New Poetry Books, Grown-ups' Edition

In addition to Mark Doty's recently released Fire to Fire, I've been on the lookout for new books of poetry. Poets.org, the online home of the Academy of American Poets, rounds up quite a few that I look forward to reading. (I added bookstore links; some are not out yet.) If you've liked/loved/loathed any mentioned here or on the longer list at Poets.org, I hope you'll leave a comment; word of mouth is often the best recommendation. The ones that caught my eye are the following:

Shadow Architect, by Emily Warn (Copper Canyon Press, October). Warn is the editor of the Poetry Foundation's web site.

Colosseum, by Katie Ford (Graywolf Press, June). The poems of a displaced New Orleanian deal with the aftermath of Katrina, according to the description.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by Simon Armitage (W.W. Norton, on shelves now). A new translation of the Arthurian epic that "liberate[s] Gawain from academia," as the Telegraph put it.

Fidelity: Poems, by Grace Paley (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, October). Her last collection.

The Lily Poems, by Liz Rosenberg (Bright Hill Press, spring). Read an excerpt, "Learning to Speak," from the collection of "love poems for an adopted daughter, a tribute to hope and to family." Kidlit folks may recognize the name; Rosenberg is also a children's and young-adult book author and writes book reviews for the Boston Globe.

The Kingdom of Ordinary Time, by Marie Howe (W.W. Norton, on shelves).  Excerpt: "After the Movie."

The Bad Wife Handbook, by Rachel Zucker (Wesleyan University Press, on shelves now). I just liked the title and the "darkly comic" part of the blurb.

Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose, and Letters (Library of America, on shelves now). I loved Bishop's book of letters, One Art; I assume they're the ones collected here. Also, if you've never read Dana Gioia's reminiscence of taking Bishop's poetry class in college, try to find the 9/15/86 issue of The New Yorker. 

Comments

[Jules]

I love Rosenberg's Light-Gathering anthology for teens (and the "dark" one, too, whose name is escaping me). Thanks for these titles. I'd love to read Emily Warn's.

[Susan T.]

Thanks, Jules! I will look for Light-Gathering today since I'll be at the library.

[MotherReader]

The Bad Wife Handbook has my vote on the name alone too. At the very least, I'm now curious about it.

[Jules]

You'll love it, Susan. A classic YA anthology (a friend of mine and I have been working on a similarly-themed anthology for YEARS now, so much so that I wonder if it'll never get done)....love that theme!

[Susan T.]

MR, I know. Isn't that a great hook? I can't find the book in our library system yet. Shoot.

Jules, yay. Our library did have a copy. Thank ya vurry much. (Said with Elvis accent.)