Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

Anyone want to suggest other books for me to read this year? Bonus points for recommendations of poetry in translation -- at this time last year, I'd read significantly more non-Anglophone poetry than this year. Also, bonus points for recommendations of non-contemporary poetry, overlooked classics, "forgotten" masters, etc. -- my list so far this year slants more heavily toward today's poets than I would have preferred.


1. Hannah Sanghee Park, The Same-Different
2. Else Lasker-Schuler, The Blue Piano, tr. Brooks Haxton
3. Paisley Rekdal, Animal Eye
4. Ocean Vuong, Night Sky With Exit Wounds
5. Ken Craft, The Indifferent World
6. Tina Chang, Of Gods & Strangers
7. Vi Khi Nao, The Old Philosopher
8. Derrick Austin, Trouble the Water
9. Ada Limon, Bright Dead Things
10. C.D. Wright, ShallCross
11. Warsan Shire, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (chapbook)
12. Austin Allen, Pleasures of the Game
13. Danny Earl Simmons, The Allness of Everything (chapbook)
14. Max Ritvo, Aeons (chapbook)
15. Max Ritvo, Four Reincarnations
16. Various poets, Red Sky: Poetry on the Global Epidemic of Violence Against Women, ed. Melissa Hassard, Gabrielle Langley, and Stacy Nigliazzo
17. Vievee Francis, Forest Primeval
18. Matthew Olzmann, Mezzanines
19. Hoa Nguyen, Violet Energy Ingots
20. Rose Mary Boehm, From the Ruhr to Somewhere Near Dresden, 1939 to 1949: A Child's Journey
21. Thanhha Lai, Inside Out and Back Again
22. Mark Strand, Almost Invisible

Jenna wrote: "I'm at 19! Anyone want to suggest a 20th book for me to read this year? Bonus points for recommendations of poetry in translation -- at this time last year, I'd read significantly more non-Anglopho..."

Sylvia Fischerova - The Swing in The Middle of Chaos (translated by Stuart Friebert). Contemporary but good.

J.S. wrote: "Jenna wrote: "I'm at 19! Anyone want to suggest a 20th book for me to read this year? Bonus points for recommendations of poetry in translation -- at this time last year, I'd read significantly mor..."

Thanks for the rec, J.S. I'll look into it.

Coral Bracho - Firefly, translated by Forrest Gander
Adelia Prado - Alphabet in the Park, translated by Ellen Watson
Nizar Qabbani - On Entering the Sea, various translators

Jawanza wrote: "Coral Bracho - Firefly, translated by Forrest Gander
Adelia Prado - Alphabet in the Park, translated by Ellen Watson
Nizar Qabbani - On Entering the Sea, various translators"

Thanks, Jawanza!

Woot, Jenna! Almost there!

Jen wrote: "Woot, Jenna! Almost there!"

Thanks, Jen. I think maybe I'll make next year my year of translations or my year of catching up with older books -- I don't think I'll have time to do those things justice before the year is out.

Do you have a favorite poetry book of the year?

Jawanza wrote: "Do you have a favorite poetry book of the year?"

Hi Jawanza, this year the three poetry books that I absolutely loved, almost without reservation, were Paisley Rekdal's Animal Eye (2012), Derrick Austin's Trouble the Water (2016), and Austin Allen's Pleasures of the Game (2016), while a very honorable mention would go to Max Ritvo's Four Reincarnations (2016). I hope my genuine enthusiasm for these books comes across in my reviews! I'm not sure I could pick just one.

Here is one sample poem from each of these four books, to help people decide which one(s) of these books to add to their to-read list:

-From Rekdal's Animal Eye, my favorite poem was "Why Some Girls Love Horses": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...

-From Austin's Trouble the Water, my favorite poem was "Cedars of Lebanon": http://burrowpress.com/derrick-austin/ (scroll down to the middle of the page)

-From Allen's The Pleasures of the Game, my favorite poem was "Ode to the Hartford Whalers": http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/aa...

-From Ritvo's Four Reincarnations, my favorite poem was "Afternoon": http://bostonreview.net/poetry/sample... (scroll down to the first poem after the intro)



I'd love to hear other people's favorite books of the year, too! Maybe we should start a new thread for that?

Thanks Jenna. I think a favorite poetry book thread would be much more useful than this thread. Who cares how many poetry books a person read if the person would only recommend one or two of them? On second thought, I guess it would help us to pick what to read first. I suppose both threads would work well together.

Jawanza wrote: "Thanks Jenna. I think a favorite poetry book thread would be much more useful than this thread. Who cares how many poetry books a person read if the person would only recommend one or two of them? ..."

Hi Jawanza, totally agree with all your comments here! I think there's some value in listing all the books one read in a given year, even if one wholeheartedly endorses only a fraction of them. I personally enjoy looking at the list of books I read at the end of a given year, partly so that I can see whether my book choices reveal any subconscious biases or blind spots that were hitherto hidden to me. And seeing someone else's list gives me useful insight into where that person is coming from, what kind of poetry that person gravitates to, what areas they are a relative expert on, etc. For example, this year, Nina's list reveals that she decided to read a ton of contemporary poetry books about New Orleans, which I think is cool, and which probably gives her some level of expertise about the diversity of poetry being written about New Orleans today.

Generally speaking, I think all the books I read this year had aspects that were worthwhile to engage with, and I was able to learn something from all of them. Interestingly, the handful of books for which I had the least personal affinity seemed to generate the most discussion here in this group, which just goes to show that, even if I don't recommend a book, that doesn't mean it won't speak to other readers whose tastes differ. In my reviews, I try to describe a book so that you can see if you'll like it even if I don't.

All that being said, I'm going to start a favorites thread right now :-)

Just updated the first post to add that I've now read and reviewed my 20th poetry book read of the year.

Jenna wrote: "Just updated the first post to add that I've now read and reviewed my 20th poetry book read of the year."

Congratulations on achieving a Full House.

J.S. wrote: "Jenna wrote: "Just updated the first post to add that I've now read and reviewed my 20th poetry book read of the year."

Congratulations on achieving a Full House."

Thanks, J.S. I just updated the first post again, to add a 21st book, Thanhha Lai's Inside Out and Back Again .

Jenna wrote: "J.S. wrote: "Jenna wrote: "Just updated the first post to add that I've now read and reviewed my 20th poetry book read of the year."

Congratulations on achieving a Full House."

Thanks, J.S. I jus..."

Impressive!

Congrats on making it to 20!

Jen wrote: "Congrats on making it to 20!"

Thanks, J.S. and Jen! I think this is my second lifetime year of meeting the 20-poetry-book goal. Rather than being solely or even mainly due to my reading prowess, I think this accomplishment can actually be credited to my decision this year to read a higher proportion of contemporary collections, which tend to be slimmer than, say, collecteds.

Aside from Ocean Vuong, whose chapbook Burnings I read and reviewed here in 2015, all the poets I read this year are poets whom I'd never previously read book-length works by, and whom I'd never reviewed in this group before. And about half of the books I reviewed this year marked their poets' debuts on the publishing scene (namely: Park's, Craft's, Nao's, Austin's, Shire's, Allen's, Simmons's, Ritvo's, Olzmann's, and Lai's).

Just updated to add my last read of 2016, Mark Strand's Almost Invisible.

Yi Lu, Sea Summit (Milkweed) and The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa (Canarium) would definitely fit the bill for poetry in translation. Both very evocation, intriguing collections.

I'd also recommend Suzanne Buffam's Pillow Book.

Olzmann also a brand new book out (though you may already know that). I also loved the Ritvo, Limon, and Vuong.

And Safiya Sinclair's Cannibal is a must! Happy reading.

Charles wrote: "Yi Lu, Sea Summit (Milkweed) and The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa (Canarium) would definitely fit the bill for poetry in translation. Both very evocation, intriguing collections.

I'd also recom..."

Thanks so much for all these intriguing recommendations! I had heard about Matthew Olzmann's new book, but haven't had a chance to check it out yet.