The Best Poetry Books to Read This Year
The state of the world has inspired many contemporary poets to write about how our global politics affect their lives. However, each of these recent volumes of poetry continues to bring an appreciation of the beauty of the larger world, a quest for self-knowledge, and a desire to show honesty and vulnerability to readers. For a poetic perspective on current events, dive into the best poetry books to read this year.
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1
Add to BookshelfPoukahangatus
by Tayi Tibble
Intimate, moving, virtuosic, and hilarious, Tayi Tibble is one of the most exciting new voices in poetry, today. In Poūkahangatus (pronounced “Pocahontas”), her debut volume, Tibble challenges a dazzling array of mythologies — Greek, Māori, feminist, kiwi —peeling them apart, respinning them in modern terms. Her poems move from rhythmic discussions of the Kardashians, sugar daddies, and Twilight to exquisite renderings of the natural world and precise emotions. Along the way, Tibble scrutinizes perception and how she as a Māori woman fits into trends, stereotypes, and popular culture.
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2
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Quiet
by Victoria Adukwei Bulley
Quiet navigates the tension between the impulse to guard one’s inner life and the knowledge that, as Audre Lorde writes, “your silence will not protect you.”
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$28.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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3
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shima
by sho yamagushiku
Speaking through cultural amnesia collected between a sunken past and a sensed ghostly-dreamed future, shima anchors this interrogation of the relationship between father and son in the fragile connective tissue of memory where the poet’s homeland is an impossible destination.
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4
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woke up no light
by Leila Mottley
woke up no light is a Black girl’s saunter turned to a woman’s defiant strut. These are the hymns of a new generation of poetry. Young, alive, yearning. From unearthing histories to searching for ways to dream of a future in a world constantly on the brink of disaster, this young poet sets forth personal and political revelation with piercing detail.
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5
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36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem
by Nam Le
In his first international release since the award-winning, best-selling The Boat, Nam Le delivers a shot across the bow with a book-length poem that honors every convention of diasporic literature —in a virtuosic array of forms and registers — before shattering the form itself.
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6
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If They Come for Us
by Fatimah Asghar
From a co-creator of the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls comes an imaginative, soulful debut poetry that collection captures the experiences of being a young Pakistani Muslim woman in contemporary America.
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$16.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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7
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Black Girl, Call Home
by Jasmine Mans
Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.
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8
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Life of the Party
by Olivia Gatwood
A dazzling debut collection of raw and explosive poems about growing up in a sexist, sensationalized world, from a thrilling new feminist voice.
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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9
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The Border Simulator
by Gabriel Dozal
A world-bending, lyrically rich poetry collection that reimagines the U.S.-Mexico border as both a real place and a living simulation — and tells the story of a pair of siblings trapped between the two.
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10
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Instructions for Traveling West
by Joy Sullivan
A vivid and inspiring poetry collection about what’s possible when we heed our instincts and honor our intuition, allowing ourselves to strike out for new territories of love, pleasure, and peace. Expansive and heart-opening — exquisite in their specificity, galvanizing in their scope — the poems in Instructions for Traveling West speak to the longing that lives within us all.
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11
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Tanya
by Brenda Shaughnessy
In Tanya, experience a tapestry of literary heritage and intimate reflection as Brenda Shaughnessy pays tribute to women artists and mentors, and circles the ongoing mysteries of friendship, love, art, and loss.
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$28.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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12
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Thick with Trouble
by Amber McBride
From National Book Award finalist Amber McBride, a mystical, transcendent poetry collection about Black womanhood in the American South. Summoning the supernatural to examine death, rebirth, and life outside the male gaze, Amber McBride has crafted a haunting, spellbinding, and strikingly original collection of poems that reckon with the force and complexity of Black womanhood.
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$20.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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13
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Black Girl You Are Atlas
by Renée Watson
Using various poetic forms, from haiku to free verse, Renée Watson shares recollections of her childhood in Portland, tender odes to the Black women in her life, and urgent calls for Black girls to step into their power.
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14
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Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head
by Warsan Shire
Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma, and resilience from the celebrated collaborator on Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Black Is King, award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire.
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15
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All the Flowers Kneeling
by Paul Tran
Visceral and astonishing, Paul Tran’s debut poetry collection All the Flowers Kneeling investigates intergenerational trauma, sexual violence, and U.S. imperialism in order to radically alter our understanding of freedom, power, and control.
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16
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