Pretty Words - New In Poetry

Description: Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own stumbling way towards womanhood. Drawing from her own life and the lives of loved ones, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women, and teenage girls. In Shire's hands, lives spring into fullness. This is noisy life: full of music and weeping and surahs and sirens and birds. This is fragrant life: full of blood and perfume and shisha smoke and jasmine and incense.-- From statement provided by publisher.

Description: "I'm sure you could benefit from jumping on a treadmill" "Women WANT a male leader . . . It's honest to god the basic human playbook" These are some of the thousands of messages that Kate Baer has received online. Like countless other writers--particularly women--with profiles on the internet, as Kate's online presence grew, so did the darker messages crowding her inbox. These missives from strangers have ranged from "advice" and opinions to outright harassment. At first, these messages resulted in an immediate delete and block. Until, on a whim, Kate decided to transform the cruelty into art, using it to create fresh and intriguing poems. These pieces, along with ones made from notes of gratitude and love, as well as from the words of public figures, have become some of her most beloved work. I Hope This Finds You Well is drawn from those works: a book of poetry birthed in the darkness of the internet that offers light and hope. By cleverly building on the harsh negativity and hate women often receive--and combining it with heartwarming messages of support, gratitude, and connection, Kate Baer offers us a lesson in empowerment, showing how we too can turn bitterness into beauty.

Description: "A new biography of John Keats that uncovers the reality of his imagination within the context of his time"-- Provided by publisher.

Description: A book of elegy, loss, and what binds us to life. All that comprises our flickering precarious joy, all that we want to protect, is lifted into the light in this moving book. Stones becomes an ode to Young's home places and his dear departed, and to what of them--of us--poetry can save.-- From statement provided by publisher.

Description: Ocean Vuong's second collection of poetry looks inward, on the aftershocks of his mother's death, and the struggle--and rewards--of staying present in the world. This work moves outward and onward, as Vuong continues, through his work, his profound exploration of personal trauma, of what it means to be the product of an American war in America, and how to circle these fragmented tragedies to find not a restoration, but the epicenter of the break.-- From statement provided by publisher.

Description: Vertigo & Ghost pitches quickly into a sequence of graphic, stunning pieces about Zeus as a serial rapist, for whom woman are prey and sex is weaponized. These are frank, brilliant, devastating poems of vulnerability and rage. In the book's second half, Fiona Benson shifts to an intimate and lyrical document of depression, family life, and early motherhood. Her's is a voice that speaks out with clarity, grace, and bravery against abuse of power.-- From statement provided by publisher.

Description: Poems explore the use of a mysterious substance known as "yellow rain" on the Hmong people during their escape from Laos at the end of the Vietnam War, and lament the erasure of that narrative while examining how marginalized people are often denied access to the truth.