Monday, December 19, 2011

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.

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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.

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