Poetry (magazine)
Poetry (founded as Poetry: A Magazine of Verse) has been published in Chicago since 1912. It is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Founded by poet and arts columnist Harriet Monroe, who built it into an influential publication, it is now published by the Poetry Foundation. In 2007 the magazine had a circulation of 30,000, and printed 300 poems per year out of approximately 100,000 submissions.[1][2] It is sometimes referred to as Poetry—Chicago.
Editor
Harriet Monroe (1912–36)
Morton Dauwen Zabel (1936-37)
George Dillon (1937-42)
(group) (1942-49)
Hayden Carruth (1949-50)
Karl Shapiro (1950-55)
Henry Rago (1955-69)
Daryl Hine (1969-77)
John Frederick Nims (1978–83)
Joseph Parisi (1983-2003)
Christian Wiman (2003-2013)
Don Share (2013-2020)
(guest editors) (2020-2022)
Poetry
Ten times annually
30,000
October 1912
United States
English
Poetry has been financed since 2003 with a $200 million bequest from philanthropist and Lilly heiress, Ruth Lilly.
Controversial article by John Barr[edit]
In September 2006, the magazine published an essay by John Barr, then president of the Poetry Foundation (2003–13), titled "American Poetry in the New Century," which became controversial, generating many complaints and some support. After having heard a talk Barr gave on the subject, Wiman had asked Barr to submit it to the magazine.[1]
"American poetry is ready for something new because our poets have been writing in the same way for a long time now. There is fatigue, something stagnant about the poetry being written today," Barr wrote. He added that poetry is nearly absent from public life, and poets too often write with only other poets in mind, failing to write for a greater public. Although M.F.A. programs have expanded greatly, the result has been more poetry but also more limited variety. He wrote that poetry has become "neither robust, resonant, nor — and I stress this quality — entertaining."[1]
Barr suggested that poets get experience outside the academy. "If you look at drama in Shakespeare's day, or the novel in the last century, or the movie today, it suggests that an art enters its golden age when it is addressed to and energized by the general audiences of its time."[1]
Dana Goodyear, in an article in The New Yorker reporting and commenting on Poetry magazine and The Poetry Foundation, wrote that Barr's essay was directly counter to the ideas of the magazine's founder, Harriet Monroe, eight decades before. In a 1922 editorial, Monroe wrote about newspaper verse: "These syndicated rhymers, like the movie-producers, are learning that it pays to be good, [that one] gets by giving the people the emotions of virtue, simplicity and goodness, with this program paying at the box-office." Monroe wanted to protect poets from the demands of popular taste, Goodyear wrote, while Barr wants to induce poets to appeal to the public. Goodyear acknowledged that popular interest in poetry has collapsed since the time of Monroe's editorial.[1]
Wiman has said he agrees with many of Barr's points about contemporary poetry.[1]
Awards[edit]
In 2011, and in 2014, Poetry won National Magazine Awards for General Excellence.[19][20][21]