Today the PEN Poetry Series busts out the noisemakers and tissues and sends up a wail of booming thanks and gratitude to poets TC Tolbert, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Brian Blanchfield. Each of these poets worked tirelessly as guest editors of the series over the past year and helped PEN America and series editor Danniel Schoonebeek feature work from some of the most thrilling poets writing today. This was PEN America’s fourth team of guest editors, carrying on a tradition that has featured Cathy Park Hong, Heather Christle, Robert FernandezC.D. WrightMaggie NelsonShane McCraeBen MirovAmy King, and Ana Božičević

With red, swollen eyes and many sobs, we want to extend a huge thanks to each of these editors. Without their dedication to poetry and the literary community, the PEN Poetry Series would not and could not be what it is today. 

Stay tuned for further announcements about our new guest editors and upcoming events. 

Featured work by series guest editors, along with interviews:

from Word Problems – TC Tolbert
Three Questions with TC Tolbert

from Good Stock – Dawn Lundy Martin
Three Questions with Dawn Lundy Martin

On Reset – Brian Blanchfield
Three Questions with Brian Blanchfield

Features selected by guest editors and series editor:

Two Poems – Christopher Salerno
Two Poems – Amber Atiya
The Rain Will Not Prepare You – Kelly Schirmann
from Vincent – Joseph Fasano
Sunlight – Shane McCrae
from The Somnambulist – Lara Mimosa Montes
from Weirde Sister – James Gendron
Two Poems – Abdellatif Laâbi (trans. André Nafifs-Sahely)
Two Poems – Mark Cugini
for mike brown – Fatimah Asghar
Two Poems – Rebecca Wolff
Two Poems – Karen An-hwei Lee
The Alien Crown – Lo Kwa Mei-en
Turnt – Juliana Spahr
Two Poems – Morgan Parker
Two Poems – Ben Mirov
Pledge of Allegiance – Christopher Kempf
Buzkashi – Diana Khoi Nguyen
Baltics – Tomas Tranströmer
Two Poems – Jay Deshpande
Two Poems – M. NourbeSe Philip
Six Poems – Lucas de Lima
from Explosion Rocks Springfield – Rodrigo Toscano
Replacement Songs – Barbara Claire Freeman
Bee Alliance – CAConrad
Four Poems – Duriel E. Harris
from Motion Studies – Jena Osman
After the Cameras Leave, In Three Parts – Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
Two Poems – Arielle Greenberg
from Recollections of a Face – Karen Lepri
Snow/Electricity – Luis Chaves (trans. Julia Elizabeth Guez and Samantha Zighelboim)
I Hate Uniforms – Kim Yi-deum (trans. Jiyoon Lee ,  Don Mee Choi ,  Johannes Göransson)
Two Poems – Molly Rose Quinn
Just As I As – Douglas Kearney
Two Poems – Erica Hunt
from The New York Editions – Michael D. Snediker
Beauty Ditch – CL Young
Two Poems – Carmen Gimenéz Smith
Four Poems – Matt Longabucco
Material – Isabel Sobral Campos
from All Along It Was a Fever—a what poem – Ed Pavlić
Two Poems – Robert Ostrom
Five Poems – Hannah Ensor
Two Poems – Justin Phillip Reed
Two Poems – Kate Colby
A Brief Account of Several Art Events and Other Horrifying Experiences – Luis Felipe Fabre
Two Poems – Javier Zamora
I Want So Desperately to be Finished With Desire – Sam Sax
Everyone is a Little Trans – Trace Peterson
from IRL – Tommy Pico
Four Poems – Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Five Poems – Steven Alvarez
from The Immanent Field – Michael Martin Shea
Five Poems – Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
Four Poems – Francine J. Harris
Reading Tsvetaeva on Father’s Day – Chase Berggrun
Scrambled Eggs – Alli Warren
Five Poems – Danez Smith
Testimony Over Tape Recorder – EJ Koh
Toward the Great Unity – Sarah V. Schweig
from The Sissies – Evan Kennedy
Four Poems – Lily Clifford
Conditions – Jen Hofer
Mon Cœur Mis En Trope #1 – Mara Lee (trans. Elizabeth Clark Wessel)
Two Poems – Laura-Eve Engel
Five Poems – Feliz Lucia Molina
Three Poems – Jos Charles
Three Poems – Lindsay Turner
Two Poems – Nicole Callihan
You Surround Me – Chris Nealon
Calling the Water – Tyler Brewington
What Would Be Up – Samuel Ace
Four Poems – Gala Mukomolova
from Young Americans – Jackqueline Frost
Elegy for the Police State – Joshua Bennett
You Are Already Doing It – Emily Kendal Frey
from My Heart but not My Heart – Stephanie Cawley
Etymology – Ida Börjel (trans. Jennifer Hayashida)

 

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