From the Directory of Poetry Publishers
24th Edition, 2008-2009

One of the things I ask editors in the annual survey form from which this directory of poetry publishers is compiled is to name five poets whom that editor has published recently. Of course there are many ways to measure a poet’s popularity. This is just one of them.

I’ve been compiling this list and calling it the “Sweepstakes” for twenty one years now and each year the list comes out slightly different from the year before. This year, for the first time, there is a tie between Virgil Suarez of Tallahassee, Florida and Lyn Lifshin of Vienna, Virginia. Lifshin held the top spot on this list for almost twenty years until Suarez overtook her a couple of years ago.

As you can see there are four poets tied for second place and four for third place, with one new name on the list from last year -- Jim Daniels.

The frequency curve of statistical distribution continues to reflect the very populism of poetry in this age. The curve is a long, flat one with the poets named most often getting 36 entries apiece out of more than five thousand. As far as this directory and these responses are concerned, no single poet holds the national attention.

--Len Fulton, 2008

The top ten entries go like this:

Rank   Poet   (Entries)

1       Virgil Suarez (36)
1       Lyn Lifshin (36)
2       Billy Collins (15)
2       Albert Goldbarth (15)
2       Bob Hicok (15)
2       Gerald Locklin (15)
3       Jim Daniels (14)
3       Denise Duhamel (14)
3       Walter McDonald (14)
3       W. S. Merwin (14)