If you’re interested in poetry but aren’t sure which poetry books to read, you’re not alone. Few publications publish reviews of poetry collections, so where exactly are poems hiding?

If you’re just starting out as a poetry ready, you may want to begin by perusing lists. Want the greatest hits? Try literary awards lists and lists of Poet Laureates. Want recommendations from poetry communities? Look through the websites of major poetry organizations or magazines. Hoping to identify poets whose work you’d like to read in greater depth? Try anthologies. And you can always look out for reviews of poetry collections. Here are some great places to start:

Awards Lists

National Book Awards winners in poetry
Pulitzer Prize winners in poetry
Kingsley Tufts Poetry Awards winners and finalists
Lannan Prize in poetry winners 

Wallace Stevens Award winners
Ruth Lilly Award winners
United States Poet Laureates
Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist webpage

Poetry Communities, Organizations, and Magazines

Poetry Foundation
Poetry Society of America
Academy of American Poets
Center for African American Poetry and Poetics
The Margins Poetry
Poetry Magazine

Poem-A-Day
American Poetry Review
Cantomundo
Split This Rock poetry database
Cave Canem

Anthologies

Brooklyn Poets Anthology edited by Jason Koo and Joe Pan
The World in Us edited by Elena Georgiou and Michael Lassell
The FSG Book of Twentieth Century Latin American Poetry edited by Ilan Stavans
99 Poems in Translation edited by Harold Pinter, Anthony Astbury, Geoffrey Godbert
The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop edited by Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, & Nate Marshall

The Norton Anthology of Poetry edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy
Bettering American Poetry series
World Poetry: an Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time edited by Katharine Washburn and John S. Majors
The Vintage Book of African American Poetry edited by Michael Harper and Anthony Walton
Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color edited by Christopher Soto

Unsettling America edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan
Innovative Women Poets edited by Elisabeth Frost and Cynthia Hogue
Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation edited by Victoria Chang
Best New Poets 2017 edited by Natalie Diaz
¡Manteca! : an anthology of Afro-Latin@ poets edited by Melissa Castillo-Garsow
The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology edited by Nathalie Handal

Publications with Poetry Reviews

The New York Review of Books
Los Angeles Review of Books
The New York Times
American Book Review

Valparaiso Poetry Review
West Branch
The New Yorker

We also have an entire NYPL blog channel dedicated to Poetry Month, and you can regularly find ways to explore poetry on the NYPL blog. We also suggest listening to librarians read some of their favorite poems in the 30 Days of Poetry series, browsing poetry lists like 5 Poems to Read Aloud for All Ages, and listening to talks with poets like John Ashbery, Timothy Donnelly, and Adam Fitzgerald.
 

Other topics in the Inside Poetry series:

• What Is Poetry, Anyway? 
• What are the Different Types of Poetry? 
• How Should I Read Poems Out Loud?
• What is the Anatomy of a Poem?