From the Editor's Preface:

"When I was studying for my MFA I was required to read 25 books, of my choosing, per semester. Once, I asked one of my professors to give me some suggestions and she gave me a list of 30 or so writers that she thought I should read. I didn’t know if these were writers that were personally important to her, or if they were simply writers she thought might become important to me, but, either way, I thought it was a great list. Soon after, I got the idea for this book and began asking leading contemporary poets to respond to these prompts:

1) Please list 5-10 books that have been most “essential” to you, as a poet.
2) Please write some comments about your list. You may want to single out specific poems or passages from the books, discuss how you made your decisions or provide thoughts about the importance of these books in your life. Feel free to write as much as you would like.

I mentioned that the primary audience for the book might be younger poets, but that I believed many people would be interested. I asked a variety of poets because I wanted to represent a wide range of contemporary poetry."

Poets: Ai, Nin Andrews, Antler, Rae Armantrout, Angela Ball, Marvin Bell, Charles Bernstein, Anselm Berrigan, Eavan Boland, Catherine Bowman, Alan Catlin, Henri Cole, Wanda Coleman, Clark Coolidge, Jim Daniels, Denise Duhamel, Stephen Dunn, Russell Edson, Elaine Equi, Clayton Eshleman, B. H. Fairchild, Annie Finch, Alice Friman, Amy Gerstler, Albert Goldbarth, Gabriel Gudding, Thom Gunn, Sam Hamill, Joy Harjo, Michael S. Harper, Lola Haskins, Bob Hicok, Tony Hoagland, Paul Hoover, Fanny Howe, Andrew Hudgins, Lisa Jarnot, Peter Johnson, X. J. Kennedy, David Kirby, Maxine Kumin, David Lehman, Philip Levine, Lyn Lifshin, Timothy Liu, Gerald Locklin, Thomas Lux, J. D. McClatchy, Peter Meinke, E. Ethelbert Miller, Thylias Moss, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ed Ochester, Molly Peacock, Lucia Perillo, Carl Phillips, Robert Pinsky, Charles Potts, Donald Revell, Adrienne Rich, Harvey Shapiro, Ron Silliman, W. D. Snodgrass, Juliana Spahr, Elizabeth Spires, Gerald Stern, David St. John, Virgil Suarez, David Trinidad, Paul Violi, Karen Volkman, David Wagoner, Charles Harper Webb, Dana Weir, Richard Wilbur, C. K. Williams, C. D. Wright, Charles Wright, Franz Wright, Dean Young, and Paul Zimmer.

From the reviews:

"What a fabulous anthology concept! Poet’s Bookshelf can top a list of books for recommending to, not just poetry lovers but, those who don’t follow poetry but are curious to learn more. For Poet’s Bookshelf, by showing how poets are in love with poetry, can make the reader fall in love with poetry, too. This book, also replete with deep insights, is a far more attractive alternative than other anthologies to which people usually turn for poetry introductions." Galatea Resurrects

"The sense of stumbling onto oddly formed treasures holds throughout this simply volume....The influences go beyond poetry and fiction, to the King James Bible, painter Chaim Soutine, and works on architecture, history, and geography....We emerge with new appetite, much as B. H. Fairchild did after reading Moby Dick and The Brothers Karamazov for the first time, 'I walked around in a sort of intellectual daze followed by a hunger that has never left me,' he wrote, 'and has filled my house with far too many books'." Poetry International

Note: Volume 2 is forthcoming Winter 2007.

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ISBN: 0-935306-50-1
paper, 222 pages
Retail price: $14.95
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