Did you know that National Poetry Month has been around since April 1996? It was launched by the Academy of American Poets to remind "the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters." Since I don't read much poetry, I try every April to challenge myself to read some poetry. To help myself (and you) out I've put together some lists of poetry from last year and some new titles from the the first quarter of this year. This is the first of four lists and will give you a head's start for the upcoming month. Let's read some poetry!
- African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song
- Dearly: New Poems by Margaret Atwood
- Every Day We Get More Illegal by Juan Felipe Herrera
- Home Body by Rupi Kaur
- Homie: Poems by Danez Smith
- Imperial Liquor: Poems by Amaud Johnson
- Light for the World to See by Kwame Alexander
- Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose by Nikki Giovanni
- Obit by Victoria Chang
- Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America's Poets Respond to the Pandemic
- When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry [ebook]