The Poetry Shop highlights new books about every week or so. This week, there is an incredible range of form and subjects. Check out the descriptions below, along with the author's Instagram profile if you'd like to follow. Take a look!
No More Worlds to Conquer:
The Black Poet in Washington, DC (limited availability)
by Brian Gilmore / @bumpyjonasdc
Brian Gilmore uncovers the buried legacy of Black poets in Washington. Gilmore draws on meticulous research, personal interviews, and his own deep knowledge of the local literary community... This multigenerational account will resonate with poetry enthusiasts, local DC scholars, and anyone interested in the rich traditions of African American literature.
World After Rain: Anne’s Poem
by Canisia Lubrin / @canisia.lubrin
...In this stunning new poem, Canisia Lubrin’s signature epic vision is distilled into a elegy to her mother, along an interwoven and unresolvable axis of astonishment that belongs as much to history as to today.
Night Shift in Perfect English
by Mina Khan / @mina.khan___
2024 Winner of the Two Languages Book Award. Drawing upon her Korean-Pakistani heritage, Khan discusses the NYC bodega in a gentrifying neighborhood, the aging body, and a rapidly deteriorating climate; Everyday violences-and the vivid joys that persevere. Mingling ghost-like family photo album with poems and fragments of a screenplay, this collection echoes history, memory, and coming-of-age in layers.
Sisters Roc’N’Rhyme Presents Unsung Canaan Ballads: A Collection of Poems
by Chyrel J Jackson / @sistersrocnrhyme
...a poetry collection by Chyrel J. Jackson of culture, honesty, family, history, emotion, resilience, and literary excellence... a love letter to Black people living in an imperfect and whitewashed world... There is something for the grieving soul. Words of encouragement for the sad or hurting soul. Healing for the lost and seeking soul.
More Flowers
by Susan L Leary / @susanllearypoet
...Susan L. Leary’s newest collection, More Flowers, unfolds as self-interrogation, tribute, and template for survival. Most of all, these poems celebrate the idea of excess, that sensation of always wanting more-more time, more meaning, more love, more flowers-because despite every trial and every sadness, this life, quite simply, is never enough.
