Poetry Foundation Magazine, October 2025

by Adrian Matejka (Editor)

POETRY October 2025 Featuring Gabrielle Calvocoressi, marion eames white, Kimiko Hahn, Tarik Dobbs, Cynthia Cruz, and a folio on Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winner Rigoberto González

Genres: Poetry

98 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2025

About the author

Adrian Matejka was born in Nuremberg, Germany but grew up in California and Indiana. He is a graduate of Indiana University and the MFA program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His first collection of poems, The Devils Garden, won the 2002 Kinereth Gensler Award from Alice James Books. His second collection, Mixology, was a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series and was published by Penguin Books in 2009. Mixology was subsequently nominated for an NAACP Image Award. He is a Cave Canem fellow and is the recipient of two Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry 2010, Crab Orchard Review, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, and Prairie Schooner among other journals and anthologies. He teaches at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where he serves as Poetry Editor for Souwester."

Reviews

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite poems:

Cardinal Red

Poem for My Father

Mind

And I really liked this little essay:
It's Complicated

[Alan Zhu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really strong issue throughout, but maybe just an adjustment after being in WCW's world for too long.

Some particular favorites—Gabrielle Calvacoressi's "Karma Affirmation Cistern...", marion eames white's "there are no toothbrushes in heaven", Ye Hui (tr. Dong Li)'s "联系 / The Connection", Sharon Lin's "Home Words", Anne Halsey's "Found: Diagnosis Notes and Recommended Treatment...", both poems by Darius Simpson.

[Santiago M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stronger overall but perhaps with less highlights. Cardinal Red was adorable, though, as was Oda al bolillo (of course in Spanish) and Rigoberto González postface.