Popular Longing by Natalie Shapero
Natalie Shapero is an incisive social critic cutting through the smog of self-absorption and contradictions between what is said and done.
Poetry
Fugitive Atlas by Khaled Mattawa
In poems that tenderly call us to action, Mattawa awakens readers to the human and geographical devastation wrought by the tendency to “other” people. Fugitive Atlas is a collaborative prayer for a shattered earth.
Little Big Bully by Heid E. Erdrich
Heid E. Erdrich’s new collection is more than a healing of past wounds. Rather, it is remarkable precisely because it posits the act of speaking as liberatory practice, a difficult action that will project us into a different and less abusive future together.
Conjure by Rae Armantrout
Conjure offers a magic of its own, with sly and unforgettable juxtapositions of the minute and the exceptional, elevated by the intellect, flair, and confidence of a poet at the top of her game.
Mad World, Mad Kings, Mad Composition by Lisa Fishman
Lisa Fishman’s new collection is an honest and ongoing wrestling with the vocation of poetry itself.
Obit by Victoria Chang
The emotional power of Chang’s new collection comes from the grace and honesty with which she turns this familiar form inside out to show us the private side of family, the knotting together of generations, the bewilderment of grief.
Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
Natalie Diaz’s new collection is a withering critique of conditions faced by Native peoples past and present.
Frolic and Detour by Paul Muldoon
Like Ashbery in his final collections, or Cohen in his final albums, Paul Muldoon has nothing left to prove, and can take delight simply in doing what he inimitably does. And his delight is ours.
Love and I by Fanny Howe
In the wilds of associations that Howe’s poems produce, readers are sure to find both niches of rest and, simultaneously, calls to action.