Looking for great
holiday gifts? Look no further! For the third year, Split This Rock
brings you its list of notable books published in the past 12 months or so. Shop
your local independent bookstore, Teaching for Change’s Busboys and Poets Bookstore, or Powells.com for all your poetry-loving (and soon-to-be-poetry-loving)
family and friends.
We were frustrated
to see The Washington Post once again include no collections of poetry in their
favorite books of the year. We’ve registered a protest with the book editors and
we urge you to do so as well. Meanwhile, we urge you to read the blogs and
journals that are reviewing poetry, and doing it well. Where we could find such
a review of a book we loved, we quote from it, below, and link to the site.
The list is by no
means comprehensive. So much is happening in poetry these days – even in poetry
of provocation and witness – in every corner of our country and from presses
small, medium-sized, and scrappy as hell, that we can’t possibly wrap our minds
around all of it. A remarkable problem to be having! Send us your additions and
suggestions and we’ll keep the list rolling. Email us at info@splitthisrock.org.
Happy reading!
Split This Rock Team
**
Split This Rock Recommended Poetry Books of 2012
Looking for the Gulf Motel, Richard Blanco (Pitt Poetry Series)
“A collection of highly crafted poems that offer a
compelling meditation on how one family’s legacy has shaped and continues to
shape a poet’s Latino identity, sexual identity and his understanding of the
issues that make of life a rich and complex experience.” – Francisco Aragón, Letras Latinas
Double Agent, Michelle Chan Brown (Kore Press)
“There is a lot to absorb, digest, and chuckle at
here. Overall, the seriousness of every situation lends itself to double
meanings by a Double Agent poet, who works with and against
the grain of love and life with honesty and irony.” – Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, The
Fox Chase Review
In the Company of
Spirits, Carmen Calatayud (Press 53)
“Offers us a contemporary poet working to weave narratives of testimonio that blur the line between the political and the spiritual.” – Francisco Aragón, Letras Latinas
“Offers us a contemporary poet working to weave narratives of testimonio that blur the line between the political and the spiritual.” – Francisco Aragón, Letras Latinas
Collected Poems,
Lucille Clifton (BOA Editions)
“Like Neruda, [Clifton’s] poems traverse everything from
oceans to stars, from birthdays to deaths, from Atlas to Superman,
from cancer to visions, from Lucifer to God. And like Neruda,
she has an affinity for celebrating all the wear, wounds and tragedies that
befall every human life.” – Edgar Gabriel Silex, Little
Patuxent Review
White Papers, Martha Collins (Pitt Poetry Series)
Slow Lightning, Eduardo
C. Corral (Yale Series of Younger Poets)
“The sophistication of Slow Lightning… is that its stunning imagery, its serious treatment of craft, as well as its homage to a Southwestern culture and landscape that predates its life as a U.S. territory, will endow the book with a timeless quality. This is indeed a classic in the making.” – Rigoberto González, El Paso Times
“The sophistication of Slow Lightning… is that its stunning imagery, its serious treatment of craft, as well as its homage to a Southwestern culture and landscape that predates its life as a U.S. territory, will endow the book with a timeless quality. This is indeed a classic in the making.” – Rigoberto González, El Paso Times
Clangings,
Steven Cramer (Sarabande Books)
“Schizophrenia may be characterized by a surfeit of language,
a refurbishment of our used up words with musical connections every day speech
and sense cannot provide. These riffs are ‘clangings,’ and Cramer imagines them
into a poetic narrative that exults in both aural richness and words’ power to
evoke an interior landscape whose strangeness is intimate, unsteady, and
stirring.” – New Pages
When My Brother Was
an Aztec, Natalie Diaz (Copper Canyon)
“There is a poetics-infused prosodic wonder at work here,
wrangling [Diaz’s] family mythos like a Homeric pro… Laying out long form after
long form in original syntax that neither regrets nor defends, Diaz
chronicles her brother’s meth-fueled ravages from an unsafe distance with
tragicomic aplomb, direct lyricism and glistening irony.” – Susan Lynch, Conium
Review
“Those who liked [Dubrow’s]
last book Stateside will not be disappointed.… Her flashpoint is how the
material world reflects the spiritual climate— objects, goods, and services,
all characters on a political stage…. The integrity of form, attention to
image, along with poetic transfiguration, create perceptions and poems that are
a contribution.” – Grace Cavalieri, Washington
Independent Review of Books
Time of Useful Consciousness, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
(New Directions)
"Ferlinghetti’s first book since Poetry as Insurgent Art, the fierce and immediate Time of Useful Consciousness presents poetry written ‘in ways that those who see poetry as the province of the few and educated had never imagined.’” – The New York Times Book Review
"Ferlinghetti’s first book since Poetry as Insurgent Art, the fierce and immediate Time of Useful Consciousness presents poetry written ‘in ways that those who see poetry as the province of the few and educated had never imagined.’” – The New York Times Book Review
Horse in the Dark, Vievee Francis (Northwestern
University Press)
“Horse in the Dark is the long version of Philip Larkin’s line ‘What will
survive of us is love.’ … The circumstances are harsh. The poems are
excruciatingly beautiful.” – Scott Hightower, Fogged
Clarity
me and Nina, Monica Hand (Alice James Books)
“This
emotionally complex volume, with highly innovative forms, includes poems about
Nina Simone’s life… Hand loves her,
finds the door in her voice, her songs and her life and makes herself a fitful
home.…The two are connected by experience as black women in America. Simone
is transformed into a surrogate lover, a real muse and real angel.” – Ellen
Miller-Mack, The Mom Egg
Engine Empire, Cathy Park Hong (W.W. Norton)
“Though Hong’s message, inasmuch as she can be pinned down to one, involves the moral peril of crossing frontiers, she never gives in to easy answers, instead insisting on the way in which we need something to push forward or past. … Engine Empire is … a sustaining book, one that believes in the value of being moved by words—the value, that is, of being human.” – Jonathan Farmer, Slate
“Though Hong’s message, inasmuch as she can be pinned down to one, involves the moral peril of crossing frontiers, she never gives in to easy answers, instead insisting on the way in which we need something to push forward or past. … Engine Empire is … a sustaining book, one that believes in the value of being moved by words—the value, that is, of being human.” – Jonathan Farmer, Slate
Drift, Alan King
(Aquarius Press)
“Drift is a fun journey full of wise voices and sensuality. King is not a brooding artist, but a brilliant and down to earth brother who stands sober in the cipher, awake and engaged, eagerly consuming life with a vivid, unpretentious hunger.” – James Cagney, dirtyratattack.com
“Drift is a fun journey full of wise voices and sensuality. King is not a brooding artist, but a brilliant and down to earth brother who stands sober in the cipher, awake and engaged, eagerly consuming life with a vivid, unpretentious hunger.” – James Cagney, dirtyratattack.com
“In this reflective, starkly personal book, this daring exploration of memories both melancholy and revelatory, Quraysh Ali Lansana has shattered that insistent barrier that often separates us from our own histories. These melodic, unflinching vignettes chronicle a search for a definitive root, and the poet's journey mesmerizes, entertains, surprises and inspires.” – Patricia Smith
Grip, Yvette
Neisser Moreno (Gival Press)
“[T]he poems let themselves evolve without manipulation. Maybe the translator’s art has softened her ground so language is not worried onto the page. Her lines move without fear, and light up something inside us ...” – Grace Cavalieri, Washington Independent Review of Books
“[T]he poems let themselves evolve without manipulation. Maybe the translator’s art has softened her ground so language is not worried onto the page. Her lines move without fear, and light up something inside us ...” – Grace Cavalieri, Washington Independent Review of Books
Public Figures,
Jena Osman (Wesleyan University Press)
“Part photo album, part nonfiction, part poetry, part appropriated radio language (wartime voice procedure is detailed with appalling clarity), Public Figures is a compelling read from every and any angle.” – Seth Abramson, The Huffington Post
“Part photo album, part nonfiction, part poetry, part appropriated radio language (wartime voice procedure is detailed with appalling clarity), Public Figures is a compelling read from every and any angle.” – Seth Abramson, The Huffington Post
Speed Enforced by Aircraft, Richard Peabody (Broadkill
River Press)
“In a voice witty and poignant, these poems address aging. Peabody embraces the indignities of fatherhood, rails against the lessons of war, and outgrows his own father—and in the process, he drags himself memorably into maturity. In his distinct and unforgettable style, Peabody embraces ‘the complicated software of the heart.’” – Kim Roberts, editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly
“In a voice witty and poignant, these poems address aging. Peabody embraces the indignities of fatherhood, rails against the lessons of war, and outgrows his own father—and in the process, he drags himself memorably into maturity. In his distinct and unforgettable style, Peabody embraces ‘the complicated software of the heart.’” – Kim Roberts, editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly
Later Poems
Selected and New: 1971-2012, Adrienne Rich (W.W. Norton)
“What Rich drew out of the shadows, and put into practice, was that deeply democratic, beautifully mixed alloy practiced by Whitman … In her time, quite simply, she re-united the public poem with the political one. It is an enormous achievement.” – Eavan Boland, The New Republic
“What Rich drew out of the shadows, and put into practice, was that deeply democratic, beautifully mixed alloy practiced by Whitman … In her time, quite simply, she re-united the public poem with the political one. It is an enormous achievement.” – Eavan Boland, The New Republic
Meeting Bone Man,
Joseph Ross (Main Street Rag Press)“Joseph Ross' Meeting Bone Man is a ruminative journey through the violence and hope of what it means to be human in the 21st century. … Thank you, Joseph Ross, for your persistence, your clarity, your hope.” – Philip Metres, Behind the Lines
Fast Animal, Tim
Seibles (Etruscan Press, National Book Award Finalist)
“Tim Seibles chronicles his evolution from innocence to adulthood in Fast Animal… [E]ach experience is keenly observed and shapes his growing sense of identity and an exquisite awareness of the things all humans share.” – Elizabeth Lund, The Washington Post
“Tim Seibles chronicles his evolution from innocence to adulthood in Fast Animal… [E]ach experience is keenly observed and shapes his growing sense of identity and an exquisite awareness of the things all humans share.” – Elizabeth Lund, The Washington Post
The New Black, Evie Shockley (Wesleyan University Press)
Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, Patricia Smith (Coffee
House Press)
“Motown saturates the language and weaves itself into Smith’s narratives. Focusing on the stinging memories of growing up black and a woman during the 1960s, one could overlook Smith’s mastery of rhyme, rhythm and form, but it runs like an electric current throughout the collection.” – Publishers Weekly
“Motown saturates the language and weaves itself into Smith’s narratives. Focusing on the stinging memories of growing up black and a woman during the 1960s, one could overlook Smith’s mastery of rhyme, rhythm and form, but it runs like an electric current throughout the collection.” – Publishers Weekly
Thrall, Natasha Trethewey (Houghton Mifflin)
“Trethewey examines the conflicting feelings of resentment and gratitude a biracial woman harbors toward her white father. … [She] continues important work toward internalizing and making tangible for today’s readers large swaths of racial legacy.” – Diego Báez, Booklist
“Trethewey examines the conflicting feelings of resentment and gratitude a biracial woman harbors toward her white father. … [She] continues important work toward internalizing and making tangible for today’s readers large swaths of racial legacy.” – Diego Báez, Booklist
Wild in the Plaza of Memory, Pamela Uschuk (Wings
Press)
“Pamela Uschuk fearlessly and skillfully [writes herself and her politics into a story], whether she is writing about meeting Vietnam vets on the anniversary of the TET offensive or she is addressing contemporary issues such as immigration laws or the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords.” – Bill Wetzel, OpEdNews.com
“Pamela Uschuk fearlessly and skillfully [writes herself and her politics into a story], whether she is writing about meeting Vietnam vets on the anniversary of the TET offensive or she is addressing contemporary issues such as immigration laws or the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords.” – Bill Wetzel, OpEdNews.com
Nostalgia, My
Enemy, Saadi Youssef, translated by Sinan Antoon and Peter Money (Graywolf)
“In direct, penetrating language …Youssef’s poems dwell
on the casualties of the war, the loss of his country, the role of the writer
in exile, the atrocities of Saddam Hussein, and the inhumane acts perpetrated
by American military at Abu Ghraib. What emerges is the powerful voice of a
writer for whom ‘Poetry transforms in that intimate moment which combines the
current and the eternal in a wondrous embrace.’ – Prairie Schooner
Anthologies:
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: Poets and Writers
Respond to the March 5th, 2007, Bombing of Baghdad's "Street of the
Booksellers, ed. Beau Beausoleil & Deena Shehabi (PM Press)
“Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here looks squarely at
what was lost five years ago when a bomb destroyed the bookseller's street in
Baghdad. Thirty people died and at least 100 were wounded. While acknowledging
the deep loss, the anthology seeks to rekindle and celebrate the spirit of
writing, art and the creative, enduring human spirit.” – Deborah Stambler, The
Huffington Post
“A
stunning new anthology… Many of the poets between these covers mourn and/or
rage against the violence that continues between their two peoples; many work
at trying to understand; still other poets offer cherished memories.” – National
Council of Teachers of English
Chorus: A Literary Mixtape, ed. Saul Williams, Dufflyn Lammers, Aja Monet
(MTV Books)
“Instead of creating a traditional anthology of poetry, where pieces are presented formally by author and spaced out so that they can be analyzed individually, a free flowing compilation [has been] put together without author and title boldly separating each poem. This allows ideas and emotions to connect one poem to the next… Some voices are angry, some are loving, some are confused … but this all just adds up to the human experience, and therein lies the beauty of Chorus.” – Scratched Vinyl
“Instead of creating a traditional anthology of poetry, where pieces are presented formally by author and spaced out so that they can be analyzed individually, a free flowing compilation [has been] put together without author and title boldly separating each poem. This allows ideas and emotions to connect one poem to the next… Some voices are angry, some are loving, some are confused … but this all just adds up to the human experience, and therein lies the beauty of Chorus.” – Scratched Vinyl
The Forbidden:
Poems from Iran and Its Exiles, ed. Sholeh Wolpé (Michigan State University Press)
“Courageous and gripping accounts from inside the struggle for
democracy in Iran... The political revelations are explosive, but there's a lot
more here as well: love, humor, mystic ecstasy, giving us a sense of the full
range of the humanity and the tragedy of the Iranian people.” – Dan Veach
Voices of the Future, ed. Etan Thomas (Haymarket Books)
“So necessary a book that it truly deserves the term fantastic.” – Chuck D of Public Enemy
“So necessary a book that it truly deserves the term fantastic.” – Chuck D of Public Enemy
Among the many 2013 books we eagerly anticipate are these titles:
Calling Home: Praise Songs, Incantations, Naomi Ayala (Bilingual Review Press)
Icarus in Love, Antoinette Brim (Main Street Rag)
The Scabbard of Her Throat, Bernadette Geyer (The Word Works)
Pitch Dark Anarchy, Randall Horton (TriQuarterly/Northwestern University Press)
Render, Collin Kelley (Sibling Rivalry Press)
Hum, Jamaal May (Beatrice Hawley Award Winner, Alice James Books)
Mezzanines, Matthew Olzmann (Kundiman Poetry Prize Winner, Alice James Books)
The Light of the Storm / La luz de la tormenta, Carlos Parada Ayala (Zozobra Publishing)
Tenuous Chapel, Melissa Tuckey (ABZ Press Poetry Prize Winner)
Speaking Wiri Wiri, Dan Vera (Letras Latinas Poetry Prize Winner, Red Hen Press)
