NOTE: Beltway Poetry Quarterly‘s selections for the Ten Best Books of 2017 Plus Four Best Anthologies are listed in red.
Elizabeth Acevedo, Medusa Reads La Negra’s Palm (Tupelo Press)
Kwame Alexander, Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets (children’s literature, Candlewick Press)
Elizabeth Arnold, Skeleton Coast (Flood Editions)
David Biespiel, The Education of a Young Poet (memoir, Counterpoint Press)
Remica Bingham-Risher, Starlight & Error (Diode Editions)
CL Bledsoe and Michael Gushue, I Never Promised You a Sea Monkey (Editorial Pretzelcoatl)
Ann Bracken, No Barking in the Hallways: Poems from the Classroom (New Academia Publishing)
Sarah Browning, Killing Summer (Sibling Rivalry Press)
Laura Brylawski-Miller, First, Do No Harm (Poet’s Choice)
Dorritt Carroll, Sorry You Are Not an Instant Winner (chapbook, Kattywompus Press)
Grace Cavalieri, Other Voices, Other Lives (poems, plays, and interviews, Alan Squire Publishing)
Jennifer Chang, Some Say the Lark (Alice James Books)
Kelly Cherry, Quartet for J. Robert Oppenheimer (Louisiana State University Press)
Kelly Cherry, Weather (chapbook, Rain Mountain Press)
Kelly Cherry, Beholder’s Eye (Groundhog Poetry Press)
Kelly Cherry, Emporium: Before the Beginning to After the End (short-shorts/flash fiction, Press 53)
Marlena Chertock, Crumb-sized (chapbook, Unnamed Press)
Jean Cocteau, Grace Notes/Appogiatures, translated by Mary-Sherman Willis (The Word Works)
Henry Crawford, American Software (WordTech Editions)
Jehanne Dubrow, Dots & Dashes (Southern Illinois University Press)
Jerri Dell, Blood Too Bright: Floyd Dell Remembers Edna St. Vincent Millay (nonfiction, Glenmere Press)
Kristen Deming, plum afternoon (Red Moon Press)
Suzanne Dracius, The Dancing Other (novel, co-translated from the French by Nancy Naomi Carlson and Catherine Maigret Kellogg (Seagull Books)
David Ebenbach, The Guy We Didn’t Invite to the Orgy (short fiction, University of Massachusetts Press)
David Ebenbach, Miss Portland (novel, Orison Books)
Meg Eden, Post High School Reality Quest (young adult novel, Rare Bird Books)
Moira Egan, Synæsthesium (Criterion Books)
Cathy Eisenhower, Animalitos (chapbook, Primary Writing)
Safia Elhillo, The January Children (University of Nebraska Press)
Danielle Evennou, Difficult Trick (chapbook, Dancing Girl Press)
Tarfia Faizullah, Register of Eliminated Villages (Graywolf Press)
T’ai Freedom Ford, how to get over (Red Hen Press)
Natalie Giarratano, Big Thicket Blues (chapbook, Sundress Publications)
Louise Glück, American Originality: Essays on Poetry (essays, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Joshua Gray, The Life and Death of King Edward (Forever Press)
Herb Guggenheim, Strange Encounter at the Shakespeare Motel (revised and expanded version, Finishing Line Press)
Susan Hankla, Clinch River (Groundhog Poetry Press)
Mary Stone Hanley, Road Trip (Anaphora Literary Press)
Jodie Hollander, My Dark Horses (Pavilion Poetry)
John H. Huey, The Moscow Poetry File (Finishing Line)
Emilio Iasiello, Postcards from LA (chapbook, Plan B Press)
Esther Iverem, Olokun of the Galaxy (poetry and visual art, Seeing Black Press)
Kay Redfield Jamison, Robert Lowell: Setting the River on Fire (nonfiction, Knopf)
Charles Jensen, Breakup/Breakdown (chapbook, Five Oaks Press)
Camisha Jones, Flare (chapbook, Finishing Line Press)
Jacqueline Jules, Itzak Perlman’s Broken String (chapbook, Evening Street Press)
Jacqueline Jules, Drop by Drop: A Story of Rabbi Akiva (children’s literature, Kar-Ben Books)
Holly Karapetkova, Towline (Cloudbank Books)
Alysse Knorr, Mega-City Redux (Green Mountains Review Books)
Tara Laskowski, Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons (flash fiction, Santa Fe Writers’ Project)
Kateema Lee, Almost Invisible (chapbook, Aldrich Press)
Nathan Leslie, Three Men (novellas, Texture Press)
Lyn Lifsin, Little Dancer: The Degas Poems (chapbook, NightBallet Press)
Gary Copeland Lilley, The Bushman’s Medicine Show (Lost Horse Press)
David G. Lott, New to Guayama (bilingual in English and Spanish; Finishing Line Press)
Robert Lowell, ed. Katie Peterson, New Selected Poems (Farrar, Straus and GIroux)
Elaine Magarrell, The Madness of Chefs: New & Selected Poems, ed. Barbara Goldberg, Jean Nordhaus & Catherine Harnett (The Word Works)
Mike Maggio, The Appointment (novella, Vine Leaves Press)
Melanie McCabe, His Other Life: Looking for My Father, His First Wife, and Tennessee Williams (memoir, University of New Orleans Press)
Mark McCaig, Abundance (Turning Point Books)
Sheila McMullin, daughterrariums (Cleveland State University Press)
Tony Medina, I Am Alfonso Jones (graphic novel for young readers, Tu Books)
Samuel Miranda, Departure (chapbook, Central Square Press)
Jenny Molberg, Marvels of the Invisible (Tupelo Press)
Kurt Olsson, Burning Down Disneyland (Gunpowder Press)
Joe Osterhaus, The Short Ride Home (Trio Books)
Cheryl Pallant, Her Body Listening (BlazeVOX Books)
Eric Pankey, Augury (Milkweed Editions)
Patric Pepper, Everything Pure as Nothing (chapbook, Finishing Line)
Ann A. Philips, A Language the Land is Inventing (WordTech Editions)
Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down (young adult novel-in-verse, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books)
Elisavietta Ritchie, Harbingers (Poets Choice)
Maritza Rivera, aka Mariposa, Blackjack Poetry Playing Cards (deck of cards with a poem printed on each, Casa Mariposa Press)
Kim Roberts, The Scientific Method (WordTech Editions)
Maggie Rosen, The Deliberate Speed of Ghosts (chapbook, Red Bird Chapbooks)
Joseph Ross, Ache (Sibling Rivalry Press)
Alexis Rotella, The Color Blue (Red Moon Press)
Wesley Rothman, Subwoofer (New Issues Poetry)
Jane Satterfield, Apocalypse Mix (Autumn House)
Tim Seibles, One Turn Around the Sun (Etruscan Press)
Leona Sevick, Lion Brothers (Press 53)
Charles Simic, Scribbled in the Dark (Harper Collins)
Christine Stoddard, Jaguar in the Cotton Field (chapbook, Another New Calligraphy)
Pia Taavila-Borsheim, Mother Mail (chapbook, Hermeneutic Chaos Press)
Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, The Education of a Daffodil: Prose Poems/Di bildung fun a geln nartsis: prozelider (Hadassa Word Press)
Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, A moyz tsvishn vakldike volkn-kratsers: geklibene Yidishe lider/A Mouse Among Tottering Skyscrapers (poems in Yiddish; Library of Contemporary Yiddish Literature)
Michael Tims, The Acoustic Properties of Ancient People (chapbook, Finishing Line)
Nicole Tong, How to Prove a Theory (WWPH)
Abdourahman Waberi, Harvest of Skulls (translated by Dominic Thomas, fiction, Indiana University Press)
Jan Wagner, translated by David Keplinger, The Art of Topiary (Milkweed Editions)
Jennifer Wallace, Almost Entirely (Paraclete Press)
Jerry W. Ward,Jr., Fractal Song (Black Widow Press)
Michael Whelan, After God (Tinteán Féin Press)
Ryan Wilson, The Stranger World (West Chester University Poetry Center)
Terence Winch, The Known Universe (Hanging Loose)
Sarah Ann Winn, Ever After the End Matter (chapbook, Hermeneutic Chaos Press)
Sarah Ann Winn, Alma Almanac (Barrow Street Press)
Anthology of Appalachian Writers: Charles Frazier Edition, Volume IX, ed. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt. Contributors include: Mark DeFoe, Kathleen Furbee, Marc Harshman, Sonja James, Luther Kirk, Llewellyn McKernan, Jessica Salfia, Tracy Seffers, Jack Trammell, Randi Ward. (anthology, Shepherd University Press)
Bared: Contemporary Poetry and Art on Bras and Breasts, ed. Laura Madeline Wiseman. Contributors include: Kimberly L. Becker, Ann Bracken, Shirley J. Brewer, Grace Cavalieri, Jehanne Dubrow, Meg Eden, Julie R. Enszer, Gray Jacobik, Lyn Lifshin, Jane Satterfield, Laura Shovan, Sue Ellen Thompson, Sarah Ann Winn, Rosemary Winslow, Anne Harding Woodworth (anthology, Create Space)
Bearden’s Odyssey: Poets Respond to the Art of Romare Bearden, ed. Kwame Dawes and Matthew Shenoda. Contributors include: Elizabeth Alexander, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove, A. Van Jordan, E. Ethelbert Miller, Tim Seibles, Tracy K. Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Lyrae Van Clief Stephanon (anthology, TriQuarterly Books)
Best American Poetry 2017, ed. Natasha Trethewey, David Lehman. Contributors include: Michael Collier, Claudia Emerson, Carolyn Forche, Jeffrey Harrison, John Murillo, Stanley Plumly (anthology, Scribner)
Bullets into Bells: Poets & Citizen Respond to Gun Violence, ed. Brian Clements, Alexandra Teague, and Dean Rader. Contributors include: Reginald Dwayne Betts, Richard Blanco, Billy Collins, Kyle G. Dargan, Joel Dias-Porter, Rita Dove, Cornelius Eady, Tarfia Faizullah, Juan Felipe Herrera, Natasha Trethewey (anthology, Beacon Press)
Capitals, ed. Abhay K. Contributors include: Indran Amirthanayagam, Volzhyna Mort, Kim Roberts, Mary Jo Salter, Myra Sklarew, Marcela Sulak. (anthology, Bloomsbury Press)
Composing Poetry: A Guide to Writing Poems and Thinking Lyrically, Gerry LaFemina (textbook, Kendall Hunt)
Flarf: An Anthology of Flarf, ed. Drew Gardner, Nada Gordon, Sharon Mesmer, K. Silem Mohammad, and Gary Sullivan. Contributors include: K. Lorraine Graham, Mel Nichols, Rod Smith (anthology, Edge Books)
The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, ed. Peter Kahn, Ravi Shankar, and Patricia Smith. Contributors include: Kim Addonizio, Sandra Beasley, Teri Ellen Cross Davis, Kyle G. Dargan, Rita Dove, Calvin Forbes, Nikki Giovanni, Yona Harvey, Randall Horton, A. Van Jordan, Maxine Kumin, Hailey Leithauser, Philip Levine, Toni Asante Lightfoot, Erika Meitner, E. Ethelbert Miller, Gregory Pardlo, Linda Pastan, Myra Sklarew, Lisa Russ Spaar. (anthology, University of Arkansas Press).
In the Margins, Christine Higgins, Ann LoLordo, Madeleine Mysko, Kathleen O’Toole (anthology, Cherry Grove Collections)
Knocking on the Door of the White House: Latina and Latino Poets in Washington, DC (2001-2009), ed. Luis Alberto Ambroggio, Jose R. Ballesteros, and Carlos Parada Ayala. Translation eds. Burgi Zenhaeusern, Yvette Neisser, and Deborah Sobeloff. Contributors include: Francisco Aragón, Naomi Ayala, Rei Berroa, Gladys Ilarregui, Samuel Miranda, Egla Morales Blouin, Martha Sanchez Lowery. (anthology, Zozobro Publishing)
Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century, ed. Cate Marvin, Michael Dumanis. Contributors include: Richard Blanco, Thomas Sayers Ellis, A. Van Jordan, Sally Keith, Jeffrey McDaniel, Tracy K. Smith (anthology, Sarabande Books)
The Mighty Stream: Poems in Celebration of Martin Luther King, ed. Carolyn Forche and Jackie Kay. Contributors include: Elizabeth Alexander, Lauren K. Alleyne, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove, Cornelius Eady, Tarfia Faizullah, Carolyn Forche, Nikki Giovanni, Mark McMorris, E. Ethelbert Miller, Gregory Pardlo, Robert Pinsky, Tim Seibles (anthology, Blood Axe Books)
Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse, ed. Grace Bauer and Julie Kane. Contributors include: Kim Addonizio, Patsy Asuncion, Cynthia Atkins, Shirley J. Brewer, Kelly Cherry, Rachel Eisler, Julie R. Enszer, Kathleen Hellen, Rose Kelleher, Courtney LeBlanc, Kim Roberts, Lucinda Roy, Pat Valdata. (anthology, Lost Horse Press)
Not Without Our Laughter: Poems of Humor, Joy & Sexuality, ed. celeste doaks. Featuring the Black Ladies Brunch Collective: Saida Agostini, Anya Creightney, Teri Ellen Cross Davis, celeste doaks, Tafisha Edwards, and Katy Richey (anthology, Mason Jar Press)
Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, ed. Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson. Contributors include: Judy Brown, Lucille Clifton, Billy Collins, Louise Gluck, Tony Hoagland, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Ted Kooser, W.S. Merwin, Howard Nemerov, Linda Pastan, Nikki Giovanni, Gregory Orr (anthology, Grayson Books)
Resist Much Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance, ed. Michael Boughn, John Bradley, Brenda Cardenas, Lynne DeSilva-Johnson, Kass Fleisher, Roberto Harrison, Kent Johnson, Andrew Levy, Nathaniel Mackey, Ruben Medina, Philip Metres, Nita Noveno, Julie Patton, Margaret Randall, Michael Rothenberg, Chris Stroffolino, Anne Waldman, Marjorie Welish, and Tyrone Williams. Contributors include: JoAnn Balingit, Alan Britt, Laura Shovan, Joshua Weiner, Walt Whitman (anthology, Spuyten Duyvil Press)
Revise the Psalm: Work Inspired by the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, ed. Quraysh Ali Lasana and Sandra Jackson-Opoku. Contributors include: Thomas Sayers Ellis, Gregory Pardlo. (anthology, Curbside Splendor Publishing)
Roar: True Tales of Women Warriors, ed. Mary Lucas, Meredith Maslich, Richard Peabody, and Mary Supley Foxworth (anthology of short fiction and nonfiction, Better Said Than Done)
Susan Thornton Hobby: Conversations, Little Patuxent Review Books. E-book of interviews with Lucille Clifton, Alice McDermott, Martín Espada, and Jane Hirschfield.
Thou Art: The Beauty of Identity, ed. Sushmita Mazumdar, with visual art by Sughra Hussainy. Contributors include: Ahmad Abumraighi, Nakshin Behrouzi, Hanan Daqqa, Jennifer Endo, Sharmila Karmachandani, Courtney LeBlanc, Yuri Long, Kim O’Connell, Grace Park, Edith Graciela Sanabria, and Arpita Sarkar (limited edition anthology, Studio Pause)
Truth to Power: Writers Respond to the Rhetoric of Hate and Fear, ed. Pamela Uschuk. Contributors include: Carmen Calatayud, Rita Dove, Blas Falconer, Yahia Lababidi, Leslie McGrath, E. Ethelbert Miller, Joseph Ross, Susan Scheid, Melissa Tuckey, Dan Vera. (anthology, Cutthroat, a Journal of the Arts)
The Way to My Heart: An Anthology of Food-Related Romance, ed. Kelly Ann Jacobson. Contributors include: Caroline Bock, Steve Bucher, Katherine Anderson Howell, Anna Schoenbach, Julia Tagliere, Pamela Murray Winters (anthology, Create Space)
We Wear the Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America, ed. Brando Skyhorse and Lisa Page (nonfiction anthology, Beacon Press)
The Whiskey of our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience and Change Agent, ed. Quraysh Ali Lasana and Georgia A. Popoff. Contributors include: Haki Madhubuti, Nagueyalti Warren. (nonfiction anthology, Haymarket Books)
Word for Word, Nancy White, ed., with poems by Karren LaLonde Alenier, J.H. Beall, Mel Belin, Sarah Browning, Grace Cavalieri, Cheryl Clarke, Donna Denizé, Bernadette Geyer, Barbara Goldberg, Brandon D. Johnson, Judith McCombs, Miles David Moore, Kathi Morrison-Taylor, Robert Sargent, Hilary Tham, Rosemary Winslow. (anthology with writing prompts, The Word Works)