September 26, 2014
Recently, Associate Professor of English Jane Springer has had one of her poems selected to appear in the 2014 edition of The Best American Poetry. This series is regarded as the most prestigious poetry publication in the United States. Each year, an editor chooses a selection of poems which he or she dubs to be the best representations of that year’s American poetry. The Chigaco Tribune stated that this is “a ‘best’ anthology that really lives up to its name.”
Poet and editor David Lehman founded the series in 1988, and continues to head its publication today. Springer characterized Lehman as a very “Frank O’Hare-like poet.” Lehman is also the editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry, and the author of eight of his poetry anthologies. Each year, a guest editor joins Lehman to aid in selecting the poetry to be included from a number of publications, as well as to contribute to a foreword focusing on the state of contemporary poetry. The role of guest editor has been fulfilled by a wide variety of major American poets. These include such names as John Ashbery, who is generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, and who joined Lehman as his first guest editor in 1988. Other notable guest editors include Mark Doty in 2012, Billy Collins in 2006 and Lyn Hejinian in 2004. This year’s guest editor was Terrance Hayes, a recipient of several honors and awards, including a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship.
Professor Springer commented that “the editor plays a very important role because he gets to choose which poems are considered ‘the best.’ This is what makes the diversity of editors involved in this project so interesting; they will make their selections based partly on personal bias, so an editor like Lyn Hejinian is going to pick poems with different styles and for different reasons than an editor like Terrance Hayes.”
This year, Springer’s poem “Forties War Widows, Stolen Grain” caught Terrance Hayes’ eye. In her author’s comments, published along with The Best American Poetry, she wrote of her poem, “I hoped to acknowledge the women (those in my family as well as through the ages) who clean up what they can in the harrowing wake of wars past and present.”
Springer’s poetry has been recognized with extensive awards and honors, including a Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Writers’ Award and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a McDowell Fellowship. In an author’s statement for the National Endowment for the Arts, Springer described her work as “love letters to the South.” Springer’s debut poetry collection, Dear Blackbird, won the Agha Shahid Ali Prize (University of Utah Press, 2007). Her second collection, Murder Ballad, received the Beatrice Hawley Award (Alice James Press, 2012).
In spite of the attachment to the South, clearly displayed in all of her work, Professor Springer discussed her love of New England and the romance of the changing seasons. She added that she loves to teach poetry and creative writing at Hamilton because of the opportunity it provides to help spread poetry to a wider audience. She spoke about her efforts to bring strong poets onto campus, stating “I believe in bringing poets whose work I love to larger audience readings and workshops here on campus.”
Springer said she is especially excited for C.A. Conrad’s visit to the Hill on Thursday, Sept. 25. Conrad is the author of numerous poetry collections, and his poem “wondering about our demise while driving to Disneyland with abandon” will also be included in this year’s edition of The Best American Poetry.
Currently, Springer is working on a collection of poems called “Albedo,” which will appear in an anthology on Appalachian literature, Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean (Ohio State University Press, 2014).
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