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toniclark's review against another edition
4.0
This year’s edition of BAP features more formal poems than I can ever remember in previous editions. That is no surprise, since the guest editor is Dana Gioia, a well-known formalist, founder and former co-director of the West Chester Poetry Conference, which focuses on form and narrative.
I was glad to see so many formalists included in these pages — even though a few of the poems seemed, to me, a bit sing-songy, that fate of much formal verse (which can make it sound lighter than intended). Overall, I liked more poems in this collection than I have in recent years, whether formal or not.
My favorites in this collection were by Kaveh Akbar, Frank Bidart, George Bradley, Maryann Corbett, Tony Hoagland, A. E. Stallings, Anne Stevenson, Adrienne Su, and Natasha Trethewey.
Many of the poems, though, seemed not as good as what I’m accustomed to reading online and I wondered if maybe these are the best that “highbrow” or academic poetry journals have to offer. I prefer poetry that’s written for a wider audience than many of these poems seem to be. Occasionally, I had to ask (myself) “What makes this a poem?”
Of 50 periodicals listed (excluding one I could not find at all: Met Magazine), 36 are print-only or have a limited online presence (e.g., a few selections from the print editions), and many of these have pretty small print runs. A couple of the poems included are from books and one's from BuzzFeed. I would like to see more online journals represented in these BAP collections. There's so much good writing online these days, for instance in The 2River View, The Cortland Review, Dodging the Rain, Eclectica, The Ghazal Page, Halfway Down the Stairs, Innisfree Poetry Journal, Mad Hatters Review, Mudlark, The Pedestal Magazine, Stirring, Switched-On Gutenberg, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, to name but a few.
I was glad to see so many formalists included in these pages — even though a few of the poems seemed, to me, a bit sing-songy, that fate of much formal verse (which can make it sound lighter than intended). Overall, I liked more poems in this collection than I have in recent years, whether formal or not.
My favorites in this collection were by Kaveh Akbar, Frank Bidart, George Bradley, Maryann Corbett, Tony Hoagland, A. E. Stallings, Anne Stevenson, Adrienne Su, and Natasha Trethewey.
Many of the poems, though, seemed not as good as what I’m accustomed to reading online and I wondered if maybe these are the best that “highbrow” or academic poetry journals have to offer. I prefer poetry that’s written for a wider audience than many of these poems seem to be. Occasionally, I had to ask (myself) “What makes this a poem?”
Of 50 periodicals listed (excluding one I could not find at all: Met Magazine), 36 are print-only or have a limited online presence (e.g., a few selections from the print editions), and many of these have pretty small print runs. A couple of the poems included are from books and one's from BuzzFeed. I would like to see more online journals represented in these BAP collections. There's so much good writing online these days, for instance in The 2River View, The Cortland Review, Dodging the Rain, Eclectica, The Ghazal Page, Halfway Down the Stairs, Innisfree Poetry Journal, Mad Hatters Review, Mudlark, The Pedestal Magazine, Stirring, Switched-On Gutenberg, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, to name but a few.
mothgender's review
3.0
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Personally, I wasn't a fan of a good half of the poetry in this collection. I feel like I read plenty of better poetry from 2018 that was not in this book. The other half was real quality stuff.
Personally, I wasn't a fan of a good half of the poetry in this collection. I feel like I read plenty of better poetry from 2018 that was not in this book. The other half was real quality stuff.
davidgull's review
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Kinda high brow meaningful poems. They're good and all.
whitneydrew's review
2.0
I was not impressed with any of these poems. None of them “spoke” to me at all.
michaelion's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
3.25
Very hard to rate a poetry collection. But I got what I was looking for: in that, I hadn't read poetry outside of school when I was a kid and I wanted to read some. And I loved most of the poems and their explanations in the back of the book. I marked 30 of them to revisit. Very lovely. Will read more.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Violence, War, Death of parent, Antisemitism, and Sexual assault
I've added these tags from what I remember in the poems... Nothing too overt, but as poetry is it's people talking about their own lives and experiences. Not too triggering in my own opinion, but of course proceed with caution.ethancf's review
4.0
Favorites:
* The Opposites Game, by Brendan Constantine
* Ghost Ship, by Sonia Greenfield
* The Quiet Boy, by Stephen Kampa
* The Opposites Game, by Brendan Constantine
* Ghost Ship, by Sonia Greenfield
* The Quiet Boy, by Stephen Kampa