1. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes
12 Rave • 3 Positive
“His new book, a short volume of sonnets, American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin, is a gift in a fraught moment. These sonnets, existential, political, personal, retain a moral ferocity and urgency that propels that entire cycle forward … These poems are acutely aware of the literary tradition Hayes works in, with as many references to James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, to Derek Walcott and Langston Hughes, wrestling with the implications of blackness and literary tradition. Hayes’ inhabits the deeply troubling historical moment. But these poems are timeless.”
–Faraz Rizvi (The Millions)
*
2. Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith
10 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
“What I have always liked about Smith’s poetry is her interest in other people’s lives. The lone self has been the sacred cow of lyric poetry since the ancient Greeks, and there’s no way to sever that link permanently, but a vacation now and then from self-absorption to look around and see what the rest of the human race has been up to can do wonders to one’s poetry … The poems in Wade in the Water are full of memorable images nimbly put together by Smith’s exquisite sense of timing and her feel for the kind of language appropriate to the poem … Wade in the Water is not only a political book. It asks how an artist might navigate the political and the personal, and the collection’s real strength lies in its many marvelous poems that are more private.”
–Charles Simic (The New York Times Book Review)
*
3. Virgin by Analicia Sotelo
8 Rave • 6 Positive
“What’s most refreshing about this collection is that the women whose voices are rendered so beautifully here, not just the daughters and mothers but even Ariadne herself, shatter stereotypes of femininity and highlight truths that might discomfort but are a vivid testament to the world we live in today … With candor and humor, Sotelo has given voice to women not often seen in the pages of American literature and has revealed in innovative ways the messiness that often characterizes relationships. Virgin heralds an important new voice in the world of poetry.”
–Michael Magras (The Houston Chronicle)
*
4. The Carrying by Ada Limón
9 Rave
“Even though an individual may perish, there is consistency in the life cycles of bumblebees, dandelions, and race horses—all of which are examined with gorgeous language and imagery that makes Limón’s collection hard to put down, even in the moments that cause a deep, sorrowful ache. The tone is conversational yet eloquent, as if the speaker is retelling the most whimsical or challenging moments of their day after mentally working out the details of the story all afternoon. At times, these dialogues become brutally honest and confessional. In other instances, they’re more convivial … The Carrying perhaps doesn’t only refer to the burdens we carry, but also the small joys that carry us through the incessant turmoil of existence. It’s difficult to balance such polarized emotions, but Limón deftly navigates these extremes.”
–Aram Mrjoian (The Chicago Review of Books)
*
5. The Final Voicemails by Max Ritvo
8 Rave • 1 Positive
“The term ‘voice mail’ modernizes a classic understanding of lyric poetry, similar to the way Dickinson’s sense of her poems as unprompted ‘letters to the world’ did. Like a voice mail, a poem is a performance that anticipates a response, shaped for a specific but absent audience: by the time it reaches its recipients, the author will have moved on. But, after death, it can be ‘played back’ on an infinite loop, a material but fragile manifestation of voice. It is short, because we know the tape runs out … These poems envision countless afterlives, each one more arresting than the last … These poems envision countless afterlives, each one more arresting than the last … Ritvo is now permanently located, and obliquely revealed, in his poems. It’s we, his readers, who come and go. When we close [this book], we miss him.”
–Dan Chiasson (The New Yorker)
6. Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
8 Rave
“Aimee Nezhukumatathil sings an ode to earth and sea in her stunning fourth collection, Oceanic. Sensual and vivid, her poems invite us deep into the water … Her images are lush with eroticism, always close to the body and its experience of wonder. She blurs the line between human and animal, casting herself (and her beloved) variously as a scallop, a whale shark, a penguin, a starfish. Such marvelous acts of transformation reshape us as we read.”
–Diana Whitney (The San Francisco Chronicle)
*
7. Citizen Illegal by José Olivarez
7 Rave • 1 Positive
“Admixed with the joy is undeniable sorrow and anger, for the book is an act of emotional and intellectual rigor, one that makes an unsparing examination of race, gender and class, particularly as such categories relate to the struggles and complexities of immigration and gentrification … Olivarez is far from subtle in his interrogations, as one can tell simply by flipping through his table of contents, populated by such arresting titles as ‘My Therapist Says Make Friends With Your Monsters’ … There are hard arguments in here that might be difficult for some, but they need to be hard and they need to be heard. Olivarez has just the right voice—compassionate, dynamic and irreverent—to deliver them.”
–Kathleen Rooney (The Chicago Tribune)
*
8. Not Here by Hieu Minh Nguyen
7 Rave
“In an ideal world no one would grow up with the life that Hieu Minh Nguyen has had, and many thousands would have his talents, his compression, his way with figures, his talent for turning harsh memories into elegant verse. In this world, many people have similar troubles, and try to describe them, in prose poems and in verse. But very few could do what Nguyen has done.”
–Stephanie Burt (The New York Times Book Review)
*
9. Brown by Kevin Young
4 Rave • 4 Positive
“Kevin Young’s necessary new book of witness creates a parade through time, and I love a parade. Especially one with such good music—the poems in Brown dance through bebop and into James Brown’s megafunk … Every line of Brown is aware that this storm must scare the hell out of people who have locked their doors and kneel before Fox News Channel asking God what went wrong. Young’s book releases a universal shout—political in the best, most visceral way, critical, angry, squinting hard at this culture—while remaining at the same time deeply and lovingly personal. Love soars over every section, especially the most painful ones … It’s a parade for all of us. Kevin Young loves you. That’s why he sometimes gives you a kick. It’s a rage that protects the most delicate observer’s heart.”
–Luis Alberto Urrea (The New York Times Book Review)
*
10. Eye Level by Jenny Xie
6 Rave • 1 Mixed
“…a stunning collection—part travel narrative, part kaleidoscopic autobiography … Eye Level works in contradictions: It speaks from solitude yet dwells in an array of communities; it ties itself to concrete places but has deeper psychological concerns … Xie’s imagery is like an Etch A Sketch being shaken and redrawn, moving rapidly through gritty scenes in miniature … what makes Eye Level such an enchanting read: its ability to be everywhere and do everything at once. It draws its energy from all over and then finds its way directly to the heart.”
–August Smith (BookPage)
***
Our System: RAVE = 5 points, POSITIVE = 3 points, MIXED = 1 point, PAN = -5 points
