Happy New Year! We hope that 2009 will be filled with perfect line breaks, abundant and truthful metaphors and rollicking onomatopoeia.
But before we forget about 2008 entirely: I recently spent a full day going over 'Best Books of 2008' lists from major publications and websites (the NY Review of Books, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, NPR, Amazon, etc) to uncover the Best Asian American Books for 2008 for Hyphen magazine, where I am Books Editor and blogger.
I discovered that South Asians did quite well, especially when it came to fiction -- where Jhumpa Lahiri reigned supreme with her second short story collection Unaccustomed Earth. In terms of Asian American poetry, I found most of the books I listed from the Kundiman site, though Asian American poets also did well in the American Book Awards. Our own Ravi Shankar was one of the co-editors of a poetry anthology, Language for a New Century, that had a more international focus, but also featured Asian and South Asian American poets. But I did have a hard time finding mention of any South Asian poets on the lists, but maybe it wasn't because of the lack of South Asian poets.
But what I realized more than anything else, was that POETRY itself was missing from this strange year-end calculation. Sure there were a few (try two) mentions of poetry in the SF Gate's 50 Best Fiction, Poetry Books of 2008, a handful of interesting anthologies in this Guardian story, and here's a random-ish list on the Library Journal site, but I think it is safe to say that poetry published in 2008 safely slipped under the radar of the year-end, gift-guide media frenzy -- as poetry is known to do.
Is it because of the subjective nature of poetry that makes it hard to review or recommend? Either way, I think it speaks to the way poetry is marginalized in America, or at least seen as un-sellable in a time of year when it's all about the money. But it did inspire me to pay more attention to the way poetry is talked about in the media, for which this blog is a wonderful outlet.
So, I'll end this post with a little bit of mainstream poet coverage. By this time, I'm sure you've all heard about poet Elizabeth Alexander scoring the biggest poet gig of all time: Barack Obama's Jan. 20th inauguration. Going back to my previous point, this Chicago Tribune article mentions how difficult it is to find Alexander's 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist collection American Sublime in Chicago bookstores. Either way, it is exciting to see poetry being published in major mainstream American dailies, like the Washington Post, and for indie Graywolf Press to get major attention.
What poetry books of 2008 do you think were the best? And what were the best poems published by South Asian Americans in 2008? And does it really matter?
How about the lyrical, elegiac, wondrous collection by Monica Ferrell "Beasts for the Chase", published October 2008 by Sarabande Books?
ReplyDeleteAnd one of my favorite poetry anthologies from last year must be "The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets", edited by Jeet Thayil (and not just because it features so many of our own anthology's poets!) Watch this space for a review...
And then, of course, there's the treasure trove of poems, "Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond", edited by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal, and our very own Ravi Shankar, (Norton, 2008). Aside from the sheer scale of this project, the number of translations makes this anthology stand out from the crowd.
ReplyDeleteYou are right! How easily desi poets slip under the radar! What does one have to do to get noticed? Look, for exmaple at the ad for this year's AWP Conference. It reads:Our 2009 Conference & Bookfair promises to be our best yet, with presentations from Kim Addonizio, Mary Jo Bang, Charles Baxter, Frank Bidart, Eric Bogosian, Lucille Clifton, Stuart Dybek, Nick Flynn, Carolyne Forche, William Gass, Donald Hall, Michael Harper, Aleksandar Hemon, Andrew Hudgins, Major Jackson, August Kleinzahler, Haki R. Madhubuti, Heather McHugh, Joe Meno, Honor Moore, Valzhyna Mort, Bharati Mukherjee, Paul Muldoon, Achy Obejas, ZZ Packer, Molly Peacock, Wang Ping, Marilynne Robinson, Art Spiegelman, Tomaz Salamun, David Strathairn, Luis Urrea, and many other wonderful writers!
ReplyDeleteNot one South Asian poet is mentioned in the ad. And the same went with the G.R. Dodge Poetry Festival in 2008--not one S. Asian poet in the big tent with the big poets!
And it also bugs me that only academics get noticed in top poetry circles. What about all the South Asians who are not in academia who are writing in the dark?