Academy of American Poets Holiday Gift Guide

Orders of Service 
by Willie Lee Kinard III 
Alice James Books
November 2023, Paperback, $17.95

“Orders of Service is a collection of Kinard’s spells, erasures, lavender linguistics; it’s a score of swerving feels and scriptures. A masterful, magical debut.” —Terrance Hayes
 

Conversation Among Stones
by Willie Lin
BOA Editions
November 2023, Paperback, $17

Through fields of wild grass, restless seascapes, and cities tinged with sand, Willie Lin’s debut collection of poetry questions what can remain and what must be pared away in our search for truth.

Rock Stars
by Matt Mason
Button Poetry
September 2023, Paperback, audiobook, and e-Book, $18

An ode and ovation to what our ears taught us before we knew what to say, Matt Mason’s Rock Stars riffs on music, poetry, and sports, taking us on the coming-of-age road trip of a lifetime.

Excuse Me As I Kiss The Sky
by Rudy Francisco
Button Poetry
November 2023, Paperback, audiobook, and e-Book, $18 

Excuse Me As I Kiss The Sky is the third installment of the Rudy Francisco poetry collection. With every book, the author excavates his everyday experiences, creating needful poetry for this moment.

From From: Poems
by Monica Youn
Graywolf Press
March 2023, Paperback, $17

A major achievement by Monica Youn, “one of the most consistently innovative poets working today.” —NPR

Finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Poetry and long-listed for the 2023 Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize. 
 

Saltwater Demands a Psalm
by Kweku Abimbola
Graywolf Press
April 2023, Paperback, $16

“In an era of sloganeering and solipsism, Saltwater Demands a Psalm is a healing, a diasporic divination, an elegy of ancestral elegance.” —Tyehimba Jess, judge’s statement for the Academy of American Poets First Book Award

 

Remedies for Disappearing
by Alexa Patrick
Haymarket Books
June 2023, Paperback, $17

A collection of poetry that moves from family history and the heartbreaks of navigating a predominantly white high school into adulthood, exploring the ways the speaker’s experiences echo those of an expansive and intricate history of Black girls and women.

Because You Were Mine
by Brionne Janae
Haymarket Books
July 2023, Paperback, $17

In their latest collection of poems, Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner Brionne Janae dives into the deep, unsettled waters of intimate partner violence, queerness, grief, and survival.

Above Ground: Poems 
by Clint Smith
Little, Brown Books
March 2023, Hardcover, $27

From New York Times bestselling author Clint Smith, a vibrant and compelling new collection of poems that traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, exploring how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world.

Shadow Act: An Elegy for Journalist James Foley
by Daniel Brock Johnson
McSweeney’s
August 2023, Hardcover, $18

In his second collection—a powerful act of documentary poetics a decade in the making—Daniel Brock Johnson chronicles the perils and joys of fatherhood alongside a shattering tragedy playing out thousands of miles away.

Tripas: Poems
by Brandon Som
University of Georgia Press
March 2023, Paperback and
e-Book, $19.95

Built out of a multicultural, multigenerational childhood home, Som’s lyricism weaves together the narratives of his transnational communities, bringing to light what is overshadowed in the reckless transit of global capitalism.

Some of the Things I’ve Seen 
by Sara Berkeley
Wake Forest University Press 
March 2023, Paperback and e-Book, $14.95

“Berkeley’s bravery is magnificent, her palliative courage simply astonishing.”
—Thomas McCarthy, Dublin Review of Books

100 Poems That Matter 
Andrews McMeel Publishing
December 2022, Hardback, $19.99

A moving, thought-provoking, and emotional anthology of classical and contemporary poems that celebrate poetry’s power to capture the truths that really matter, exploring universal themes of love, loss, and the experiences that define us.


 

We Call to the Eye & the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Heritage 
edited and with an introduction by 
Hala Alyan and Zeina Hashem Beck 
Persea Books 
September 2023, Paperback, $22

Featuring English-language love poems by almost one hundred writers of Arab heritage, including George Abraham, Carolina Ebeid, Noor Hindi, Fady Joudah, Zeyn Joukhadar, and Naomi Shihab Nye.

The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Graphic Literature: Artists and Writers on Creating Graphic Narratives, Poetry Comics, and Literary Collage
edited by Kelcey Ervick and Tom Hart
Rose Metal Press
July 2023, Paperback, $24.95

This new field guide gives readers unprecedented insight into the techniques of twenty-eight of today’s most innovative creators of graphic literature, and includes original craft essays, corresponding exercises, and full-color examples of each contributor’s work.

When Language Broke Open: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Black Writers of Latin
American Descent
edited by Alan Pelaez Lopez
University of Arizona Press
December 2023, Paperback, $30


A poetry, prose, and visual art anthology featuring forty-five queer and trans Black writers of Latin American descent, illustrating Blackness as an ever-changing geopolitical experience.

Yayoi Kusama: Every Day I Pray For Love
by Yayoi Kusama
David Zwirner Books
December 2020, Hardcover, $50

Yayoi Kusama’s work has transcended two of the most important art movements of the second half of the twentieth century: pop art and minimalism. Her extraordinary and highly influential career spans paintings, performances, room-size presentations, outdoor sculptural installations, literary works, films, fashion, design, and interventions within existing architectural structures, which allude at once to microscopic and macroscopic universes.

Loving in the War Years
And Other Writings, 1978—1999
by Cherríe Moraga
Haymarket Books
August 2023, Paperback, $18.95

Cherríe Moraga’s powerful memoir remains as urgent as ever. She explores the contradictions and complexities of her Chicana and lesbian identities, moving gracefully between poetry and prose, Spanish and English, personal narratives and political theory.

The Limitless Heart
New and Selected Poems
(1997—2022)
by Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
Haymarket Books
October 2023, Paperback, $21

Encompassing the breadth of Cheryl Boyce-Taylor’s astounding career, The Limitless Heart is a time capsule of the boundless love, care, grief, and fortitude that make her work so stirring.

I Am Made of Moutains
by Alexandra S.D. Hinrichs
illustrated by Vivian Mineker
Charlesbridge 
May 2023, Hardcover, $18.99

From the volcanos of Haleakalā National Park in Hawai‘i to the churning ocean at Acadia National Park in Maine, I Am Made of Mountains takes readers on a tour to honor America’s great outdoors.

Age range: 4–7

Mother Winter
by James Christopher Carroll
The Creative Company
August 2022, Hardcover, $16.99

A poetic personification of the winter season, Mother Winter goes walking during “the longest cold night,” inviting the reader along to experience chilly winds, icy ponds, white snowdrifts, and other quiet wonders.

Age range: 9+
Themes: seasons, stories in verse, and fiction.

A Poem Grows Inside You
by Katey Howes
illustrated by Heather Brockman Lee
Innovation Press
November 2022, Hardcover, $18.99

We all hold the seed of something wonderful inside, waiting for the right moment to bloom. This 2023 Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor Book encourages creatives to nurture their ideas.

Poetry Prompts: All sorts of ways to start a poem from Joseph Coelho 
by Joseph Coelho
illustrated by Georgie Birkett, Amanda Quartey, Grasya Oliyko, and Viola Wang
Quarto Books
October 2023, Hardcover, $22.99 

Discover forty ways to write a poem with award-winning poet Joseph Coelho. Poetry Prompts helps children write poems and read them out loud by building confidence and literacy skills. Essential for budding writers and performers.

Age range: 7–9
Themes: poetry, composition, creative writing, and humor.