Another gem from a criminally under-read poet. Ruefle has a way of tilting the world so ideas and images you thought you understood, start to slide off the table. Dunce is full of the wit, wisdom, and weirdness that makes Ruefle such an important poetic voice.
Josh
Gatwood beautifully describes the tragedy that comes with female adolescence and sexuality in the most raw and immersing fashion. Incredible poet, incredible woman- an all time favorite. Each word spoke to me on a level that I didn’t even know words were capable of reaching. Life of the Party is a page-turner for sure and is something I will forever hold close to my heart.
Hannah
Not everything is Sisyphean. No one ever wants to imagine themselves as the boulder.” Hanif’s words have stuck with me since I first heard them, and they keep summoning me back. They convict and inspire as they weave magic and music and messy relationships into something that feels like life but is also more. If you’re not reading Hanif you are missing out.
Caleb
National Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off in September! Celebrate it by picking up this devastating, thought-provoking, brimming-with-love collection by Mexican-American poet José Olivarez. Pick it up right now & read any poem at random for a taste (I recommend pg 59 but they're all wonderful).
Kate
April is National Poetry Month! Celebrate it with Fatimah Asghar's IF THEY COME FOR US. I started marking my favorite poems and eventually gave up when I realized every page was dog-eared. This collection entwines poems about the India/Pakistan Partition and Asghar's family history with personal explorations of queerness, the loss of her parents, and growing up as a Pakistani Muslim girl in post-9/11 America. There's truly something in here for everyone.
Kate
We Play A Game is intimate, poignant, playful, confessional, hilarious, strange, searing, and clever -- often all in the same poem. Duy Doan writes about being Vietnamese-American, about the Tootsie Pop owl and soccer, about lovers and prayer, language and family. Winner of the Yale Prize (2017), this book was recently named a Lambda finalist in the bisexual poetry category.
Catherine
Edited by poet Kevin Young, this book serves up a feast of poems for sampling, savoring, and double-dipping. As our most memorable meals often do, the poems span a range of feeling and experience: Readers can celebrate butter and family with Elizabeth Alexander, sing a drinking/love song with Keats, revel in picking blackberries with Mary Oliver, and slurp oysters (and guilt) with Seamus Heaney. Verse connoisseurs and social poetry-readers alike will find much to share with friends of both hungry and reluctant ears.
Catherine, Writer in Residence for Adults
The stunning collected poetry of a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.”
Stacey
Tiana Clark is in the room with me, reciting her poetry. At least, that's how it feels when I read it. Her work is so emotionally rich and resonant. "I can't talk about the trees without the blood" is a powerful commentary about being a mixed-race woman in the US today.
Stacey
This book is a lovely place for your mind to rest. Enjoy.
Robin
