5 Books for Poetry Class - A Smattering

1. The Granite Pail - Lorraine Niedecker
2. Gutted - Justin Chin
3. Sleeping with the Dictionary - Harryette Mullins
4. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
5. A handful of current year's chapbook winners

Lahiri's book is a collection of short stories, but I included it because of her use of language and ability to paint a scene - she has a beautiful skill at providing more information than the actual words on the page. I would also like to explore the connection between a collection of short stories and a collection of poems housed in the book as a "book" rather than simply a collection of pieces.

I included the chap books to keep the ideas new, to bridge the gap between workshop work and published work, to review not only classics, but also the fresh voices of poetry.

Each of these books did something amazing for me. I think we have to love what we teach to give the students and the work the benefit of our enthusiasm.