Contemporary Poetry, Volume 1 is a collection of scholarly essays and recent reviews of the best of contemporary poetry. The book reviews and essays include:
- "Musings: History, Memory, Myth (On Gregory Djanikian, Eavan Boland, Charles Wright, and Henri Cole)" by Jay Rogoff
- "About Terrance Hayes: A Profile" by Robert N. Casper
- "Frank Bidart's 'Inauguration Day'" by Steven Gould Axelrod
- "To a Green Thought: Garth Greenwell on Poetry: Varieties of Wildness: on Stephanie Pippin, Greg Wrenn, and Natalie Diaz" by Garth Greenwell
- "Repetition as Voyage and Transfiguration: On Recent Work by Ben Lerner, Kristy Bowen, and Elizabeth J. Colen" by Kristina Marie Darling.