Guest edited by Utah’s Poet Laureate Paisely Rekdal, the 2020 compilation of Best American Poetry is rife with gorgeous rhythmic poetry, sure to entice any lover of poetry into its pages!

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for advance access to this title!

If you know me you know how much I absolutely adore #poetry. The 2020 edition of contemporary American poetry is stunning - with a particular emphasis on the “contraries of our present moment in time.” This one roams wild from race, gender, addiction, recollections of 9/11, and more.

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I’ll give you a sneak peak of one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite poems in the series:

The images gave us no rest yet failed over.
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And over despite the immensity
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Of their realism to describe the world as we really
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Knew it, and, worse, as it knew us.

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If you don’t know, The Best American Poetry anthology series has been going since 1988, and each volume consists of a collection of some of the year’s most incredible poems and poets.

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Also this cover is SO COOL.

I haven't read a ton of poetry, but I have gotten more into it and wanted to give this a shot. The great thing about a book like this is that it's a collection of several poets so even if one poem isn't for you, the next one may be. I enjoyed this book even though it took me quite awhile to read.

I can never get enough of the Best American Poetry series. I have no doubt that we'll carry this book.

I thought this collection was very middle of the road for me. There were only a few poems that I really connected with; the rest were just mediocre.

Poetry is such a subjective thing it almost seems impossible to label the “Best American Poetry of 2020.” Nonetheless, the yearly anthology embarks on such a project. This year’s guest editor, Paisley Rekdal, collects a diverse group of poets and their works in a variety of magazines to give us a sample of American Poetry published in 2019.

It is a harrowing project to be sure. Any critic can ask why “such-and-such” a poem was included while “such-and-such” other poem was not. Who is not going to be left hurt in such an undertaking? Yet, who is not blessed to be included in the compilation.

As a novice reader, novice poet, and novice…everything, such a collection can be very instructive. To the subjective, I found myself not enjoying most of the poems, but almost constantly learning from each one. The novelty of such a book, for me, was as a textbook. I often found myself wondering why “such-and-such” was included in a book labeled “Best”. What did the editor see? For me, only a few standouts really made it obvious why they were included.

My academic formation is not in the arts, nor in literature. Looking at almost every poet included in this volume as the best, it seems almost all hold an MFA or dedicate their life fully to literature. In many ways, this should be obvious, and a given. They should be the best. In other ways, however, it perpetuates the elitist critique of published poetry.

So, where do I stand on the book? It was worth the read. It is worth the instruction. I know now that there is a vast amount I don’t know about the poetry world. I love the breadth of the volume but would have liked to see more from the really good authors. Maybe half the writers and but twice the poems by each one? Then again, such an idea would limit the exposure to poets I may never have known about.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG-Q_hiFyip/

A really strong collection of poems. It is always a little difficult to rate anthologies like this because they are so wide ranged, but overall I thought this collection of poems was really a great selection.

I loved savoring this book and reading a poem or two a day. I think the curation here is excellent. The poem in this collection that I think will stay with my forever was the very first one, Saving the Children by Julia Alvarez.

Also of note- I really appreciated the cover design for the collection

Any collection of poetry by different authors will of course mean that the individual poem will vary in their impact on the reader, especially with poetry being such a subjective experience. I’m always satisfied if half the selections in such a work move me in some way, by image, language, sound, etc. I’ve had mixed experience with the Best American Poetry series, but this year’s (2020) is one of the best I’ve read, with only a small handful of poems falling into the “didn’t care for” category. Really a stellar collection.

My favorite may be the excerpt from Rick Barot’s The Galleons, a multi—stranded poem that moves back and forth in speakers and time, exploring his family’s immigration against a broader scale of historic imperialism and colonialism. The excerpt so captured me that immediately went out and bought the book after reading the excerpts closing lines: “a building like a tallness of heart a dream carried into waking my life breathing before it incredible and true.” Another favorite is “A Man Drops a Coat on the Sidewalk and Almost Falls into the Arms of Another”, where Reginald Dwayne Betts spins out a caught moment in time into a wonderful meditation. Painfully powerful is Ryan Black’s “Nothing Beats a Fair”, which begins with the speaker telling how his mother worked as a waitress at the 1964 World Fair and ends with a horrific moment of racism at a hockey game, when his “mother stepped back, then seemed to harden like the women in those stories, in D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, who were transformed because they would not give consent.” Even more powerful over its entire length is Julian Gewirtz’s “To X (Written on this Device You Made)”, a poem addressed to the “24-year-old migrant worker” noted in the epigraph from the Washington Post who “jumped out of a window of a dormitory run by his employer, Foxconn . . . that makes the majority of the world’s Apple iPhones.” The chorus throughout of “another net” going up (to catch the number of suicide attempts) is chilling, while the last line is an utter knockout blow.

As noted, there were a few poems I didn’t much like, but the number was shockingly low. Generally, this collection had fewer of the poems I consider more word games than anything else, and many more that dealt ringing emotional blows as well as showing a deft hand at subtle rhymes, sound technique, and imagery. Highly recommended.

Hmmm. Anthologies like this strike me as the main reason so many Americans say they don't like poetry. Can we please get to a place where our options aren't either self-absorbed, generic Instagram poetry or this?

While I did enjoy a few of the poems, so many were the literary equivalent of the art display where someone paints something entirely with pieces of used condoms. Give me Margaret Atwood, Nikky Finney, Langston Hughes... poets who can say something artistically and beautifully, make you feel, and not leave you feeling like you're either not smart enough or high enough to know what on earth the poet is saying.

I love poetry but I couldn't finish this anthology, as reading most of the poems (which often run on for many pages) felt like the worst kind of college homework: intellectual calisthenics and drudgery. I remember reading the "best" poetry journals when I was an English lit major and young poet many years ago and lamenting that this was the sort of stuff that was favored. I'm discouraged that this many years later, this is still the stuff that the poetry elite fawn over.

All that said, if you tend to like the Best American Poetry anthologies, this particular year is as good as any and there seems to be a good amount of diversity.

I read a digital ARC of this book via Net Galley.

When it comes to a collection like this, coming up with one overarching rating can be a challenge. At the end of the day, I can evaluate this from two different perspectives: how much did I personally enjoy this vs. how "good" it was at doing what it set out to do.

The Best American Poetry is released annually with a different guest editor each year. In the introduction to this anthology, Paisley Rekdal addresses the hows and whys of the curation process, and I think that this was very well done. There was quite an assortment of styles a content - topical issues were addressed in some poems, others were timeless. An experienced poetry reader may read this to keep up with the current 'scene', but a beginner could easily use this as a sampler to find out whose work to explore.

5 for quality, 3 for personal enjoyment, just because I don't read a lot of poetry and I'm picky about what I like (keeping in mind that for me that's still a GOOD rating). I would definitely check out next year's edition if it comes across my path.

This is a wonderful and especially prescient compendium of poetry. As the editors suggest, many of these poems directly address the current political climate as many of the readers and writers of poetry are BIPOC, so there is an urgency and importance to these pieces. There is definitely a great number of longer poems, with some concise gems. This is, altogether, a very good and expansive collection that introduces readers to an exciting subsection of poets, even though many great writers cannot be represented by nature of the edition.

A strong selection of current poetry by some of the best poets working today. As with any anthology of current publishing, some of the pieces are stronger than others, but overall very good. Some work by established veterans such as Tony Hoagland and Jorie Graham and thrilling work by lesser known, younger poets as well. A very worthwhile read.

I haven''t read a lot of poetry. This collections seems to be for those that are pretty serious about it, so it may not work for the casual poetry reader. I can certainly see the talent on display.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

I really admire David Lehman and his writing. I wish I enjoyed reading poetry more than I do. It’s rare that I find poems I love!

Long live poetry! As a poor struggling poet myself, I don't often get to read all the literary journals throughout the year and am somewhat out of touch with contemporary poetry. This annual compendium gives me great relief as evidence that poetry is alive and well. While the selected poems often feel similar in form, there is a good variety of content and you are sure to find a gem you love. I especially enjoyed Camille Guthrie's "During the Middle Ages" ("Some local doctor would have to drill a hole in/ my head/ To let the demons out because I'd be full/ Of Black bile plus heresy as I am today") and am excited to check out her other work.

As editor David Lehman rightly points out, these troubled times are ripe for poetic reflection. Poetry is a place of language play, exploration of lived experience, and personal healing. As always, the poems collected in this volume refresh.

The Best American Poetry 2020 skews more toward the academic reader with an extensive forward and introduction. The poetry collection includes works by dozens of accomplished and notable poets that are quintessentially American in their diversity. It is not a work meant for the casual poetry lover. Rather, it is a collection for those who love to dig deep into themes, styles, and symbols within the text.

This was a nice collection of poetry. I can see myself using some selections in my course. It was a very diverse collection.