New season, new perspectives. Say hello to spring with these three meditative poetry collections, whose deft and honest reflections are sure to leave your mind refreshed and inspired. Brought to life by three acclaimed female poets, these enduring works bring forth artful insights into womanhood, memory, love, friendship, and more. Find what speaks to you this season through this week’s lyrical Three to Read line-up.
Hot Pick
Chrome Valley
by Mahogany L. Browne
SYNOPSIS:
From a searing portrait of girlhood and young love to generational reflections of family legacy and trauma, Chrome Valley is a tour de force of self-determination. In part a tribute to the author’s forebears, this new poetry collection is sweeping in scope yet strikingly intricate in detail and lived experience.
WHY:
Mahogany L Browne, Lincoln Center’s inaugural poet-in-residence brings readers a stunning collection of visceral clarity, broadly tackling what it means to be a Black woman in America. As a diligently crafted poetic memoir, Chrome Valley is multi-faceted yet accessible. Plus, the poems’ spoken word impact is maximized by the audiobook, voiced by the author herself.
Coffee Shop Read
Door
by Ann Lauterbach
SYNOPSIS:
Walk through the door to the whimsical inner landscape of memory and dreams in this new poetry collection from award-winning poet Ann Lauterbach. Within, you’ll find poems that both clarify and distort, comfort and challenge. Broadly, Door kickstarts an urgent dialogue concerning imagination, intimacy, technology, and more in a poetic masterclass.
WHY:
Lauterbach’s eleventh collection perceptively examines consciousness and the increasingly convoluted and overwhelming contemporary experience. If you’re looking to get a little more philosophical in your poetry reading, this new release may be just the thing. Lauterbach reflects and reinforces the unique power of language with vivid, witty, and exploratory prose.
Dark Horse
Tanya
by Brenda Shaughnessy
SYNOPSIS:
Tanya is a unique collection paying tribute to women artists and mentors that have informed the author’s own creative journey. The result is a spellbinding conversation across time and memory devoted to celebrating incredible female minds and their life-changing impact. In short, Shaughnessy takes a powerful lens to the topic of female mentorship and inspiration.
WHY:
Dubbed a poetic ode to one’s creative “influencers,” award-winning poet Brenda Shaughnessy implores readers to remember the “Tanya” in our own lives– the women who were integral to our intellectual and artistic journeys. With reverent and rhythmic reflection, Shaughnessy has swiftly created an empowering new feminist classic.
For more Three to Read, click here!