Together, these two artists offer a starkly beautiful celebration of border communities that resists the tropes and mischaracterizations pervading American politics. – Ronnie K. Stephens
I’m Always So Serious is among the best debuts in American poetry, and Price has established herself as one of the most preeminent voices of her generation. – Ronnie K. Stephens
I Am the Most Dangerous Thing is an accessible and multifaceted debut that never shies away from its mission, to dismantle the systems that characterize queer Black bodies as inherently dangerous. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Good Grief, the Ground is a stupefyingly brilliant collection filled with poems that echo the thunderstorms that crop up like clockwork. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Amy Roa’s Radioactive Wolves is an intriguing collection, full of adventure, ponies, unicorns… and the struggle to survive the nagging hardship of the world. – Michael Imossan
Franklin releases a fine collection, laced with the feminist struggle for freedom from patriarchy, love, loss, death, the finality of things, grief. – Michael Imossan
The debut chapbook of a young, burgeoning talent in the broader literary sphere, Browne utilizes content, form, and structure in natural harmony to baptize us in the arteries of our lands. – Helena Pantsis
Spruijt-Metz deftly explores the complexities of memory, healing, and the divine, delving into the profound connection between the present moment and beyond. – Martins Deep
Minor Poets: Volume 1 is a carefully curated anthology that presents key figures in Black poetics who deserve a place in conversations around American poetry. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Buffalo Girl is one of the most nuanced, complex and unique collections of the year. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Voz is a collection filled with adventures, beaches and forgiveness. – Michael Imossan
This is a collection that far exceeds what readers might expect from a debut, quickly situating Abimbola as a preeminent and philosophical voice in American poetry. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Kyle Vaughn opens us to how desire and hunger can be both holy and unholy. – Michael Imossan
Taylor’s newest is a bold affirmation of denial which is the first stage of grieving, how one refuses to acknowledge the “dead overrunning one’s street”. – Michael Imossan
Olivarez is particularly masterful at writing from a place of vulnerability, exposing his flaws without ever leaning into self-deprecation. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Etlinger’s The Weather Gods lives in the in-between—somewhere in the middle of ghosts and spirit, love and loss, memories and moments. – Michael Imossan
Katie Farris balances grace and strength perfectly, offering poems that will linger with readers for days at a time. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Thomas gives readers the rare occasion to listen to, not judge or direct, the kid that lives in all of us. – KB Brookins
Trace Evidence is intensely complex and immediate, layered and poignant, positioned perfectly as a deeply personal and yet deeply relatable collection. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Matthew Guenette navigates through past and present tragedies in a way that envisages the future. – Michael Imossan
Junious Ward is masterful with his language, yes, but he also manages to present a collection in which every poem offers something structurally and linguistically unique. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Margaret Wack’s dexterity is sprawled across the pages of her debut collection which is vivid, intense and heartwarming. – Ejiro Edward
A searing collection that encapsulates the full spectrum of the human experience….It is one of the best chapbook length collections in American letters. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Browne has repeatedly asserted herself as one of the most preeminent voices in America, and her work has always been unflinching and vulnerable. – Ronnie K. Stephens
The reader is transported into the heart of myth by Jessica’s uncanny ability to capture its essence, with such depth that it is both haunting and indelible. – Martins Deep
Jason treats all subject matter with such delicateness that it proves almost impossible for language to account for them. – Michael Imossan
One finds themselves trying to determine if they’re more drawn to the art illustrations or the rhythmic flow but one thing is sure, hope is a silhouette is brilliant. – Ejiro Edward
I hold my breath to tempt the light. This portrait should engage the interest of some decorous and cultivated gent accustomed to the ways of wooing. All my life I’ve sent so many men so many signals, just to be upstaged… From “7” Patricia Smith reasserts herself as one
Armed with surrealism, Stoddard breaks free from the constraints of reality in order to tap into the realm of the irrational and dreamlike. – Martins Deep
Astronauts claim it takes leaving earth to know earth, how alone and woven we are, o zone, how wondrously thin the layer of glow defending us from obliteration. From “March in the Garden of Ghosts” Cynthia Dewi Oka draws on newly classified documents around the 1965 genocide
Told from a standpoint of bed rest, Elizabeth Metzger analyzes how the body pays the price of bearing something as fragile as another self twice as susceptible to vulnerability. – Martins Deep
Join Chris in conversation with author of Stereo(types), Jonah Mixon-Webster, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
Baird truly pours her heart onto each page, and it can be felt beating in every single word. – Isabella Ciraco
From From offers an opportunity to consider what it means to be an American, to reach inside oneself to critically examine the ways in which western ideology has impacted colonization and racial identity. – Catie L. Young
Su Cho’s The Symmetry of Fish is a summon into experience, adventure, loss, sadness, pain and enlightenment. – Michael Imossan
Siaara Freeman shrieks and wails, but she also knows when to pull back, when to whisper and when to let the blank space reverberate like the ghost of a storm – Ronnie K. Stephens
Poetry is generative and scientifically proven to promote healing, not just cognitively and emotionally, but also physically. – Ronnie K. Stephens
In A Home To Crouch In, Blanton introduces readers to the life of an urban recluse speaker who finds solace in a bottle of cheap liquor and a poetry book in his rundown apartment. – Caleb Jones
It’s so embarrassing
How we used to be friends
To now I don’t care if it ends
Past making amends
– Reggie Johnson
The emotional language and distinct structure in Kevin Powell’s collection will leave you with a new perspective on love, injustice, and devotion to your people that will make your sorrows soothed and your soul uplifted. – Isabella Ciraco
She Has Visions packs quite the punch for the reader in realizing the everyday challenges in learning to overcome grief and loss. – Sydney Norton
This ghost, this fear as depicted by the poet is seen to be ever present; constantly walking through the poet’s bones, becoming alive again in every breath and in every “gust” as the poet affirms “we know the ghost is here”. – Michael Imossan
Through Passin’s use of varying structures, consistent diction, powerful imagery, and unique metaphors, it will seem… you are borrowing her body and feeling it as your very own. – Ciraco
Zeina Hashem Beck quickly and repeatedly establishes herself as one of the most talented formal technicians in contemporary poetry – Ronnie K. Stephens
Bennett has established himself as an intensely patient and deliberate writer capable of upending genre as seamlessly as he upends our understanding of the world. – Ronnie K. Stephens
This year I been moving different
People acting mad funny – Peter griffin
People shooting for the stars
When they should’ve just stayed wishing
– Reggie Johnson
Join Chris in conversation with Shelley Wong, author of As She Appears (YesYesBooks), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
Take it back to the time
To who was really riding with me
And not just in the passenger seat
– Reggie Johnson
Join Chris in conversation with former United States Poet Laureate and author of Musical Tables (Random House), Billy Collins, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
Blood again on my cardigan
Yes, we could’ve been more than friends
– Reggie Johnson
Join Chris in conversation with performance poet, advocacy journalist, and teaching artist, Donney Rose, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
Bet
I’m over here just matching my energy
You sigh in relief
But there ain’t no relief in me
– Reggie Johnson
Franny Choi’s “Wildlife” and “Demilitarized Zone” both offer excellent frameworks to facilitate lessons that center retrofitted memory and alternate history as a cathartic process. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Join Chris of The Poetry Question in conversation with Courtney Faye Taylor, author of Concentrate (Graywolf Press) and winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
I ain’t mixy
If my actions change
Adjusting to your nonsense
Now all of sudden I’m acting strange
– Reggie Johnson
The equation is one, in which, survival and domestic intimacy, are constants. It is true then, that emet ezell was first, a witness, before being identified as a poet. – Martins Deep
Join Chris of The Poetry Question in a sit down with Luther Hughes, author of Shiver in the Leaves, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry.
Had to spell it out for you
On my national Scripps
Quiet ones to watch
Since we stay tight lipped
Readying my arsenal
Stay fully equipped
– Reggie Johnson
Olzmann’s choice to fully immerse himself in the epistle offers a chance to display his range of voice, to give space to seemingly disparate social inequities, to remain constantly intimate in his conversation with the reader.
Join Chris of The Poetry Question in a sit down with Jasminne Mendez, Author of City Without Altar (Noemi Press), about passions, process, pitfalls, & Poetry!
Join Chris in a sit down with Saida Agostini Bostic, author of Let the Dead In (Alan Squire Publishing), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
Who’s gonna love you
If you can’t love yourself
Because the actions that you did
Were bad for my mental health
– Reggie Johnson
Debut author Jayme Ringleb has mastered the art of language that yearns, of metronomic white space that beats with all the quiet inevitability of an unrequited heart. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Join Chris in a sit down with Dr. Destiny O. Birdsong, author of Nobody’s Magic (Grand Central Publishing) and Negotiations (Tin House), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
Though book burning may appear historically and practically extreme in comparison to book bans, consider that one of the guiding principles of book burning is public spectacle. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Luckily I clean it up well
Yeah prepare for the tide
Not a stain on me
We take off on our ride
– Reggie Johnson
Join Chris in a sit-down with the legendary Sandra Cisneros, author of Woman Without Shame (Alfred A. Knopf), about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!
“This collection is a testament to love beyond mortal remains, beyond the bleak stillness of nights and days consumed by stages of grief….” – A.R. Salandy
Jones reaffirms his place as one of the most talented living poets writing in English with this collection, demonstrating an ever-evolving mastery of language and a distinct eye for structural balance. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Join Chris in a sit-down with Aurielle Marie, author of Gumbo Ya Ya (University of Pittsburgh Press), about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!
His use of structure, rhythm and extended metaphor are among the best, and his particular utilization of the crow throughout A Shiver in the Leaves sets this debut apart as one of the most layered, complex collections of the year. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Join Chris in a sit-down with @ink_just_ink, EiC of @StanzaCannon and author of 61 Central (@FLPress), about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!
I love putting odd images together, playing with alternate definitions of words, twisting the end. My adult me is the one who figures out where to submit the glorious mess I make of a poem. – Nolcha Fox
Xie’s use of the imperative voice, intentionally or not, mirrors the language in Kincaid’s text, and both authors use the imperative specifically to convey expectations to younger generations of women. – Ronnie K. Stephens
She brought me back to when I was a little girl, feeling very much alone, seeking refuge in books that I didn’t know yet would have been with me while growing up. – Valentina Lenardi
Dramamine because I’m sick of you
When patience ran thin
Where was thick for you?
What didn’t click for you?
– Reggie Johnson
Join Chris in a sit down with H. MELT, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
It’s a testament to all of us holding depression and joy in both hands, to everyone that has ever felt their world could end before the sun goes down. – Caitie L. Young
You’re no longer a need
No longer a want
A picture in my mind
My dreams you won’t haunt
– Reggie Johnson
The poems are clearly the work of someone who has dedicated significant time to craft, & who approaches language like an anthropologist or philosopher might. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Join Chris in a sitdown with actor, writer, producer, and all-around bad-ass Buddy Wakefield, about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!
At the heart of the poem is an image of the author’s passport, effectively bridging mythos and history to highlight a long and violent legacy of colonialism and its impact on colonized peoples. – Ronnie K. Stephens
No matter the companionship
Friend, coworker or foe
You’ll never catch me banana slip
I literally never think about you
I just stack chips and I dip
– Reggie Johnson
Join Chris in a sitdown with Maya Marshall, author of All the Blood Involved in Love and an Editor at Haymarket Books, about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!
Winters offers a layered and thoughtful critique of the immigrant experience in America, the nuances of her relationship with her father and how borders operate in our lives. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Now we just on the road
No one knows where we going
Has the love come and gone
Did we miss the moment?
– Reggie Johnson
Join Chris in a sitdown with Brian Tierney, the author of Rise and Float (Milkweed), about passions, process, pitfalls, poetry, and a whole lot of music!
Rachel McKibbens “The Widower” captures students because it’s visceral, emotional, and refuses to be ignored. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Soto’s poems are meant to be rough, triggering at times, and cut straight to the point. Readers can’t help but understand the message, empathize, and feel like we’re supposed to fix things ourselves.
Hey how you doing?
Are you getting tired yet?
I might forgive you
But I never forget
– Reggie Johnson
The language, lyrically dispensed in its distinct style, portrays bravery and reveals a poet whose voice is both an ache and a cure. – Martins Deep
The risk of centering a speaker who is, at times, painfully self-involved is significant, but Chen balances these sentiments with frequent moments of grace, desire and appreciation. – Ronnie K. Stephens
There is a fine line
In the root of good and evil
So stop it with this balancing act
– Reggie Johnson
Vuong uses structure to further disrupt linear fluidity. His poems frequently utilize a style of enjambment that eschews natural speech, presenting fragments that time and again force the reader forward. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Join Chris of The Poetry Question in a sit-down with Poet-Historian, Ronnie K. Stephens to talk about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!
𝐏𝐎𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐘? 𝐅𝐔𝐂𝐊 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐇.
It’s the only shirt your kid’s teacher won’t dress code them on.
Maya Marshall’s debut interrogates the current sociopolitical nature and its threat to reproductive rights, choice, and Blackness. – Caitie L. Young
They don’t like us outside
But now we ain’t gonna be inside
From the inside, I can see your insides
Looks like y’all don’t like yourself inside
y’all should’ve kept your opinions inside
– Reggie Johnson
Not into too many surprises
Unless it’s a special occasion
And whenever I’m with you
It’s a cause for a celebration
– Reggie Johnson
