Year-End Lists

Chicago Review of Books: 12 Best Poetry Books of 2016

[see also 2018 • 2017]

1. Thief in the Interior
   Phillip B. Williams
2. Poems

   New and Selected
   Ron Rash
3. Ghost County
   John McCarthy
4. Popular Music
   Kelly Schirmann
5. Night-Sky Checkerboard
   Oh Sae-young
6. The Black Maria
   Aracelis Girmay
7. 1989, The Number
   Kevin Coval and Nate Marshall
8. The Secret Birds
   Tony Fitzpatrick
9. child in a winter house brightening
   Abigail Zimmer
10. Unbearable Splendor
    Sun Yung Shin
11. Meditations of a Beast
    Kristine Ong Muslim
12. Cattle of the Lord
    Rosa Alice Branco

E. Ce Miller: 12 Best Poetry Collections of 2016, as published by Bustle

[see also 2018 • 2017]

• Look
  Solmaz Sharif
• Night Sky With Exit Wounds
  Ocean Vuong
• Measures of Expatriation
  Vahni Capildeo
• The Performance of Becoming Human
  Daniel Borzutzky
• Falling Awake
  Alice Oswald
• Let Them Eat Chaos
  Kate Tempest
• Bestiary
  Donika Kelly
• American Anger

  An Evidentiary
  H.L. Hix
• Rapture
  Sjohnna McCray
• Sunshine
  Melissa Lee-Houghton
• Violet Energy Ingots
  Hoa Nguyen
• The Remedies
  Katharine Towers

John Freeman: 10 Best Poetry Books of 2016, as published by The Boston Globe

• Odes
  Sharon Olds
• Night
  Etel Adnan
• Blue Laws

  Selected and Uncollected Poems, 1995-2015
  Kevin Young
• White Blight
  Athena Farrokhzad
• The Black Maria
  Aracelis Girmay
• House of Lords and Commons
  Ishion Hutchinson
• Olio
  Tyehimba Jess
• The Little Edges
  Fred Moten
• Look
  Solmaz Sharif
• Night Sky With Exit Wounds
  Ocean Vuong

Publishers Weekly: 5 Best Poetry Books of 2016

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2012]

1. The Black Maria
   Aracelis Girmay
2. Look
   Solmaz Sharif
3. Olio
   Tyehimba Jess
4. ShallCross
   C.D. Wright
5. So Much Synth
   Brenda Shaughnessy

Library Journal: 5 Best Poetry Books of 2016

[see also 2021 • 2020 • 2019]

1. House of Lords and Commons
   Ishion Hutchinson
2. Olio
   Tyehimba Jess
3. Incidents of Travel in Poetry

   New and Selected Poems
   Frank Lima
4. ShallCross
   C.D. Wright
5. Night Sky With Exit Wounds
   Ocean Vuong

David Orr: 10 Best Poetry Books of 2016, as published by The New York Times

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015]

• Night
  Etel Adnan
• A Pillow Book
  Suzanne Buffam
• Bestiary
  Donika Kelly
• The After Party
  Jana Prikryl
• Works & Days
  Bernadette Mayer
• Blue Laws

  Selected and Uncollected Poems, 1995-2015
  Kevin Young
• So Much Synth
  Brenda Shaughnessy
• All The Poems

  Stevie Smith
  Stevie Smith
• Blackacre
  Monica Youn
• Solarium
  Jordan Zandi

Dennis Cooper: 23 Favorite Poetry Books of 2016 (“in no order”)

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2012]

• Two Teenagers
  John Colasacco
• Overpour
  Jane Wong
• Safe Space
  Jos Charles
• The Song Of The Dead
  Pierre Reverdy
• Avant Gauze
  Christine Friedlander
• Commotion of the Birds

  New Poems
  John Ashbery
• Calamities
  Renee Gladman
• In the Empire of the Air

  The Poems of Donald Britton
  Donald Britton
• George Washington

  Poems
  Adam Fitzgerald
• Olio
  Tyehimba Jess
• Witch Hunt
  Juliet Escoria
• Cheer Up, Femme Fatal
  Kim Yideum
• Poem Without Suffering
  Josef Kaplan
• Certain Magical Acts
  Alice Notley
• Alien Weaving
  Will Alexander
• Night Sky With Exit Wounds
  Ocean Vuong
• The City Keeps

  Selected and New Poems 1966-2014
  John Godfrey
• Burn Book
  Felix Bernstein
• Come In Alone
  Anselm Berrigan
• Shorthand and Electric Language Stars
  Stephanie Gray
• Invisible Oligarchs
  Bill Berkson
• Marys of the Sea
  Joanna C Valente
• The Age of Reasons

  Uncollected Poems 1969–1982
  Ted Greenwald

Michael Robbins: 4 Best Poetry Books of 2016, as published by The Chicago Tribune

[see also 2018 • 2017 • 2012]

• Works & Days
  Bernadette Mayer
• A Woman of Property
  Robyn Schiff
• Still Dirty
  David Lau
• The White Stones
  J.H. Prynne

Dan Chiasson: 8 Best Poetry Books of 2016, as published by The New Yorker

[see also 2018 • 2017 • 2015]

• A Woman of Property
  Robyn Schiff
• Gap Gardening
  Rosmarie Waldrop
• Collected Poems

  1950-2012
  Adrienne Rich
• The After Party
  Jana Prikryl
• Night Sky With Exit Wounds
  Ocean Vuong
• Falling Awake
  Alice Oswald
• House of Lords and Commons
  Ishion Hutchinson
• Envelope Poems
  Emily Dickinson

Elizabeth Lund: 5 Best Poetry Collections of 2016, as published by The Washington Post

[see also 2018 • 2017 • 2015]

• Blackacre
  Monica Youn
• Blue Laws

  Selected and Uncollected Poems, 1995-2015
  Kevin Young
• Garden Time
  W.S. Merwin
• Look
  Solmaz Sharif
• ShallCross
  C.D. Wright