Year-End Lists

Maggie Smith: Top 10 Poetry Books of 2021, as published by Whittier Daily News

1. The Blues of Heaven
   Barbara Ras
2. Philomath
   Devon Walker-Figueroa
3. frank

   sonnets
   Diane Seuss
4. The Echo Chamber
   Michael Bazzett
5. Such Color

   New and Selected Poems
   Tracy K. Smith
6. Popular Longing
   Natalie Shapero
7. The Life
   Carrie Fountain
8. I Hope This Finds You Well
   Kate Baer
9. Pilgrim Bell
   Kaveh Akbar
10. Dialogues with Rising Tides
    Kelli Russell Agodon

Electric Lit: Favorite Poetry Collections of 2021

[see also 2023 • 2022]

• Pilgrim Bell
  Kaveh Akbar
• The Renunciations
  Donika Kelly

Other favorites in alphabetical order

• The Wild Fox of Yemen
  Threa Almontaser
• Doppelgangbanger
  Cortney Lamar Charleston
• Hoarders
  Kate Durbin
• Sho
  Douglas Kearney
• My Darling from the Lions
  Rachel Long
• Black Girl, Call Home
  Jasmine Mans
• The Sunflower Cast a Spell To Save Us From The Void
  Jackie Wang
• How to Not Be Afraid of Everything
  Jane Wong

Library Journal: Best Poetry of 2021

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2020 • 2019 • 2016]

• Pilgrim Bell
  Kaveh Akbar
• The Wild Fox of Yemen
  Threa Almontaser
• Vertigo & Ghost
  Fiona Benson
• Floaters
  Martín Espada
• Winter Recipes from the Collective
  Louise Glück
• Tethered to Stars
  Fady Joudah
• The Renunciations
  Donika Kelly
• Double Trio

  Tej Bet, So's Notice, Nerve Church
  Nathaniel Mackey
• A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure
  Hoa Nguyen
• Stones
  Kevin Young

Elisa Gabbert: The Best Poetry of 2021, as published by The New York Times

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2020]

• Blood on the Fog
  Tongo Eisen-Martin
• Little Elegies for Sister Satan
  Michael Palmer
• Love and Other Poems
  Alex Dimitrov
• Returning the Sword to the Stone
  Mark Leidner
• The Sunflower Cast a Spell To Save Us From The Void
  Jackie Wang
• The Vault
  Andrés Cerpa
• Wings in Time
  Callie Garnett

New York Public Library: Best Poetry of 2021

[see also 2020 • 2019]

• Doppelgangbanger
  Cortney Lamar Charleston
• Extremely Lightweight Guns
  Nikki Moustaki
• frank

  sonnets
  Diane Seuss
• If God Is a Virus
  Seema Yasmin
• Mama Phife Represents
  Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
• Oh You Robot Saints!
  Rebecca Morgan Frank
• The Perseverance
  Raymond Antrobus
• Popular Longing
  Natalie Shapero
• Transversal
  Urayoán Noel
• What Noise Against the Cane
  Desiree C. Bailey

The Boston Globe: The Best Poetry of 2021

[see also 2020]

• Against Silence
  Frank Bidart
• All This Time
  Cedar Sigo
• Ceive
  B.K. Fischer
• Doppelgangbanger
  Cortney Lamar Charleston
• Even Shorn
  Isabel Duarte-Gray
• frank

  sonnets
  Diane Seuss
• Gentefication
  Antonio de Jesús López
• The Glass Constellation

  New and Collected Poems
  Arthur Sze
• Heard-Hoard
  Atsuro Riley
• The Last Thing

  New & Selected Poems
  Patrick Rosal
• Late Human
  Jean Day
• Little Pharma
  Laura Kolbe
• Mutiny
  Phillip B. Williams
• Parallel Movement of the Hands

  Five Unfinished Longer Works
  John Ashbery
• The Past
  Wendy Xu
• Playlist for the Apocalypse
  Rita Dove
• Popular Longing
  Natalie Shapero
• Sho
  Douglas Kearney
• Spilled and Gone
  Jessica Greenbaum
• The Sunflower Cast a Spell To Save Us From The Void
  Jackie Wang

National Book Award: Poetry 2021

[see also 2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2013]

Winner

• Floaters
  Martín Espada

Finalists

• What Noise Against the Cane
  Desiree C. Bailey
• Sho
  Douglas Kearney
• A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure
  Hoa Nguyen
• The Sunflower Cast a Spell To Save Us From The Void
  Jackie Wang

Longlist

• The Wild Fox of Yemen
  Threa Almontaser
• Ghost Letters
  Baba Badji
• Master Suffering
  CM Burroughs
• The Vault
  Andrés Cerpa
• Twice Alive
  Forrest Gander

Publishers Weekly: Best Poetry Books of 2021

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

• The Essential June Jordan
  June Jordan
• frank

  sonnets
  Diane Seuss
• Playlist for the Apocalypse
  Rita Dove
• The Sunflower Cast a Spell To Save Us From The Void
  Jackie Wang
• A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure
  Hoa Nguyen