As the leaves change, and your heart yearns for all things pumpkin spice, cozy up with these new and upcoming poetry releases. From translated Virgil to new Ada Limón, this list has something for everyone. While many of these collections release at summer’s end, they may help with the quiet, yet chaotic transition into the fall season.
I Do Know Some Things by Richard Siken
A poet who writes on the personal and somewhat universal, Richard Siken’s upcoming release is one to watch out for. Selected as the winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize in 2004, his debut collection, Crush, is rife with confessional, savage, and gay poems that will steal your breath and leave you wanting more. In this third collection, Siken explores family trauma, personal history, and the body grappling with itself.
Dead Girl Cameo: A Love Song in Poems by M. Mick Powell
In her debut poetry collection, M. Mick Powell weaves the lives of Aaliyah Haughton, Whitney Houston, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and others to craft a book of poems about survival, sexuality, queer mourning, and the aftermath of stardom. As intimate as it is textured, M. Mick Powell maps the lives of famous figures and how they came to shape the poet’s own queer Black girlhood.
Lullaby for the Grieving by Ashley M. Jones
Alabama’s first Black and youngest Poet Laureate, Ashley M. Jones writes on grief in all its many forms, including the grief of losing her father and the political grief tied to Black southern identity. Writing through Alabama landscapes, the Middle Passage, the Underground Railroad, interior spaces, and her father’s garden, Jones constructs both an elegy for her father and a celebration of life.
Startlement by Ada Limón
A poet both lyrical and hopeful, the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate Ada Limón takes us on another journey into the vast unknown of human experience. In this collection, she brings back the playfulness of youth and its chaotic desire. Limón writes on love and its eager twin, loss, in their ever-changing context within the world around us.
Diary of Small Discontents by John Yau
In a collection bringing together a body of work spanning several years, John Yau includes poetry in all its complicated forms. Constructing poems that shift abruptly from humor to outrage, Yau considers Chinese-American identity, school shootings, invented countries, and haunted memories. Encompassing several forms and voices, this collected work showcases a utterly original voice.
The Aeneid by Virgil, Translated by Scott McGill, Susannah Wright
Written during the reign of Augustus Caesar, Virgil’s Aeneid is a tale of adventure, adversity, romance, and profound loss. The poem brings to life the trials and triumphs that shaped one of the most powerful societies in the world. In this first collaborative translation, Scott McGill and Susannah Wright find the middle ground between readability and elevation. With an introduction by Emily Wilson, this is one translation you won’t want to miss.
Love Is a Dog That Bites When It’s Scared by Courtney Marie Andrews
In this collection, Grammy nominee Courtney Marie Andrews acknowledges the complexity of feelings inherent to the human condition. Dealing mainly with love and its many layers, Andrews guides readers through personal experience, hoping to provide comfort in the midst of the chaos. While love may be confusing, unorganized, bewitching, and too hard, it is still worth it in the end.
The New Economy by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Told through an ungendered body, Gabrielle Calvocoressi memorializes the pleasures and perils of a complicated world. In this collection, the poems are haunted by the memories of loved ones in a landscape that is ever-changing. Calvocoressi invites us to look at our fears through their lyrical poetry, and to accept the darkness we all hold in our hands.
Paper Crown by Heather Christle
Heather Christle returns after nearly a decade with a new collection of poems. Released in the grip of summer’s unrelenting heat, this collection combines her early poetry with recent prose to craft a world that operates off of dream logic. Tender and curious, Paper Crown invites you to look up from the pages and find the poetry all around you.
All Rage Blaze Light by Anna Jacobson
In this illustrated poetry collection, Anna Jacobson crafts a world for anyone who has ever needed therapy because of their therapist. Becoming a Virgil in her own right, Anna guides you through darkrooms, dancing pianos, and surviving rentals on the same street as your therapist’s office. Her voice is experimental, yet leaps from the page in a hopeful search for agency and common ground.
While this list does not fully encompass all the exciting poetry collections releasing in the latter half of the year, it does illuminate a few to watch out for. As you settle in to sip on an iced pumpkin spice latte and eagerly await your favorite spooky movie, why not pick up a book of poems? Be sure to check these releases out and add them to your TBR. Happy reading!
Interested in more books to add to your TBR? Check out some more recommendations here.
Find these titles and more on our For the Love of Poetry list.
