The Incredible Sestina Anthology

Overview

Welcome to the world of sestinas—the first anthology celebrating this unique poetic form. In this collection, you'll find 100 sestinas crafted by a diverse range of writers, including John Ashbery, David Lehman, Matt Madden, and Patricia Smith.
The sestina, a 39-line form, holds a special place in the hearts of poets, bridging the gap between formalists and avant-gardes in a free-verse world. Its ornate and maddeningly complicated rules of word repetition make it a beloved challenge for poets seeking both structure and innovation.

Author Biography

Daniel Nester is the author of Harsh Realm: My 1990s (Indolent Books 2022). His previous books include Shader, How to Be Inappropriate, and The Incredible Sestina Anthology, which he edited. He currently edits Pine Hills Review, the literary journal of The College of Saint Rose, where he is also a professor of English. His first two books, God Save My Queen: A Tribute and God Save My Queen II: The Show Must Go On, are hybrid collections on his obsession with the rock band Queen. His third, The History of My World Tonight, is a book of poems. As a journalist, essayist, and poet, his work has appeared in a variety of places, such as Salon, New York Times, Buzzfeed, The Atlantic, The American Poetry Review, and the Poetry Foundation website, and anthologized in such collections as Lost and Found, The Best American Poetry, The Best Creative Nonfiction, Third Rail: The Poetry of Rock and Roll, and Now Write! Nonfiction.