The Best American Poetry 2015

David Lehman, Sherman Alexie

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2015
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781476708218
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

The premier anthology of contemporary American poetry continues with an exceptional volume edited by award-winning novelist and poet Sherman Alexie, now with a new essay by Alexie on reactions to the 2015 publication.

Since its debut in 1988, The Best American Poetry has become a mainstay for the direction and spirit of American poetry. Each volume in the series presents the year’s most extraordinary new poems and writers. Guest editor Sherman Alexie’s picks for The Best American Poetry 2015 highlight the depth and breadth of the American experience. Culled from electronic and print journals, the poems showcase some of our leading luminaries—Amy Gerstler, Terrance Hayes, Ron Padgett, Jane Hirshfield—and introduce a number of outstanding younger poets taking their place in the limelight.

A leading figure since his breakout poetry collection The Business of Fancydancing in 1992, Sherman Alexie won the National Book Award for his novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. He describes himself as “lucky enough to be a full-time writer” and has written short stories, novels, screenplays, and essays—but he is at his core a poet. As always, series editor David Lehman’s foreword assessing the state of the art kicks off the book, followed by an introductory essay in which Alexie discusses his selections. The Best American Poetry 2015 is a guide to who’s who and what’s happening in American poetry today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Foreword by David Lehman
• Introduction by Sherman Alexie
• Sarah Arvio, “Bodhisattva”
• Derrick Austin, “Cedars of Lebanon”
• Desiree Bailey, “A Retrograde”
• Melissa Barrett, “WFM: Allergic to Pine-Sol, Am I the Only One”
• Mark Bibbins, “Swallowed”
• Jessamyn Birrer, “A Scatology”
• Chana Bloch, “The Joins”
• Emma Bolden, “House Is an Enigma”
• Dexter L. Booth, “Prayer at 3 a.m.”
• Catherine Bowman, “Makeshift”
• Rachael Briggs, “in the hall of the ruby-throated warbler”
• Jericho Brown, “Homeland”
• Rafael Campo, “DOCTORS LIE, MAY HIDE MISTAKES”
• Julie Carr, “A fourteen-line poem on sex”
• Chen Chen, “for i will do/undo what was done/undone to me”
• Susanna Childress, “Careful, I Just Won a Prize at the Fair”
• Yi-Fen Chou, “The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve”
• Erica Dawson, “Slow-Wave Sleep with a Fairy Tale”
• Danielle DeTiberus, “In a Black Tank Top”
• Natalie Diaz, “It Was the Animals”
• Denise Duhamel, “Fornicating”
• Thomas Sayers Ellis, “Vernacular Owl”
• Emily Kendal Frey, “In Memory of My Parents Who Are Not Dead Yet”
• James Galvin, “On the Sadness of Wedding Dresses”
• Madelyn Garner, “The Garden in August”
• Amy Gerstler, “Rhinencephalon”
• Louise Glück, “A Sharply Worded Silence”
• R. S. Gwynn, “Looney Tunes”
• Meredith Hasemann, “Thumbs”
• Terrance Hayes, “Antebellum House Party”
• Rebecca Hazelton, “My Husband”
• Jane Hirshfield, “A Common Cold”
• Bethany Schultz Hurst, “Crisis on Infinite Earths, Issues 1–12”
• Saeed Jones, “Body & Kentucky Bourbon”
• Joan Naviyuk Kane, “Exhibits from the Dark Museum”
• Laura Kasischke, “For the Young Woman I Saw Hit by a Car While Riding Her Bike”
• Douglas Kearney, “In the End, They Were Born on TV”
• Jennifer Keith, “Eating Walnuts”
• David Kirby, “Is Spot in Heaven?”
• Andrew Kozma, “Ode to the Common Housefly”
• Hailey Leithauser, “The Pickpocket Song”
• Dana Levin, “Waching the Sea Go”
• Patricia Lockwood, “See a Furious Waterfall Without Water”
• Dora Malech, “Party Games”
• Donna Masini, “Anxieties”
• Airea D. Matthews, “If My Late Grandmother Were Gertrude Stein”
• Jamaal May, “There Are Birds Here”
• Laura McCullough, “There Were Only Dandelions”
• Rajiv Mohabir, “Dove”
• Aimee Nezhukumatathil, “Upon Hearing the News You Buried Our Dog”
• D. Nurkse, “Plutonium”
• Tanya Olson, “54 Prince”
• Ron Padgett, “Survivor Guilt”
• Alan Michael Parker, “Candying Mint”
• Catherine Pierce, “Relevant Details”
• Donald Platt, “The Main Event”
• Claudia Rankine, from Citizen
• Raphael Rubinstein, “Poem Begun on a Train”
• Natalie Scenters-Zapico, “Endnotes on Ciudad Juárez”
• Evie Shockley, “legend”
• Charles Simic, “So Early in the Morning”
• Sandra Simonds, “Similitude at Versailles”
• Ed Skoog, “The Macarena”
• A. E. Stallings, “Ajar”
• Susan Terris, “Memo to the Former Child Prodigy”
• Michael Tyrell, “Delicatessen”
• Wendy Videlock, “How You Might Approach a Foal:”
• Sidney Wade, “The Chickasaw Trees”
• Cody Walker, “Trades I Would Make”
• LaWanda Walters, “Goodness in Mississippi”
• Afaa Michael Weaver, “City of Eternal Spring”
• Candace G. Wiley, “Dear Black Barbie”
• Terence Winch, “Subject to Change”
• Jane Wong, “Thaw”
• Monica Youn, “March of the Hanged Men”
• Contributors’ Notes and Comments
• Magazines Where the Poems Were First Published
• Acknowledgments
• About Sherman Alexie and David Lehman
• Copyright