Editor's Corner

Yusef Komunyakaa, Taboo, poems: In the first book of a trilogy, Komunyakaa shows that he is our great poet of connectivity—the secret blood that links slave and master, explorer and native, stranger and brother. (FSG)

Richard Tillinghast, The New Life, poems: In his latest collection, which takes its title from Dante’s celebration of courtly love, La Vita Nuova, Tillinghast journeys through romantic love, the deaths of old friends, the ironies of history, and the losses and epiphanies of a long life of exploration and discovery. (Copper Beech)

  Alberto Ríos, The Dangerous Shirt, poems: Ríos sends readers down a magical wormhole through mundane reality, creating a book of poems that fuses both magical realism and cultural physics. (Copper Canyon)

Derek Walcott, Selected Poems, poems: Drawing from every stage of Walcott’s Nobel Prize-winning career, this collection brings together his famous early works, passages from Omeros , and selections from his latest major works. (FSG)  

  Charles Simic, The Renegade: Writings on Poetry and a Few Other Things, essays: In this collection, Simic examines the work and lives of notable poets, novelists, artists, and playwrights in a series of critical portraits. (Braziller)

Rosanna Warren, Fables of the Self, essays: Emerging from the tradition of British and American poet-critics, Warren traces the idea of imagined selfhood through time and space, creating an occult autobiography that shows the imagination as a transfiguring and potentially moral force. (Norton)

  Gary Soto, Partly Cloudy, poems: A humorous and tender collection of poems giving testimony to the trials and folly of being in young, sweet, uncontrollable teenage love. (Harcourt)  

Kevin Young, Dear Darkness, poems: After the loss of his father, Young pays homage to his family with poems that carry the reader across landscapes of personal and cultural loss. (Knopf)  

  Sherman Alexie, Face, poems and short prose: In his first full collection in nine years, Alexie shows his celebrated passion and wit while also exploring new directions. (Hanging Loose)