{{Short description|Series of annual anthologies}} {{italic title}} '''''The Best American Poetry''''' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems.

==Background== The series, begun by poet and editor [[David Lehman]] in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the general editor of the series, each year contributes a foreword focusing on the state of contemporary poetry, and each year the edition's guest editor also contributes an introduction. The book titles in the series always follow the format of the first, changing only the year: for instance, ''[[The Best American Poetry 1988]]''.

According to the [[Academy of American Poets]] website, "''Best American Poetry'' remains one of the most popular and best-selling poetry books published each year and the series continues to provide a bird's-eye view of the breadth of American poetry."<ref name="aap">[http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5676 "Great Anthology: Best American Poetry Series"], Academy of American Poets website. Retrieved January 21, 2006.</ref>

A compendium for the first decade of the series has also been published, ''[[The Best of the Best American Poetry 1988–1997]]'', guest-edited by literary critic [[Harold Bloom]], who selected what he regarded as the seventy-five best poems from the previous ten anthologies. This was followed in 2013 by ''The Best of the Best American Poetry: 25th Anniversary Edition (2013)'', in which guest editor [[Robert Pinsky]] selected 100 poems from the series' history.

A collection of Lehman's forewords was published together as a look at contemporary poetry called ''The State of the Art: A Chronicle of American Poetry, 1988–2014''.

==Guest editors== The guest editors of the series, by year: {{columns-list|colwidth=30em| *[[The Best American Poetry 2025|2025]]: [[Terence Winch]] *[[The Best American Poetry 2024|2024]]: [[Mary Jo Salter]] *[[The Best American Poetry 2023|2023]]: [[Elaine Equi]] *[[The Best American Poetry 2022|2022]]: [[Matthew Zapruder]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2021|2021]]: [[Tracy K. Smith]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 2020|2020]]: [[Paisley Rekdal]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2019|2019]]: [[Major Jackson]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2018|2018]]: [[Dana Gioia]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2017|2017]]: [[Natasha Trethewey]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 2016|2016]]: [[Edward Hirsch]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2015|2015]]: [[Sherman Alexie]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2014|2014]]: [[Terrance Hayes]] * ''[[The Best of the Best American Poetry 25th Anniversary]]'': [[Robert Pinsky]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 2013|2013]]: [[Denise Duhamel]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2012|2012]]: [[Mark Doty]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2011|2011]]: [[Kevin Young (poet)|Kevin Young]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2010|2010]]: [[Amy Gerstler]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2009|2009]]: [[David Wagoner]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2008|2008]]: [[Charles Wright (poet)|Charles Wright]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 2007|2007]]: [[Heather McHugh]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2006|2006]]: [[Billy Collins]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 2005|2005]]: [[Paul Muldoon]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2004|2004]]: [[Lyn Hejinian]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2003|2003]]: [[Yusef Komunyakaa]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2002|2002]]: [[Robert Creeley]] * [[The Best American Poetry 2001|2001]]: [[Robert Hass]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 2000|2000]]: [[Rita Dove]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 1999|1999]]: [[Robert Bly]] * [[The Best American Poetry 1998|1998]]: [[John Hollander]] * ''[[The Best of the Best American Poetry 1988–1997]]'': [[Harold Bloom]] * [[The Best American Poetry 1997|1997]]: [[James Tate (writer)|James Tate]] * [[The Best American Poetry 1996|1996]]: [[Adrienne Rich]] * [[The Best American Poetry 1995|1995]]: [[Richard Howard]] * [[The Best American Poetry 1994|1994]]: [[A. R. Ammons]] * [[The Best American Poetry 1993|1993]]: [[Louise Glück]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 1992|1992]]: [[Charles Simic]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 1991|1991]]: [[Mark Strand]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 1990|1990]]: [[Jorie Graham]] * [[The Best American Poetry 1989|1989]]: [[Donald Hall]] * * [[The Best American Poetry 1988|1988]]: [[John Ashbery]] }} ''* editors who have also been U.S. poets laureate''

==Rules and process==

In his 1988 foreword to the first edition of the series, Lehman laid out the following rules: * Lehman would select a poet each year to serve as guest editor; * Each year's guest editor would make the final selection of poems; * Each year's anthology would have poems from the previous calendar year (the 1988 anthology, for instance, would include only poems published in 1987); * There would be fifty to seventy-five poems in each annual anthology (in fact, there have always been 75 poems); * The guest editor could select as many as three poems by an individual poet; * Poets would be asked to submit brief biographical information and, at their option, given the opportunity to write a bit about the poem chosen ("its form or its occasion or the method of composition or any other feature worth remarking on"); * The poems could come from magazines, including large-circulation periodicals and small presses, and in rare instances from books by individual poets; * For poems that had first appeared more than a year in the past but which had been reprinted in a magazine during the previous calendar year, Lehman decided to have no rule ("To such questions, the anthologist's ever-ready response is: you just play it by ear"); * Foreign poets residing in the United States, "especially in cases where the poet has come to seem a vital presence in a particular American community", would be eligible to appear, and so [[John Ash (writer)|John Ash]], [[Seamus Heaney]], and [[Derek Walcott]] all made it into the 1988 edition.

Lehman also wrote that he had set some tasks for himself as series editor: * Maintain continuity from year to year; * Enforce "such rules as there are"; * Assist the guest editor, in particular by helping find poetry for the guest editor to look over; * Pick the guest editor.

John Ashbery selected a poem by the series editor for inclusion in the inaugural volume of ''The Best American Poetry''. In his introduction to the 1989 volume, Donald Hall noted: "The series editor declined to be included."<ref>Hall, Donald, Introduction ''The Best American Poetry 1989'', 1989, page xxiii.</ref> The series editor's own poems have not appeared in subsequent volumes.

In Lehman's foreword to the 1992 book, he noted that translations are ineligible.<ref>Lehman, David, Foreword, ''The Best American Poetry 1992'', 1992, page x.</ref>

==Critical reception of the series== According to the Academy of American Poets website, "[t]he ''Best American Poetry'' series has become one of the mainstays of the poetry publication world". The Academy website called the introductions to the collection by the guest editors, as well as Lehman's "state-of-poetry" forewords, "{{sic|indespensible|hide=y}}". As a whole, the anthologies "seem to capture the zeitgeist of the current attitudes in American poetry."<ref name="aap" />

However, the Academy article also noted that the series and its editors are "often criticized for their selections and assessments (common complaints include the exclusion of experimental poets, lack of diversity, and allegiance to poetry's "old guard") [...]"<ref name="aap" />

In a 2025 retrospective, [[Elisa Gabbert]], a poetry columnist for ''[[The New York Times]]'', wrote that "the ratio of poems I find appealing to not is about the same as it would be in a good journal". She also wrote that she previously regarded the poems as "models for being a poet" but later saw them as "models for being, full stop."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gabbert |first1=Elisa |title=What Was Best About the 'Best American Poetry'? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/books/review/best-american-poetry.html |access-date=October 18, 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=October 3, 2025}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://bestamericanpoetry.com/index.php ''Best American Poetry''] series website *[http://www.bestamericanpoetry.com/pages/lehman.html ''Best American Poetry''] series archive *[http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/ ''Best American Poetry''] blog]

{{Best American Poetry}} [[Category:Best American Poetry series| ]] [[Category:American poetry anthologies|Best American Poetry ]] [[Category:Anthology series|Best American Poetry]] [[Category:Book series introduced in 1988]]