Rabbit Ears: TV Poems

First edition

Rabbit Ears: TV Poems is an anthology from NYQ Books, edited by Joel Allegretti. Released in 2015, it consists of poems about television and is reportedly the first poetry anthology to cover the subject. It contains 129 poems by 130 poets, including former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, who suggested the title.^[1]

The Boston Globe called Rabbit Ears "cleverly edited" and "a smart exploration of the many, many meanings of TV." Rain Taxi said, "With its diversity of content and poetic form, Rabbit Ears feels more rich and eclectic than any other poetry anthology on the market." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette included Rabbit Ears in its 2015 holiday gift guide for TV fans, along with books about Breaking Bad and Downton Abbey.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Allegretti said, "Poets by and large today are educators and scholars. I’m neither. My background is in media relations. My last job was director of media relations for a national not-for-profit organization. I prepared the CEO, his senior executives, and other spokespeople for interviews. I dealt with Nightly Business Report, 60 Minutes, and producers at local TV stations around the country. I’ve been inside TV studios. Had I not had that experience, I probably wouldn’t have conceived an anthology of TV poetry."

Rabbit Ears is in the Fales Collection at New York University and in the archives of the University of Rochester, SUNY Buffalo, the University of Wisconsin, and the Ohio State University.

Contributors:

Austin Alexis

Joel Allegretti

Aaron Anstett

Quan Barry

Ellen Bass

Jeanne Marie Beaumont

Martine Bellen

Aaron Belz

Emma Bolden

Charlie Bondhus

Gayle Brandeis