The National Book Critics Circle chose these five books of poetry as the best published in 2005. The award winner will be announced on March 3, 2005 -- here are links for poetry lovers who want to read all five and choose their own favorite.
1. Refusing Heaven: Poems by Jack Gilbert
(Knopf, March 2005) Jack Gilbert is a poet’s poet, not because his work is difficult or obscure, but because his poems are important to other poets even though he has spent most of his life outside the reading circuit, beyond the reach of the publishing limelight. His first book, Views of Jeopardy, won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition in 1962, after which he moved to Europe & fell silent. It was 20 years before his 2nd book came out, another 12 for the 3rd volume, and 11 to this one.
2. The Shout: Selected Poems by Simon Armitage
(introduction by Charles Simic, Harcourt, April 2005) Simon Armitage has published 11 volumes of verse in the UK, where his plain-language, pop culture-laden, mostly metrical poems are well loved & he is considered the successor to Philip Larkin. He has also written two novels and worked in radio, television, film & stage. The Shout is his first book published in the US.3. Bent to the Earth, by Blas Manuel de Luna
(Carnegie Mellon University Press, January 2005) Blas Manuel de Luna was born in Tijuana, Mexico & grew up in a family of agricultural field workers in the Central Valley of California. Coming under the influence of Walt Whitman in college, he became a poet. He studied with Philip Levine in Fresno, earned an MFA at the University of Washington, then returned to California, where he is currently a high school English teacher in Firebaugh. Bent to the Earth is his first book.4. Crush, by Richard Siken
(Yale Series of Younger Poets, Yale University Press, April 2005) Richard Siken’s debut collection was chosen as the 2004 prizewinner in the Yale Younger Poets Award by former US Poet Laureate Louise Glück, who wrote “This is a book about panic. The word is never mentioned. Nor is the condition analyzed or described -- the speaker is never outside it long enough to differentiate panic from other states.” Siken was born in New York City and now lives in Arizona.5. The Incentive of the Maggot, by Ron Slate
(Houghton Mifflin, Mariner Books, April 2005) Ron Slate is a graduate of Stanford’s creative writing program who spent 20 years as a corporate executive & is now the CEO of a biotech startup company. The Incentive of the Maggot is his first collection; it was chosen by Robert Pinsky for the 2004 Bakeless Literary Publication Prize given by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.YOUR Poetry Picks for 2005
Bob Holman gave you his choices of the best poetry books he read in 2005 back in December. Now the National Book Critics Circle has selected their nominees for the best poetry books published in 2005. And we’d still like to hear about your favorites -- tell us please!
