It’s almost a new year – Time to get excited about fresh new poetry!
A new year means new books. As we approach the winter/spring publication season, publishers have announced which books will hit the shelves between January 2021 and March 2021. We are excited to showcase a few that we’ll be getting our hands on!
While we might have to wait a few months for these titles to drop, that doesn’t mean we can’t “grab” them now. Did you know that pre-ordering books helps authors and poets more than waiting until publication to purchase? Pre-order if you can! It shows that there is interest in the upcoming books, which can help writers secure future collections and spots in stores.
So, keep the idea of pre-ordering in mind as you scroll through our list. If something catches your eye, grab it now! Also, if you happen to forget you pre-ordered, it’s always fun to get a little surprise in the mail on publication day.
Shine Your Icy Crown, by Amanda Lovelace
If you were excited about the release of Amanda Lovelace’s “Break Your Glass Slippers,” earlier this year, then you better prepare to pre-order. Yes, less than a year later, the second collection in Lovelace’s You are Your Own Fairytale series drops on January 26, 2021.
Shine Your Icy Crown focuses on society and all the ways it dictates and limits your potential. Of course, these poems are all about how to take back your power and show everyone who you really are. Lovelace shows readers that you don’t need a king or a queen – you don’t need anyone – in order to be the royalty you deserve to be.
The Wild Fox of Yemen, by Threa Almontaser
This debut collection by Threa Almontaser asks how mis-translation can be a form of survival and self-knowledge. These poems take parts of culture and language to and from areas of the world so far from each other, changing them, adapting and repurposing them to make some semblance of home in the space between cultures.
Part love letter to the country and people of Yemen, part portrait of a young Muslim woman living in post-9/11 New York, and part examination of what it means to carry echoes of the life before tragedy in your body, Almontaser’s poems speak with a unique voice. The speakers of these poems choose to speak with a force beyond the limits of imagination and instead speak to navigating imperial violence across multiple anthems and accents. This collection is incendiary and rides the fine line between carnality and tenderness of the human spirit. Add it to your poetry collection on April 6, 2021.
It Was Never Going to Be Okay, by Jaye Simpson
This powerful debut collection by Jaye Simpson, a Two-Spirit Oji-Cree poet, will hit shelves on March 16th, 2021, and as soon as it does, read it. This collection of poetry and prose takes an intimate look at intergenerational trauma, Indigeneity, and queerness. Simpson also shares their unique understanding of urban Indigenous diaspora and the limitations of sexual understanding as a trans woman.
This collection tries to break down years of silence Simpson’s life through poetry. They show readers that trauma isn’t something that occurs in subsequent happenings, but something that happens over a lifetime – or many lifetimes. More importantly, that healing also isn’t a linear timeline.
The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void, Jackie Wang
It takes a special poetic skill to write about dark topics, such as trauma and crisis with a truly invigorating sense of humor. Jackie Wang has that skill and she showcases it beautifully in her collection, which debuts on January 26th, 2021.
The Sunflower Cast a Spell To Save Us From the Void reads like a journalistic account from a good friend of a dream world. Wang’s dreams are full of interpersonal conflict, solidarity and resilience, and pleasure in breaking the rules. All the while she shows the reader how her dreams reveal historical trauma. However, her light touch and humor allows readers to see the social dimension of dreams, and how they can help shape the waking world.
I Must Belong Somewhere, by Dawn Lanuza
Considered a silver lining for anyone struggling, Dawn Lanuza’s third collection of poetry offers daring insights into topics of longing, bullying, loneliness, and mental health. Written during Lanuza’s year of travel, she speaks to that indescribable, yet well-known feeling of displacement and longing for the companionship she left behind.
This collection also dives into difficult topics, such as body image, death, sexism, and injury. While all readers may not relate to all of these topics, Lanuza’s writing, with its modern perspective is sure to resonate with everyone. New readers and fans of her other collections, or even her fiction, only have to wait for this collection until January 6, 2021.
Written After a Massacre in the Year 2018, by Daniel Borzutzky
Sometimes you read poetry because it speaks to the unspoken feelings you experience internally. Sometimes you need poetry that speaks to the atrocities that occur outside, in the world, to real, everyday humans. This new collection by Daniel Borzutzky is the second kind of poetry.
Borzutzky paints clear images of reality as he rages against the military-industrial complex profiting off violence, the racism and xenophobia passing as policy and the zero-sum game of capitalism. He opens his heart and grieves for the children in cages and the victims of senseless gun violence, specifically the martyrs of the Tree of Life synagogue. He turns his poetic voice to address the tragedies of the last era. But, most importantly, he writes about his longing for something better, a future of generosity, peace, and justice.
This powerful collection arrives on March 2, 2021.
Love and Other Poems, by Alex Dimitrov
If you are looking for a feel-good poetry collection that will help you see the beauty in the day-to-day then you’ll find delight on February 9, 2021, when Love and Other Poems hits shelves. Alex Dimitrov, known for being half of the insta-poet collective called Astro Poets, has put together his third collection and it is everything we need after a stressful 2020.
These poems are full of praise for the world we live in and elevate the every day. Structured through the twelve months of the year, you can read this collection as though each poem was a personal message for that moment in time. Actually, Dimitrov’s unique style allows the poems to feel personal, almost like a text. These warm-hearted poems don’t avoid dark topics, instead, Dimitrov finds joy, even in despair. This collection is shamelessly invested in hope.
These are only a few of the collections that are sure to make their way to our TBR in 2021. If this is how the year is going to start, then we can’t wait to see what else 2021 has in store for poetry. Which collections are you looking forward to the most?
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Featured Photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash
