Poetry best sellers February 6-13, 2011

Alice Gregory explores the Mary Oliver best seller phenomenon in this week’s online feature, and here on this week’s contemporary best seller list Oliver continues to reign with nature-esque sublimity. Her Swan is at the top spot, followed by Nikki Giovanni’s Bicycles and Major Jackson’s Holding Company. Publishers Weekly called Jackson’s third collection a “powerful book (that) represents a painful but inspired journey.” Also on this week’s list after a lengthy hiatus is Steve Zultanski’s first book Pad, which is a book-length catalog of what the speaker can and cannot lift with his penis. (Disclosure: Zultanski is a current Harriet contributor). Vanessa Place said of the book: “The trauma of the masculine discourse in Pad is underscored by the incantatory properties of ‘my dick can’ and ‘my dick can’t,’ which ring as Echo to every Narcissus.”