Thursday, July 7, 2011

James Langer's Best Poetry Books

As promised during the Radio Fiddlehead podcast, here is a list of my ten favorite poetry collections published in Britain and Ireland over the past decade (in no particular order). This isn't pretending to be a "Best Of" list by any means, so if you're reading this and notice something's missing, feel free to fill in my blanks.

Simon Armitage, The Universal Home Doctor

Alice Oswald, Dart

Paul Muldoon, Maggot

Sean O’Brien, The Drowned Book

Geoffrey Hill, Speech! Speech!

Carol Ann Duffy, Feminine Gospels

Kathleen Jamie, The Tree House

Paul Farley, Tramp in Flames

Glynn Maxwell, The Nerve

Michael Longley, The Weather in Japan

Favorite Debuts: Emma Jones, The Striped World and Nick Laird, To a Fault

James Langer
Poetry Editor, The Fiddlehead