by Michael Quinn | Jan 31, 2021
One Illuminated Letter of Beingby Donald PlattRed Mountain Press, 2020 One Illuminated Letter of Being, Donald Platt’s new collection of thirty-two heart-wrenching poems, is oriented around the loss of his mother—itself a disorienting experience, for anyone—that...
by Anne Graue | Jan 4, 2021
Obitby Victoria ChangCopper Canyon Press, 2020 Victoria Chang’s collection, Obit, seems to have anticipated the prolonged good-byes of 2020. In it, Chang says good-bye to loved ones, feelings, objects—everything we feel and know, who we were and where we’re...
by Iris Jamahl Dunkle | Jan 3, 2021
Asylum: A personal, historical, natural inquiry in 103 lyric sectionsby Jill BialoskyKnopf, 2020 This stunning book-length poem, broken up into 103 sections, examines the grief and trauma associated with losing a young sister from suicide. Threaded also through these...
by Meryl Natchez | Nov 26, 2020
The Wilderness: New and Selected Poems 1980-2016by Maurya SimonRed Hen Press, 2018 Maurya Simon’s The Wilderness: New and Selected Poems 1980-2016 (Red Hen Press 2018, 218 pages) represents a life of questioning and perception, whether the scene is a backyard or a...
by Hayden Bergman | Oct 12, 2020
Hold Me Tightby Jason SchneidermanRed Hen Press, 2020 Hold Me Tight by Jason Schneiderman is a book of five sections that vary in style, tone, and form — it is a book of fables, fantasies, and hilarious futures. These are some of the book’s accomplishments, but they...
by Anne Graue | Sep 24, 2020
The Clearingby Allison AdairMilkweed Editions, 2020 The opening title poem of Allison Adair’s collection The Clearing transforms a recognizable fairy tale into a grim story of a man who may be a “prince or woodcutter or brother, now musty with beard,” all...
