The Kissing of KissingHannah EmersonMilkweed Editions, 2022 Review by Clara Otto The Kissing of Kissing, the debut collection by nonspeaking autistic poet Hannah Emerson, is an invitation to see with new eyes. Hypnotic and tender, these poems pluck the...
Beast at Every ThresholdNatalie WeeArsenal Pulp Press, 2022 Review by Stella Cali Natalie Wee’s Beast at Every Threshold explores queerness, identity, and diaspora. Through formal experimentation and controlled vulnerability, Wee has created a collection that feels simultaneously challenging and...
frank: sonnetsDiane Seuss Milkweed Editions, 2021 Review by Clara Otto Diane Seuss’s 2021 collection frank: sonnets explores addiction, disability, death, and love. In the hands of a less skilled poet the combination of these themes might make for a maudlin...
SwolleningJason PurcellArsenal Pulp Press, 2022 Review by Catherine Harris Jason Purcell’s Swollening begins in childhood, where the microbial landscape of the body is formed. In “Bathing” the speaker says, “For years / could not say the word I—could not...
the correct fury of your why is a mountain Kevin Andrew HeslopGordon Hill Press, 2021 Review by Robert Colman The intriguing aspect of reading a poet’s debut is witnessing a voice perhaps not yet fully formed but exploring themes and...
Dear Memory: Letters On Writing, Silence, And GriefVictoria ChangMilkweed Editions, 2021 Review by Cynthia Sharp Victoria Chang’s multimedia poetic conversation Dear Memory: Letters On Writing, Silence, And Grief turns sorrow into art with transcendent understanding. Intergenerational suffering is expressed...
CustomsSolmaz SharifGraywolf Press, 2022 Review by ALHS Solmaz Sharif’s Customs opens with an eruption in the face of the violence of conditionality: “I had to.” This first poem is titled “America.” Customs is poetry about conditionality in that it...
AutowarAssiyah Jamilla TouréBrick Books, 2021 Review by Catherine Harris Assiyah Jamilla Touré’s debut collection is both concrete and abstract, dissolving and rematerializing into new forms at every turn. The speaker in Touré’s collection is repeatedly reborn, shedding their previous...
The RenunciationsDonika Kelly Graywolf Press, 2021 Review by Stella Cali Donika Kelly’s second collection of poetry, The Renunciations, begins with fire as a transitional force that overwrites the physical landscape of the speaker’s body. Standing in a field, “the undergrowth...