The Best American Poetry 2008
Guest Editor Charles Wright,
Series Editor David Lehman

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry. Books read.

How to write specific forms: Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka. Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát. Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Adam Zagajewski. Aleda Shirley. Anne Carson. Bashō. The Beowulf Poet. Billy Collins. Billy Collins exercise. Snorri's Edda. Carl Dennis. Charles Atkinson. Chase Twichell. Corey Marks. François Villon Franz Wright. Galway Kinnell. Gary Young. The Gawain Poet. J. D. McClatchy. J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka). Jack Gilbert. James Maughn. Jane Hirshfield. Jean Vengua. Jorie Graham. Karen Braucher. Karl Shapiro. Kay Ryan. Laureate Poets: Britain; USA. Len Anderson. Les Murray. Li-Young Lee. Linda Pastan. Louise Glück. Mary Oliver. Nordic Skalds. Pulitzer Poetry Prize (U.S.A). Rainer Maria Rilke Richard Hugo. Robert Bly. Sappho. Sara Teasdale. Shiki (haiku). Snorri's Edda. Stephen Dunn. Ted Kooser. W.S. Merwin.

Series Editor David Lehman. Compare with others in series: The Best American Poetry: 2009; Guest Editor David Wagoner. The Best American Poetry: 2008; Guest Editor Charles Wright. The Best American Poetry: 2007; Guest Editor Heather McHugh. The Best American Poetry: 2006; Guest Editor Billy Collins. The Best American Poetry: 2005; Guest Editor Paul Muldoon.

Poets. Places of first publication.

Introductory Essays to
The Best American Poetry 2008.

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2008 Guest Editor Charles Wright, Series Editor David Lehman

Includes poems by:

• Robert Bly, Jorie Graham, Louise Glück, W.S. Merwin, Franz Wright.
• Frank Bidart, Carolyn Forché, Frederick Seidel, Patti Smith, Kevin Young.
• emerging poets like Joshua Beckman, Erica Dawson, and Alex Lemon.

David Lehman:

• Began The Best American Poetry series in 1988. The controversial Best of the title probably helped the series get even more press than the worthiness of the contents.
• Continues as the series editor.
• Selected Charles Wright as the 2008 guest editor.

Selection criteria by editor Charles Wright for
The Best American Poetry 2008

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2008 Guest Editor Charles Wright, Series Editor David Lehman

Notice the mode (most common) of the birth decades of the poets:

• For the 2006 issue, it was the 1940s.
• For the 2007 issue (guest editor McHugh) it vaulted forward three decades to the 1970s.
• For the 2008 issue (guest editor Charles Wright) the mode returns to an earlier decade: the 1950s.

In the 2008 issue, quick glances at birth dates give this approximation:

Decade of birth.	2008 issue.	2007 issue.	2006 issue.	1995 issue.
2000s	0	0	0	0
1990s	0	0	0	0
1980s	1	1	0	0
1970s	12	10+6=16	10+1=11	0
1960s	10	10+3=13	10+2=12	7
1950s	21	10+5=15	10+4=14	10+10+10=30
1940s	16	10+5=15	10+10+3=23	10+10=20
1930s	8	6	10	5
1920s	6	6	3	10+2=12
1910s	0	1	0	0
1900s	0	0	0	0

Poets of
The Best American Poetry 2008.

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2008 Guest Editor Charles Wright, Series Editor David Lehman

Of the 75 poets whose work is included (one poems each), we have web pages on:

• Robert Bly
• Jorie Graham
• Louise Glück
• W.S. Merwin
• Franz Wright

Best of these Best include:

• Charles Bernstein's "Ku(na)hay" [First appearance of Hay(na)ku in the BAP series.]
• Robert Bly's "[Language exists because]"
• Carolyn Forché's "The Museum of Stone"
• Mark Jarman's "Snoring"
• Maxine Kumin's "Though He Tarry"
• Philip Levine's "Of Love and Other Disasters"
• James Tate's "National Security"
• Franz Wright's "Passing Scenes (While Reading Basho)"
• Lynn Xu's "[Language exists because]"

Places of first publication before poems appeared in
The Best American Poetry 2008

BUY: The Best American Poetry 2008 Guest Editor Charles Wright, Series Editor David Lehman

Acknowledges first publications in only 45 publications. This is

• the same number as for The Best American Poetry: 2007.
• a smaller variety (14% less) than the 52 in The Best American Poetry: 2006.
• a still smaller variety (25% less) than the 60 in The Best American Poetry: 2005.

Places of first publication for the 2008 collection are:

1. 32 poems
2. ABZ
3. AGNI
4. American Poetry Review
5. The American Scholar
6. Barrow Street
7. Bird Dog
8. Brilliant Corners
9. Crazyhorse
10. FIELD
11. Five Points
12. Fulcrum
13. Gulf Coast
14. Harvard Review
15. The Hudson Review
16. The Iowa Review
17. The Kenyon Review
18. LIT
19. London Review of Books
20. Lyric
21. Meridian
22. The Nation
23. New American Writing
24. New England Review
25. The New York Review of Books
26. The New Yorker
27. Notre Dame Review
28. The Paris Review
29. Phoebe
30. Ploughshares
31. Poetry
32. Prairie Schooner
33. Quarterly West
34. Raritan
35. Rivendell
36. Runes
37. Sentence
38. Sewanee Theological Review
39. The Sienese Shredder
40. The Southern Review
41. storySouth
42. Subtropics
43. Verse
44. Virginia Quarterly Review
45. VOLT

Links and Books

Links and Books.

• Laureate: the Poets Laureate of Britain
• Laureate: the Poets Laureate of the U.S.A.
• Best Poems by the Best Poets - Some Lists of Winners.
• Other Books of Poetry Form.

Related pages: Books of Poetry Form. Alphabetic list of poetry forms, etc. Poetry Home. How to Write Poetry.

Copyright © 2008-2015 by J. Zimmerman, except for quotations. All rights reserved.

[Thanks for visiting.]