The Best American Poetry 2024

David Lehman, Mary Jo Salter

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781982186814
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

Renowned poet Mary Jo Salter, whose command of verse forms and high intelligence is universally acknowledged, selects the poems for the 2024 edition of The Best American Poetry, “a ‘best’ anthology that really lives up to its title” (Chicago Tribune).

The Best American Poetry series has been “one of the mainstays of the poetry publication world” (Academy of American Poets) since 1988. Each volume presents a curated selection of the year’s most brilliant, striking, and innovative poems, with comments from the poets themselves offering unique insight into their work.

Here, guest editor Mary Jo Salter, whose own poems display a sublime wit “driven by a compulsion to confront the inexplicable” (James Longenbach), has picked seventy-five poems that capture the dynamism of American poetry today. The series and guest editors contribute valuable introductory essays that assess the current state of American poetry, and this year’s edition is certain to capture the attention of both Best American Poetry loyalists and newcomers to the most important poetry anthology of our time.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1. Kim Addonizio, “Existential Elegy”
• 2. Howard Altmann, “Kyiv”
• 3. Julia Alvarez, “Amenorrhea”
• 4. Catherine Barnett, “Apophasis at the All-Night Rite Aid”
• 5. Joshua Bennett, “First Philosophy”
• 6. April Bernard, “ ‘Sithens in a net’ ”
• 7. Christopher Childers, “Miasma”
• 8. Ama Codjoe, “The Deer”
• 9. Henri Cole, “At Sixty-Five”
• 10. Billy Collins, “The Monet Conundrum”
• 11. Brendan Constantine, “Cleptopolitan”
• 12. Armen Davoudian, “Conscription”
• 13. Kwame Dawes, “The Remnant”
• 14. Timothy Donnelly, “The Bard of Armagh”
• 15. Rita Dove, “Happy End”
• 16. Joanne Dominique Dwyer, “Irish Traveler’s Writer’s Block”
• 17. Elaine Equi, “Avoidance”
• 18. Gabriella Fee, “A Lighthouse Keeper Considers Love”
• 19. Brandel France de Bravo, “After the Ecstasy, the Laundry”
• 20. Dana Gioia, “Satan’s Management Style”
• 21. Louise Glück, “Passion and Form”
• 22. Amy Glynn, “Space Is the Final Frontier”
• 23. Jessica Greenbaum, “Each Other Moment”
• 24. Rachel Hadas, “Voyage”
• 25. Saskia Hamilton, “All Souls”
• 26. Jeffrey Harrison, “A Message from Tony Hoagland”
• 27. Terrance Hayes, “How to Fold”
• 28. John Hennessy, “Domestic Retrograde”
• 29. W. J. Herbert, “Pando’s Grove”
• 30. Richie Hofmann, “Lamb”
• 31. Marie Howe, “Chainsaw”
• 32. Omotara James, “Closure”
• 33. Eve Jones, “Japan”
• 34. George Kalogeris, “Byzantine Chanting”
• 35. Stephen Kampa, “Someone Else’s Gift”
• 36. Richard Kenney, “Self ’s the Man”
• 37. Karl Kirchwey, “Kiss Me Deadly (1955)”
• 38. Yusef Komunyakaa, “My Brothers, the Olmec”
• 39. David Lehman, from Ithaca
• 40. Ada Limón, “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa”
• 41. Sarah Luczaj, “Shopping Lists”
• 42. Amit Majmudar, “Charmed Life”
• 43. Clarence Major, “Weather Conditions”
• 44. Charles Martin, “You Summon Me…”
• 45. Heather McHugh, “Two Widows, Making a Bed”
• 46. Maggie Millner, from Couplets
• 47. Ange Mlinko, “The Open C”
• 48. Andrew Motion, “The Explanation”
• 49. Paul Muldoon, “Joy in Service on Rue Tagore”
• 50. Harryette Mullen, “Haiku Garden”
• 51. Jesse Nathan, “Dame’s Rocket”
• 52. Jacqueline Osherow, “Fast Track: Beijing, Montana, Harlem”
• 53. Rowan Ricardo Phillips, “The First and Final Poem Is the Sun”
• 54. Robert Pinsky, “Proverbs of Limbo”
• 55. Maya C. Popa, “What’s Unsaid”
• 56. Vidyan Ravinthiran, “Eelam”
• 57. Natalie Scenters-Zapico, “Sentimental Evening”
• 58. Robyn Schiff, from Information Desk: An Epic
• 59. Gjertrud Schnackenberg, “Strike Into It Unasked”
• 60. Grace Schulman, “Night Visitor”
• 61. Jane Shore, “The Hat”
• 62. Mitch Sisskind, “Jack Benny”
• 63. Maggie Smith, “Hope Chest”
• 64. Karen Solie, “The Bluebird”
• 65. Christopher Spaide, “I’m Not Dying, You’re Dying”
• 66. A. E. Stallings, “Crown Shyness”
• 67. Mark Strand, “Wallace Stevens Comes Back to Read His Poems at the 92nd Street Y”
• 68. Adrienne Su, “The Days”
• 69. Arthur Sze, “Pe’ahi Light”
• 70. Claire Wahmanholm, “The Field Is Hot and Hotter”
• 71. Rosanna Warren, “A New Year”
• 72. Michael Waters, “Ashkenazi Birthmark”
• 73. Eliot Weinberger, from The Life of Tu Fu
• 74. Matthew Yeager, “The Man with the Yellow Balloon”
• 75. Kevin Young, “Diptych”
• Contributors’ Notes and Comments
• Magazines Where the Poems Were First Published
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Copyright