The Best American Poetry 2006, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman (general editor), and poet Billy Collins, guest editor.
The volume received some negative reviews. A review in the RATTLE by G. Tod Stone stated that "[w]hat establishment-order literati like Lehman and Collins are succeeding in doing, more than anything else, is keeping American poetry from being the best."
On the other hand, and more positively, James Owens wrote in the Pedestal Review that "[r]eaders who care about poetry need The Best American Poetry 2006. Get it. Read it. Just don’t stop there." ; writing in the Beloit Poetry Journal, Marion K. Stocking, remarked that "If a selection of the poets in Collins’s collection went on the road with their poems they should be reading to packed houses."
Poets and poems included
Poet Poem Publication(s) where poem previously appearedKim Addonizio "Verities" PoetryDick Allen "See the Pyramids Along the Nile" BoulevardCraig Arnold from "Couple from Hell" Barrow StreetJohn Ashbery "A Worldly Country" The New YorkerJesse Ball "Speech in a Chamber" The Paris ReviewKrista Benjamin "Letter from My Ancestors" MargieIlya Bernstein "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" FulcrumGaylord Brewer "Apologia to the Blue Tit" River StyxTom Christopher "Rhetorical Figures" Hayden's Ferry ReviewLaura Cronk "Sestina for the Newly Married" LITCarl Dennis "Our Generation" The Kenyon ReviewStephen Dobyns "Toward Some Bright Moment" American Poetry ReviewDenise Duhamel "Please Don't Sit Like a Frog, Sit Like a Queen" Columbia Poetry ReviewStephen Dunn "The Land of Is" The Georgia ReviewBeth Ann Fennelly "Souvenir" ShenandoahMegan Gannon "List of First Lines" Third CoastAmy Gerstler "For My Niece Sidney, Age Six" American Poetry ReviewSarah Gorham "Bust of a Young Boy in the Snow" Five PointsGeorge Green "The Death of Winckelmann" The New CriterionDebora Greger "My First Mermaid" The Kenyon ReviewEamon Grennan "The Curve" Five PointsDaniel Gutstein "Monsieur Pierre est mort" RhinoR. S. Gwynn from "Sects from A to Z" PoetryRachel Hadas "Bird, Weasel, Fountain" The Cincinnati ReviewMark Halliday "Refusal to Notice Beautiful Women" Michigan Quarterly ReviewJim Harrison "On the Way to the Doctor's" New LettersRobert Hass "The Problem of Describing Color" The New YorkerChristian Hawkey "Hour" CROWDTerrance Hayes "Talk" Gulf CoastBob Hicok "My career as a director" The Gettysburg ReviewKatia Kapovich "The Ferry" Harvard ReviewLaura Kasischke "At Gettysburg" New England ReviewJoy Katz "Just a second ago" The Cincinnati ReviewDavid Kirby "Seventeen Ways from Tuesday" SubtropicsJennifer L. Knox "The Laws of Probability in Levittown" The HatRon Koertge "Found" Iodine Poetry JournalJohn Koethe "Sally's Hair" The Kenyon ReviewMark Kraushaar "Tonight" The Gettysburg ReviewJulie Larios "Double Abecedarian: Please Give Me" The Georgia ReviewDorianne Laux "Demographic" The Alaska Quarterly ReviewReb Livingston "That's Not Butter" MiPoesiasThomas Lux "Eyes Scooped Out and Replaced by Hot Coals" Five PointsPaul Muldoon "Blenheim" Five PointsMarilyn Nelson "Albert Hinckley" The Cincinnati ReviewRichard Newman "Briefcase of Sorrow" Crab Orchard ReviewMary Oliver "The Poet with His Face in His Hands" The New YorkerDanielle Pafunda "Small Town Rocker" The CanaryMark Pawlak "The Sharper the Berry" New American WritingBao Phi "Race" Michigan Quarterly ReviewDonald Platt "Two Poets Meet" Iowa ReviewLawrence Raab "The Great Poem" NightsunBetsy Retallack "Roadside Special" Endicott ReviewLiz Rosenberg "The Other Woman's Point of View" The Kenyon ReviewJ. Allyn Rosser "Discounting Lynn" failbetter.comKay Ryan "Thin" PoetryMary Jo Salter "A Phone Call to the Future" The Georgia ReviewVejay Sheshadri "Memoir" The New YorkerAlan Shapiro "Misjudged Fly Ball" The Cincinnati ReviewCharles Simic "House of Cards" The Virginia Quarterly ReviewGerald Stern "Homesick" EcotoneJames Tate "The Loser" CrazyhorseSue Ellen Thompson "Body English" Connecticut ReviewTony Towle "Misprision" LITAlison Townsend "What I Never Told You About the Abortion" MargiePaul Violi "Counterman" Shiny InternationalEllen Bryant Voigt "Harvesting the Cows" The Kenyon ReviewDavid Wagoner "The Driver" MargieCharles Harper Webb "Prayer to Tear the Sperm-Dam Down" Atlanta ReviewC. K. Williams "Ponies" The Atlantic MonthlyTerence Winch "Sex Elegy" VerseSusan Wood "Gratification" Five PointsFranz Wright "A Happy Thought" FIELDRobert Wrigley "Religion" The Gettysburg ReviewDavid Yezzi "The Call" New England ReviewDean Young "Clam Ode" POOL
See also 2006 in poetry
External links Best American Poetry 2006 Web page Best American Poetry Web site Marion K. Stocking's review in The Beloit Poetry Journal