The Best American Poetry 2024

Guest Editor, Mary Jo Salter

David Lehman (View Bio)
Hardcover: Scribner, 2024.

Renowned poet Mary Jo Salter, whose command of verse forms and high intelligence is universally acknowledged, selects the poems for the 2024 edition of The Best American Poetry, “a ‘best’ anthology that really lives up to its title” (Chicago Tribune).

The Best American Poetry series has been “one of the mainstays of the poetry publication world” (Academy of American Poets) since 1988. Each volume presents a curated selection of the year’s most brilliant, striking, and innovative poems, with comments from the poets themselves offering unique insight into their work.

Here, guest editor Mary Jo Salter, whose own poems display a sublime wit “driven by a compulsion to confront the inexplicable” (James Longenbach), has picked seventy-five poems that capture the dynamism of American poetry today. The series and guest editors contribute valuable introductory essays that assess the current state of American poetry, and this year’s edition is certain to capture the attention of both Best American Poetry loyalists and newcomers to the most important poetry anthology of our time.

"Begun in 1988 with a volume guest-edited by John Ashbery, The Best American Poetry (BAP) series has been running for a startling 36 years and counting, including intercalary volumes such as a Best of The Best of American Poetry (edited by Harold Bloom in 1997), and a 25th anniversary edition (edited by Robert Pinsky). The list of editors is a who’s who of US poetry elites. And behind it all, the poet David Lehman, the series editor, has labored quietly and diligently ensuring its continuity and continued relevance. As with any annual publication, not to mention one where the volume editor changes each year, the series is inevitably uneven, although the guiding hand of Lehman ensures a certain base-level of quality. Every year will have its new-discovered gems, its duds, its stars, and, often enough, its brief but vitriolic controversies played out across social media. You might think such a long-running series would have played out its initial energies, but I think I can say with some confidence that Mary Jo Salter’s 2024 volume is the best volume in a decade, and arguably the best BAP volume ever produced. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out I am also included in this volume; I have been lucky enough to have appeared in BAP many times over the years, beginning with the class of 1994.) Salter’s volume fizzes with the potential of debut poets, the sprezzatura of journeyman accomplishment, and the depth of old masters. Intriguingly, Salter singles out a number of longer poems for inclusion, I think putting her finger on a recent trend. As the series initially intended, we get a generous survey of what is happening in American poetry today, and a sense of whence (journals) and by whom (poets) the best work is coming. Unlike some prominent American poetry magazines, we also have a sense of the editor’s (Salter’s) idiosyncratic taste and aesthetic, which is wide ranging, but focused on craft rather than, say, identity or political orthodoxy." — A. E. Stallings, Echolocations (Read the full review)

"I have an easy recommendation: The Best American Poetry 2024. This anthology, edited by Mary Jo Salter, includes work by 75 poets — some you probably know (Billy Collins, Ada Limón) and some you may not yet (Gabriella Fee, Richie Hofmann). The poems were selected from the usual places like the New Yorker and the Paris Review, little journals like Smartish Pace and Matter, and even recently deceased ones like Gettysburg Review and Freeman’s. In her words, this is a dinner party that includes enough familiar faces to make you feel comfortable and enough intriguing strangers to keep you mingling. Best of all, every poem in this collection has been selected by an extraordinarily fine and thoughtful poet. In her introduction, Salter writes, “I still find it almost impossible to come up with Universally Useful Criteria for evaluating a poem,” but reading the work she’s assembled here is a terrific way of broadening and understanding your own criteria." — Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"Do not overlook the introductory essay by Salter...or the piece by the series' general editor, David Lehman, which concludes with wise advice to poets just starting out." — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post