The Best American Poetry 2007: Series Editor David Lehman (Hardcover)

~ Heather McHugh (Editor), David Lehman (Editor)
Key Phrases: New American Writing, The American Poetry Review, Barrow Street (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The 20th volume in America's most popular annual poetry anthology series is perhaps the most esoteric. McHugh, an unusual poet herself, who says she is Fond of the textures of a text, the matter of a letter, has tried to assemble what she feels is a cohesive anthology rather than simply a gathering of favorite poems from this past year's literary magazines. As ever, some familiar names—former editors and famous poets—appear: John Ashbery, Billy Collins (Who has time for sunlight falling on the city), Robert Creeley, Louise Glück, Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky, Galway Kinnell. But there are also a number of representatives, such as Rae Armantrout and Christian Bök (selves we woo/ we lose// losses we levee/ we owe), from off-center traditions. A few of the newbies tend toward the experimental, such as Ben Lerner and Danielle Pafunda: Do he & he have a big muscle in the arm from the aiming? All and all, this is a riskier than usual volume, though also full of familiar pleasures. Certainly it attests to poetry's continuing vitality. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

You certainly can't accuse McHugh, editor of this year's edition of this respected annual anthology, of taking things too seriously. In fact, the 2007 volume seems excessively keen on balancing poems with any degree of gravitas with a corresponding gang of poets dealing in parody and relentless wordplay. That isn't to say that some of the funny stuff isn't very funny indeed—Billy Collins' gleeful "The News Today," a spectacularly foul-mouthed send–up of Catullus, is a case in point—or that so much contemporary poetry doesn't live in a hot-air balloon in need of regular puncturing. But the semantic antics here sometimes grow frenzied, empty, and tiresome, driving the reader to seek relief in quieter, more secure poems by old hands like Marvin Bell ("The Method") and Jane Hirshfield ("Critique of Pure Reason"). Maybe the strangest thing about this volume is how few poems it actually contains, what with a staggering 41 pages of contributors' bios and commentary. Nance, Kevin

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (September 11, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743299728
• ISBN-13: 978-0743299725
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,255,848 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Another Anthology That Fails to Recognize and Reward The Best in American Poetry, September 11, 2007

By	J. Behrle "loser blogger & cartoonist & poeti... (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Best American Poetry 2007 (The Best American Poetry) (Paperback)

It's generally accepted that this series is a political rather than a poetic one: The Best American Poems according to this series editor usually are 1 degree of poet separation from himself. Students, colleagues, former editors, wife, all aboard! That being said, this is not the worst of the series. McHugh choses pun over fun mostly, with poems that tend to sound like something rather than feel abound. "Tokens in the slot: / ka-shot, shot, shot." Too many poems from just NEW AMERICAN WRITING: if this series is to truly last it ought to cast a much wider and democratic net. There's lots more out there: a poet who relies on this series to tell them the news that stays news will be left out in the cold. Pinsky, Rivard, Matthea Harvey, Danielle Pafunda, MacGregor Card and Joe Wenderoth do some interesting things worth checking out. But most of these poems seem to be present if only to reward big poetic names for being big poetic names and for cheap gimmicks like using bad words for the sake of using bad words. As ever, poets will have to decide for themselves what makes these poems Best. The anthology mostly feels like dull coins being dropped into the Meghan O'Rourke poem quoted above. The peepshow reveals little that titillates. Too bad.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a welcome addition to the series, January 29, 2008

By	[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (Beaumont, tx USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Best American Poetry 2007 (The Best American Poetry) (Paperback)

I've found many of the BAP series to be highly dissapointing. But it is hard to select a best of when it comes to poetry. It really depends on what you like to read. Now, there are some truly awful poems in here, and I'm not sure McHugh was the best choice as an editor, but she really picked some great poems. Sure about a quarter of them are awful, but most are readable or good. And then there are the great ones: Geffrey Brock, Galway Kinnell, Marya Rosenberg, David Shumate, Brian Turner, Charles Harper Webb and Joe Wenderoth. If you love poetry, you've gotta get this one.

24 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars stunningly bad, October 6, 2007

By	Gertude Whitman (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best American Poetry 2007 (The Best American Poetry) (Paperback)

unbelieveably bad choices here; perhaps the only use you will find for this book is learning who's buddies with mchugh and lehman this year. as with last year's billy collins volume, expect to find plenty of pretentiousness (louise gluck takes the cake this time around) and (weirdly) an overwhelming number of "high concept" poems ("let's write a double acrostic! lets make childish puns about bees!") -- this kind of stuff is readable only in as much as it operates on a fifth grade "poemz r fun storiez" level.

please, if you're going to watch this trainwreck, get it used or wait a few months for it to show up on the remainders -- lehman's publishers don't need the encouragement. in the meantime, someone needs to put this series out of its misery. it is truly an embarassment to Scribner (it's clear that lehman has no shame at this point), and it's no surprise the series, with its claim to be the "Best American", irritates people who encounter great american poems everywhere but in these pages.