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 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 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