Is this year’s poetry shortlist for the National Book Award a hoot or what?. Nominees include five white males: John Ashbery, W.S. Merwin, Frank Bidart, Brendan Galvin & Vern Rutsala. At 66, Bidart is the youngest. Apparently the days of including such nominees as Cole Swenson or Harryette Mullen were a fluke, not a trend. And I was sad to see Copper Canyon promote Merwin’s volume over the far livelier & more relevant Jubilant Thicket by Jonathan Williams, which it also published this year.

It’s an odd time in the history of the NBA. For one thing, the award’s traditional social function – to promote the role of trade presses in defining literature – has been undercut by the wholesale abandonment of poetry by the trades. Only Bidart’s volume, from FSG, truly qualifies. While Ashbery is the one great writer on this list, I’m rooting for Vern Rutsala, whose prolix, folksy verse & Northwest regionalism is at least something different.

The National Book Foundation will also be giving a special lifetime achievement award to Lawrence Ferlinghetti, more for his publishing than for his verse. At 86, Ferlinghetti will have to represent all that is new at this year’s ceremonies.