As Cole Swensen argues in the introduction to this comprehensive new anthology, the long-acknowledged "fundamental division" between experimental a...
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Apr 22, 2011
Elizabeth
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May 30, 2009
Oscar
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Could also be titled: Experiment for Experiment's Sake.
I only got through 2/3 of the book (has to go back to my local library) but what I did read was very mixed. My chief concern with this anthology is how it breaks down the tensions in United States Poetry to a "fundamental division" between narrative and experimental texts when all that is explored in this volume is the negotiation between variations in U.S. English non-linear narrative in contemporary academic poetry w More...
I only got through 2/3 of the book (has to go back to my local library) but what I did read was very mixed. My chief concern with this anthology is how it breaks down the tensions in United States Poetry to a "fundamental division" between narrative and experimental texts when all that is explored in this volume is the negotiation between variations in U.S. English non-linear narrative in contemporary academic poetry w More...
Jul 14, 2009
heather
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When I dog-ear a page, the double lines on the pages create a perfect right angle, so that's an extra bonus! This is one of the hardest books I've ever read because it is completely outside of my comfort zone. It did get quicker around page 300, but I still had 208 to go by that point.
This book pushed me and continues to do so. Before my MFA, I found myself not liking a lot of the poetry I read in journals. I found myself not able to talk to my peers who write with lots of quotat More...
This book pushed me and continues to do so. Before my MFA, I found myself not liking a lot of the poetry I read in journals. I found myself not able to talk to my peers who write with lots of quotat More...
Sep 15, 2009
Caris
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Ho-ly shit, am I glad I'm done with this.
I'm hardly a connoisseur of poetry. Off the top of my head, I cannot tell you the difference between free verse and blank verse. I don't know the romantics, and I've no real idea what the New York school is. I've taken literature courses, but not poetry courses. My high school English teachers, year after year, worked hard to inform me that I just didn't get it.
But I love it.
Oddly enough.
The poetry I like is More...
I'm hardly a connoisseur of poetry. Off the top of my head, I cannot tell you the difference between free verse and blank verse. I don't know the romantics, and I've no real idea what the New York school is. I've taken literature courses, but not poetry courses. My high school English teachers, year after year, worked hard to inform me that I just didn't get it.
But I love it.
Oddly enough.
The poetry I like is More...
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Jul 25, 2009
Jordan
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There's some good work here--and not the usual anthology pieces. Of course, that's the point of the book. I was surprised to like Jorie Graham's selection so much. As with any anthology of this scope, few people will have a palette broad enough to stomach everything. That is, some of the poems are simply not to my taste. As I read many of the poems, I think of the last line of A. D. Melville's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 1. Referring to Phaethon, Ovid writes: "Great was h
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Apr 14, 2010
John
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Make no mistake: there are some truly compelling poets in this anthology. Among my favorites were Mei-Mei Brussenbruge, Rae Armantrout, Dean Young, Bin Ramke, the Waldrops, and Jennifer Moxley. But after having anticipated reading the anthology for so long, I found its methodology disappointing. For one thing, the arrangement of the poets in alphabetical order gives no sense of historical development or intertextual relationship. Nor do the brief bios of each poet help. In fact, the pretentiousn
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Jun 23, 2009
I'm not really an anthology guy--I'm more likely just to look for the individual books of the various poets in the library--but this line-up looks pretty good. A lot of people on the internet are bitching about it, as people on the internet tend to do, but don't worry about them. Forget the premise, just read the poems. The "average reader" probably won't get the hybrid premise anyway. The bottom line is that this is about as good a collection of currently middle-aged poets that you co
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Sep 15, 2011
Tracie
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I gave this book five stars because it really opened my eyes to a new way of looking at poetry. It was the text for a poetry class I took, and I learned a lot just from the few sections and pieces that we read. I tried my hand at writing with some of the styles presented, and I was introduced to poets I should have known but had never been introduced to. This is definitely not poetry we were taught to memorize in school, which is a bit refreshing as well as uncomfortable all at the same time. Go
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May 09, 2009
Lindsay
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This book is gorgeous. There are pages and pages of brilliance from multiple contemporary poets I have never even heard of (although it also has quite a few of my favorite poets as well). In my opinion, this anthology is the who is who of poetry for the next ten years. A great recommend for poetry fanatics, or anyone who wants a taste of what great contemporary poetry looks like.
This is my pick for best poetry anthology of the year. And the exterior is pretty. Which, let's face More...
This is my pick for best poetry anthology of the year. And the exterior is pretty. Which, let's face More...
Jul 09, 2010
Ian
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The book is a must read for any poet or lover of poetry. The writers included in this anthology are than playing with form or structure. They are redefining the capacity of poetry. For writers, the book opens whole worlds of possibility in the voices that can be used, the way a poem can be presented, and many other things.
Aug 23, 2009
Birdlashes
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Ignoring the highfalutin “critic speak” in the introductions to each writer, and ignoring the overall premise of the hybridization of the “experimental” and the “accessible,” I found this to be a pretty great anthology of contemporary poetry.
Jun 20, 2009
Ann
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This collection of poetry (mostly current) is beyond me! I may be too old to "get it." The poets mostly teach in MFA programs, so I don't have a lot of hope for the future of poetry. Also, this is a Norton anthology, sure to be taught often in colleges. Sigh!
Oct 12, 2009
Laura
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An excellent look at contemporary American poetry. I found the introductions by Cole Swensen and David St. John to be very informative. This book offers a good cross section of poems/poets.
Sep 04, 2009
Molly
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Everyone is going to think something is missing from any given anthology, and of course I feel that way about this one, but still, it's good, and I thought Swenson's introduction was great.
Mar 07, 2011
Erin
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Most of the stuff in this book was interesting in some fashion. Not all of it was my favorite, but I could at least appreciate the poets in here for what they were trying to do.
Dec 08, 2010
Aaron
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Here is a review i wrote of this book: http://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/110...
I think its only flaw is that it doesn't include poetry by Aaron Belz!
I think its only flaw is that it doesn't include poetry by Aaron Belz!
Sep 18, 2011
Michael
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Good to see poems that are deliberately different from the norm, even if the success of said poems varies considerably from author to author.
Dec 20, 2010
Moriah L
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A very necessary anthology... gave language to something my poetic generation has been struggling to define (or resist defining).
Aug 27, 2010
Gregory
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This was a good way to get a start with contemporary poetry and find some authors that I wanted to explore a bit more...
Nov 23, 2010
Andrew
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Hard to see what this anthology is a hybrid of, and even harder to see what's new about it. I enjoyed some of the work represented here, but the selection is pretty conservatively limited to older established poets, much of whose work was never new and is now pretty stale.
Nov 21, 2009
Heather June
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A timely, somewhat controversial, and much-needed anthology of many wonderful contemporary American poets. I don't always agree with the editors' selections, but I'm so glad this anthology exists. I'm tired of trying to teach from anthologies that claim to be contemporary yet contain mostly poets from the 1950s-60s-- and only a narrow, rather conservative slice of their generation at that.
Sep 21, 2009
Juliet
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I really dislike the cover of this book and hope the innards are much better.
Well, I only got about halfway through this collection before returning it to the library--and based on what I read, I'd give it about 3 1/4 stars.
Overall, it seemed a little too disembobied for the likes of me. I'm not a big fan of disembobied narratives. I'm too busy hyperventilating inside of bodies.
Well, I only got about halfway through this collection before returning it to the library--and based on what I read, I'd give it about 3 1/4 stars.
Overall, it seemed a little too disembobied for the likes of me. I'm not a big fan of disembobied narratives. I'm too busy hyperventilating inside of bodies.
May 22, 2010
CX
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disturbing introduction--it's inaccurate, simplistic, & opportunistic; a clever title, but doesn't hold up, needs much more thought; neither the collection itself nor the shabbily written intro/premise work...it seem that many poems are hybrids, but no one set out to write them, & the academic/avant-garde dichotomy is foolish as best to hold up as the "non-argument"
Sep 07, 2011
Shawn
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Last Monday I listened to David St. John, one of American Hybrids' co-editors, discuss the anthology and its origins at the Napa Writers Conference. He re-inspired me to explore these poems and poets. Diverse. Interesting. Baffling. Frustrating. Everyone is represented! The highlight, so far, is discovering a poem by Norman Dubie, "Of Politics, & Art." Wow.
Jun 10, 2011
Dennis
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The introduction itself is worth the price of this beautiful anthology of American poetry today. In the intro, Swensen sums up how the divisions of American poetry merged into what we have today--an eclectic mode of where tradition meets experimentation. Then the fun starts with an introduction of each poet and a sample of her or his work. A must!
Nov 29, 2011
Jerman
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A lot here to love. A lot. For real modern poetry lovers. Crazy. Lovelystrange. Can't stop using the word love... however, it's a love mostly without depth.
