Year-End Lists

BuzzFeed: 16 Best Poetry Books of 2015

[see also 2019 • 2016]

1. Voyage of the Sable Venus

   and Other Poems
   Robin Coste Lewis
2. Oracle
   Cate Marvin
3. Reconnaissance
   Carl Phillips
4. Felicity
   Mary Oliver
5. Application for Release from the Dream
   Tony Hoagland
6. Boy With Thorn
   Rickey Laurentiis
7. Bright Dead Things
   Ada Limón
8. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude
   Ross Gay
9. Notes on the Assemblage
   Juan Felipe Herrera
10. Mistaking Each Other for Ghosts
    Lawrence Raab
11. The Uses of the Body
    Deborah Landau
12. How to Be Drawn
    Terrance Hayes
13. Shipbreaking
    Robin Beth Schaer
14. Wild Hundreds
    Nate Marshall
15. Sentences and Rain
    Elaine Equi
16. My Feelings
    Nick Flynn

The Kansas City Star: 11 Best Poetry Books of 2015

• Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings
  Joy Harjo
• Felicity
  Mary Oliver
• How to Be Drawn
  Terrance Hayes
• The Last Two Seconds
  Mary Jo Bang
• Memories
  Lang Leav
• My Secret Wars of 1984
  Dennis Etzel Jr
• Report to the Department of the Interior
  Diane Glancy
• Scattered at Sea
  Amy Gerstler
• A Small Story about the Sky
  Alberto Ríos
• Twelve Clocks
  Julie Sophia Paegle
• War of the Foxes
  Richard Siken

Elizabeth Lund: 5 Best Poetry Collections of 2015, as published by The Washington Post

[see also 2018 • 2017 • 2016]

• Application for Release from the Dream
  Tony Hoagland
• The Emperor of Water Clocks
  Yusef Komunyakaa
• Heaven
  Rowan Ricardo Phillips
• Notes on the Assemblage
  Juan Felipe Herrera
• Scattered at Sea
  Amy Gerstler

David Orr: 10 Best Poetry Books of 2015, as published by The New York Times

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016]

• The Last Two Seconds
  Mary Jo Bang
• Turning into Dwelling
  Christopher Gilbert
• Prodigal

  New and Selected Poems, 1976 to 2014
  Linda Gregerson
• A Stranger’s Mirror

  New and Selected Poems, 1994-2014
  Marilyn Hacker
• Far-Fetched
  Devin Johnston
• Syllabus of Errors
  Troy Jollimore
• Voyage of the Sable Venus

  and Other Poems
  Robin Coste Lewis
• Bright Dead Things
  Ada Limón
• Oracle
  Cate Marvin
• Mistaking Each Other for Ghosts
  Lawrence Raab

Jonathon Sturgeon: 8 Best Poetry Books of 2015, as published by Flavorwire

• I Must Be Living Twice

  New and Selected Poems 1975 – 2014
  Eileen Myles
• From the New World

  Poems 1976-2014
  Jorie Graham
• Heaven
  Rowan Ricardo Phillips
• Selected Later Poems
  C.K. Williams
• Voyage of the Sable Venus

  and Other Poems
  Robin Coste Lewis
• The Last Two Seconds
  Mary Jo Bang
• Black Cat Bone
  John Burnside
• Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude
  Ross Gay

Dennis Cooper: 23 Favorite Poetry Books of 2015

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2012]

• Scattered at Sea
  Amy Gerstler
• Sentences and Rain
  Elaine Equi
• I Must Be Living Twice

  New and Selected Poems 1975 – 2014
  Eileen Myles
• Fantasy
  Ben Fama
• Alone and Not Alone
  Ron Padgett
• Bipolar Cowboy
  Noah Cicero
• Breezeway

  New Poems
  John Ashbery
• Salt Is For Curing
  Sonya Vatomsky
• Ban en Banlieue
  Bhanu Kapil
• Supplication

  Selected Poems of John Wieners
  John Wieners
• Skeleton Costumes
  Thomas Moore
• East Hollywood

  Memorial to Reason
  Harry E. Northup
• Veronica Bench
  Leopoldine Core
• War of the Foxes
  Richard Siken
• Eating the Colors of a Lineup of Words

  The Collected Early Books of Bernadette Mayer
  Bernadette Mayer
• Heliopause
  Heather Christle
• The Green Ray
  Corina Copp
• Blue Fasa
  Nathaniel Mackey
• Superior Packets
  Susie Timmons
• Goal/Tender Meat/Tender
  Paul Cunningham
• Benediction
  Alice Notley
• Alien Abduction
  Lewis Warsh
• Fogland
  Mike Krutel

Dan Chiasson: 12 Favorite Poetry Books of 2015, as published by The New Yorker, and also including “books about poets, books of prose by poets, and other marginal cases”

[see also 2018 • 2017 • 2016]

• Prodigal

  New and Selected Poems, 1976 to 2014
  Linda Gregerson
• The Uses of the Body
  Deborah Landau
• Supplication

  Selected Poems of John Wieners
  John Wieners
• The Birth-mark

  unsettling the wilderness in American literary history
  Susan Howe
• Chelsea Girls
  Eileen Myles
• I Must Be Living Twice

  New and Selected Poems 1975 – 2014
  Eileen Myles
• James Merrill

  Life and Art
  Langdon Hammer
• Voyage of the Sable Venus

  and Other Poems
  Robin Coste Lewis
• Breezeway

  New Poems
  John Ashbery
• Solarium
  Jordan Zandi
• On Elizabeth Bishop
  Colm Tóibín
• How to Be Drawn
  Terrance Hayes

Publishers Weekly: Best Poetry Books of 2015

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

• From the New World

  Poems 1976-2014
  Jorie Graham
• How to Be Drawn
  Terrance Hayes
• Voyage of the Sable Venus

  and Other Poems
  Robin Coste Lewis
• I Must Be Living Twice

  New and Selected Poems 1975 – 2014
  Eileen Myles