The Best American Poetry 2014
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
National Book Award–winning poet Terrance Hayes selects the poems for the 2014 edition of The Best American Poetry, “a ‘best’ anthology that really lives up to its title” (Chicago Tribune).
The first book of poetry that Terrance Hayes ever bought was the 1990 edition of The Best American Poetry, edited by Jorie Graham. Hayes was then an undergrad at a small South Carolina college. He has since published four highly honored books of poetry, is a professor of poetry at the University of Pittsburgh, has appeared multiple times in the series, and is one of today’s most decorated poets. His brazen, restless poems capture the diversity of American culture with singular artistry, grappling with facile assumptions about identity and the complex repercussions of race history in this country.
Always eagerly anticipated, the 2014 volume of The Best American Poetry begins with David Lehman’s “state-of-the-art” foreword followed by an inspired introduction from Terrance Hayes on his picks for the best American poems of the past year. Following the poems is the apparatus for which the series has won acclaim: notes from the poets about the writing of their poems.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hayes, a 2014 MacArthur Fellow whose 2010 collection, Lighthead, won the National Book Award for poetry, recalls that the first book of poetry he ever bought was the 1990 edition of Best American Poetry. Given that he has "depended on so deeply for literally all of his life as a poet," it's not surprising that Hayes has applied such a discerning eye in selecting poems for this year's edition. "I'm not ashamed to say I wanted a diverse mix," he states, and the result feels like America at its best and most inclusive, with Sherman Alexie's "Sonnet, with Pride" an ingenious modification of the form opening the collection and setting the tone. The blues color the collection and elegies are another prominent feature; Larry Levis (1946 1996) ghosting in with "Elegy with a Darkening Trapeze Inside It," a selection from his uncollected "late" poems. Rita Dove and Yusef Komunyakaa both meditate and comment on the complexities of the concept of N gritude. Hearts in need of wrenching will get theirs, particularly Sharon Olds's "Stanley Kunitz Ode" or Patricia Lockwood's viral wonder, "Rape Joke." One of the strongest volumes in recent years, Hayes makes an offering to readers: "salute what I salute, and be transformed as I have been transformed."
