A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker: 1925-2025

I have always admired The New Yorker for its iconic cartoons and illustrations, which never fail to bring wit and charm to its pages. While many of us love flipping through the magazine for its essays, satire, and artwork, the poetry section often doesn’t get the attention it truly deserves—especially when it comes to celebrating these works in book form. However, that is about to change monumentally with the release of A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker: 1925–2025.

This collection is a long-overdue recognition of the magazine’s rich poetic legacy, compiling some of the finest verses ever published in its storied history. For poetry lovers and New Yorker fans alike, it offers a chance to explore a century’s worth of extraordinary work, bringing poetry to the forefront where it belongs.

Poetry often doesn’t receive the recognition it so richly deserves. Yet for those attuned to their inner lives and the rhythms of the universe, poetry becomes a transformative medium—an art form capable of crafting profound, breathtaking expressions that run deep. Over the past century, from 1925 to 2025, The New Yorker magazine has steadfastly championed this timeless craft, providing a platform for some of the greatest poets to share their voices. As a devoted reader, I’ve always cherished the moments when poetry graces its pages, offering insight, emotion, and perspective.

No magazine has captured this interplay of word and art as comprehensively as The New Yorker. For a century, it has been a beacon for some of the finest poetry, offering readers an unparalleled glimpse into the art form’s evolution. With the collection A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker, this legacy is beautifully curated, providing an anthology that will inspire, provoke, and captivate. It is a book you will return to time and again, discovering new layers and insights with every reading—a true celebration of poetry’s timeless power.

For centuries, poetry has been humanity’s most enduring tradition, passed down from one generation to the next, preserving stories, wisdom, and culture. Poetry, in particular, has always held a unique power: it creates vast visual landscapes not with brushstrokes but with carefully chosen phrases that resonate with the inner eye. It bridges the internal and external worlds, transforming text into profound imagery and emotion.

Now, knowing that The New Yorker has curated this remarkable legacy into a comprehensive collection fills me with immense joy. Having these poetic treasures bound together in book form is a true gift—a tribute to the enduring power of the written word and the art of poetry itself. This collection offers something for everyone: from early luminaries like Dorothy Parker, whose wit and charm captivated readers, to the introspective and haunting works of Sylvia Plath, and the many other hall-of-fame poets who have graced these hallowed pages with their brilliance. It also shines a spotlight on emerging voices, poets striving to carve their place in the literary world.

Seamus Heaney, Dorothy Parker, Louise Bogan, Louise Glück, Randall Jarrell, Langston Hughes, Derek Walcott, Sylvia Plath, W. S. Merwin, Czesław Miłosz, Tracy K. Smith, Mark Strand, E. E. Cummings, Sharon Olds, Franz Wright, John Ashbery, Sandra Cisneros, Amanda Gorman, Maggie Smith, Kaveh Akbar: these stellar names make up just a fraction of the wonderfulness that is present in this essential anthology.

The book is organized into sections honoring times of day (“Morning Bell,” “Lunch Break,” “After-Work Drinks,” “Night Shift”), allowing poets from different eras to talk back to one another in the same space, intertwined with chronological groupings from the decades as they march by the frothy 1920s and 1930s (“despite the depression,” Young notes), the more serious ’40s and ’50s (introducing us to the early greats of our contemporary poetry, like Elizabeth Bishop, W. S. Merwin, and Adrienne Rich), the political ’60s and ’70s, the lyrical ’80s and ’90s, and then the 2000s’ with their explosion of greater diversity in the magazine, greater depth and breadth. Inevitably, we see the high points when poems spoke directly into, about, or against the crises of their times—the war poetry of W. H. Auden and Karl Shapiro; the remarkable outpouring of verse after 9/11 (who can forget Adam Zagajewski’s “Try to Praise the Mutilated World”?); and more recently, stunning poems in response to the cataclysmic events of COVID and the murder of George Floyd.

The magazine’s poetic influence resides not just in this historical and cultural relevance but in sheer human connection, exemplified by the passing verses that became what Young calls “refrigerator poems”: the ones you tear out and affix to the fridge to read repeatedly over months and years. Our love for that singular Billy Collins or Ada Limón poem—or lines by a new writer you’ve never heard of but will hear much more from in the future—is what has made The New Yorker a great organ for poetry, a mouthpiece for our changing culture and way of life, even a mirror of our collective soul.

If you’re a poetry lover like me, I implore you to add this book to your collection. In a world increasingly filled with noise and confusion, we need more poets—voices that distill the chaos into clarity, emotion, and truth. Words still matter. Enough of the empty rhetoric and meaningless chatter—poetry is a beacon, and this collection is a testament to its enduring importance.

Kevin Young is a prolific and celebrated writer, renowned for his contributions to both poetry and prose. The author of fifteen acclaimed books, his work spans a wide range of themes, showcasing his mastery of language and deep cultural insight. In addition to his literary achievements, he serves as the poetry editor of The New Yorker, where he curates the magazine’s distinguished poetry offerings and hosts the widely popular Poetry Podcast.

Young’s dedication to the art form extends beyond his writing. He has edited nine influential anthology volumes, including the landmark collection African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song, which chronicles the rich and dynamic history of Black poetic expression in America. Through his writing, editing, and curatorial efforts, Kevin Young continues to shape the landscape of contemporary poetry, championing voices both established and emerging while celebrating the timeless power of verse.