rob’s poetry recommendations;

Since I never got a chance to answer Amanda Earl’s question about poetry recommendations, I thought I should do it here. Two of the best poetry books over the past year that I would more than recommend would be Vancouver writer and filmmaker Colin Browne’s The Shovel (Vancouver BC: Talonbooks, 2008) [see my review of it here], as well as Toronto writer Margaret Christakos’ What stirs (Toronto ON: Coach House Books, 2008) [a review is forthcoming on The Danforth Review]. Why were neither of these on the GG poetry shortlist? Speaking more generally, I would recommend anything by American poet Sarah Manguso; how did she get so damned good?