Whimsy Speaks Again

The ever-amusing Tricia is holding an Internet costume party in honor of Wallace Steven's Birthday.  Send Tricia pix of yourself in your WS getup!

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Year	Average	Youngest	Oldest	Median	Guest Editor	Born	Age
of Publication	Age	Poet	Poet	Age			That Year
1988	49	25	83	46	Ashbery, John	1927	61
1989	47	28	78	47	Hall, Donald	1928	61
1990	47	18	74	47	Graham, Jorie	1950	40
1991	48	26	83	44	Strand, Mark	1934	57
1992	48	21	81	47	Simic, Charles	1939	53
1993	47	24	92	51	Gluck, Louise	1943	50
1994	47	26	81	44	Ammons, A. R.	1926	68
1995	45	27	75	46	Howard, Richard	1929	66
1996	47	19	91	45	Rich, Adrienne	1929	67
1997	48	27	74	49	Tate, James	1943	54
1998	45	31	77	55	Hollander, John	1929	69
1999	48	32	91	59	Bly, Robert	1926	73
2000	47	28	90	49	Dove, Rita	1952	48
2001	47	27	90	54	Hass, Robert	1941	60
2002	46	26	94	57	Creeley, Robert	1926	76
2003	45	24	88	57	Komunyakaa, Yusef	1947	56
2004	45	20	101	56	Hejinian, Lyn	1941	63
2005	45	26	95	55	Muldoon, Paul	1951	54
2006	45	28	81	54	Collins, Billy	1941	65

John Ashbery remains the only guest editor who ever included himself in an issue (he can be excused, though . . . for all he knew, the first issue could have been the last).  In the past 6 years, the median age of a poet in BAP has been in the mid-50's, 8 to 10 years higher than what it was in the early issues.  Robert Bly still holds the record for including the largest number of old fogies.  Guest editors tend to be in their 50's and 60's, with some noticeable exceptions (Jorie Graham and Rita Dove).  Like most years, the distribution of poet ages is bimodal, which a group clustering around the mid-30's and another group in their 50's and 60's. 

Unlike last year, there is less of a relationship between age and gender, although the older the BAP poet, the more likely that he is male.

It is a convention that poets state their year of birth in the Contributor's Notes and Comments, and everyone has done so since 2003 (stricter enforcement?).  Prior to that 30 poets declined to state their age, 9 men and 21 women.

Only 28 of the 75 poets this year were women, or 37%.  That's less representation than most recent years, in which women tend to make up 40-45% of the contributing poets.