Top 10
Bees, and After
John Liles. Yale Univ., Mar. 25 ($45, ISBN 978-0-300-27941-2)
Science, the natural world, and the threat of climate change animate this debut from the winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize.
The Essential C.D. Wright
C.D. Wright, edited by Forrest Gander and Michael Wiegers. Copper Canyon, May 13 ($22 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-55659-719-0)
This collection includes previously unpublished poems from Wright, expanding readers’ familiarity with one of the most formally innovative voices of American contemporary poetry.
The Golden Book of Words
Bernadette Mayer. New Directions, May 6 ($15.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8112-3968-4)
Only 750 copies of this early work by Mayer, who died in 2022, were originally printed. This new edition showcases the poet’s deadpan humor and erudition.
Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry
Edited by George Abraham and Noor Hindi. Haymarket, May 13 ($21.95 trade paper, ISBN 979-8-88890-365-0)
Documenting the historical struggles of Palestinians and the impact of violence on individuals in the region, this anthology includes selections by emerging and established Palestinian poets.
Jailbreak of Sparrows
Martín Espada. Knopf, Apr. 1 ($29, ISBN 978-0-593-53712-1)
National Book Award winner Espada reflects on violence in his hometown in Puerto Rico, the vestiges of anti-colonial uprising, and commemorations of the forgotten.
Moon Mirrored Indivisible
Farid Matuk. Univ. of Chicago, Mar. 17 ($18 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-226-84000-0)
Matuk, a survivor of childhood sexual assault who arrived in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant at age six, offers layered poems on systems of power and violence.
Pathemata, or, the Story of My Mouth
Maggie Nelson. Wave, Apr. 1 ($25, ISBN 979-8-89106-011-1)
Nelson draws inspiration from Hervé Guibert’s The Mausoleum of Lovers to chronicle a decade of jaw pain in poems detailing her dreams, daily musings, and reflections on mortality.
Poet in the New World: Poems, 1946–1953
Czesław Miłosz, trans. by Robert Hass and David Frick. Ecco, Feb. 4 ($28, ISBN 978-0-06-342299-5)
In poems written while he was working as a Polish diplomat in Washington, D.C., Miłosz explores the responsibilities of language and the landscape of the postwar United States.
There Lives a Young Girl in Me Who Will Not Die
Tove Ditlevsen, trans. by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Mar. 11 ($30, ISBN 978-0-374-61346-4)
The first English-language edition of Ditlevsen’s poetry includes darkly humorous ruminations on childhood, loss, disappointment, and memory.
Water
Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, trans. by Haleh Liza Gafori. New York Review Books, Mar. 11 ($14.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68137-916-6)
Gafori delivers a new selection of work by the Persian mystic, freshly rendering his wit and ecstatic language.
longlist
Abbeville
Haiku: Japanese Poems for the Four Seasons by Ornella Civardi, illus. by Kaori Yamaguchi (Apr. 15, $25 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-7892-1506-2), is an illustrated collection of classic haiku by masters of every period, including Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki.
Archipelago
Wickerwork by Christian Lehnert, trans. by Richard Sieburth (May 6, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-962770-24-8). The poems in this bilingual edition from German poet Lehnert explore primordial existence, nature, and growth.
Arsenal Pulp
Buzzkill Clamshell by Amber Dawn (Apr. 1, $17.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-55152-979-0). The third collection from Dawn challenges traditional confessional poetry through hyperbole and myth building. Themes include chronic pain, the disabled body, queer identity, feminine power, eroticism, and aging.
Assembly
The Mountains of Kong: New and Selected Prose Poems by Dag T. Straumsvåg, trans. by Robert Hedin (Apr. 1, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-998336-07-4). Presented in Nynorsk and English, this gathering of 60 prose poems from Norwegian poet Straumsvåg investigates unfamiliar landmarks.
Backwaters
Locomotive Cathedral by Brandel France de Bravo (Mar. 1, $17.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4962-4008-8). Climate change, the global pandemic, race, and identity are at the heart of France de Bravo’s poems, which seek to evoke the complexities of transformation.
Beacon
Boy Maybe by W.J. Lofton (Mar. 25, $17 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8070-1782-1). Channeling the urgency of their subjects, Lofton’s poems reflect on Black queer Southern identity and honor victims of police brutality and racist violence, including Breonna Taylor, Kendrick Johnson, and Ahmaud Arbery.
Book*hug
No One Knows Us There by Jessica Bebenek (Apr. 8, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-77166-939-9). Grief, the natural world, and reflections on trauma make up the core of this debut, which comprises the stories of a caregiving granddaughter and an older woman reflecting on her younger self.
Bucknell Univ.
Black California Gold
by Wendy M. Thompson (Mar. 11, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68448-550-5) probes the struggles and triumphs of Black life in California’s Bay Area amid gentrification and the displacement of Black people.
Carnegie-Mellon Univ.
Goat-Footed Gods by Kathleen Driskell (Mar. 4, $20 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-88748-708-8) interweaves stories about the natural world and creatures of American folklore, such as the Goatman of Pope Lick, in Louisville, Ky., with poems about Driskell’s own traumatic childhood injury.
CavanKerry
Beyond the Watershed
by Nadia Alexis (Mar. 4, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-960327-09-3). In these poems, Alexis considers water’s destructive and restorative forces as a mirror for the experience of Black women and girls.
Central Avenue Poetry
Call Me Home by Harman Kaur
(Feb. 18, $17 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-77168-399-9). Different interpretations and examples of “home” serve as the
bedrock of Kaur’s exploration of womanhood, spirituality, and immigration. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
Coffee House
Out of the Blank by Elaine Equi (Feb. 11, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-56689-717-4) reflects on human emotions and experiences, the passage of time, and the reality of physical existence.
Convergent
Make Believe: Poems for Hoping Again by Victoria Hutchins (Mar. 18, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-73571-8) explores childhood, nostalgia, imagination, and self-belief in spoken-word pieces and previously unpublished writings from Hutchins.
Copper Canyon
Every Sound Is Not a Wolf by Alberto Ríos (Apr. 8, $17 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-55659-711-4). This collection of poems in couplets explores the bond between people, environments, and nature.
Dial
A Little Daylight Left by Sarah Kay, illus. by Sophia Janowitz (Apr. 1, $25, ISBN 978-0-593-73370-7). The second volume from Kay adopts a lens of curiosity in poems that tackle human vulnerability, bravery, transitions, and challenges, charting a course through the ups and downs of life.
Duke Univ.
What Had Happened Was by Therí Alyce Pickens (Mar. 28, $23.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4780-3149-9) explores Black storytelling, pop culture, history, personal narratives, and chronic disability through poems that engage with the voices of Harriet Tubman, Mary J. Blige, Lil’ Kim, and Breonna Taylor.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Other Love by Henri Cole (May 6, $16 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-374-61903-9). Aging and time’s passage are chief subjects in Cole’s meditative exploration of the world, and the ceaseless quest to understand and love its mysteries despite
a constant stream of violence.
Fordham Univ.
Carbonate of Copper by Roberto Tejada (Apr. 1, $17.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5315-0970-5). Blending lyric poetry and documentary photography, this collection delivers past stories and present insights on the captivity and
displacement endured by individuals at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Four Way
Willow Hammer by Patrick Donnelly (Mar. 15, $17.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-961897-30-4). The fifth collection from Donnelly views the complexity of memory through the lens of a crime committed by a member of his family.
Fulcrum
Haikus and Hope: 50 States of Climate Change by Maggie Dewane (Apr. 22, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68275-496-2). These haikus explore the landscapes of the 50 states in their present and future, capturing contemporary environmental threats while celebrating America’s diverse scenery.
Graywolf
Primordial by Mai Der Vang (Mar. 4, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64445-326-1) investigates the collective trauma and persistence of the Hmong people, as well as the aftermath of the Vietnam War and its ongoing effects on the lives of refugees.
Harbour
First Here and Then Far: Selected Poems 1971–2024 by David Zieroth (Mar. 25, $18.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-990776-91-5). Arranged chronologically, this retrospective gathers more than 50 years of Zieroth’s poems, including early reflections on his rural childhood in British Columbia.
HarperOne
Radicle, or When the World Lived Inside Us by Steph Catudal (Apr. 22, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-06-341455-6) reflects on motherhood, grief, healing, and love’s power to redeem. 60,000-copy announced first printing.
House of Anansi
Shadow Price by Farah Ghafoor (Apr. 1, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4870-1292-2). Borrowing its title from a finance term for the estimated price of a good or service for which no market price yet exists, this debut interrogates the role that narrative plays in interpreting the past and shaping the future.
Alice James
Cold Thief Place by Esther Lin
(Mar. 11, $24.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-949944-70-9) draws on Lin’s family history for poems about the legacy of authoritarianism and the myth of America’s freedoms.
Johns Hopkins Univ.
The Khayyam Suite by Charles Martin (Mar. 4, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4214-5071-1). Inspired by the Persian lyric tradition, Martin’s poems praise the range of human experiences, adding contemporary elements to the ghazal form.
Knopf
Ecstasy by Alex Dimitrov (Apr. 1, $29, ISBN 978-0-593-80292-2) explores sex, drugs, and eroticism in New York and elsewhere, challenging social conventions and shame while exploring the poet’s Christian upbringing and faith.
Mad Creek
At the Park on the Edge of the Country by Austin Araujo (Feb. 24, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8142-5936-8). Mexican American identity is at the fore of these poems that mine memory, immigration narratives, the rural South, the development of self-knowledge, and the experience of belonging.
MCD
Savings Time by Roya Marsh (Feb. 4, $17 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-374-61579-6) delves into the subjects of Black joy and rage, collective effort, police brutality, queer identity, pop culture, and the potential for healing.
Morrow
Poems of Parenting by Loryn Brantz (Apr. 8, $19.99, ISBN 978-0-06-342643-6). Based on a series of Instagram posts, this illustrated collection tracks the ups and downs of parenthood.
New Directions
Love Is a Dangerous Word: The Selected Poems of Essex Hemphill by Essex Hemphill and John Keene, edited by Robert F. Reid-Pharr (Mar. 4, $18.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8112-3234-0). Containing selections from the only published collection by Hemphill (1957–1995), this volume brings to a new audience his poems on identity, sexuality, gender, race, and his experiences as a Black gay man during the HIV/AIDS crisis.
New York Review Poets
Pink Dust by Ron Padgett (Mar. 11, $16 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68137-908-1) delves into the uncanny, the wondrous, and the realities of aging.
Norton
Doggerel by Reginald Dwayne Betts (Mar. 4, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-324-08925-4). Political critique and personal reflection inform these poems on the many forms of companionship, drawing on traditional forms (pantoum, ghazal, and canzone) and alluding to rappers including Freddie Gibbs and Lil Wayne.
Omnidawn
Bloodletting by Kimberly Reyes (Apr. 14, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-63243-166-0). Contemplating the nature of relationships in an age of violence and social media, Reyes focuses in particular on the challenges contemporary culture poses for Black women.
Penguin Books
End of Empire by Marissa Davis (June 3, $20 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-14-313847-1). Drawing from the language and landscape of Davis’s rural Kentucky hometown, this collection about desire, myth, and the natural world explores Black womanhood within a framework of ecology.
Scribner
Late to the Search Party by Stephen E. Dawson (May 6, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-6680-8156-3) is a memoiristic, four-part debut that draws on Dawson’s memories of family, addiction, and grief to better understand community and growth.
Soft Skull
Ekho: A Poem in Three Parts by Roslyn Orlando (Apr. 8, $15.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-59376-798-3). Inspired by an art installation, this poem in three parts ponders the figurative layers of “echo/ekhÔ”—from EkhÔ, the nymph of Greek mythology whose voice is stolen, to the Amazon Echo smart speaker.
Storey
Love Is for All of Us: Poems of Tenderness and Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community and Friends, edited by James Crews and Brad Peacock, illus. by Lisa Congdon (May 6, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-63586-895-1). This illustrated anthology praises the universal powers of love in affirming poems of romantic love, familial and friendship love, and self-love.
Ten Speed
Washing My Mother’s Body: A Ceremony for Grief by Joy Harjo (Apr. 1, $17.99, ISBN 978-1-9848-6136-8) is an illustrated edition of former poet laureate Harjo’s “Washing My Mother’s Body,” which explores persistence through unbearable loss, mother-daughter bonds, and the experience of grieving.
Tin House
We Contain Landscapes by Patrycja Humienik (Mar. 18, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-963108-04-0) digs into themes of place and memory, landscapes, desire, intergenerational experiences, and immigration.
Tupelo
Jalousie by Allyson Paty (Apr. 1, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-961209-21-3). These experimental poems investigate how personal experience is informed and shaped by societal expectations, evoking the challenges of communicating ephemeral moments, the pressure of gender roles, and the history of New York City.
Univ. of Nebraska
When We Only Have the Earth by Abdourahman A. Waberi, trans. by Nancy Naomi Carlson (Mar. 1, $17.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4962-4135-1). Djibouti writer Waberi addresses the planet’s precarious state in poems that frequently use wordplay and unexpected diction to reveal the beauty in the everyday.
Univ. of Wisconsin
What Sex Is Death? by Dario Bellezza, selected and trans. by Peter Covino (Feb. 25, $18.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-299-35034-5), makes poems by the late 20th-century poet—the first openly gay writer to win the prestigious Viareggio Prize—available for the first time in English.
Washington Square
Scorched Earth by Tiana Clark
(Mar. 4, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-6680-5207-5). Clarke’s second collection draws from history, Black joy, queer identity, divorce, and the art world.
Wave
I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always by Douglas Kearney (Apr. 8, $22 trade paper, ISBN 979-8-89106-012-8). The latest compilation of visual poetry from Kearney showcases his innovative use of typography and multimedia collage to consider Black subjectivity.
Wayne State Univ.
In the Bone-Cracking Cold by M. Bartley Seigel (Mar. 18, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8143-5216-8). The history of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula takes center stage in Seigel’s sophomore collection, which examines the self, nature, and history.
Wesleyan Univ.
Chaotic Good by Isabelle Baafi (Mar. 11, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8195-0180-6). Self-discovery and recovery after a divorce inform this debut, which traces transformation after trauma and turmoil.
