NEW POETRIES VIII
New Poetries VIII
Carcanet Press, 2021
Edited by Michael Schmidt & John McAuliffe
Poetry Book Society Spring 2021 Special Commendation
This is the most recent of Carcanet’s celebrated introductory anthology series, presenting work by two dozen poets writing in English from around the world. Compiled during the pandemic lock-down, this selection was described by the editors as ‘this profligate Babel of new poems’, which would withstand the tides swirling about it.
‘A word on format: there are 24 poets here. Each gets two pages to outline their poetics, before a dozen – or, in some cases, a very generous baker’s dozen – pages of poetry. Biographies then follow, unobtrusively, at the end of each poet’s section.
‘This handsomely designed anthology functions, on the one hand, as radar for new books that we can likely expect from the press in coming years; but its more interesting – and to this reader more useful – purpose is its role as bellwether for English language poetry: a state-of-the-disciplinary check-in on what’s being written about, and how.’
– Jake Morris-Campbell, Poetry School