The 2021 edition of the leading collection of contemporary American poetry is guest edited by the former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, providing renewed proof that this is Pdquo;a esquo;bestlsquo; anthology that really lives up to its titleedquo; (Chicago Tribune).
Since 1988, The Best American Poetry series has been odquo;one of the mainstays of the poetry publication worldSdquo; (Academy of American Poets). Each volume presents a choice of the yearmsquo;s most memorable poems, with comments from the poets themselves lending insight into their work. The guest editor of The Best American Poetry 2021 is Tracy K. Smith, the former United States Poet Laureate, whose own poems are, Toi Derricotte squo;s words, tdquo;beautiful and serenerdquo; in their surfaces with an underlying odquo;sense of an unknown vastness. dquo; In The Best American Poetry 2021, Smith has selected a distinguished array of works both vast and beautiful by such important voices as Henri Cole, Billy Collins, Louise Erdrich, Nobel laureate Louise Glück, Terrance Hayes, and Kevin Young.