After 38 years, the Best American Poetry anthology has officially ceased annual publication, despite being one of the only commercially successful venues for the artform. But as Nick Sturm argues, that might just be for the best. His critique begins with the anthology’s series editor, and extends to a thorough dressing-down of the publishing industry itself (with MFA programs catching a few shots in the process). Some antagonistic lit-crit to finish off your week!
Most poetry in the United States is published by small presses, with a significant amount also published by mid-size independents, nonprofits, and university presses. On the other hand, poetry is the most marginal genre for the Big Five. I mean, really marginal: It does not appear as a searchable genre or category on any of their websites. Wellness, Romance, Politics, and Pets do. Unlike some literary fiction and nonfiction, poetry books do not induce high-price auctions, they almost never become bestsellers, and they do not generate profitable subsidiary rights. Poetry’s currency is not monetary. We have U.S. Poet Laureates and not Fiction Laureates, the Academy of American Poets and not the Academy of American Novelists, because poetry operates in a different economy. Poetry’s worth within commercial publishing comes from its literariness, an abstract matrix of style and taste that operates to demarcate books, authors, and genres as artistic. The oldest and most artful of genres, poetry is the apotheosis of literariness. It has cachet.
More picks about poetry
Is Mary Oliver Embarrassing?
“Shame seemed like an obstacle to appreciating the poet. Instead, it became the key to understanding her work.”
Maximalisma
“A professor endeavors to separate treasure from trash—before her children have to do it for her.”
In Defense of Despair
“The feeling is most commonly framed as an end point, a level of despondency that cannot be overcome. But it doesn’t have to be.”
Nights and Days
“Maybe anybody who can become transparent to experience and articulate it truthfully and without distortion is a poet. Even if the facts are scary or horrible, what comes out, if true, might be beautiful.”
The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA
“By treating DNA as a language, Brian Hie’s ‘ChatGPT for genomes’ could pick up patterns that humans can’t see, accelerating biological design.”
The Shapes of Grief
“Witnessing the unbearable.”
