A brilliant collection of poems regarding the queer experience. I particularly appreciated the fact that these weren't just from modern poets, but those from decades (and occasionally centuries) earlier. A well chosen selection.

A wonderful collection of poetry curated by Andrew McMillan and Mary Jean Chan. I loved the mix of older and more contemporary poetry, and the wide range of subjects covered by the poems, from childhood and adolescence to forging new homes and relationships, from city living to the natural world.

A stunning collection, and one which introduced me to several new poets.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for granting me a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am so glad this book exists!! Mary Jean Chan and Andrew McMillan confirm themselves as necessary voices by putting together a beautiful anthology. It is delicate and yet forceful, a masterful collection of fresh voices with established names.

A simple poetry anthology with the overarching theme of Queerness. Enjoyable to read for anyone who likes their poems arranged thematically.

“100 queer poems” doesn’t feel like the usual anthology. When reading, it feels like being nurtured and spoken to by soothing voices all coming together to bring their message. It feels whole and poignant. From Nathan walker’s excerpt of ‘carrying in the mouth’: “Queer voices hold you” is a perfect explanation for this collection.

This is a heartfelt ode to queer literature & the writers that have paved the way. Although quite a few of these poems, specifically the earlier ones in the collection, felt lacklustre or slightly less impactful, many of these poems spoke to my heart. There’s a specialist kind of connection you can feel to other queer artists when they lay themselves bare in writing. I do think the standard for the writing felt uneven & the experience of reading the less emotionally involved or nuanced poems suffered at the hands of that, but overall it was a solid collection to celebrate our legacy in literature.

The cover of this book really drew me in and I read it during pride month.

I liked the explanation at the beginning of the reasoning behind the anthology. Some of the poems weren't to my taste but thats often the case as its so personal.

Thank you for the arc.

I really enjoyed this wonderful collection of queer poetry. The range of poets and topics covered means that there is something for everyone and it is a collection I feel I will return to time and time again.

A very interesting collection of poetry by a diverse range of queer poets which has introduced me to some new names to research and reacquainted me with some favourites. The book opens with a good discussion about "queer poetry" and what it means. Is the poet queer? The language used? The subject matter? Andrew McMillan and Mary Chan are excellent choices to curate this wide ranging book.

I’ve highlighted several phrases in the book:-
Mary Oliver - "I know her so well, I think. I thought. Elbow and ankle. Mood and desire. Anguish and frolic. Anger too."
Erica Gillingham - "Let’s turn down invitations to all night discos, weekend benders, & sweaty basement raves because we’ve got at-home stimulants to do."
Joelle Taylor -“now that Old Compton Street is a museum & the old bars are shopping arcades & the sex cinema a gift shop… when my picture is taken where is it taken to? who will it become?"

Some beautiful work here and I will definitely be rereading and revisiting this Anthology. An excellent gift to someone or for yourself. The work here will stand for many decades.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: none
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

This collection is kind of like being at a party: you’re glad it’s happening and you’re glad to have been invited, you feel warmly towards the hosts, and you can kind of figure out broadly why this group of people has been brought today. It’s lovely to run into some dear old friends. There may, however, also be the occasional frenemy. And while most of the new acquaintances you make are exciting and leave you curious to spend more time with them, you’ll also just fail to connect with others.

It's a poetry anthology is what I’m saying.

It also a wonderful pair of introductions from the editors—this would be the sort of thing I normally skip over but, in this case, they serve as a kind of mission statement for the collection (and the line right at the beginning from Andrew McMillan about the poems of Thom Gunn make him feel, for the first time, that “who I was might be worth of poetry, worth of literature” hit me hard and immediately in the feels). Specifically, the editors interrogate what a queer poem is—what it means to call something a queer poem—before reminding us that the collection is 100 Queer Poems, not 100 Poems about Queerness, a distinction that one that helped me guide through the collection as it moves thematically through various spaces of queerness, from ones that feel very rooted in selfhood (like adolescence, domesticity and relationships) to ones that look outwards, into the world and into the future (the last section explicitly being called Queer Futures).

The other thing the introductions note is 100 Queer Poems is the first anthology of it kind put out by a Big However Many It Is Now (4? 5?) publishing for four decades. I suspect the previous text it’s referencing is The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse, a collection with a very, very different approach, that feels as rooted in its time as Sappho does in hers. In this context, then, the release of 100 Queer Poems feels long overdue: it is modern, expansive, disruptive and diverse in ways that The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse simply … uh isn’t (although it might well have been at the time).

Also I’m aware I’ve spoken more about the approach of the anthology as a whole than any individual poem but … it’s hard to know how else to speak about an anthology. Plus it felt weird to read 100 poems one after the other for a review, when—all things being equal—I would have more naturally engaged in a book like this by dipping and out, reading by mood and moment (I am not, for example, the sort of person who moves linearly through a museum). The sections that spoke to me most directly to me upon a first reading were, somewhat predicably, Queer Relationships, Queer Landscapes and Queering Histories. But, in general, I found the flow of the poems really fascinating and found the loose thematic framing around aspects of queerness, both as part of the self and part of the world, really resonant.

This was also not a book to read digitally, at least not for me. I love ebooks—I’m all for democratisation and accessibility of texts—but there is something about poetry that feels like it needs paper. Or I feel like I need to hold it in my hands.

In any case: this is a truly wonderful book. While not every individual poem worked for me, the collection as a whole offers something bold, expressive and kind of even … necessary? I am so happy it exists.

And please forgive how rubbish I am at reviewing poetry.

Love this new collection of poems from queer poets through the ages. There is a wonderful introduction from Andrew McMillan and then Mary Jean Chan to explain why they choose the term queer and also how they grouped the poems together. The poems themselves are a wonderful mix of poets, old and new, and also styles.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This queer poetry anthology mixes contemporary poets with those more well-known and it's a joy to read. I liked the sections - splitting the poems into themes such as Queering Histories or Queer Landscapes. This book deserves a lot of media attention. It's very fresh and timely as well as engaging.

This collection of queer poems is a wonderful, insightful collection. I am not gay, but the love, warmth, and heart of these poems really sang to me. By mixing in modern poets with some more traditional poets the collection manages to create a conversation with our conception of the Canon and widen it, enhance it, and subtly change it.

The collection is cleverly themed so that we can see thoughts on gay life from a youthful point of view into older age, from the domestic to the international. There are many, many fine pieces here, and as I was reading I was making notes of new poets whose work I will be seeking out.

This is an important collection but never worthy and deserves to be placed onto the shelves against other works which supposedly determine the "canon".

This is an important book, put together by two queer poets and featuring the work of 100 or so more, grouped into sections on life stages, ways of being in the world and the future. I'm sure many people will find much of worth here. Unfortunately, and I'm sure as a facet of their queerness and a necessary one both for the older pieces and the newer ones, most of the works were more allusive and elusive in their meanings than I am really comfortable with, preferring the more concrete. I also think the layouts were a bit challenging on Kindle and might work better on the page. But it's not about me and I hope this book does its job of reflecting people's lives back to them, showing them ways to be, or showing straight, cis people like me a different world, and I wish it all the best of journeys out into the world. Five stars for what it's aiming to do and what it will do.

What a fantastic collection. This wide ranging and diverse selection is beautifully presented; an inspiring, powerful and gorgeous book to keep.

As with all poetry collections, especially if there's a variety of different poets, there will be poems and poets you connect with and ones you won't. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I was very excited for this collection.

My favourite poems included Love Version Of by Richard Scott, Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden and Go Away and Then Come Back by Martha Sprackland. The section I seemed to connect with a lot was "Queer Relationships".

Unfortunately, there were more poems I didn't connect with than did. Within this collection, "queer" was used as a term that could be interpreted in a variety of ways. When choosing to read it, I assumed all poems were in specific relation to the LGBTQ+ community, so that's my bad. My experience doesn't take away from the quality of poems though.

Thank you to NetGalley, Mary Jean Chan, Andrew McMillan and Vintage for this DRC in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to Random House U.K. Vintage for an invitation to read an eARC via NetGalley of ‘100 Queer Poems: An Anthology’ edited by Mary Jean Chan and Andrew McMillan in exchange for an honest review. It was released on 1st June coinciding with the start of U.K. Pride Month 2022.

In their joint Introduction Andrew McMillan discusses the strategy used in curating this collection: “The last time an anthology like this one came out from a trade publisher was almost four decades ago. Looking around at all the various poetries and range of voices we see being published now, and the twentieth-century voices they’re in conversation with, I began to wonder what a new anthology might look like;” He then goes on to clarify how the word ‘queer’ is used within the anthology.

Mary Jean Chan then takes over and shares the parameters they used as well as how the anthology is structured in terms of various themes as well as suggestions for reading the poems. The anthology is rounded out by copyright acknowledgements and indexes of poets and poetry titles.

I was delighted by this invitation as I rarely read poetry though always feel that I should try to incorporate more in my reading. This anthology seemed a good opportunity to address this as well as to open myself up to these voices and appreciate their experiences.

Overall, I was impressed by the flow of the poems and how accessible they were. I enjoyed reading them aloud and was moved to tears by some of them.

I really enjoyed 100 Queer Poems. Some of my favourites are among those on offer including Funeral Blues by W H Auden, The Whistler by Mary Oliver, Late Love by Jackie Kay, Prayer by Carol Ann Duffy and Reasons for Staying by Ocean Vuong. I also discovered some new poets I want to explore more. I like the mix of contemporary and classic poems. This is well worth a read.

True to the title of the book, these were definitely queer poems. Something completely different to the type of poetry I would normally read but I think it was that difference that made me enjoy them. . The only familiar poem was Funeral Blues, made famous by 4 Weddings. So much so, that I didn’t so much read it, as hear it being read by a beautiful Scots accent!
I will certainly read these poems again and I’m looking forward to a follow up edition please.

Im not someone who identifies as queer and was interested to read this anthology. I particularly liked Andrew McMillan's introduction regarding what is queer poetry and how people are labelled. Having studied Wilfred Owen "a war poet" at school, I hadnt realised for many years that he was also a "queer poet" and so I found this collection fascinating. As with any anthology some resonated more than others, but overall it was very thought provoking and well curated.
thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book