Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station and Heather Christle’s The Trees The Trees were chosen from our short lists of books of fiction and poetry (published in the March/April issue) selected by the editors of the Believer.

We also asked our readers to fill out a survey card included in the January 2012 issue indicating which they thought were the three strongest works of fiction and poetry published in 2011. The top twenty most represented titles in each category we received from readers follow.

Readers’ Favorite Works of Fiction in 2011

1. The Art of Fielding—Chad Harbach
2. Swamplandia!—Karen Russell
3. The Sisters Brothers—Patrick deWitt
4. The Pale King—David Foster Wallace
5. Stone Arabia—Dana Spiotta
6. The Devil All the Time—Donald Ray Pollock
7. Ten Thousand Saints—Eleanor Henderson
8. Leaving the Atocha Station—Ben Lerner
9. We the Animals—Justin Torres
10. The Marriage Plot—Jeffrey Eugenides
11. Busy Monsters—William Giraldi
12. Lightning Rods—Helen DeWitt
13. Open City—Teju Cole
14. There But For The—Ali Smith
15. Zone One—Colson Whitehead
16. Zazen—Vanessa Veselka
17. The Call—Yannick Murphy
18. Habibi—Craig Thompson
19. State of Wonder—Ann Patchett
20. The Family Fang—Kevin Wilson

Readers’ Favorite Works of Poetry in 2011

1. Life on Mars—Tracy K. Smith
2. Fall Higher—Dean Young
3. Double Shadow—Carl Phillips
4. Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels—Kevin Young
5. Voyager—Srikanth Reddy
6. Head Off & Split—Nikky Finney
7. Traveler—Devin Johnston
8. Space, in Chains—Laura Kasischke
9. Of Lamb—Matthea Harvey
10. Flies—Michael Dickman
11. Poems—Elizabeth Bishop
12. The Trees The Trees—Heather Christle
13. The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands—Nick Flynn
14. The Cold War—Kathleen Ossip
15. Mercury—Ariana Reines
16. Ethics of Sleep—Bernadette Mayer
17. The Source—Noah Eli Gordon
18. Black Blossoms—Rigoberto González
19. Vanishing-Line—Jeffrey Yang
20. Coming to That—Dorothea Tanning