Poetry best sellers September 26-October 3, 2010

The contemporary best seller list has a rather shocking newness about it this week, like an old dead pile of dirt sprouting bright orange chanterelles. While Mary Oliver and Seamus Heaney maintain their hold on the first three positions, Alice Walker and Robert Wrigley have emerged in the top 10. There are six other books making their first appearances in the top 30 this week, including Here Be Monsters, the National Poetry Series winner from Colin Cheney, and Crave Radiance, the new and selected poems by Obama’s inaugural bard Elizabeth Alexander. Also this week, there’s a new Small Press Distribution list where Up Jump the Boogie by John Murillo is number 1.