Ten Years of Debut Poets

by
Staff
From the January/February 2015 issue of
Poets & Writers Magazine

Since appearing in our annual Debut Poets roundup, a number of the one hundred and twelve poets we’ve highlighted have gone on to create a wealth of interesting and important work. The following list includes each poet we’ve featured in the past ten years, his or her debut collection, and the many full-length books that followed.  

Zubair Ahmed, City of Rivers (McSweeney’s Books, 2012)

Dan Albergotti, The Boatloads (BOA Editions, 2008)

            Millenial Teeth (Southern Illinois University Press, 2014)

William Archila, The Art of Exile (Bilingual Press, 2009)

            The Gravedigger’s Archaeology (forthcoming from Red Hen Press, 2015)

Andrea Baker, Like Wind Loves a Window (Slope Editions, 2005)

            Each Thing Unblurred Is Broken (forthcoming from Omnidawn, 2015)

Christian Barter, The Singers I Prefer (CavanKerry Press, 2005)

            In Someone Else’s House (BkMk Press, 2013)

            Secret Evidence (forthcoming from BOA Editions, 2016)

John Beer, The Waste Land and Other Poems, (Canarium Books, 2010)

Nathaniel Bellows, Why Speak? (Norton, 2007)

Lauren Berry, The Lifting Dress (Penguin Books, 2011)

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, But a Storm Is Blowing From Paradise (Red Hen Press, 2012)

Reginald Dwayne Betts, Shahid Reads His Own Palm (Alice James Books, 2010)

Roger Bonair-Agard, Tarnish and Masquerade (Cypher Books, 2007)

            Gully (Cypher Books, 2011)

            Bury My Clothes (Haymarket Books, 2013)

Todd Boss, Yellowrocket (Norton, 2008)

            Pitch (Norton, 2013)

Geoff Bouvier, Living Room (Copper Canyon Press, 2005)

            Glass Harmonica (Quale Press, 2011)

Daniel Brenner, The Stupefying Flashbulbs (Fence Books, 2006)

            June (Fence Books, 2011)

Deborah Brown, Walking the Dog’s Shadow (BOA Editions, 2011)

Jericho Brown, Please (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2008)

            The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press 2014)

Leslie Bumstead, Cipher/Civilian (Edge Books, 2005)

Xochiquetzal Candelaria, Empire (University of Arizona Press, 2011)

Leslie C. Chang, Things That No Longer Delight Me (Fordham University Press, 2010)

Victoria Chang, Circle (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005)

            Salvinia Molesta (University of Georgia Press, 2008)

            The Boss (McSweeney’s Books, 2013)

John Chávez, City of Slow Dissolve (University of New Mexico Press, 2012)

Dan Chelotti, X (McSweeney’s Books, 2013)

Feng Sun Chen, Butcher’s Tree (Black Ocean, 2012)

            The 8th House (Black Ocean, 2014)

Michael Cirelli, Lobster with Ol’ Dirty Bastard (Hanging Loose Press, 2008)

            Vacations on the Black Star Line (Hanging Loose Press, 2010)

            Everyone Loves the Situation (Penmanship Books, 2011)

            The Grind (Hanging Loose Press, 2013)

Laura Cronk, Having Been an Accomplice (Persea Books, 2012)

Brian Culhane, The King’s Question (Graywolf Press, 2008)

Christina Davis, Forth a Raven (Alice James Books, 2006)

            An Ethic (Nightboat Books, 2013)

Nick Demske, Nick Demske (Fence Books, 2010)

Shira Dentz, Black Seeds on a White Dish (Shearsman Books, 2010)

            door of thin skins (CavanKerry Press, 2013)

Albert Flynn DeSilver, Letters to Early Street (La Alameda Press, 2007)

Natalie Diaz, When My Brother Was an Aztec (Copper Canyon Press, 2012)

Geri Doran, Resin (Louisiana State University Press, 2005)

            Sanderlings (Tupelo Press, 2011)

K. E. Duffin, King Vulture (University of Arkansas Press, 2005)

Kate Durbin, The Ravenous Audience (Black Goat/Akashic Books, 2009)

            E! Entertainment (Wonder, 2014)

Robin Ekiss, The Mansion of Happiness (University of Georgia Press, 2009)

Thomas Sayers Ellis, The Maverick Room (Graywolf Press, 2005)

            Skin, Inc.: Identity repair Poems (Graywolf Press, 2010)

Landis Everson, Everything Preserved: Poems 1955-2005 (Graywolf Press, 2006)

Lucas Farrell, The Many Woods of Grief (University of Massachusetts Press, 2011)

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Death of a Ventriloquist (University of North Texas Press, 2012)

Robert Fernandez, We Are Pharaoh (Canarium Books, 2011)

            Pink Reef (Canarium Books, 2013)

Brett Foster, The Garbage Eater (TriQuarterly Books, 2011)

Carrie Fountain, Burn Lake (Penguin Books, 2010)

            Instant Winner (Penguin Books, 2014)

Vievee Francis, Blue-Tail Fly (Wayne State University Press, 2006)

            Horse in the Dark (Northwestern University Press, 2012)

Santee Frazier, Dark Thirty (University of Arizona Press, 2009)

Emily Kendal Frey, The Grief Performance (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011)

            Sorrow Arrow (Octopus Books, 2014)

Frank Giampietro, Begin Anywhere (Alice James Books, 2008)

Alan Gilbert, Late in the Antenna Fields (Futurepoem Books, 2011)

            The Treatments of Monuments (SplitLevel Texts, 2012)

Aracelis Girmay, Teeth (Curbstone Books, 2007)

            Kingdom Animalia (BOA Editions, 2011)

Dana Goodyear, Honey and Junk (Norton, 2005)

            The Oracle of Hollywood Boulevard (Norton, 2013)

Sarah Gridley, Weather Eye Open (University of California Press, 2005)

            Green Is the Orator (University of California Press, 2010)

            Loom (Omnidawn, 2013)

Laurie Ann Guerrero, A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying (University of Notre Dame Press, 2013)

            A Crown for Gumecindo (forthcoming from Aztlan Libre Press, 2015)

Alena Hairston, The Logan Topographies (Persea Books, 2007)

Anthony Hawley, The Concerto Form (Shearsman Books, 2006)

            Forget Reading (Shearsman Books, 2008)

Thomas Heise, Horror Vacui (Sarabande Books, 2006)

            Moth; or how I came to be with you again (Sarabande Books 2013)

Matthew Hittinger, Skin Shift (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012)

            The Erotic Postulate (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014)

Jeff Hoffman, Journal of American Foreign Policy (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2011)

Harmony Holiday, Negro League Baseball (Fence Books, 2011)

            Go Find Your Father/A Famous Blues (Ricochet Editions, 2014)

Gary Jackson, Missing You, Metropolis (Graywolf Press, 2010)

Tyehimba Jess, leadbelly (Verse Press, 2005)

Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan, Shadow Mountain (Four Way Books, 2008)

            Bear, Diamonds and Crane (Four Way Books, 2011)

Arlene Kim, What Have You Done to Our Ears to Make Us Hear Echoes? (Milkweed Editions, 2011)

Ish Klein, Union! (Canarium Books, 2009)

            Moving Day (Canarium Books, 2011)

Keetje Kuipers, Beautiful in the Mouth (BOA Editions, 2010)

            The Keys to the Jail (BOA Editions, 2014)

Dorothea Lasky, Awe (Wave Books, 2007)

            Black Life (Wave Books, 2010)

            Thunderbird (Wave Books, 2012)

            Rome (Liveright, 2014)

Corinne Lee, PYX (Penguin, 2005)

Joseph O. Legaspi, Imago (CavanKerry Press, 2007)

Hailey Leithauser, Swoop (Graywolf Press, 2013)

Alex Lemon, Mosquito (Tin House Books, 2006)

            Hallelujah Blackout (Milkweed Editions, 2008)

            Fancy Beasts (Milkweed Editions, 2010)

            The Wish Books (Milkweed Editions, 2014)

Shara Lessley, Two-Headed Nightingale (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2012)

Ada Limón, lucky wreck (Autumn House Press, 2006)

            This Big Fake World (Pearl Editions, 2006)

            Sharks in the Rivers (Milkweed Editions, 2010)

Éireann Lorsung, Music for Landing Planes By (Milkweed Editions, 2007)

            Her book (Milkweed Editions, 2013)

Sheryl Luna, Pity the Drowned Horses (University of Notre Dame Press, 2005)

            Seven (3: A Taos Press, 2013)

Justin Marks, A Million in Prizes (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2009)

            You’re Going to Miss Me When You’re Bored (Barrelhouse Books, 2014)

Chris Martin, American Music (Copper Canyon Press, 2007)

            Becoming Weather (Coffee House Press, 2011)

Dawn Lundy Martin, A Gathering of Matter/A Matter of Gathering (University of Georgia Press, 2007)

            Discipline (Nightboat Books, 2011)

            Life in a Box is a Pretty Life (Nightboat Books, 2014)

J. Michael Martinez, Heredities (Louisiana State University Press, 2010)

María Meléndez, How Long She’ll Last in This World (University of Arizona Press, 2006)

            Flexible Bones (University of Arizona Press, 2010)

Rusty Morrison, Whethering (Center for Literary Publishing, 2005)

            the true keeps calm biding its story (Ahsahta Press, 2007)

            Book of the Given (Noemi Press, 2011)

            After Urgency (Tupelo Press, 2012)

            Beyond the Chainlink (Ahsahta Press, 2014)

Anna Moschovakis, I Have Not Been Able to Get Through to Everyone (Turtle Point Press, 2006)

            You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake (Coffee House Press, 2011)

John Murillo, Up Jump the Boogie (Cypher Books, 2010)

Kristin Naca, Bird Eating Bird (Harper Perennial, 2009)

January Gill O’Neil, Underlife (CavanKerry Press, 2009)

            Misery Islands (CavanKerry Press, 2014)

Julie Sophia Paegle, Torch Song Tango Choir (University of Arizona Press, 2010)

Kristin Palm, The Straits (Palm Press, 2008)

Jeffrey Pethybridge, Striven, the Bright Treatise (Noemi Press, 2013)

Kiki Petrosino, Fort Red Border (Sarabande Books, 2009)

            Hymn for the Black Terrific (Sarabande Books, 2013)

Emilia Phillips, Signaletics (University of Akron Press, 2013)

Iain Haley Pollock, Spit Back a Boy (University of Georgia Press, 2011)

Khadijah Queen, Conduit (Black Goat/Akashic Books, 2008)

            Black Peculiar (Noemi Press, 2012)

Matt Rasmussen, Black Aperture (Louisiana State University Press, 2013)

Elizabeth Reddin, The Hot Garment of Love Is Insecure (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2007)

Roger Reeves, King Me (Copper Canyon Press, 2013)

Matthew Shenoda, Somewhere Else (Coffee House Press, 2005)

            Season of Lotus, Season of Bone (BOA Editions, 2009)

            Tahrir Suite (TriQuarterly Books, 2014)

Laura Sims, Practice, Restraint (Fence Books, 2005)

            Stranger (Fence Books, 2009)

            My God Is This a Man (Fence Books, 2014)

Ed Skoog, Mister Skylight (Copper Canyon Press, 2009)

            Rough Day (Copper Canyon Press, 2013)

Lytton Smith, The All-Purpose Magical Tent (Nightboat Books, 2009)

Susan B. A. Somers-Willett, Roam (Southern Illinois University Press, 2006)

            Quiver (University of Georgia Press, 2009)

Mark Sullivan, Slag (Texas Tech University Press, 2005)

David Tucker, Late for Work (Mariner Books, 2006)

Sally Van Doren, Sex at Noon Taxes (Lousiana State University Press, 2008)

            Possessive (Louisiana State University Press, 2012)

Adam Vines, The Coal Life (University of Arkansas Press, 2012)

Karen Weiser, To Light Out (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010)

Sasha West, Failure and I Bury the Body (Harper Perennial, 2013)

Orlando White, Bone Light (Red Hen Press, 2009)

Marcus Wicker, Maybe the Saddest Thing (Harper Perennial, 2012)

Steve Willard, Harm (University of California Press, 2007)

Karen S. Williams, Elegy for a Scarred Shoulder (Willow Books, 2008)

            Marine Life (Willow Books, 2010)

            Inkster’s Daughter (forthcoming from Willow Books, 2015)

Ronaldo V. Wilson, Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008)

            Poems of the Black Object (Futurepoem Books 2009)

Catherine Wing, Enter Invisible (Sarabande Books, 2005)

            Gin & Bleach (Sarabande Books, 2012)

Angela Veronica Wong, How to Survive a Hotel Fire (Coconut Books, 2012)

Greg Wrenn, Centaur (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013)

Wendy Xu, You Are Not Dead (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2013)