Hi friends, I took over this Quest from the original curator (a poetry lit mag) and will lay out in this post the criteria & rationale for how I'll be adding additional books. You're welcome to comment a suggestion if it meets the criteria below.

If it doesn't meet the criteria but is a book a poetry you'd like to recommend, we will be releasing a feature soon where Quests will have a page of book recs that can be upvoted/downvoted. These are not part of the official Quest book list to earn a badge and will be similar to the "Community Recs" at the bottom of every book page. Once that feature exists, I will also look the most highly upvoted books there to consider for inclusion in the official book list.

First, a bit about my background to share the limits of my personal knowledge: I studied English Literature & Creative Writing, including completing a poetry thesis (writing poems, not researching them). I also taught a college course that focused heavily on quintessential New England poets for a term and myself prefer modern poetry. That said, I no longer read (or write) poetry regularly and would not consider myself well read in poetry.

Criteria & rationale for adding books to the Quest list

Since this is meant as an Intro to Poetry, and Main Quests are capped at 100 books so they stay curated, I will necessarily be strict about what books are added. Given the base of books already here, we will be sticking with modern poetry. The goal is to have a broad representation of voices and styles.

• If an author is already represented on this list, I will not be adding additional work from them since this is an intro list and focusing on breadth means sacrificing depth.
• I will prioritize poetry collections that have some element of critical acclaim (doesn't have to be award-winning, so popularity + good reviews also matter) to ensure that the Quest list is based on widely-appreciated work and not just one person's strong preference (poetry is so personal).

If you comment a recommendation, please help me by including your rationale for how it meets the criteria and goals above!