Poetry Month Picks!

10 of our favorite poetry releases from 2018

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
We’re putting down our fic & nonfic,
To share some poetry with you!

Here are some faves,
Just freshly released.
Your future self will thank you
’Cause your tbr pile just increased!

Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

“…We watch and grieve. We sleep, stir, eat.
Love: the heart sliced open, gutted, clean
Love: naked almost in the everlasting street,
Skirt lifted by a different kind of breeze.”

The United States Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith, recently released another stunning and unparalleled collection of poetry. In it, you will find fragments ruminating on the American past and present that converge to create one transcendent whole.

How To Love the Empty Air by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz

“tell the sun
tell the fields
tell the huge Texas sky…
tell myself again and again until I believe it.”

Aptowicz pulls from autobiographical experiences to shape her delicate and brutal collection of poems. Struggling with immense loss, the author moves readers through her grief and into her new understanding of life.

tenderling by Emily Corwin

“there was a boy in my room and it’s secret. I would like to
return my body now. would you like to come into, come and
see? me with my clothing with the roses, thistle, barb…”

If you’re in the mood for something mad, manic, and mythical, tenderling will not disappoint. The author’s 21st century fairy tales examine the macabre lurking just beneath the surface of every beautiful thing, leaving readers both disturbed and aroused.

Milk by Dorothea Lasky

“What is a ghost
It’s a flower
Big and weeping with purple colors”

In her latest collection of poems, Dorothea Lasky, of the ever-popular Astro Poets on Twitter, sets the pages on fire with these personal and deeply emotional poems. The author focuses on themes of motherhood and multiple aspects of being a creator, even the parts drenched in uncertainty.

Women of Resistance: Poems For a New Feminism edited by Danielle Barnhart and Iris Mahan

“i heard a woman becomes herself
the first time she speaks
without permission
then, every word out of her mouth
a riot…”

Women show their resistance to the patriarchal, white-supremacist law of the land with this incredible collection of poetry featuring a diverse range of voices. These creative activists weave gorgeous and heartfelt poetry while simultaneously showcasing important topics such as race, gender identity, sexuality, and violence in an attempt to support and create change for society's most vulnerable.

Eye Level: Poems by Jenny Xie

“For years now, I’ve been using the wrong palette.
Each year with its itchy blue, as the bruise of solitude reaches its expiration date...”

Eye Level is the award-winning debut poetry collection of author Jenny Xie that explores places and spaces. She takes the reader on a journey of movement and travel, changing landscapes that allow her to express her inner ruminations on solitude and identity among other humans in this vast world.

Virgin by Analicia Sotelo

“…The moon points out my neckline
like a chaperone.
My veil is friend tongue & chicken wire,
hanging off to one side.
I am a Mexican American fascinator…”

Absolutely glimmering, this collection of poetry displays femininity with folklore and vivid glimpses of the past. Sotelo’s commingling of sensuality, relationships, religion, and culture makes her poetry absolutely fearless and unforgettable.

The Möbius Strip Club of Grief by Bianca Stone

“I think everyone’s glad I’m dead, said the stripper
with the caved-in face. Her finger were bone and no
sinew. She flapped her arms at the two wrens
caught up in the rafters, staring down
on the empty dance hall…”

Imagine a type of underworld where the dead are in a burlesque purgatory, performing for the living. Bianca Stone crafts this intense state of limbo in her incredibly imaginative collection of poems, exploring loss and unmitigated grief by giving life to women poets of the past.

the witch doesn’t burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace

“…women endure
because we aren’t
given any other
choice...”

Call the coven: the witches are taking charge. Amanda Lovelace has been calling out female character stereotypes and tropes (like princesses being saved and witches burning) since she began her “women are some kind of magic” series in 2016. This is the second addition to that powerful collection, and it is painted with the ink of female independence and power.

Wonderland by Matthew Dickman

“…The man, startled, sat down, right there on the asphalt,
right in the middle of his new consciousness,
kind of looking around.”

This fearless poet shows us his pain, vulnerability, and newfound understanding in a way that prompts our own healing. As the author moves us through the space of his turbulent childhood growing up in a chaotic Portland neighborhood, he pushes past the mire to reveal what is precious and sacred.

Honorable mentions:

Registers of Illuminated Villages by Tarfia Faizullah
Night School by Carl Dennis

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