The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf Anthology [Paperback]

Michael Collier (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Bread Loaf Anthology | Publication Date: March 1, 2000

The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference has a tradition of encouraging and supporting the most promising new and young writers in America. In The New American Poets, Michael Collier puts into published form the results of this honorable, important, and successful tradition with selections from over fifty poets representing a wide range of schools, styles, and voices. Poets included are those under forty or those who have published a first book in the last five years. The inspired result is the first, most comprehensive collection of its kind.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

These new poets are indeed new: almost all of the 54 contributors included in these pages are either under 40 or have published a first book within the past five years. Any anthology of this sort is risky by definition; one would be hard-pressed to count 54 really good American poets in the entire 20th century, much less in the last decade. Predictably, therefore, the quality of the poems varies widely, with the worst offenders too willing to hide behind banalities disguised as insights. But the volume's lovely surprise is that the strong poems far outnumber the weak. In general the writing is suffused with strangeness, originality, and, at times, pure genius. Collier, a poet and professor at the University of Maryland who also directs the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, has done an admirable job of opening the book to a broad range of styles and sensibilities. The result is an anthology that, rather than privileging something called a realist or experimental tradition, shows clearly how these young writers, whose short biographies tell tales of diverse influences and demographics, have embarked on the ambitious project of remapping the boundaries of American poetry itself. From the startling linguistic experiments of D.A. Powell and Mary Jo Bang to the sensitive formalism of Greg Williamson to the cool revelations of Pimone Triplett and Maurice Kilwein Guevara, this writing belies the stereotype of American poetry as moribund, instead making a convincing argument that it is as lively and rich as ever. As Olena Kalytiak Davis writes in Sweet Reader, Flanneled and Tulled, Reader unmov'd and Reader unshaken, Reader unsedc'd / and unterrified, through the long-loud and the sweet-still / I creep toward you. These poets should not have to creep; readers should flock to their vibrant, exciting voices. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"In general the writing is suffused with strangeness, originality, and, at times, pure genius. Collier . . . has done an admirable job of opening the book to a broad range of styles and sensibilities. The result is an anthology that, rather than privileging something called a 'realist' or 'experimental' tradition, shows clearly how these young writers, whose short biographies tell tales of diverse inflences and demographics, have embarked on the ambitious project of remapping the boundaries of American poetry itself . . . readers should flock to their vibrant, exciting voices." --Kirkus Reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Bread Loaf Writers' Conference/Middlebury; 1st edition (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874519640
• ISBN-13: 978-0874519648
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #741,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treasure chest for the poetry lover, December 18, 2000

By 

Matthew Cheney (New Hampton, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf Anthology (Paperback)

You probably haven't heard of any of the poets collected in this exciting anthology. That's okay. They publish their poems in little literary journals and their books are mostly published by obscure presses. Most of these poets haven't published more than one book. I'm pretty familiar with contemporary poetry, but the majority of the writers collected here were unknown names to me.

Now I know their names, and better than that, I know their poems. My life is fuller, and I'm grateful to Michael Collier for creating such a diverse and vibrant collection. There is truly something for just about everyone here, from the lover of the bizarre and experimental to the traditionalist yearning for poets who know what meter is (there's not much rhyming, though).

Where do you start with a book like this? You could just dip in somewhere at random and see what you find; with this collection, you're probably going to pull out a moment of wonder no matter which page you flip to. If you've got to start somewhere, check out Olena Kalytiak Davis -- she's one of the most amazing poets alive, I think, and Collier has collected some brilliant recent work which didn't make it into her book And Her Soul Out of Nothing. But maybe you prefer something a little less daring for your first try -- check out the amusing, thought-provoking poems by Roger Fanning, written with perfectly accessible diction and syntax. You'd certainly like the poems by Richard Blanco, for I've shown his work to a number of very different people, all of whom liked it very much. If you want something which makes you feel like you're really reading cutting-edge poetry, check out D.A. Powell -- you'll have to hold the book sideways to read his poems. Don't miss Nick Flynn's "Bag of Mice" or Adrienne Su's "I Can't Become a Buddhist", or Campbell McGrath's wonderful "Capitalist Poem #36", which begins, "We've got this cheese down here to give away,/ tens of thousands of pounds of cheese."

The New American Poets was published in celebration of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference's 75th anniversary, and I can't think of a better tribute to the conference which has played such an important role in the lives of many of the greatest poets in the U.S. than this anthology, a wonderful gift to all readers of poetry.