New Books in Poetry | New Books Network

Nate Marshall
Finna
Poems
One World, 2020

New Books in African American Studies New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Language New Books in Literature New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Poetry New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Popular Culture August 11, 2020 Rebekah Buchanan

In Finna: Poems (One World), his new collection of poetry, Nate Marshall examines the way that pop culture influences Black vernacular, the role of storytelling, family, and place. Marshall defines finna as: fin·na /ˈfinə/ contraction: (1) going to; intending to [rooted in African American Vernacular English] (2) eye dialect spelling... Read More

Leah Zani, “Bomb Children: Life in the Former Battlefields of Laos” (Duke UP, 2019)

Leah Zani
Bomb Children
Life in the Former Battlefields of Laos
Duke University Press, 2019

New Books in Anthropology New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Military History New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Poetry New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Southeast Asian Studies August 5, 2020 Lachlan Summers

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Leah Zani, a public anthropologist and poet based in California, about her truly wonderful book Bomb Children: Life in the Former Battlefields of Laos (Duke University Press, 2019). Her research takes place half a century after the CIA’s Secret War in Laos –... Read More

Chelsea Wagenaar
The Spinning Place

Southern Indiana Review Press, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Literature New Books in Poetry July 24, 2020 Andrea Blythe

In The Spinning Place (Southern Indiana Review Press, 2019), Chelsea Wagenaar explores the power of language—in terms of its possibilities and what it fails to express. As a being with a body in the world, there are so many experiences that are inexpressible. These poems attempt to touch upon those... Read More

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, “The Age of Phillis” (Wesleyan UP, 2020)

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
The Age of Phillis

Wesleyan University Press, 2020

New Books in African American Studies New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Biography New Books in Literary Studies New Books in Literature New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Poetry New Books in Politics & Society New Books Network July 2, 2020 Jennifer J. Davis

Jennifer J. Davis speaks with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, about The Age of Phillis (Wesleyan UP, 2020), Jeffers’s latest collection of poems centered on the remarkable life of America’s first poet of African descent, Phillis Wheatley Peters. The Society of Early Americanists recently... Read More

Sarah M. Sala
Devil's Lake

Tolsun Books, 2020

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Literature New Books in Poetry New Books Network June 29, 2020 Athena Dixon

Devil’s Lake (Tolsun Books, 2020), the debut collection by Sarah Sala, is an amalgam of American life. The poems move deftly within a world that is equal parts dangerous, celebratory, subdued, modern, and rural. Sala uses format and form to bring the spotlight to American violence with just as much... Read More

Kathryn H. Ross
Black Was Not a Label

Pronto, 2019

New Books in African American Studies New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Literature New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Poetry New Books Network May 28, 2020 Athena Dixon

Kathryn H. Ross has found a balance. Between past and present. Between self and ancestors. Between self-discovery and continuous growth. In her hybrid collection, Black Was Not a Label, Ross invites readers into a life unfurling. Through the lenses of natural hair, faith, and microaggressions, she lights a path to... Read More

Steve Zeitlin, “The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness” (Cornell UP, 2016)

Steve Zeitlin
The Poetry of Everyday Life
Storytelling and the Art of Awareness
Cornell University Press, 2016

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Folklore New Books in Literary Studies New Books in Performing Arts New Books in Poetry New Books Network May 25, 2020 Rachel Hopkin

This is a book of encounters. Part memoir, part essay, and partly a guide to maximizing your capacity for fulfillment and expression, The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness (Cornell University Press, 2016) taps into the artistic side of what we often take for granted: the... Read More

Archana Venkatesan, “Endless Song: Tiruvaymoli” (Penguin, 2020)

Archana Venkatesan
Endless Song
Tiruvaymoli
Penguin, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Hindu Studies New Books in Literary Studies New Books in Literature New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Poetry New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Religion & Faith New Books in South Asian Studies New Books Network April 27, 2020 Raj Balkaran

Endless Song (Oxford University Press, 2019) is Dr. Archana Venkatesan’s exquisite translation of the Tiruvaymoli (sacred utterance), a brilliant 1102-verse ninth century tamil poem celebrating the poet Nammalvar’s mystical quest for union with his supreme lord, the Hindu great god Viṣṇu. In this interview we discuss the sophisticated structure and profound content of the Tiruvaymoli, along with the... Read More

Sarah Adleman, “The Lampblack Blue of Memory: My Mother Echoes” (Tolsun, 2019)

Sarah Adleman
The Lampblack Blue of Memory
My Mother Echoes
Tolsun Books, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Literature New Books in Poetry New Books Network April 23, 2020 Athena Dixon

The Houston Chronicle’s review of Sarah Adleman’s The Lampblack Blue of Memory: My Mother Echoes (Tolsun 2019) praises that the book “dissects the feelings that have been a part of her since her mother’s death with the precision and brutality of a poet and all the awful beauty of a... Read More