American Poets Continuum Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Good Woman |
1987 |
Buy |
| Next |
1987 |
Buy |
| The City in Which I Love You |
1990 |
Buy |
| Quilting |
1991 |
Buy |
| What We Carry |
1994 |
Buy |
| Red Suitcase |
1994 |
Buy |
| The Terrible Stories |
1996 |
Buy |
| Fuel |
1998 |
Buy |
| Tell Me |
2000 |
Buy |
| Blessing the Boats |
2000 |
Buy |
| Smoke |
2000 |
Buy |
| Book of My Nights |
2001 |
Buy |
| Mules of Love |
2002 |
Buy |
| The Hawk Temple at Tierra Grande |
2002 |
Buy |
| Love Song with Motor Vehicles |
2003 |
Buy |
| The Owner of the House |
2003 |
Buy |
| The Orchard |
2004 |
Buy |
| The Rooster’s Wife |
2005 |
Buy |
| Postcards from the Interior |
2005 |
Buy |
| You & Yours |
2005 |
Buy |
| Darling Vulgarity |
2006 |
Buy |
| Not for Specialists |
2006 |
Buy |
| Slope of the Child Everlasting |
2007 |
Buy |
| Sleeping With Houdini |
2007 |
Buy |
| The Fortieth Day |
2008 |
Buy |
| Elephants & Butterflies |
2008 |
Buy |
| Voices |
2008 |
Buy |
| And |
2009 |
Buy |
| Carpathia |
2009 |
Buy |
| Seasons of Lotus, Seasons of Bone |
2009 |
Buy |
| Sharp Stars |
2009 |
Buy |
| Chaos is the New Calm |
2010 |
Buy |
| Long Lens |
2010 |
Buy |
| Burning of the Three Fires |
2010 |
Buy |
| Diwata ) |
2010 |
Buy |
| Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line |
2010 |
Buy |
| Kingdom Animalia |
2011 |
Buy |
| Your Father on the Train of Ghosts |
2011 |
Buy |
| Ennui Prophet |
2011 |
Buy |
| Transfer |
2011 |
Buy |
| Gospel Night |
2011 |
Buy |
| The Hands of Strangers |
2011 |
Buy |
| True Faith |
2012 |
Buy |
| The Reindeer Camps |
2012 |
Buy |
| To Keep Love Blurry |
2012 |
Buy |
| The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 |
2012 |
Buy |
| Theophobia |
2012 |
Buy |
| The Book of Goodbyes |
2013 |
Buy |
| No Need of Sympathy |
2013 |
Buy |
| Refuge |
2013 |
Buy |
| Birth Marks |
2013 |
Buy |
| There’s a Box in the Garage You Can Beat With a Stick |
2013 |
Buy |
| The Keys to the Jail |
2014 |
Buy |
| All You Ask For is Longing |
2014 |
Buy |
| What He Took |
2014 |
Buy |
| Copia |
2014 |
Buy |
| The Chair |
2014 |
Buy |
| In a Landscape |
2014 |
Buy |
| Fanny Says |
2015 |
Buy |
| Testament |
2015 |
Buy |
| Why God is a Woman |
2015 |
Buy |
| Broken Hallelujahs |
2015 |
Buy |
| Antidote for Night |
2015 |
Buy |
| I’m No Longer Troubled by the Extravagance |
2015 |
Buy |
| Beautiful Wall |
2015 |
Buy |
| The Black Maria |
2016 |
Buy |
| Celestial Joyride |
2016 |
Buy |
| Whereso |
2016 |
Buy |
| Struggling Times |
2016 |
Buy |
| The Day’s Last Light Reddens the Leaves of the Copper Beech |
2016 |
Buy |
| The End of Pink |
2016 |
Buy |
| Primitive |
2016 |
Buy |
| Mandatory Evacuation |
2016 |
Buy |
| The Trembling Answers |
2017 |
Buy |
| Bye-Bye Land |
2017 |
Buy |
| Sky Country |
2017 |
Buy |
| The Smoke of Horses |
2017 |
Buy |
| All Soul Parts Returned |
2017 |
Buy |
| The Second O of Sorrow ) |
2018 |
Buy |
| Holy Moly Carry Me |
2018 |
Buy |
| Clues from the Animal Kingdom ) |
2018 |
Buy |
| Dresses from the Old Country ) |
2018 |
Buy |
| In Country |
2018 |
Buy |
| The Tiny Journalist |
2019 |
Buy |
| All Its Charms |
2019 |
Buy |
| Night Angler |
2019 |
Buy |
| The Human Half |
2019 |
Buy |
| Cyborg Detective |
2019 |
Buy |
| On the Shores of Welcome Home |
2019 |
Buy |
| Rue |
2020 |
Buy |
| Year of the Dog |
2020 |
Buy |
| Let’s Become a Ghost Story |
2020 |
Buy |
| Brand New Spacesuit |
2020 |
Buy |
| Mercy |
2020 |
Buy |
| How to Carry Water |
2020 |
Buy |
| Caw |
2020 |
Buy |
| Letters to a Young Brown Girl |
2020 |
Buy |
| Mother Country |
2020 |
Buy |
| I Am Not Trying to Hide My Hungers from the World |
2021 |
Buy |
| The Naomi Letters |
2021 |
Buy |
| Diamonds |
2021 |
Buy |
| Useful Junk |
2022 |
Buy |
| Field Notes from the Flood Zone |
2022 |
Buy |
| A Season in Hell with Rimbaud |
2022 |
Buy |
| Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency |
2022 |
Buy |
| A Tinderbox in Three Acts |
2022 |
Buy |
| Little Mr. Prose Poem |
2022 |
Buy |
| The Dug-Up Gun Museum |
2022 |
Buy |
Anthologies#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Best American Short Stories 1999 |
1999 |
Buy |
Charlie Bradshaw Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Saratoga Longshot |
1976 |
Buy |
| Saratoga Swimmer |
1981 |
Buy |
| Saratoga Headhunter |
1985 |
Buy |
| Saratoga Snapper |
1986 |
Buy |
| Saratoga Bestiary |
1988 |
Buy |
| Saratoga Hexameter |
1990 |
Buy |
| Saratoga Haunting |
1993 |
Buy |
| Saratoga Fleshpot |
1995 |
Buy |
| Saratoga Strongbox |
1998 |
Buy |
| Saratoga Backtalk |
1994 |
Buy |
| Saratoga Payback |
2017 |
Buy |
Collections#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Concurring Beasts |
1972 |
Buy |
| Griffon |
1976 |
Buy |
| Heat Death |
1980 |
Buy |
| The Balthus Poems |
1982 |
Buy |
| Cemetery Nights |
1987 |
Buy |
| Body Traffic |
1990 |
Buy |
| Velocities |
1994 |
Buy |
| Common Carnage |
1996 |
Buy |
| Black Dog, Red Dog |
1997 |
Buy |
| Pallbearers Envying the One Who Rides |
1999 |
Buy |
| Eating Naked |
2000 |
Buy |
| The Porcupine’s Kisses |
2002 |
Buy |
| Mystery, So Long |
2005 |
Buy |
| Winter’s Journey |
2010 |
Buy |
| The Day’s Last Light Reddens the Leaves of the Copper Beech |
2016 |
Buy |
Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Best Words, Best Order |
1996 |
Buy |
| Next Word, Better Word |
2011 |
Buy |
Standalone Novels#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| A Man Of Little Evils |
1973 |
Buy |
| Dancer with One Leg |
1983 |
Buy |
| Cold Dog Soup |
1985 |
Buy |
| A Boat Off the Coast |
1987 |
Buy |
| The Two Deaths of Senora Puccini |
1988 |
Buy |
| The House on Alexandrine |
1990 |
Buy |
| After Shocks/Near Escapes |
1991 |
Buy |
| The Wrestler’s Cruel Study |
1993 |
Buy |
| The Church of Dead Girls |
1997 |
Buy |
| Boy in the Water |
1999 |
Buy |
| The Burn Palace |
2013 |
Buy |
| Is Fat Bob Dead Yet? |
2015 |
Buy |
Stephen Dobyns is an American writer who has built a career across poetry, fiction, and criticism. His first poetry collection, Concurring Beasts, appeared in 1972, and he has been publishing steadily since then, with nearly 150 titles to his name across all formats.
His best-known fiction is the Charlie Bradshaw mystery series, 11 novels set in Saratoga Springs, New York, featuring a mild-mannered private detective navigating small-city crime. His standalone novels range more widely, from the dark small-town thriller The Church of Dead Girls (1997) to the comic Is Fat Bob Dead Yet? (2015). As a poet, Dobyns has published over a dozen collections and served as editor for the American Poets Continuum series published by BOA Editions. His nonfiction books Best Words, Best Order and Next Word, Better Word are respected guides to the craft of poetry.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Stephen Dobyns written?
Stephen Dobyns has written 149 books across six series.
What was Stephen Dobyns's first book?
Stephen Dobyns’s first book is Concurring Beasts, published in 1972.
What genres does Stephen Dobyns write in?
Dobyns works across multiple genres. He is known for his Charlie Bradshaw mystery series, standalone literary novels like The Church of Dead Girls, poetry collections, and nonfiction books about poetic craft. He has also edited volumes for the American Poets Continuum series.