Faculty Recognized in Best Anthology

by Keegan Finberg

Thursday September 29, 2005

Twenty-three New York poets of varying age, style, and background took the stage at Manhattan’s New School in the launch reading for Scribner’s The Best American Poetry 2005 on Sept. 15. Among those honored with inclusion in the anthology were two members of Sarah Lawrence’s creative writing faculty, Matthea Harvey and Dennis Nurkse.

The annual anthology is meant to be representative of poetry’s changing voice; every year the guest editor draws from a wide range of publications and subsequently a wealth of styles, schools, and voices are represented. The books in this series have earned wide acclaim since the debut of The Best American Poetry 1988, edited by poet John Ashbery.

Students made up most of the reading’s audience. The event featured the guest editor of the anthology, Paul Muldoon, and the series editor, David Lehman. Muldoon read aloud from the introduction to the book, and continued throughout the event to read the contributors’ notes by means of introduction for each poet. He kept his comments brief and humorless, which seemed off-beat for the lively poems that he had chosen for the book.

The anthology, although varied and eclectic, is characterized by light and witty pieces. From Edward Field’s reading of "In Praise of My Prostate," in which he describes the "blissful Indian Summer" he is enjoying with his "living bulb…bulbously encrusted by [its] long voyage," to Stacey Harwood’s "Contributors’ Notes," in which she cleverly describes her different fantasy lives as a non-profit philanthropist, star of the HBO series G-String Divas, and famous pastry chief in Paris, laughs are abundant in the anthology’s poems.

Harvey described the collection as "full of humor and music," but maintained that a number of different aesthetics were represented. More philosophical and confessional poems were showcased back to back with those of lighter wordplay. Harvey aptly described the collection as being "like a random sampling from the ocean."

Harvey applauded the anthology, but agreed that it is too difficult for any editor to collect a body of work that represents the ultimate poetic voice for a given year.
Before going to the launch reading, I had qualms about Scribner’s aim. The title, The Best American Poetry 2005, seems subtly arrogant and at best a little cheeky; clearly the different schools and styles of poetry deserve a larger forum than one all-inclusive sampling.

If unity is the goal, Scribner must fail every year. Yet, even though the collection does not serve to define the "best" of poetry, I believe these books to be immensely valuable. Throughout the course of the launch reading, I was introduced to many new voices, with writers I had never heard of reading alongside poets as celebrated as Ashbery.

Harvey has been reading the series since she was a young writer. "It is always delightful to see what comes out in these collections, for new writers," Harvey said. "And I love seeing work by [established] poets when they are in between books."

Muldoon and the other guest editors of the Scribner series may not be able to provide a reader with a definitive poetic voice, but with this anthology they created an important and accessible forum for new poetry. The artistic community can only grow stronger from this diverse sampling of work. Our job as readers is to move beyond this accessible introduction; we must explore the writers and journals that are new to us.

Harvey also let me in on a secret: "The Best of American Poetry title has become rather transparent," she said with a smile in her voice. No one really believes in this goal anymore. "These anthologies are valuable because they allow us to explore new poets."