A ‘best of’ list of 2013 Canadian poetry books

I recently posted my third annual 'best of' list over at the dusie blog. What is this “best” that you speak of, and how does one measure? I’ve always taken such lists (including award shortlists) as not a suggestion of what to read, but a suggestion of what else to read.

In no particular order, here is a list of twenty Canadian poetry titles published in 2013 that I think require further attention: Jay MillAr, Timely Irreverence; Gregory Betts, This Is Importance: A Student’s Guide to Literature; David Dowker and Christine Stewart, Virtualis: Topologies of the Unreal; Jon Paul Fiorentino, Needs Improvement; Shane Rhodes, X: Poems & Anti-Poems; Margaret Christakos, Multitudes; Sandra Ridley, The Counting House; Sadiqa de Meijer, Leaving Howe Island; Jordan Abel, the place of scraps; Dennis Cooley, the stones; Peter Culley, Parkway; Larissa Lai and Rita Wong, Sybil Unrest; Phil Hall, The Small Nouns Crying Faith; Kim Minkus, Tuft; Paul Zits, Massacre Street; Stephen Collis, To the Barricades; Daphne Marlatt, Liquidities: Vancouver Poems Then and Now; Shannon Maguire, fur(l) parachute; Jenna Butler, seldom seen road; and Sylvia Legris, Pneumatic Antiphonal.