecca Farivar (Octopus Books)
I wrote a review of this book, which can be found here.

Late in the Antenna Fields by Alan Gilbert (Futurepoem)
I wrote a review of this book, which can be found here.

Neveragainland by MC Hyland (Low Brow Press)
I wrote a review of this book, which can be found here.

This Isa Nice Neighborhood by Farid Matuk (Letter Machine Editions)
Technically, this book was published in December of 2010, but it's close enough for me; I wrote a review of this book, which can be found here.

* * *

Joshua Ware lives in Lincoln, NE (if only for a few more days) where he reads books of poetry by fantastic poets. His own book of poetry, Homage to Homage to Homage to Creeley (Furniture Press), was released earlier this year.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Anne Gorrick

Anne Gorrick's selections:

Pushing Water by Charles Alexander (Cuneiform Press)

Parts and Other Pieces by Tom Beckett (Otoliths)

This is the story of Things that Happened by Lynn Behrendt (Dusie)

Aution, Caution by Geof Huth (Redfoxpress)

Radiator by NF Huth (Laughing/Ouch/Cube/Publications)

Glossematics, Thus by Brenda Iijima (Least Weasel Chapbooks)

Uncertainities by Robert Kelly (Station Hill)

As We Are Sung by Christina Mengert (Burning Deck, Anyart)

You and Three Others are Approaching a Lake by Anna Moschovakis (Coffee House Press)

How We Saved the City by Kate Schapira (Stockport Flats)

* * *

Anne Gorrick is the author of I-Formation (Book 1) (Shearman Books, Exeter, UK, 2010) and Kyotologic (Shearman, 2008). Her new book I-Formation (Book 2) is due out in 2012.

Collaborating with artist Cynthia Winika, she produced a limited edition artists’ book called “Swans, the ice,” she said with grants through the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

She curates the reading series, Cadmium Text, which focuses on innovative writing in and around the New York’s Hudson Valley ( www.cadmiumtextseries.blogspot.com ) She co-curates, with poet Lynn Behrendt, the electronic poetry journal Peep/Show at www.peepshowpoetry.blogspot.com Her visual work can be seen at: www.theropedanceraccompaniesherself.blogspot.com

Anne Gorrick lives in West Park, New York.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Anji Reyner

Anji Reyner's selections:

All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books)

An Antenna Called the Body by Sarah Mangold (Little Red Leaves textile series)

FABRIC: Preludes to the Last American Book by Richard Froude (Horse Less Press)

Peril as Architectural Enrichment by Hazel White (Kelsey Street Press)

The Urban Lightwing Professionals by Ellen Welcker (H_NGM_N pdf chapbooks)

You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake by Anna Moschovakis (Coffee House Press)

* * *

Anji Reyner lives in Montana. Her writing appeared in NANO Fiction this year.