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Friday, October 12, 2007

Local Poets Done Good

posted by on October 12 at 15:55 PM

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Our hardworking local poets are very well represented in Scribner’s 2007 collection of Best American Poetry. The volume was edited by none other than local poet and Stranger genius Heather McHugh. It’s a worthy book, one of the better BAP collections in the series, worth buying for McHugh’s introductory essay alone.

Seattle poet Kary Wayson, who was named “one to watch” by the Stranger Genius Awards way back in 2004 has a new poem in the collection, “Flu Song in Spanish.” Like many of Wayson’s poems (collected a few years back in a charming little chapbook called Dog & Me) this one is equal parts lust and anger with her uniquely bitter sense of wordplay. “If the sky says anything, it’s everything! at once!”

Jeannette Allée is another local poet and performer who won last year’s Richard Hugo House New Works competition, among other honors. Her poem “Crimble of Staines,” is another highlight of the book, full of bile and unusual British-isms. “You’re back in motherbickered / England dumb with brick / & viper typists.”

A couple more Seattle scribes are represented—children’s book author Julie Larios has a too-clever-for-my-tastes song called “What Bee Did” and family practitioner/poet-populist nominee Peter Pereira showcases his medical background in “Nursemaid’s Elbow.”

If you’re a reader of poems or a supporter of local wordsmiths, this is a collection worth grabbing. Available everywhere.

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