Published on September 15, 2009

150 Books for 150 Years of Statehood

written by Staff

In celebration of Oregon’s sesquicentennial anniversary, Poetry Northwest and the Oregon State Library are announcing your nominated list of 150 outstanding Oregon poetry books — one for each year of statehood. The Oregon Poetry 150 books range in style and subject matter, and include poets both well-known and newly emerging — and this grass-roots list has been entirely created by poetry readers from throughout the state.

Author	Title	Publishing Information
*Multiple Authors	Fierce Brightness: 25 Years of Women’s Poetry	Calyx Press, 2000
*Multiple Authors	Raising Our Voices: An Anthology of Oregon Poets Against the War	Habit of Rainy Nights Press, 2003
*Multiple Authors	From Here We Speak: An Anthology of Oregon Poetry	Oregon State University Press, 1994
*Multiple Authors	Deer Drink the Moon: Poems of Oregon	Ooligan Press, 2007
Alexie, Sherman	The Summer of Black Widows	Hanging Loose Press, 1996
Ande, Jan Lee	Reliquary	Texas Review Press, 2003
Andrews, Ginger	Hurricane Sisters	Story Line Press, 2004
Averill, Diane	For All That Remains	Fir Tree Press, 2008
Averill, Diane	Beautiful Obstacles	Blue Light Press of Iowa, 1999
Bailey, Jane	The Fine Art of Postponement	National Federation of State Poetry Societies Press, 2002
Bakken, Dick	Dick Bakken: Greatest Hits	Pudding House Publications, 2005
Barnard, Mary	Collected Poems	Breitenbush Publications, 1979
Barrington, Judith	Horses and the Human Soul	Story Line Press, 2004
Barrington, Judith	History and Geography	The Eighth Mountain Press 1989
Biespiel, David	Wild Civility	University of Washington Press, 2003
Biespiel, David	The Book of Men and Women	University of Washington Press, 2009
Braucher, Karen	Sending Messages Over Inconceivable Distances	The Bacchae Press, 2000
Bremer, Tom	Just Once	Lynx House Press, 2001
Broumas, Olga	Beginning With O	Yale University Press, 1977
Carlile, Henry	Rain	Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1994
Carlile, Henry	Running Lights	Dragon Gate, 1981
Carver, Raymond	All Of Us: Collected Poems	Knopf, 2000
Chin, Marilyn	Rhapsody in Plain Yellow	W.W. Norton & Co., 2002
Costanzo, Gerald	Nobody Lives on Arther Godfrey Boulevard	BOA Editions, 1992
Crawford, Tom	Lauds	Cedar House Books, 1993
Crawford, Tom	If It Weren’t for Trees	Lynx House Press, 1987
Curran, Michael Patrick	Songs from the Evening Land	Vespertine Independent Press, 2001
Currin, Jen	Hagiography	Coach House Books, 2008
Curtis, Walt	Rhymes for Alice Bluelight	Eastern Washington University Press, 1984
Daniel, John	Common Ground	Confluence Press, 1988
Dankleff, Richard	Westerns	OSU Press, 1984
DeFrees, Madeline	Blue Dusk	Copper Canyon, 2001
DeFrees, Madeline	Spectral Waves	Copper Canyon, 2006
Derry, Alice	Stages of Twilight	Breitenbush, 1986
Derry, Alice	Strangers to Their Courage	Louisiana University Press, 2001
Dickman, Matthew	All-American Poem	American Poetry Review, 2008
Dickman, Michael	The End of the West	Copper Canyon, 2009
Doubiago, Sharon	Hard Country	West End Press, 1982
Drake, Barbara	Bees in Wet Weather	Canoe Press, 1992
Drake, Barbara	What We Say to Strangers	Breitenbush Books, 1986
Edmo, Ed	These Few Words of Mine	Blue Cloud Quarterly Press, 1985
Euwer, Anthony	Rhymes of Our Valley	James P Bond New York, 1916
Favilla, Candice	Cups	University of Georgia Press, 1992
Favilla, Candice	Things That Ease Despair	Custom Words, 2005
Fleming, Geranna	Starting With Coquille: Poems	Prescott Street Press, 1978
Fleming, James	You Wouldn’t Know Us	Press-22, 1975
Gale, Vi	Clearwater	Swallow Press, 1974
Gale, Vi	Odd Flowers and Short-Eared Owls	Prescott Street Press, 1984
Glazer, Jane	Some Trick of Light	Adrienne Lee Press, 1993
Glazer, Michele	Aggregate of Disturbances	University of Iowa Press, 2004
Glazer, Michele	It Is Hard to Look at What We Came to Think We’d Come to See	University of Pittsburg Press, 1999
Goodrich, Charles	Insects of South Corvallis	Cloudbank Books, 2003
Grabill, James	An Indigo Scent After the Rain	Lynx House Press, 2003
Grabill, James	Poem Rising Out of the Earth	Lynx House Press, 1994
Gray, Kate	Another Sunset We Survive	Cedar House Books, 2007
Haislip, John	Seal Rock	Barnwood Press, 1986
Hall, Hazel	The Collected Poems of Hazel Hall	Oregon State University Press, 2000
Halme, Kathleen	Drift & Pulse	Carnege-Mellon University Press, 2007
Hanson, Kenneth	The Uncorrected World	Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1973
Hanson, Kenneth	The Distance Anywhere	Univ. of Washington Press, 1967
Harp, Jerry	Urban Flowers, Concrete Plains	Salt Publishing, 2006
Henderson, Donna	The Eddy Fence	Airlie Press, 2009
Holmberg, Karen	The Perseids	University of North Texas Press, 2001
Hongo, Garrett	The River of Heaven	Knopf, 1988
Howell, Christopher	Light’s Ladder	Univ. of Washington, 2004
Hughes, Henry	Men Holding Eggs	Mammoth Books, 2004
Hummer, TR	Walt Whitman in Hell	Louisiana University Press, 1996
Inada, Lawson	Legends From Camp	Coffee House Press, 1983
Kaplan, Dan	Bill’s Formal Complaint	The National Poetry Review Press, 2008
Killean, Ger	Signs Following	Parlor Press, 2005
Koglin, Oz Hopkins	Gardens for Everyone	Self-Published, 2008
Kwang, Casey	Copia	Pinball Publishing, 2002
Kwang, Casey	On Blue Felix Paper	Wellstone Press, 1999
Lamb, Jessica	Last Apples of Late Empires	Airlie Press, 2009
Lark, Gary	Men at the Gates	Finishing Line Press, 2007
Laux, Dorianne	Facts About the Moon	W.W. Norton, 2007
Le Guin, Ursula K.	Going Out with Peacocks	Harper Collins, 1994
Marx, Doug	Sufficiency	PUBLICATION INFO, 1994
McBridge, Dennis	Killing the Mockingbird	Quiet Lion Press, 2000
McGriff, Michael	Dismantling the Hills	University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008
McPherson, Sandra	The Year of Our Birth	Ecco Press, 1978
Miranda, Gary	Listeners in the Breathing Place	Princeton Contemporary Poets Series, 1978
Memmott, David	The Larger Earth	Permeable Press, 1996
Merchant, Paul	Some Business of Affinity	Five Seasons Press, 2006
Millar, Joseph	Overtime	Eastern Washington University Press, 2001
Millar, Joseph	Fortune	Eastern Washington University Press, 2007
Montgomery, Judith	Passion	Defined Providence Press, 1999
Montoya, Andrés	The Iceworker Sings	Bilingual Press, 1999
Nettlebeck, F.A.	Bug Death	Alcatraz Editions, 1979
Norlen, Sherron	Entomologist’s Dreambook	Protean Press, 1998
Orr, Verlena	Break in the Cloud Cover	Howlett Press, 2005
Pavlich, Walter	Theories of Birds and Water	Owl Creek Press, 1990
Petersen, Paulann	Bride of Narrow Escape	Cloudbank Books, 2006
Petersen, Paulann	Kindle	Mountains & Rivers Press, 2008
Prelutsky, Jack	The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders	HarperCollins, 2005
Rafael, Dan	Molecular Jam	Jazz Police Books, 1996
Ramsey, Jarold	Love in an Earthquake	University of Washington Press, 1973
Reyes, Carlos	Suitcase Full of Crows	Bluestem Press, 1995
Reyes, Carlos	At the Edge of the Western Wave	Lost Horse Press, 2004
Root, Judith	Weaving the Sheets	Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1988
Runciman, Lex	The Admirations	Lynx House Press, 2006
Runciman, Lex	Out of Town	Cloudbank Books, 2004
Rutsala, Vern	Selected Poems	Story Line Press, 1991
Rutsala, Vern	The Moment’s Equation	Ashland Poetry Press, 2004
Salisbury, Ralph	War in the Genes	Cherry Grove, 2006
Scambly Schott, Penelope	A Is for Anne: Mistress Hutchinson Disturbs the Commonwealth	Turning Point, 2007
Scates, Maxine	Toluca Street	Pittsburgh, 1989
Scates, Maxine	Black Loam	WordTech Communications, 2005
Sears, Peter	Tour: New and Collected Poems	Breitenbush Books, 1987
Sears, Peter	The Brink	Gibbs Smith, 2000
Selker, Michael	Crazies’ Bus Stop	Pudding House Publications, 2007
Shaw, BT	This Dirty Little Heart	Eastern Washington University Press, 2008
Shugrue, Jim	Small Things Screaming	26 Books, 1995
Siegel, Scot	Some Weather	Plain View Press, 2008
Siverly, Bill	The Turn	Windfall Press, 2000
Skach-Mills, David	The Tao of Now	KenArnoldBooks, 2008
Skloot, Floyd	The Evening Light	Story Line Press, 2001
Skloot, Floyd	Approximately Paradise	Tupelo Press, 2005
Smario, Tom	Notes of a Cornerman	Peninhand Press, 2000
Snyder, Gary	Dangers on Peaks	Shoemaker Hoard, 2004
Spring, Michael	Mudsong	Pygmy Forest Press, 2005
St. John, Primus	Dreamer	Carnegie Publishing, 1990
St. John, Primus	Communion	Copper Canyon Press, 1999
Stafford, Kim	A Thousand Friends of Rain: New & Selected Poems	Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1999
Stafford, William	Traveling Through the Dark	Harper & Row, 1962
Starck, Clemens	China Basin	Story Line Press, 2001
Starck, Clemens	Journeyman’s Wages	Story Line Press, 1995
Stark, Clemens	Studying Russian on Company Time	Silverfish Review Press, 1995
Steinman, Lisa	All That Comes to Light	Arrowood Books, 1989
Steinman, Lisa	Carslaw’s Sequences	University of Tampa Press, 2003
Stone, Sandra	Cocktails with Brueghel at the Museum Café	Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1997
Szybist, Mary	Granted	Alice James Books, 2003
Talney, Ron	The Anxious Ground	Press-22, 1974
Turner, Brian	Here, Bullet	Alice James Books, 2005
Venn, George	West of Paradise	Ice River Press, 1999
Waterston, Ellen	Between Desert Seasons	Wordcraft of Oregon, 2008
Wendt, Ingrid	Singing the Mozart Requiem	Far Corner Books, 1987
Willey, Dale H.	The Tin Box Papers and Other Poems	Oregon Sunrise Press, 2001
Williams, Crystal	Kin	Michigan State University Press, 2000
Williams, Crystal	Lunatic	Michigan State University Press, 2002
Williams, Sandra	Detours	Trask House, 1995
Winch, Carolyn	High Desert Haiku	Stumptown Printers, 2003
Winter, Laura	Coming Here to Be Alone	Mountains and Rivers Press, 2008
Witte, John	The Hurtling	Orchises Press, 2005
Witte, John	Second Nature	University of Washington Press, 2008
Wood, C.E.S.	Collected Poems of Charles Erskine Wood, ed. Sara Bard Field	Vanguard Press, 1949
Woody, Elizabeth	Seven Hands, Seven Hearts	The Eighth Mountain Press, 1994
Woody, Elizabeth	Hand In Stone	Contact II Publications, 1988
Yurdana, Matt	Public Gestures	University of Tampa Press, 2005