Summer Reading: 9 Poetry Collections to Escape Into
Looking to spice up your bookshelf this summer? Escape the heat between the pages of these nine exciting summer poetry collections.
Sugar Work by Katie Marya
(June 7, 2022)
Atlanta native Katie Marya releases her debut poetry collection, Sugar Work, this summer with a bang. Marya analyzes womanhood, race, and gender against the backdrop of sex work in Atlanta, Ga., in the late 1900s. Intense, messy, profane, and all-around gorgeous, this collection was the Editor’s Choice for the 2020 Alice James Award.
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The True Account of Myself as a Bird by Robert Wrigley
(June 7, 2022)
Tough, rich, and lucid, poet Robert Wrigley places us in conversation with the earth in his latest collection. Sonnets, quatrains, and free verse make up a narrative and lyrical journey readers are sure to sink into.
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The Wet Hex by Sun Yung Shin (June 14, 2022)
Koren-born and Minneapolis-based poet, writer, and artist Sun Yung Shin builds an apocalyptic energy, both beautiful and terrifying, in The Wet Hex. Readers will be invited to examine their existing notions of god and humanity, heaven and hell, present and sublime in this exciting new collection.
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All the Blood Involved in Love by Maya Marshall (June 28, 2022)
Urgent and evocative, Maya Marshall’s All the Blood Involved in Love is one of the most timely debut collections of the summer. This meditation on womanhood, motherhood, and family deftly engages with contemporary politics, the stakes of race, and monetary, mental, and physical sacrifice.
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Plainchant by Eamon Grennan (June 28, 2022)
The power of close, patient, and plainspoken observation shines bright in this nature-ful and attentive work. Set mainly in the coastal Connemara region of Ireland, Grennan paints simple but layered images of landscape, animal, and memory.
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Alexa, What Is There to Know about Love by Brian Bilston
(July 1, 2022)
This modern and zippy collection by Brian Bilston reminds those of us fretting about love that we are, in fact, not alone. Even the most jaded romantic will be stirred by the charming rhymes and frank sense of humor Bilston displays.
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O by Zeina Hashem Beck
(July 5, 2022)
Musical, passionate, and elegant, O uses lyrics, triptychs, and ghazals in both English and Arabic to explore the limits of language. This is Lebanese poet Zeina Hashem Beck’s third collection in her career, and arguably her best yet.
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Girls That Never Die by Safia Elhillo (July 12, 2022)
Award-winning poet Safia Elhillo explores feminine shame and liberation in this new collection. Rebellion, autonomy, and power are on full display as Elhillo examines past history and myths to help write a newer, freer world.
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Changing with the Tides by Shelby Leigh (July 12, 2022)
What suits a summer poetry release better than a charming nautical theme? This moving and inspirational collection is broken into two parts: the anchor and the sail. Part one, the anchor, ponders the issues of insecurity, heartbreak, and anxiety. Party two, the sail, contemplates the hope and healing that come after the storm.
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