If poetry is prayer then this Directory is a holy guide for the true believer.

—E. Ethelbert Miller

The Directory of American Poetry Books is a free, fully-searchable online database featuring over 20,000 poetry titles published between 1990 and 2006. It is a buyer's guide for poetry readers, a publishing guide for poets, and a chart of the current status of the poetic voice in America. It is an essential reference for anyone who reads, writes, reviews or publishes poetry.

The Directory is an exciting outgrowth of the Poets House Showcase, an annual exhibit of all of the new poetry books and poetry-related texts published in the United States in a single year. Each year, Poets House adds the bibliographic records of all the books exhibited in the Showcase to the Directory—with the exception of those that are published outside of the United States. The database is searchable by author, title, editor or translator, publisher, publication date, book type, and any keyword from the description. Results may be sorted by author, title or publisher.

While Poets House makes every effort to ensure that these listings are complete, we depend on the active participation of publishers for this information. Since our goal is to reflect the vitality of poetry publishing in the 21st century, we include author-subsidized publications and we exclude vanity press work. These are difficult distinctions to draw and complete information is often difficult to obtain. Therefore, inclusion in the Directory should not be interpreted as an endorsement by Poets House of any publishing enterprise.