Anthologies & Craft Books
Anthologies are collections of writing from various writers, usually on a single topic or in a single genre. Craft books are books on writing and how to write. Together, the two can work to help you fill gaps in your own reading, help you find where your work fits into larger conversations, and give you new insights on form and style. The titles below should make this process rather straightforward. Read about that with which you’re unfamiliar. Read about what you think you know well. Regardless, if you’re looking to improve (hint: you always should be) these books are for you.
Anthologies
A People’s Future of the United States
American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time
Best American series (poetry, essays, short stories, etc)
The Breakbeat Poets
The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America
Hearth: A Global Conversation on Community, Identity, and Place
Into English: Poems, Translations, Commnetaries
Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century
My Loves: A Digital Anthology of Queer Love Poems
Angels of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry
The Poem’s Country: Place & Poetic Practice
Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses
The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South
Red Holler: Contemporary Appalachian Literature
They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing
Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession
What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About
Craft Books
A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line
A Little Book on Form by Robert Hass
Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction by Charles Baxter
Best Word, Best Order: Essays on Poetry by Stephen Dobyns
By Herself: Women Reclaim Poetry
Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Art and Life of Poetry Carl Phillips
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
Don’t Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read Poems by Stephanie Burt
The Flexible Lyric by Ellen Bryant Voigt
Gathering Voices: Creating a Community-Based Poetry Workshop by Marty McConnell
The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux
Poetry as Persuasion by Carl Dennis
The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind
The Shape of Content by Ben Shahn
Tell It Slant by Brenda Miller and Susanne Antonetta
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard