Personal Best: Makers on Their Poems that Matter Most

by Erin Belieu (editor), Carl Phillips (Editor)

Home to fifty-eight author-selected poems and accompanying essays, Personal Makers on Their Poems That Matter Most is a far-reaching, essential touchstone for the art of poetry in the United States today.



Personal Makers on Their Poems That Matter Most is home to fifty-eight author-selected poems and accompanying essays that explain how and why each poet chose a poem as their “personal best.” The anthology offers a provocative and surprising range of responses in which readers will find poetic context for the life of a poem and revelatory insight into the unique, personal experiences that shape the writing process itself. Including works from a wide variety of voices both new and well-established, Personal Best is a far-reaching, essential touchstone for the art of poetry in the United States today. The anthology gives readers—both long-time fans of poetry and those just discovering its possibilities—an intimate view of the heart and spirit that make poetry one of our most quintessentially human forms of expression. 

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, Essays

282 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2023

About the author

Associate Professor, MFA The Ohio State University (1992), MA Boston University (1995), specializes in poetry. Her first book, Infanta, was selected by Hayden Carruth for the National Poetry Series and was named one of the ten best books of 1995 by Library Journal, Washington Post Book World, and the National Book Critics' Circle. Her second collection, One Above and One Below, won the Ohioana Award and the Society of Midland Authors Award. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Slate, Nerve, The Yale Review, TriQuarterly, Ploughshares, The New York Times, and others. She previously served as managing editor of AGNI.
Belieu's third poetry collection, Black Box, was published by Copper Canyon press in early 2007 and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Poems from Black Box appeared in places such as Ploughshares, Tin House and The Virginia Quarterly Review (and are available to read in the magazines' website archives). Her poem "The Last Of The Gentlemen Heartbreakers" was featured on the Poetry Daily website. Belieu also wrote as a featured poet for The Poetry Foundation website in July 2006. The daily blog she kept for the foundation can be found at www.poetryfoundation.org.
In September 2006, Belieu embarked on the Wave Press Poetry Bus Tour. Along with poets such as Matthew Zapruder, Joshua Beckman, Eileen Myles and Arthur Sze, Belieu traveled cross country in a tour bus, stopping to read from Black Box in places such as Seattle, Spokane, Missoula, Boise, Jackson Hole and Omaha.
In August 2009, Belieu co founded (with poet Cate Marvin) the organization VIDA: Women In Literary Arts whose mission is "to explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women through meaningful conversation and the exchange of ideas among existing and emerging literary communities." Since the organization's founding, VIDA has become a strong national media presence and Belieu has focused her writing on non fiction, responding to issues of gender bias in publishing in places such as Slate and The New York Times. In 2010, VIDA will be a sponsor of the AWP conference in Washington DC.
Belieu is presently at work on a non fiction memoir detailing her experiences in parenting a special needs child. New poems have appeared recently in Lit, 32 Poems and Prairie Schooner. Belieu is also the Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Writers Conference. The conference brings in nationally and internationally acclaimed poets and prose writers to work with participants every July on the island of Port Townsend, Washington.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s still National Poetry Month and this book is the PERFECT way to celebrate. Edited by the wonderful poets Erin Belieu and Carl Phillips, Personal Best presents the reader with hand-picked “best” poems picked by their poets and then give each poet the space to speak about the poem. The list of those included is as extensive as it is incredible and is practically a “best of” for modern poetry in general. There are some amazing works here from poets like Ada Limon, Ocean Vuong, Rita Dove, Kaveh Akbar], Jos Charles, Victoria Chang, Jericho Brown Dorianne Laux, Ilya Kaminsky, Solmaz Sharif, Martín Espada, Patricia Smith, Diane Seuss, Danez Smith, Arthur Sze, and Eileen Myles just to name A FEW. Even authors such as Jason Reynolds known for his middle-grade or YA novels have a poem here and the opportunity to teach the reader about them. It’s a magnificent book. I love how several poets discuss how the idea of “best” is really nebulous, with the poem that is their favorite, or the poem that might be their “best” can be two different things and rather subjective based on what metric you determine “best” by, but that they tended to pick the poem that was “best” for a discussion about it, If you love poetry and love hearing about how and why poets choose their metaphors, their themes or what a poem means to them, this is an essential read. Just outstanding and filled with brilliance.

Full review to come.

[River · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible anthology for anyone interested in getting into poetry, either as a reader or as a writer. This was a very diverse selection of poetry, both in content and in creation and form. And every poem came with a short essay by the poet about the journey of the poem, sometimes touching on its formation, or the inspirations, or their personal feelings for it. It left me feeling so inspired, which is the best way to feel after poetry.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I write poetry and read quite a bit of it, but I often struggle to understand what it is that makes a poem good. I know what I like, and what I don’t like, and with any anthology you will get both. There’s sometimes a chasm I feel between the poems that I don’t respond to and the lavish praise they might receive. So I came to this book to learn more about what it was that poets saw in their own work that was meaningful to them.

The poems themselves were very much focused on topics of identity and sampled an extremely diverse body of poets. The poems that resonated the most with me were those that took an even-handed approach to the beauty of their language with the politically charged topics explored, and that alone was a revelation of my personal taste. Tarfia Faizullah addresses this specifically in her poem: going to a writing workshop and describing how after the death of her 7-y/o sister her friends played house and still set the table for her empty seat, while an onlooker said “wow that would make great material!”

This, I think, was the big question that emerged for me out of this book that so often centered around the deeply personal: the thin line between meaningful representation and exploitative reflection of experiences. I will admit that at times, I found some of the poems included to be too surface level - gesturing rather than engaging. Thankfully, these instances were relatively limited, although I suspect that my even mentioning this distinction is, at best, problematic. Let’s say that in a world that rewards algorithmic complacency when it comes to hot button topics like trauma, I approach everything with distrust rather than open arms, and that I find this deeply unpleasant.

Reginald Dwayne Betts was an immediate standout for his poetry exploring the carceral system - I was astounded by the selections he had chosen. Oliver de la Paz was also especially moving with his poem about a cancer diagnosis, although I liked his description of his poem even more impactful. That was a recurring theme I noted: the description often influenced my perception of the work, for better or for worse. One example in which the description absolutely benefitted my perception was the poet John Lee Clark, a DeafBlind Minnesotan who also instructs people in the emerging language of ProTactile. Initially I found the poem was crammed or stuffed with references to people I did not know, until I learned that what was being described was a lineage of touching from historically DeafBlind people. Suddenly touch made so much more sense to me as a vehicle for his poetry, as well as certain omitted details. I’m interested to learn more about his work, as well as ProTactile.

There were also more traditional poets in here that I had encountered before, favorites like Yusuf Komunyakaa and Arthur Sze and Diane Seuss. I loved Brenda Hillman’s Death Tractates, but I wasn’t sure what she saw in her own selection. Robert Pinsky’s selection on robots was quite breathtaking, and DA Powell’s messy meditation on time (and his explanation of his work) stuck a landing for me. And one day, hopefully soon, Ocean Vuong’s “Time is a Mother” will appear at my local thriftstore. I’m still waiting.

Overall, I was very happy reading this selection of poems. What I was looking for was discussion of craft, and I got more than I expected from this.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this collection of poems. The idea of the anthology is that each poet chose their own "personal best" to include, along with a brief essay about why they chose it, the origins of the poem, etc.

In many cases, I read the poem and shrugged, then read the essay and got a lot more out of the poem than I had on the first passthrough--which makes me wish this were a more common format. Being given an access point for what the author was trying to accomplish with their choices demystifies the poems in a way that fosters appreciation.

Not that understanding always means liking them (there were a few in here that I didn't especially like even after learning more). There was only one I quit on, because it was 8.5 pages long, and I decided I was done after two. I skimmed the accompanying essay and felt fine with that decision. That aside, though, it was a strong collection of poems, and I got a lot out of it.

I think this would be a great pick for a literature class since it offers a built-in guide to each poem, and there's intentional range in the diversity of voices represented, including disabled poets, LGBTQ+ poets, and different races and ethnicities. It's a solid (and very readable) overview of contemporary poetry.

[Scott Wiggerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some amazing poems in this collection of many of today's top poets, including Kaveh Akbar, Jericho Brown, Victoria Chang, Eduardo Corral, Carolyn Forche, Jorie Graham, Ada Limon, Diane Seuss, Patricia Smith, and Ocean Vuon--among many others. But what really makes this interesting are the essays that accompany the poems, even though some of the poets concede that the selected poem is not necessarily their "personal best." Even the poems that didn't appeal to me often had insights into the poem in the accompanying essay that made the read worthwhile.

[Danielle Palmer]

DNF. These poems were kinda out there for me.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erin Belieu and Carl Phillips did a marvelous job assembling this anthology; there's something that feels decadent and slightly illicit about being able to read what these poets think about their own poems — but it's a thrilling sort of illicit decadence, and I'm looking forward to re-reading it more slowly than my first time through. Standouts for me were the Heid Erdrich and Dana Levin and Oliver de la Paz essays, but I found each of them fascinating and I'm sure I'll learn more the next time through.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book when I saw Erin Belieu's name, as she is one of my favorite poets. I enjoyed the essays by the poets, explaining either the process of writing and choosing this particular poem as their personal favorite or best. Quite an eclectic selection of poets, rich in diversity, which is quite refreshing. The only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 is that the vast majority, perhaps all, of the solicited poets teach in university programs.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note to self: remember how surprising some of the poets' explanations (surprising and expansive) were about their "personal best" poem selection. What a good idea to have the Poets choose their own poem.

[Bo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection. Contemporary poets choose a "best" poem, "best" being interpreted with wide variations and then share a commentary exploring their choices.

[BA · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Charis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of poems and short essays. Wonderfully inspirational and informative on the art and craft of poetry, as well as a great introduction to poets whose work I have yet to read.