5 Poetry Collections to Add to Your Bookshelf This Spring

Poetry

Feb 29

Spring is a great time to read poetry. It’s a time of drastic seeming change, moody weather, sunny days met with onset rain and grey. It’s when things start becoming green again - and everything feels enhanced with potential. Yes, I’m using spring as a metaphor for poetry. And these upcoming poetry collections by new and established poets and writers are sure to enhance your spring vibes.

My Baby First Birthday by Jenny Zhang

Jenny Zhang is an award winning writer; from fiction, to essays and poetry. Her last release was Sour Heart, a short story collection, which won her the Pen/Bingham prize for debut fiction. And if that isn’t enough incentive to read My Baby First Birthday, Mitski herself said of the new poetry collection: “An all-consuming anger had me devouring this book in one sitting. And the book devoured me. We burned together.” ‘Nuff said.

Thresholes by Lara Mimosa Montes

Thresholes, Montes second book of poetry will be released by Coffee House Press. Montes is author of The Somnambulist, a hybrid text; in a review from The Bind, writer José Angel Araguz

says The Somnambulist “holds together in a way that reads like a mix of gossip, memoir, and interrogation.” Thresholes follows in Montes’ experimental, autofictional fashion with a focus on her family and the Bronx of the 70’s and 80’s. For the poet with an interest in the experimental, check out Thresholes, May 12.

Hot With the Bad Things by Lucia LoTempio

Poetry continues to be a go-to form for artists and readers to explore traumatic subject matter through art. LoTempio’s debut collection, Hot With the Bad Things, tackles gendered violence and identity. It’s out May 12th with Alice James Books.

My Lover Feeds Me Grapefruit by Mohja Kahf

Mohja Kahf is a novelist, professor and poet. Not only is this a gripping title, but I can’t resist the allure of this talented poet taking on love poetry, exploring intersections of desire and appetite. My Lover Feeds Me Grapefruit is out April 1st with Press 53.

Deluge by Leila Chatti

Chatti is an award-winning poet, the author of two chapbooks, Ebb and Tunsiya/Amrikiya; her work has been published far and wide. Her debut collection, Deluge is driven by the idea of “disease as punishment,” in the contexts of gender, culture and religion. Deluge is out April 21st with Copper Canyon Press.