Mary Jo Salter

"The timeless and timely intersect in poems about our unique historical moment, from the prizewinning poet. In Zoom Rooms, Mary Jo Salter considers the strangeness of our recent existence, together with the enduring constants in our lives. The title poem, a series of sonnet-sized Zoom meetings-a classroom, a memorial service, an encounter with a new baby in the family-finds humor and pathos in our age of social distancing and technology-induced proximity....

Salter's sparkling new collection of poems leads readers through works that let readers view life from a different perspective. From dark poems to light verse highlighted with wit and grace, this collection delivers Salter's most serious and her most playful work.

"The Best American Poetry series has been "one of the mainstays of the poetry publication world" (Academy of American Poets) since 1988. Each volume presents a curated selection of the year's most brilliant, striking, and innovative poems, with comments from the poets themselves offering unique insight into their work. Here, guest editor Mary Jo Salter, whose own poems display a sublime wit "driven by a compulsion to confront the inexplicable" (James...