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Best New Poets
Best New Poets 2007: 50 Poems from Emerging Writers
In just three years Best New Poets has established itself as a crucial venue for rising poets and a valuable resource for poetry lovers. The only publication of its kind, this annual anthology is made up exclusively of work by writers who have not yet published a full-length book. The poems included in this eclectic sampling represent the best from the many that have been nominated by the country's top literary magazines and writing programs, as well as some two thousand additional poems submitted through an open online competition. The work of the fifty writers represented here provides the best perspective available on the continuing vitality of poetry as it's being practiced today.
- GenresPoetryAnthologies
144 pages, Paperback
First published October 22, 2007
50 people want to read
About the author
Natasha Trethewey
28 books784 followersNatasha Trethewey is an American poet who was appointed United States Poet Laureate in June 2012; she began her official duties in September. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection Native Guard, and she is the Poet Laureate of Mississippi.
She is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where she also directs the Creative Writing Program.
Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, on April 26, 1966, Confederate Memorial Day, to Eric Trethewey and Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough, who were married illegally at the time of her birth, a year before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws with Loving v. Virginia. Her birth certificate noted the race of her mother as "colored", and the race of her father as “Canadian”.
Trethewey's mother, a social worker, was part of the inspiration for Native Guard, which is dedicated to her memory. Trethewey's parents divorced when she was young and Turnbough was murdered in 1985 by her second husband, whom she had recently divorced, when Trethewey was 19 years old. Recalling her reaction to her mother's death, she said, "that was the moment when I both felt that I would become a poet and then immediately afterward felt that I would not. I turned to poetry to make sense of what had happened".
Natasha Trethewey's father is also a poet; he is a professor of English at Hollins University.
Trethewey earned her B.A. in English from the University of Georgia, an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University, and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995. In May 2010 Trethewey delivered the commencement speech at Hollins University and was awarded an honorary doctorate. She had previously received an honorary degree from Delta State University in her native Mississippi.
Structurally, her work combines free verse with more structured, traditional forms like the sonnet and the villanelle. Thematically, her work examines "memory and the racial legacy of America". Bellocq's Ophelia (2002), for example, is a collection of poetry in the form of an epistolary novella; it tells the fictional story a mixed-race prostitute who was photographed by E. J. Bellocq in early 20th-century New Orleans.
The American Civil War makes frequent appearances in her work. Born on Confederate Memorial Day—exactly 100 years afterwards—Trethewey explains that she could not have "escaped learning about the Civil War and what it represented", and that it had fascinated her since childhood. For example, Native Guard tells the story of the Louisiana Native Guards, an all-black regiment in the Union Army, composed mainly of former slaves who enlisted, that guarded the Confederate prisoners of war.
On June 7, 2012, James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, named her the 19th US Poet Laureate. Billington said, after hearing her poetry at the National Book Festival, that he was "immediately struck by a kind of classic quality with a richness and variety of structures with which she presents her poetry … she intermixes her story with the historical story in a way that takes you deep into the human tragedy of it." Newspapers noted that unlike most poets laureate, Trethewey is in the middle of her career. She was also the first laureate to take up residence in Washington, D.C., when she did so in January 2013. On May 14, 2014, Tretheway delivered her final lecture to conclude her second term as US Poet Laureate.
(from Wikipedia)
She is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where she also directs the Creative Writing Program.
Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, on April 26, 1966, Confederate Memorial Day, to Eric Trethewey and Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough, who were married illegally at the time of her birth, a year before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws with Loving v. Virginia. Her birth certificate noted the race of her mother as "colored", and the race of her father as “Canadian”.
Trethewey's mother, a social worker, was part of the inspiration for Native Guard, which is dedicated to her memory. Trethewey's parents divorced when she was young and Turnbough was murdered in 1985 by her second husband, whom she had recently divorced, when Trethewey was 19 years old. Recalling her reaction to her mother's death, she said, "that was the moment when I both felt that I would become a poet and then immediately afterward felt that I would not. I turned to poetry to make sense of what had happened".
Natasha Trethewey's father is also a poet; he is a professor of English at Hollins University.
Trethewey earned her B.A. in English from the University of Georgia, an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University, and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995. In May 2010 Trethewey delivered the commencement speech at Hollins University and was awarded an honorary doctorate. She had previously received an honorary degree from Delta State University in her native Mississippi.
Structurally, her work combines free verse with more structured, traditional forms like the sonnet and the villanelle. Thematically, her work examines "memory and the racial legacy of America". Bellocq's Ophelia (2002), for example, is a collection of poetry in the form of an epistolary novella; it tells the fictional story a mixed-race prostitute who was photographed by E. J. Bellocq in early 20th-century New Orleans.
The American Civil War makes frequent appearances in her work. Born on Confederate Memorial Day—exactly 100 years afterwards—Trethewey explains that she could not have "escaped learning about the Civil War and what it represented", and that it had fascinated her since childhood. For example, Native Guard tells the story of the Louisiana Native Guards, an all-black regiment in the Union Army, composed mainly of former slaves who enlisted, that guarded the Confederate prisoners of war.
On June 7, 2012, James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, named her the 19th US Poet Laureate. Billington said, after hearing her poetry at the National Book Festival, that he was "immediately struck by a kind of classic quality with a richness and variety of structures with which she presents her poetry … she intermixes her story with the historical story in a way that takes you deep into the human tragedy of it." Newspapers noted that unlike most poets laureate, Trethewey is in the middle of her career. She was also the first laureate to take up residence in Washington, D.C., when she did so in January 2013. On May 14, 2014, Tretheway delivered her final lecture to conclude her second term as US Poet Laureate.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 29, 2008
…Because some poems deserve a cult following all their own
Epithalamium is a word. It's a lyric ode in honor of a bride and bridegroom. Epithalamium is also a poem written by Catherine Pierce and featured in the Best New Poets 2007 anthology (edited by Natasha Trethewey). The definition of epithalamium comes in handy when reading this poem because the poem is a suggestion of sorts on how one might keep that fresh wedding-day-feeling from going stale.
In the poem, you (the new bride/bridegroom) are told – almost ordered – to
"First, know the type of car the other drove as a high school senior, late eighties."
The poem goes on, demanding, as if your marriage depended on it (and these days, it does) that
"You must love that car. You must wish, at least briefly, that you had ridden in it."
This makes sense because if you didn't know your spouse as a high school senior, that part of his/her life is basically unknown to you. You can speculate about it; you can pretend your spouse didn't exist until he/she ran into you; you can just forget about it. This poem doesn't want you to guess, or pretend, or forget; it wants you to know that car inside and out, it wants you to know the "buckets seats" and the "red interior." Epithalamium wants you to wish you had been in that passenger seat, wants you to feel that sting of jealousy when you realize you didn't know the "him" (or the "her") that drove that car— that car that came before you. From this poem, I feel that it's not only important to know the car, it's important to memorize it— everything about it. This way, then, it will seem as if you did know your spouse back then when he/she were young and green and not even thinking of you.
Epithalamium suggests having fun and staying young as a way for those newlyweds to hang on to their love—
"Consider starting a four piece cover band."
"Consider growing basil and/or marijuana."
"Know that at no point do you have to own a) tapered jeans b) a good blender, c) spare light bulbs."
This poem is encouraging the breaking away from custom— don't try to fit in with someone else's views of what marriage is supposed to be. Toward the end of the poem, Catherine Pierce writes, "These are your decisions to make." And I've decided, even though I'm not married (yet!), I'm going to carry this poem around with me in my head so as not to ever forget it.
_______________________________________
(Get yourself a cult following. Write!)
Epithalamium is a word. It's a lyric ode in honor of a bride and bridegroom. Epithalamium is also a poem written by Catherine Pierce and featured in the Best New Poets 2007 anthology (edited by Natasha Trethewey). The definition of epithalamium comes in handy when reading this poem because the poem is a suggestion of sorts on how one might keep that fresh wedding-day-feeling from going stale.
In the poem, you (the new bride/bridegroom) are told – almost ordered – to
"First, know the type of car the other drove as a high school senior, late eighties."
The poem goes on, demanding, as if your marriage depended on it (and these days, it does) that
"You must love that car. You must wish, at least briefly, that you had ridden in it."
This makes sense because if you didn't know your spouse as a high school senior, that part of his/her life is basically unknown to you. You can speculate about it; you can pretend your spouse didn't exist until he/she ran into you; you can just forget about it. This poem doesn't want you to guess, or pretend, or forget; it wants you to know that car inside and out, it wants you to know the "buckets seats" and the "red interior." Epithalamium wants you to wish you had been in that passenger seat, wants you to feel that sting of jealousy when you realize you didn't know the "him" (or the "her") that drove that car— that car that came before you. From this poem, I feel that it's not only important to know the car, it's important to memorize it— everything about it. This way, then, it will seem as if you did know your spouse back then when he/she were young and green and not even thinking of you.
Epithalamium suggests having fun and staying young as a way for those newlyweds to hang on to their love—
"Consider starting a four piece cover band."
"Consider growing basil and/or marijuana."
"Know that at no point do you have to own a) tapered jeans b) a good blender, c) spare light bulbs."
This poem is encouraging the breaking away from custom— don't try to fit in with someone else's views of what marriage is supposed to be. Toward the end of the poem, Catherine Pierce writes, "These are your decisions to make." And I've decided, even though I'm not married (yet!), I'm going to carry this poem around with me in my head so as not to ever forget it.
_______________________________________
(Get yourself a cult following. Write!)
December 12, 2007
Eh. Um. I love this series so much, and this is the only one to which my response was, "whatever..." I still haven't read all the poems in the book--they are just so uninteresting! Poems barely knocked my socks off, which past editions proved this series capable of doing. What makes the big difference?
Perhaps I don't like the editor's views/tastes/leanings in poetry. Not having read any of her work, I'd say it's an uneducated guess.
This year was the only year I did not submit work for the publication in their open competition, which by the way, is the cheapest and easiest way to obtain a book. Is this why I'm unimpressed?
Perhaps becuase I had to wait so long and work so hard to obtain a copy (the bookstore I ordered from took at least two months, by which time I got it off Amazon) despite their moving the distribution to Samovar, that I felt the work in it didn't pay off.
I usually love reading best of collections, especially of writers I'd not known of before, but this collection lacked the ferocity of feeling and level of care the other two seemed to offer. But my friend Jee Leong Koh is included in it, and that makes me happy. His poem was excellent, but then, I'd already read it before.
fyi: "emerging" means not having had a book published yet.
Perhaps I don't like the editor's views/tastes/leanings in poetry. Not having read any of her work, I'd say it's an uneducated guess.
This year was the only year I did not submit work for the publication in their open competition, which by the way, is the cheapest and easiest way to obtain a book. Is this why I'm unimpressed?
Perhaps becuase I had to wait so long and work so hard to obtain a copy (the bookstore I ordered from took at least two months, by which time I got it off Amazon) despite their moving the distribution to Samovar, that I felt the work in it didn't pay off.
I usually love reading best of collections, especially of writers I'd not known of before, but this collection lacked the ferocity of feeling and level of care the other two seemed to offer. But my friend Jee Leong Koh is included in it, and that makes me happy. His poem was excellent, but then, I'd already read it before.
fyi: "emerging" means not having had a book published yet.
March 21, 2008
I can't say that I was incredibly impressed with this collection. Though most (if not all) of the work shows talent, very little took my breath away or even made me want to seek out more work by these poets.
My favorites:
David Welch, Natalie Diaz, Julie Sophia Paegle, Christina Duhig, Margaret Ronda, and Catherine Pierce.
After typing out that list, I would have to say that the female poets in this collection seem to have stronger voices than the male poets, overall.
My favorites:
David Welch, Natalie Diaz, Julie Sophia Paegle, Christina Duhig, Margaret Ronda, and Catherine Pierce.
After typing out that list, I would have to say that the female poets in this collection seem to have stronger voices than the male poets, overall.
January 27, 2008
The poems vary in quality but represent an interesting mix of what's currently out there in literary journals and MFA programs. A good way to get a taste of what journals you might like to read. I would have been interested in seeing less open contest winners and more picks from publications.
December 3, 2008
An eclectic selection of poetry chosen from submissions by journals, writing programs, and open competition. Criteria used to define "new poet" is not having a full-length book of poetry published yet.
Read
August 18, 2008My twin sister Michelle McEwen has a poem in here called "Blood." One of my favorite poems by her.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews