I am personally very happy about this win!
I, too, was discouraged from including her on any speculative lists because of the Tomas Transtromer prize mention but I guess I should learn to trust my guts. She's one of my favorite poets and legitimately one of the most - if not the most - respected and influential American Poets writing today.
For those of you struggling with her individual poems, I would suggest you try an entire collection. Her style is so crystalline and austere it can almost come across as bland in one-off encounters but she's one of the few poets out there who really thinks about collections in a conceptual sense - like The Wild Iris (a garden) or A Village Life (a village). So the poems should really be read in the context of the others conceived with it. I'd start with one of those collections. Her essays on poetry - especially in the collection Proof and Theories - are also great and widely influential.
Final thoughts:
Anne Carson was definitely being read next to her and I think can maybe be released from future speculation - at least for a bit. They share similar thematic territories - femininity, affect, conceptual approaches to collections, the Classics - and are almost polar opposites in the context of American letters. Carson is more formal fireworks whereas Glück is like a minimalist zen master. I'm unsurprised to see the Swedes go for ice over fire.
And, for all you Bob Dylan haters, here's your redemption, you old prudes.
