Great Anthology: Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time

Published in 1988, Gay and Lesbian Poetry In Our Time: An Anthology edited by Carl Morse and Joan Larkin collects nearly one hundred varied and distinct gay and lesbian voices of American culture. The poets represented in this anthology range from a variety of cultural backgrounds including Asian American, Native American, Jewish, Hispanic, and African Americans. Furthermore, the editors have generated a fine mix of both established and emerging poets cover to cover.

In the editors' innovative introduction, set as a conversation, Larkin says "[t]he permissions given by the poems in this book--to experience--to validate one's own deepest feelings, reactions, relationships . . ." as Carl Morse interjects, "One's sanity. We have time and again chosen the poem that gives 'the inside story'--the poem that gives the experience itself, not a report about the experience."

The poems address a variety of themes, personal histories, and stylistic sensibilities. Some of the poets featured include Dorothy Allison, Mark Ameen, W.H. Auden, James Baldwin, Jane Barnes, Frank Bidart, Susan Cavin, Cheryl Clarke, Dennis Cooper, Tatiana de la Tierra, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Judy Grahn, Thom Gunn, Marilyn Hacker, Joy Harjo, Essex Hemphill, Langston Hughes, June Jordan, William Meredith, James Merrill, Honor Moore, Frank O'Hara, Adrienne Rich, and May Swenson.

The World in Us: Lesbian and Gay Poetry of the Next Wave (St. Martin's Press, 2000) a more recent LGBT anthology, edited by Michael Lassell and Elena Georgiou, offers a newer generation of voices. Poets brought together in The World in Us, include Mark Bibbins, Olga Broumas, Cheryl Burke, Rafael Campo, Mark Doty, Eloise Klein Healy, Wayne Kostenbaum, Joan Larkin, Timothy Liu, J.D. McClatchy, Achy Obejas, Carl Phillips, D.A. Powell, Robyn Selman, and Mark Wunderlich.

Morse, Carl, and Joan Larkin, eds. (1988). St. Martins Press.