16 Books Released In the Last Year by LGBTQIA+ Poets to Read This Pride Month
In some of the darkest days of the pandemic last year, many people turned to poetry for comfort. There was no shortage of options, as many poets’ full-length collections were being released, some their debut. Take a look at just some of the collections by LGBTQIA+ poets that made their mark on the world within the last year, perfect to read not just during Pride Month, but year-round:
Guillotine by Eduardo C. Corral (Graywolf Press)
Corral is an award-winning poet and author of Slow Lightning and most recently, Guillotine. From the publisher’s website: this Lambda Literary Award-winning collection “traverses desert landscapes cut through by migrants, the grief of loss, betrayal’s lingering scars, the border itself—great distances in which violence and yearning find roots.” His work can also be found in Poetry magazine, New England Review, Ploughshares, among others.
Butcher by Natasha T. Miller (Button Poetry)
Butcher is divided into five parts and centers around the themes of love, loss, and grief. Miller, a performance poet, “finds an unexpected solace in the kitchen after losing her best friend and brother, Marcus. Here, using the cuts of the cow as a metaphor Miller, explores addiction, family & tragedy,” per the publisher’s website. She has been featured in Vogue and CNN and is also a film producer.
loudest when startled by lukas ray hall (YesYes Books)
This debut poetry collection from hall explores gun culture and “the ways in which gun violence has become part of the fundamental nature of relationships, family, and American masculinity.” In addition to loudest when startled, their poems have also appeared in Midway Journal, Sierra Nevada Review, perhappened, and other journals.
Wound from the Mouth of a Wound by torrin a. greathouse (Milkweed Editions)
greathouse’s debut collection Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil as the Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry winner, “challenges a canon that decides what shades of beauty deserve to live in a poem.” Her poems have also appeared in Poetry and The Kenyon Review.
Lesbian Fashion Struggles by Caroline Earleywine (Sibling Rivalry Press)
Poet and educator Earleywine’s collection Lesbian Fashion Struggles dazzles in fierce style and “breaks the cycle of history’s tight-lipped queer mouth and clears out the South’s closet of its ‘sleeves empty with possibility.’” Her words have been published in Nailed Magazine, BARRELHOUSE, SWWIM, Glass, and others.
Love and Other Poems by Alex Dimitrov (Copper Canyon Press)
Award-winning poet Dimitrov “elevates the everyday, and speaks directly to the reader as if the poem were a phone call or a text message” in this third collection of his poetry. His poems have been published in multiple journals, including The Paris Review, Poetry, and The New Yorker.
The Renunciations by Donika Kelly (Graywolf Press)
This collection, which came out just last month, centers around “resilience, survival, and the journey to radically shift one’s sense of self in the face of trauma.” Kelly is also the author of Bestiary and her words have appeared in The Paris Review and The New Yorker.
Salt Body Shimmer by Aricka Foreman (YesYes Books)
Another Lambda Literary Award-winning collection, Salt Body Shimmer “delivers girls and women with their hearts and strides unbroken, however provoked by deadening violences.” Foreman is also the author of Dream with a Glass Chamber and her work has appeared in multiple places online, including THRUSH and the Academy of American Poets.
Crown Noble by Bianca Phipps (Button Poetry)
Phipps’ debut collection explores family relationships and conflict “in hopes of understanding [it] as a means of overcoming.” Her poems can also be found in Persephone’s Daughters and Heavy Feather Review, as well as in spoken word performance videos.
Thrown in the Throat by Benjamin Garcia (Milkweed Editions)
Another debut collection, Garcia’s Thrown in the Throat, a National Poetry Series winner selected by Kazim Ali, is “a sex-positive incantation that retextures what it is to write a queer life amidst troubled times.” His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, Crazyhorse, and other journals.
Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans (Berkley)
Mans, a spoken word poet whose debut collection Chalk Outlines of Snow Angels was published in 2012, writes about “race, feminism, and queer identity” in Black Girl, Call Home. Mans has opened shows for artists such as Janelle Monáe and she has been featured on Oprah Daily, Essence, Shondaland, and other online outlets.
Swallow by Sam Rush (Sibling Rivalry Press)
This debut collection “lends gravity to understanding inherited form,” particularly focusing on the realities of those living with sensory differences. Rush’s work has been featured on Button Poetry, Muzzle, Glass, and more.
Water I Won’t Touch by Kayleb Rae Candrilli (Copper Canyon Press)
This poet’s third collection “is a life raft and a self-portrait, concerned with the vitality of trans people living in a dangerous and inhospitable landscape.” Candrilli is also the author of What Runs Over and All the Gay Saints and their work has been published by the Academy of American Poets, Adroit, Poetry, and other journals.
Please Come Off-Book by Kevin Kantor (Button Poetry)
Kantor fuses theatre and poetry in their debut full-length collection. The spoken word poet and actor uses “their experiences as a trans non-binary theatre maker as an extended lens of exploration into gender identity, family dynamics, and growing up queer.” They also wrote the chapbook Endowing Vegetables with Too Much Meaning and have been featured in Buzzfeed and Teen Vogue.
The Neon Hollywood Cowboy by Matt Mitchell (Big Lucks Books)
Another full-length debut, Mitchell’s collection “lays a soundtrack to a raw & emotionally-charged adventure about gender, identity, and the relentless pursuit of friendship.” His words can also be found on Frontier Poetry, The Missouri Review, Glass, Kissing Dynamite, and more. His next collection Grown Ocean is currently on pre-order and is releasing later this year.
Inheritance by Taylor Johnson (Alice James Books)
Johnson, who was awarded the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers this year along with T Kira Madden, writes “about the self's struggle with definition and assumption” as inspired by D.C.-living in Inheritance. Their poems can also be found in Four Way Review, The Rumpus, The Paris Review, and elsewhere.
BONUS: Though it came out prior to June of last year, be sure to also add Natalie Diaz’s Postcolonial Love Poem, recently awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, to your TBR list!
