Our partners, sponsors, and advertisers present some of their offeringsto help celebrate the holidays with the poets and readers in your life.
2023 Academy of American Poets Holiday Gift Guide
Orders of Service by Willie Lee Kinard III
Alice James Books, November 2023
“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
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.
Excuse Me As I Kiss The Sky by Rudy Francisco
Button Poetry, November 2023
Rudy Francisco’s third book Excuse Me As I Kiss The Sky is instructive and beautiful, drawing poetry out of everyday experiences and giving new life to poetic forms such as the contrapuntal, golden shovel, and the ode.
Rock Stars by Matt Mason
Button Poetry, September 2023
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.
From From: Poems by Monica Youn
Graywolf Press, March 2023
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
“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
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
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
From the 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
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
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
“Berkeley’s bravery is magnificent, her palliative courage simply astonishing.” —Thomas McCarthy, Dublin Review of Books
100 Poems That Matter
Andrews McMeel, December 2022
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
New Directions Poetry Club
A year of poetry handpicked by New Directions editors! For $85, Poetry Club members will expand their personal libraries with six books a year (free shipping) plus a special gift. Details on ndbooks.com.
The Paris Review subscription
This holiday season, gift subscriptions to The Paris Review are only $44. That’s $15 off the regular subscription price of $59. Recipients will enjoy a year of the best in prose, interviews, poetry, and art.
Read & Relax Gift Box
Sparrow & Page LLC, $47.99
Delight a book enthusiast with a curated gift box, complete with a genre-selectable “blind date” book, aromatic soy wax candle, elegant bookmark, stylish mug, and rich hot cocoa—ideal for a literary escape. Purchase here.
A Place Where Stars Rest by Katsumi Komagata
Tra Publishing, September 2023
A beautiful picture book made with the texture and shape of paper that gently describes the night sky and the community of stars that live and rest there, with text in English, French, and Japanese.
Ages 1–4