Titles in RED are the editor’s picks for the Ten Best Books (and Two Anthologies) of 2018.
Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess, Swing (young adult literature, Blink Young Adult Books)
Akram Aylisli, translated by Katherine E. Young, Farewell, Aylis: A Nontraditional Novel in Three Works (fiction, Academic Studies Press)
Ned Balbo, 3 Nights of the Perseids (University of Evansville Press)
Anne Becker, Human Animal (Pond Road Press)
Jacquelyn Bengfort, Navy News Service (micro e-chapbook, Ghost City Press)
Lindsay Bernal, What It Doesn’t Have To Do With (University of Georgia Press)
Joelle Biele, Tramp (Louisiana State University Press)
Melanie Bikowski, Wild (CreateSpace)
CL Bledsoe, The Funny Thing About… (short fiction, Spuyten Duyvil Press)
Diana Smith Bolton, A Compass for My Bones (chapbook, Main Street Rag)
Dan Brady, Strange Children (Publishing Genius Press)
Paula Closson Buck, You Cannot Shoot a Poem (Louisiana State University Press)
Sara Burnett, Mother Tongue (chapbook, Dancing Girl Press)
Kenneth Carroll III, Making It Home (Urban Word/Penmanship Publications)
Cheryl Clarke, Targets (limited edition chapbook, Cheryl Clarke)
Lucille Clifton, Generations: A Memoir (audio book, read by Sidney Clifton, Deyan Audio)
Marcus Colasurdo and G.H. Mosson, Heart X-Rays: A Modern Epic Poem (chapbook, PM Press)
Ellen Aronofsky Cole, Notes from the Dry Country (Mayapple Press)
Michael Collier, My Bishop and Other Poems (University of Chicago Press)
Jona Colson, Said Through Glass (WWPH)
Geraldine Connolly, Aileron (Terrapin Books)
Ramola D, For the Sake of the Boy (short fiction, Paycock Press)
Kyle G. Dargan, Anagnorisis (TriQuarterly Books)
Traci Dimond, To Tracy Like/To Like/Like (chapbook, Akinoga Press)
Buck Downs, Unintended Empire: Selected Poems (Furniture Press)
Cornelius Eady, All the American Poets Have Titled Their New Books The End (chapbook, Kattywompus Press)
Claudia Emerson, Claude Before Time and Space (Louisiana State University Press)
Danielle Evennou, Difficult Trick (chapbook, Dancing Girl Press)
Tarfia Faizullah, Registers of Illuminated Villages (Graywolf Press)
Blas Falconer, Forgive the Body This Failure (Four Way Books)
Paul Fauteux, Epoch (Finishing Line Press)
Kelly Forsythe, Perennial (Coffee House Press)
Patricia Garfinkel and Myra Sklarew, Invitation to a Country Called Aging (Opus Books/Politics & Prose)
DJ Gaskin, Of Crows & Superstitions (Main Street Rag Books)
David Gewanter, Fort Necessity (University of Chicago Press)
Margaret Gibson, Not Hearing the Wood Thrush (Louisiana State University Press)
Sid Gold, Crooked Speech (Pond Road Press)
Donald Hall, A Carnival of Losses: Notes on Nearing Ninety (memoir, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Monica Hand, DiVida (Alice James Books)
Catherine Harnett, At Some Appointed Time (chapbook, Finishing Line Press)
Kathleen Hellen, The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin (Saddle Road Press)
Cynthia Marie Hoffman, Call Me When You Want to Talk About the Tombstones (Persea Books)
Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon (nonfiction, Harper Collins)
Emilio Iasiello, Postcards from LA (chapbook, Plan B Press)
Luisa A. Igloria, The Buddha Wonders Is She Is Having a Mid-Life Crisis (Phoenicia Publishing)
Luisa A. Igloria, What is Left of Wings, I Ask (chapbook, Center for Book Arts)
Donald Illich, Chance Bodies (The Word Works)
Andrew Jarvis, Blood Moon (Homebound Publications)
Charles Jensen, Nanopedia (Tinderbox Editions)
Luther Jett, Our Situation (chapbook, Prolific Press)
Inna Kabysh, translated by Katherine E. Young, Blue Birds and Red Horses (chapbook, Toad Press)
David Keplinger, Another City (Milkweed Editions)
Benjamin Naka-Hasebe Kingsley, Not Your Mama’s Melting Pot (Backwaters Press)
Ted Kooser, Kindest Regards: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press)
Lidia Kosk, Szklana góra/Glass Mountain (edited by Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka, in English and 20 other languages; chapbook, Wydawnictwo Komograf)
Gerry LaFemina, The Story of Ash (Anhinga Press)
Michael Lally, Another Way to Play: Poems 1960 – 2017 (Seven Stories Press)
Joyce A. Latham, Border State of Mind (Politics & Prose Opus Publishing)
Courtney LeBlanc, The Violence Within (chapbook, Flutter Press)
Kateema Lee, Musings of a Netflix Binge Watcher (chapbook, Finishing Line Press)
Harriet Levin, My Oceanography (CavanKerry Press)
Michael H. Levin, Man Overboard (Finishing Line Press)
Jonathan Lewis, Babel On (chapbook, L+S Press)
Lyn Lifshin, Refugees Whose World Was Taken: The Aleppo Poems (NightBallet Press)
Gary Copeland Lilley, The Hog Killing (chapbook, Blue Horse Press)
Margaret Mackinnon, Naming the Natural World (chapbook, Sow’s Ear Poetry Press)
Dora Malech, Stet (Princeton University Press)
Sara Cahill Marron, Reasons for the Long Tu’m (Broadstone Books)
Lucien Mattison, Reaper’s Milonga (YesYes Books)
C.M. Mayo, Meteor (Gival Press)
David McAleavey, Talk Music (Flying Island Books)
Tony Medina, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy (children’s literature, Penny Candy Books)
Erika Meitner, Holy Moly Carry Me (BOA Editions)
Douglas Messerli, Stay (Green Integer Press)
E. Ethelbert Miller, If God Invented Baseball (City Point Press)
Mary Morris, Enter Water, Swimmer (Texas Review Press)
Elisabeth Murawski, Heiress (Texas Review Press)
Anita Nahal, Hey…Split milk is split, nothing else (Authorspress, New Delhi)
Anita Nahal, Life on the Go: Flash Fictions from New Delhi to America (short fiction, Authorspress, New Delhi)
Susan Okie, Let You Fly (chapbook, Finishing Line Press)
Kathleen O’Toole, Waking Hours (chapbook, Franciscan University Press)
Gregory Pardlo, Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America (memoir, Knopf)
Linda Pastan, A Dog Runs Through It (W.W. Norton)
Jon Pineda, Let’s No One Get Hurt (novel, MacMillan)
Stanley Plumly, Elegy Landscapes: Constable and Turner and the Intimate Sublime (nonfiction,, W.W. Norton)
Alexa Poteet, Carnivores (chapbook, L+S Press)
Ann Quinn, Final Deployment (chapbook, Finishing Line Press)
Jason Reynolds, For Every One (children’s poetry, Athenaeum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books)
Elisavietta Ritchie, The Scotch Runner (Poets Choice)
Kim Roberts, A Literary Guide to Washington, D.C.: Walking in the Footsteps of American Writers from Francis Scott Key to Zora Neale Hurston (nonfiction and anthology; University of Virginia Press)
Del Samatar and Sofia Samatar, Monster Portraits (Rose Metal Press)
Brittany Scott, The Derelict Daughter (New American Press)
Ravi Shankar, Durable Transit: New and Selected Poems 1997-2017 (Poetrywala Press)
Laura Shovan, Takedown (children’s literature, Wendy Lamb Books/Random House)
Caroline N. Simpson, Choose Your Own Adventure (chapbook, Finishing Line Press)
Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water (Graywolf Press)
Elizabeth Spires, A Memory of the Future (W.W. Norton)
Sophia Starnes, The Consequence of Moonlight (Paraclete Press)
Maggie Stetler, Under a Wanton Magnolia (Finishing Line Press)
Marianne Szlyk, On the Other Side of the Window (Pski’s Porch Publishing)
Pia Taavila-Borsheim, Love Poems (chapbook, Cherry Grove)
Ahron Yermiyahu Taub, Prodigal Children in the House of G-d (short fiction, Austin McCauley Publishers)
Adam Tavel, Catafalque (University of Evansville Press)
Natasha Trethewey, Monument (Houghton Mifflin)
Abdourahman Waberi, translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson, Naming the Dawn (Seagull Books/University of Chicago Press)
Gregory Carlyle Warner, 100 Years to Be Lost (Marco Peak Publishing)
Maureen Williams, The Two Champions and Other Whimsies (children’s poetry, Maureen Williams)
Terence Winch, The Known Universe (Hanging Loose Press)
Rosemary Winslow, Defying Gravity (David Roberts Books)
Pamela Murray Winters, The Unbeckonable Bird (FutureCycle Press)
Diana Woodcock, Tread Softly (FutureCycle Press)
Anne Harding Woodworth, The Eyes Have It (Turning Point Books)
Sally Zakariya, Personal Astronomy (chapbook, Finishing Line Press)
Stephen Zerance, Safe Danger (Indolent Books)
American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time, ed. Tracy K. Smith. Contributors include: Jehanne Dubrow, Yona Harvey, Natasha Trethewey, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Charles Wright. (anthology, Graywolf Press)
The Art of Survival, Ruth Moon Kempher, ed. Contributors include: Karren L. Alenier, Mel Belin, Grace Cavalieri, John Elsberg, Peter Klappert, Lyn Lifshin, Judith McCombs, Miles David Moore, Richard Peabody, Elisavietta Ritchie, Kathi Wolfe (anthology, Kings Estate Press)
Bay to Ocean 2018, ed. W. Scott Olsen. Contributors include: Jamie Brown, Charles Brent Cole, Jackson Coppley, Tara A. Elliott, David J. Hoffman, Ann Hymes, Cynthia A. Ingram, Margaret Farrell Kirby, Brent Lewis, Barbara Lockhart, Claire McCabe, Nancy McCloy, Pat Valdata, Lynne Spigelmire Viti (anthology, Eastern Shore Writers Assn.)
Best New Poets 2018, ed. Kyle G. Dargan (anthology, Samovar Press and Meridian)
Bettering American Poetry, Vol. III, ed. George Abraham, Chen Chen, Sarah Clark, Kenning JP Garcia, Amy King, Hector Ramirez, Candace Williams, Erika Wurth, and John Yau. Contributors include: Tiana Clark, Safia Elhillo, Yermiyahu Ahron Taub (anthology, Bettering Books)
Black Bone: 25 Years of the Affrilachian Poets, ed. Bianca Lynne Spriggs and Jeremy Paden. Contributors include: Remica Bingham-Risher, Ellen Hagan, Randall Horton, Shauna M. Morgan, Shanna L. Smith (anthology, University of Kentucky Press)
District Lines, Vol. V. Contributors include: Shamila Chaudhary, Henry Crawford, Kyle G. Dargan, Deborah Hefferon, Irene Hoge-Smith, Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, Monica L. Saxton, Nandini Sen, Rebecca M. Thomas (anthology; Opus Self-Publishing/Politics & Prose)
Every Woman Her Own Theology: On the Poetry of Alicia Suskin Ostriker, ed. Martha Nell Smith and Julie R. Enszer (nonfiction, University of Michigan Press)
Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, ed. Lucille Lang Day and Ruth Nolan. Contributors include: Dana Gioia, Robert Hass, Judith McCombs, Kim Roberts, James Toupin (anthology, Scarlet Tanager Books)
Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, ed. Melissa Tuckey. Contributors include: Zein El-Amine, Alan King, Katy Richey, Tim Seibles (anthology, University of Georgia Press)
Grace in Darkness, Vol. VIII of the Grace & Gravity series of anthologies of short fiction by DC-area women, ed. Melissa Scholes Young. Contributors include: Tyrese Coleman, Lisa Couturier, Caron Garcia Martinez, Molly McGiniss, Jen Michalski, Venus Thrash (anthology, Paycock Press)
Last Call: The Anthology of Beer, Wine & Spirits Poetry, ed. James Bertolino. Contributors include: S.J. Anderson, Anthony Beal, Shirley Brewer, William Derge, Katherine Gekker, and John Guzlowski (anthology, World Enough Writers)
Misrepresented People: Poetic Responses to Trump’s America, ed. Maria Isabel Alvarez and Dante De Stefano. Contributors include: Nin Andrews, Kyle G. Dargan, celeste doaks, Blas Falconer, Erika Meitner, Gregory Pardlo, Clint Smith (anthology, NYQ Books)
Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color, ed. Christopher Soto. Contributors include: Francisco Aragon, Richard Blanco, Cheryl Clarke, Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson, T’ai Freedom Ford, Nikki Giovanni, Angelina Weld Grimke, Monica Hand, Robert Hayden, Essex Hemphill, Langston Hughes (anthology, Nightboat Books)
Reading Queer: Poetry in a Time of Chaos, ed. Maureen Seaton and Neil de la Flor. Contributors include: James Allen Hall, Julie R. Enszer, Gregg Shapiro (anthology, Anhingha Press)
Renga for Obama, ed. Major Jackson. Contributors include: Elizabeth Alexander, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Thulani Davis, Cornelius Eady, Annie Finch, Yona Harvey, Juan Felipe Herrera, Ailish Hopper, A. Van Jordan, Sally Wen Mao, Erika Meitner, Gregory Pardlo, Linda Pastan (anthology, Harvard Review)
Stoked Words: An Anthology of Queer Poetry from the Capturing Fire Slam & Summit, ed. Regie Cabico. Contributors include: Megan Alpert, Sunu Chandy, Marlena Chertock, K. Tyler Christensen, Jona Colson, Margaret Lee Corum, Brittany K. Fonte, Tyler French, Natalie Illum, Taylor Johnson, Eryca Kasse, Judson Lewis, J Scales, Dan Vera (Capturing Fire Press)
Unsealing Our Secrets: #MeToo Stories in Poetry, ed. Alexis Rotella. Contributors include: Raquel D. Bailey, Roberta Beary, Susan Burch, Karen Olshansky, Robin Smith (anthology, Jade Mountain Press)
Vinegar & Char: Verse from the Southern Foodways Alliance, ed. Sandra Beasley. Contributors include: Elizabeth Alexander, Richard Blanco, Molly McCully Brown, Jon Pineda, Natasha Trethewey (anthology, University of Georgia Press)
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, ed. Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson. Contributors include: Kwame Alexander, Jabari Asim, Tony Medina, Carol Boston Weatherford (anthology of children’s literature, Just Us Books)
Wishbone Moon, ed. Roberta Beary, Ellen Compton, Kala Ramesh. Contributors include: Susan Burch, Sandip Chauhan, Kristen Deming, Abigail Friedman, Julie Bloss Kelsey, Kathleen O’Toole, and Alexis Rotella (anthology, Jacar Press)
Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism, ed. Danielle Barnhart and Iris Mahan. Contributors include: Elizabeth Acevedo, Kim Addonizio, Lauren K. Alleyne, Sandra Beasley, Safia Elhillo, James Allen Hall (anthology, OR Books)