Required reading: Poetry from Northern California

The San Francisco Bay area has been an active nexus of poets & poetry since at least the mid-20th century, from Kenneth Rexroth & the San Francisco Renaissance... to Allen Ginsberg & the Beats... to the underground poetry performance scene at Cafe Babar & elsewhere in the 1980s... to Youth Speaks, Poetry 4 the People & poetry slam in the 1990s... and many more. Little wonder, then, that there are so many must-read gems in the books by Northern California authors nominated by the Bay Area book reviewers for their annual awards. Nor is it any surprise that so many of the awards are for poetry.

We’ve provided book-buying links for the six nominated collections in the designated poetry category -- a sparkling & varied reading list. The other award categories are also good pointers to poets that belong on your bookshelf: Among the nominees for the translation award is the English translation of selections from Ko Un’s masterwork, Ten Thousand Lives (Maninbo), which we reviewed in January. A special recognition award is being given to June Jordan’s posthumous collection, Directed by Desire, which was one of our Books of the Year in 2005. And the Fred Cody Award for lifetime achievement & contributions to the literary community will go to Diane di Prima this year.

The awards ceremony will be held at the San Francisco Public Library on April 5. Check back here, or at Poetry Flash, for a note on the winners when they are announced.

More poetry book award nominees:
National Book Critics Circle award nominees in poetry, 2005
National Book Award finalists in poetry, 2005