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On “Pachyderm” by Sherman Alexie
Denise Duhamel picked Sherman Alexie's "Pachyderm" for The Best American Poetry 2013. On composing "Pachyderm" Alexie writes: “Lying in a university town hotel, unable to sleep, I watched a National Geographic documentary about elephants.…
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A Selection of Contemporary Australian Poems (Week 10)
Mark Mark finished it himself, choosing midnightand a garbage littered swamp. He scrawled a noteand stuffed it in a pocket: ‘Like shooting a dog.The Vibrations. Someone…
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The Year I Didn’t Kill Myself by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Weight The first time I saw my mother naked I didn’t think she was beautiful. If I remember correctly I was terrified. Which is crazy because she was just leaning over to dry…
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Voices from the Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry — by Deborah Ager
Every anthologist thinks about how to organize the book. When Matthew and I organized The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry, we chose alphabetical order. The purpose of this decision was twofold. We…
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Major Jackson: “On occasion though, a devastating feeling hits me . . . “
(Ed note: Every volume of The Best American Poetry includes contributors’ notes for which the poets share something about the inspiration for the poem chosen for the book. Here’s what Major Jackson writes about…
