Shopping List? A few recommended Poetry Books of 2012
- At November 25, 2012
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 0
If you are looking for poetry books from 2012 to buy as gifts (or for yourself) I do have just a few must-buys and recommendations. It’s always hard to pick exactly what I enthusiastically endorse each year, because I get so many books as a reviewer, and so many of them are worthy of praise. However, these are books I have read closely, already given to others myself, and can truly say – this book was a great read more than once! So, this is a short list, I’m leaving out a ton of other great poetry books, but rest assured these would all be great books to give as gifts or keep for yourself.
Yes, I’m including links to these books on Amazon, with the caveat that if you can buy them directly from the publisher or from your local independent bookstore (Seattle’s Open Books is a nice place that I’d like to see stay open!) that is probably the best way to support your publishers and bookstores.
Annette Spaulding-Convy’s In Broken Latin
I blurbed this book but I’ve been a fan of it (reading it in different iterations) for years. Annette writes with compassion, grace, and a surprisingly sharp and humorous eye about her experiences as a nun. This is not your grandmother’s nun poetry – expect a wonderbra or two flying at you from these pages. I can genuinely say Annette is not only a friend but probably one of the best poets I’ve ever read. You will not regret buying this book.
Juliana Gray’s Roleplay
This book of poetry has “geek cred” written all over it. You can read my review up at The Rumpus (http://therumpus.net/2012/10/roleplay-by-juliana-gray/) but suffice it to say that if you enjoy any combination of formal poetry, zombies, and Hitchcock trivia, you will enjoy this book. Juliana’s poetry is funny and smart and the kind of “gateway drug” that will get your comic-loving little brother to believe that poetry can be fun.
Kathleen Flenniken’s Plume
It’s not every book about America’s nuclear history that you can say: the author has actually lived that history. Kathleen worked at Hanford as an engineer, her father worked at Hanford, and she grew up in Richland cheering on teams with names like “The Bombers.” (For sci-fi geeks, a little trivia: Orson Scott Card was also born in Richland, WA.) This book is an amazing and dynamic combination of history of the Manhattan Project, Memoir, and Poetry. This is one book of poetry I could give to my engineer father that he actually read and enjoyed. (My formal review of the book is up at The Rumpus: http://therumpus.net/2012/05/lie-down-patriot-dont-ask/)
Eduardo Corral’s Slow Lightning
Sure, he’s everybody’s literary darling now, and his book won the Yale Younger Poets Prize, etc..but Eduardo has been writing insanely good lyric poetry for years now. He’s one of those poets I was begging other poets to read the minute I after I read his first poem seven or eight years ago. Besides some sensitive and keen-eyed tributes to his mother and father – those are my favorites in the book – Eduardo manages to address issues of immigration, sexuality, language, and being the “other” in a way that few other poets could pull off. (Not for anyone who would be put off by a blow job reference or three – these are definitely poems for adults.)
Also want to give a shout-out to: Poet’s Market 2013, a must-have for aspiring and beginning poets and Anything from Kitsune Books: This wonderful small publisher is closing at the end of the year due to the editor/publisher’s serious illness. Please go and buy a title before they go away and do what you can to support them- http://www.kitsunebooks.com/catalog-genre.html. I know you won’t be disappointed with any of their poetry books, but they also have Young Adult, Geek-friendly lit crit, and fiction.