last best for 2020

While the year’s best-of selections may continue into the early months of 2021, this will be our final post for 2020 and the latest collection of favorites.

• Boston Globe – Best Books of 2020
• Hyperallergic – This Be the Verse: Our Favorite Poetry Books of 2020
• Literary Hub – Rabih Alameddine’s Year in Reading: Poetry Edition
• Morning Star – Best of 2020: Poetry
• The Paris Review – The Paris Review Staff’s Favorite Books of 2020
• PEN America – Literary Awards longlist
• School Library Journal – 2020 Children’s Poetry

Happy reading… and Happy New Year!

on poetry

“Times like these are times when people often do turn to poetry. When without words otherwise, we hope to find something akin to how we feel in the ways words are in poems.”
Dara Wier
(b. December 30, 1949)

. . . . .
quote

Poetry Spoken Here

We have published links to a lot of wonderful poetry podcasts, but somehow managed to miss (until now) Poetry Spoken Here. Produced by poet Charlie Rossiter, his son Jack Rossiter-Munley, and Cardboard Box Productions, Poetry Spoken Here features interviews with poets, reviews of poetry books, examinations of individual poems, and investigations of themes in poetry. Now numbering 149, the episodes of approximately 30 minutes each are available on SoundCloud and your other favorite podcast sources.

Tuesday launch

The latest edition of Cirque Journal, Volume 11, Number 1, is now published and available in hard copy for purchase and digital, free online.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 29, 2020, a free online launch will include seven contributors from this issue as well as readings from the authors of two new Cirque Press books: Sandra Wassilie reading from The Dream that is Childhood and Sean Ulman reading from Seward Soundboard. Join the reading on Zoom at 6:00pm Alaska / 7:00pm Pacific with the passcode 1111.

on the job*

2020 Merit Award
By Randy Flowers

there was a time
when I
wore high topped Keds
dirty
filled with
my feet
and the beach

now my shoes are polished
stylish
but they still get
dirty
I go home at night
empty my
shoes of me
become a boy again
as I look
for sand
between my toes

*Copyright 2020 by Randy Flowers. Broadside illustrated by Megan Carroll.

sci-po, monthly

If you are interested in science, and particularly in the place where science meets poetry, have a look at the monthly column “Meter” in Scientific American. Launched in January 2020 and edited by Dava Sobel, the featured works “reach across the artificial divide between science and art to capture the poetic imagination.” Sobel’s recent article “Nature in Verse: What Poetry Reveals about Science” describes the column and makes reference to the W. H. Auden poem “A New Year Greeting,” which seems particularly timely.

Happy Everything

Remembering…

The Academy of American Poets (poets.org) has put together a lovely remembrance of some of the poets we lost in 2020. Watch In Memoriam 2020 on YouTube. Not forgotten.

. . . . .
Thank you, Margaret Bikman.

on poetry

“Poets sing our human music for us.”
Carol Ann Duffy
(b. December 23, 1955)

. . . . .
photo by Jemima Kuhfeld

Thank you!

Year in and year out, whatever the circumstances, our poets laureate encourage and support the presence of poetry in our lives. If they’re paid, it’s a pittance, though they say the rewards are considerable. Some laureates serve for a year, some for two, some, well, just serve. At the close of this highly irregular year, some of our regional poets laureate are completing their terms, others are continuing behind the scenes to figure out ways to bring poetry into our homes and hearts during 2021. This post is simply an acknowledgment and thank you to this group of creative individuals. You are appreciated!

(pictured from left)
Top row
Claudia Castro Luna (Washington); Susan Landgraf (Auburn); Tia Hudson (Bremerton)
Second row
Gwendolyn Morgan (Clark Co., WA); Sady Sparks (Olympia); Raúl Sánchez (Redmond)
Third row
Jourdan Imani Keith (Seattle Civic Poet); Bitaniya Giday (Seattle Youth Poet Laureate); Chris Cook (Spokane)
Bottom row
Abby E. Murray (Tacoma); Susan Lynch (Vashon); Anis Mojgani (Oregon)

If we’ve missed anyone, apologies, and please let us know in the Comments. Also, we note that Ellensburg, Washington, has recently approved a city poet laureate position, but has not yet named the first poet to serve.

THANK YOU, poets laureate!