In celebration of Oregon's sesquicentennial anniversary, Poetry Northwest and the Oregon State Library have named 150 outstanding Oregon poetry books — one for each year of statehood. The hefty list was created with input from poetry readers across the state.
Featuring a mix of established and emerging writers, the list is an impressive show of poetic range. Poetry, it seems, is family-friendly, with blood and love lines threading the directory: father and son William and Kim Stafford; brothers Matthew and Michael Dickman; and husband and wife Ralph Salisbury and Ingrid Wendt.
It's a powerful endeavor, both creating the roster and reading the books, and I'm happy to recognize some of my favorites (Toluca Street by Maxine Scates; Here, Bullet by Brian Turner), and to add the others to my growing list of must-reads.
How about you? Have you read all 150? What are your favorites? Are there missing teeth in this ambitious compilation? I'm eager to know what you think.