Gareth Twose, Poetry Nottingham, Issue 58: Winter 2004

What is different and innovative about the new Carcanet anthology, The New York Poets, is it allows the reader to see how the quartet of Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler functioned, creatively, (and albeit briefly) as a group, a collective entity. As the sharp and informed introduction by Mark Ford makes clear, all four were friends, collaborated on writing projects and acted as each other's best critics. The poetry both celebrated their friendship and was the creative engine room that drove it...

The other innovative thing about the anthology is the clear links it makes between the poets and the arts scene in New York, a scene whose luminaries included abstract expressionists like Pollock, Rothko and De Kooning. As the introduction by Mark Ford makes clear, all four poets either had professional connnections with the art world, or collaborated artistically with painters.

The anthology locates the writers within a very particular social and cultural context, something which is very helpful for first-time readers. It contains a really good bibliography of further primary and secondary material relating to the writers, so you know exactly where to go if you want to read more. But, most importantly, this anthology, perhaps for the first time, allows the reader to see the creative inter-relationships between these four writers, and for that reason alone I would strongly recommend it.