Here is my top 10 poetry collections of 2009. I want to preface this list of personal favourites with the same disclaimer as last year’s: I'm probably forgetting something here, and I haven't got around to reading all the books I've meant to read this year, and I do have a stack of books I've bought but haven't read yet, so try not to take this too seriously. If your book isn't here, I apologize. You know I think you're brilliant. These are not ranked (stopping at ten is arbitrary enough), rather, they are listed in alphabetical order by author:
1) To Be Read in 500 Years by Albert Goldbarth (Graywolf Press)
2) A Village Life by Louise Glück (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
3) Inseminating the Elephant by Lucia Perillo (
4) Lousy Explorers by Laisha Rosnau (Nightwood Editions)
5) Mr. Skylight by Ed Skoog (
6) Pigeon by Karen Solie (House of Anansi Press)
7) Something Burned Along the Southern Border by Robert Earl Stewart (The
8) Reticent Bodies by Moez Surani (Wolsak & Wynn)
9) Selected Poems by Dara Weir (Wave Books)
10) Always Die Before Your Mother by Patrick Woodcock (ECW Press)
As usual, I don’t include books that I’ve edited for my own imprint with Insomniac Press, though I think these are also wonderful books, and I recommend them to you as well:
Wanton by Angela Hibbs
Porcupine Archery by Bill Howell
Naming the Mannequins by Nic Labriola
Honorable Mentions
There are simply too many fabulous books to fit on a list with only ten slots. Here are some other books that I loved from 2009, and I hope you will love them, too:
God of Missed Connections by Elizabeth Bachinsky (Nightwood Editions)
The Certainty Dream by Kate Hall (Coach House Books)
Word Comix by Charlie Smith (W.W. Norton & Company)
This Way Out by Carmine Starnino (Gaspereau Press)
Mole by Patrick Warner (House of Anansi Press)