BooksJune 9 2016 7:45 AMExtra OrdinaryPoets Maggie Dietz and Tess Taylor find the astonishment in everyday life.Jonathan Farmer
BooksJan. 7 2016 9:30 AMHeadlong Shane McCrae’s frantic poetry attempts to outrun racism.Jonathan Farmer
BooksSept. 10 2015 11:53 AMDeep PainMark Doty’s ninth book of poems is about the beauty that flourishes in suffering.Jonathan Farmer
BooksJune 2 2015 6:00 AMFailure to Compare At first glance, poets Claudia Emerson and Philip Metres have nothing to say to each other. Maybe that’s the point.Jonathan Farmer
BooksFeb. 4 2015 9:36 AMThe Now Is FallingKathleen Ossip’s poetry delights in the imperfect present.Jonathan Farmer
BooksOct. 9 2014 11:44 AMBlackness VisibleClaudia Rankine’s poems explore how to write about yourself when your language pretends you don’t exist.Jonathan Farmer
BooksJune 2 2014 11:34 AMSteak-Umm out of Sacred CowsPatricia Lockwood’s poetry, and the discomfort it’s meant to cause squares like me.Jonathan Farmer
BooksFeb. 6 2014 7:43 AMErica Dawson’s Poems Read Like Wile E. Coyote Right After Running off the CliffJonathan Farmer
BooksOct. 11 2013 12:07 PMOr and OrCarl Phillips’ poetry is haunted by all that cannot co-exist.Jonathan Farmer
BooksJune 7 2013 9:20 AMThe Love of Two People Staring in the Same DirectionA new book of poems from American master Frank Bidart.Jonathan Farmer
BooksJan. 4 2013 11:34 PMLove Letters to Kenny G, Dave Chappelle, and RuPaulMarcus Wicker’s poetry buzzes with the energy, and loneliness, of pop culture.Jonathan Farmer
BooksSept. 7 2012 11:06 PMUse Your IllusionsThe poet John Koethe has the soul of a philosopher.Jonathan Farmer
BooksMarch 31 2012 12:01 AMBeauty and ViolencePaisley Rekdal’s poetry explores the effect humans have on the natural world—and vice versa.Jonathan Farmer
BooksApril 7 2016 7:45 AMThe Shadow of WhitenessThe characters in Athena Farrokhzad’s poems emigrate from Iran to Sweden, and find a home nowhere. Jonathan Farmer
BooksNov. 4 2015 9:30 AMTruth or Beauty—Pick OneThe harder Carl Phillips’ poems look for beauty, the further they go from home.Jonathan Farmer
BooksJuly 9 2015 9:30 AMThat Peculiar Almost AffirmativeColm Tóibín’s glorious, maddening, uneven book about Elizabeth Bishop.Jonathan Farmer
BooksApril 7 2015 9:30 AMThe Exoskeleton and the BluesStructural amazements are buoyed by inner music in Terrance Hayes’ How to Be Drawn.Jonathan Farmer
BooksNov. 5 2014 1:19 PMPretending to Be MeA new biography of Philip Larkin can’t face his flaws.Jonathan Farmer
BooksAug. 6 2014 8:56 AMThe Book of InjusticeTarfia Faizullah’s poems wrestle with the mass rapes of Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.Jonathan Farmer
BooksApril 8 2014 10:33 AMDevotionPoems of faith and prayer from a priest, and from an atheist.Jonathan Farmer
BooksDec. 4 2013 7:01 AMThe Best Poetry Books of 2013Ignore the haters. It was a great year for poetry.Jonathan Farmer
BooksAug. 9 2013 9:20 AMThe Beautiful Uncut Hair of GravesBrian Teare’s poetry is about grass, but it’s also about life and death.Jonathan Farmer
BooksMarch 1 2013 9:00 AMUpdates on MaryMary Szybist’s poems long for God, and treat her own longing with scorn.Jonathan Farmer
BooksOct. 5 2012 11:11 PMThe Wheat and the ChaffLucille Clifton is the rare poet good enough to survive the Collected Poems treatment.Jonathan Farmer
BooksJune 1 2012 11:36 PMThe Snow Is Still in BetaEngine Empire, a remarkable book of poetry about the speed at which we’re rushing toward the future.Jonathan Farmer