First of all, every publisher believes there’s is the best stuff out there this (or any) year. We’re no exception. Our first five, (one cleverly disguised as a ‘bon-bon’), all exceptional, stand alone. Good poetry in [very] pretty packaging with nods to our brilliant book designer, Norman Nehmetallah, and printer John De Jesus at Coach House. And, to poets, Elianna Lev, David Bradford, Jonathan Garfinkel, and Dale Smith, deep gratitude for your work. An extraordinary debut.
Then there are the bestsellers we can never have enough copies in stock (thank you for the trouble) Kaveh, Sam, Danez, Tommy, Morgan, Alex, Chen, CA, Hoa, anything at Wave, kicking it, all.
Which brings me to a list of books (and chapbooks) that remain cherished on my shelf this year, books I place in other reader’s hands. Poets that moved, brought me to a complete stop. Reading that delighted and surprised, poems, sentences, fragments, I read over and over again. What I call, ‘gems,’ (in no particular order). With thanks, Kirby
SARAH PINDER COMMON PLACE (Coach House Books, 2017)
CHELY LIMA (trans. Margaret Randall) LO QUE LES DIJO EL LICANTROPO | WHAT THE WEREWOLF TOLD THEM (The Operating System, 2017)
NIKKI WALLSCHLAEGER CRAWLSPACE (Bloof Books, 2017)
SHANNON BRAMER PRECIOUS ENERGY (BookThug, 2017)
TARA-MICHELLE ZINIUK WHATEVER, ICEBERG (Mansfield Press, 2017)
LYNN CROSBIE THE CORPSES OF THE FUTURE (Anansi, 2017)
ALEX DIMITROV TOGETHER AND BY OURSELVES (Copper Canyon, 2017)
JACK DAVIS FAUNICS (Pedlar Press, 2017)
CANISIA LUBRIN VOODOO HYPOTHESIS (Wolsak and Wynn, 2017)
TIMOTHY LIU KINGDOM COME (Talisman, 2017)
JENNIFER STILL COMMA (BookThug, 2017)
CHAPBOOKS
KATHRYN MOCKLER DAVID POOLMAN SOME THEORIES (ST Press, 2017)
ALLY FLEMING THE WORST SEASON (Anstruther Press, 2017)
SONNET L’ABBE ANIMA CANADENSIS (Junction Books, 2017)
JAKE BYRNE THE TIDE (Rahila’s Ghost, 2017)
HOLLY MELGARD CATCALL (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2017)
GEORGE OPPEN 21 POEMS (New Directions, 2017)
MARCUS MCCANN SHUT UP SLOW DOWN LET GO BREATHE (Invisible, 2017)
AIDAN CHAFE RIGHT HAND HYMNS (Frog Hollow, 2017)
SENNAH YEE HOW DO I LOOK? (Metatron, 2017)
JACQUELYN ROSS MAYONNAISE (Blank Cheque, 2016)
RYAN ECKES (traduccion Carlos Soto Roman) PATRIOTISMO (Libros del Pez Espiral)
EPHEMERA
STACY SYZMASZEK Slow Poetry in America Issue 8
BEST BOOK OF POETRY I’VE READ THIS YEAR
ALICE NOTLEY THE DESCENT OF ALETTE (Penguin, 1992)
NON-POETRY
ERIN WUNKER NOTES FROM A FEMINIST KILLJOY (BookThug, 2017) not to mention LEE MARACLE’s ‘Conversations’ and THE VIDEOFAG BOOK (day-ym, Bookthug!)
knife | fork | book 