Best New Poets 2018: 50 Poems from Emerging Writers

Best New Poets

by Kyle Dargan (Editor)

Entering its fourteenth year, 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 is being practiced today.

Genres: Poetry

150 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2019

About the author

KYLE DARGAN is author of the poetry collection Anagnorisis (Northwestern UP, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and longlisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His four previous collections, Honest Engine (2015), Logorrhea Dementia (2010), Bouquet of Hungers (2007) and The Listening (2003)--were all published by the University of Georgia Press. For his work, he has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His books have also been finalists for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize. Dargan has partnered with the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He's worked with and supports a number of youth writing organizations, such as 826DC, Writopia Lab, Young Writers Workshop and the Dodge Poetry high schools program.

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

A note on anthologies: With poetry in particular I find it important to try new things, to listen openly and find the voices that speak to you, something hard to do when you only have access to full volumes by established authors. Poetry was never dead, but for some readers it was difficult to find the way in, and amplifying the voices speaking now is perhaps the best way to help that happen.

So, this is an excellent collection of poems you've likely not had the chance to read before. I am admittedly partial as it features my amazing sister, but I'm also pleased to find her in such good company.

My only critique is that the collection is very heavy on contrapuntal poems, in a form I've found is called a 'cleave poem', although at least one doesn't quite work in all three aspects. I'm all for a good structure; I even love a sestina, but the overuse does a disservice to the later poems which begin to just feel gimmicky.

[Samantha Haydock · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a fan of 90% of these