In Ariel Francisco’s Miami, invasive lionfish are sympathetic creatures, the beach succumbs to sea-level rise, and “305 till I die” is a cry for help. The speakers in these hilarious and melancholy poems depict a rich and varied emotional landscape that mirrors that of the state they long to leave, dead or alive. They imagine […]
Guillotine: Poems traverses desert landscapes cut through by migrants, the grief of loss, betrayal’s lingering scars, the border itself – great distances in which violence and yearning find roots. Through the voices of undocumented immigrants, border patrol agents, and scorned lovers, award-winning poet Eduardo C. Corral writes dramatic portraits of contradiction, survival, and a deeply […]
Special introduction by Daniel Halpern, founder of HarperCollins imprint Ecco and the National Poetry Series. The National Poetry Series was established in 1978 to recognize and promote excellence in contemporary poetry by ensuring the publication of five books of poetry annually through participating publishers. In addition, the National Poetry Series has partnered with Miami Book Fair […]
The collection of personal essays in award-winning poet Nezhukumatathil’s World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments – lushly illustrated by Fumi Nakamura – together form an enchanting and introspective narrative of a life’s journey buoyed by connection to animals and earth. Sponsored by:
Fellow poet-memoirists sit down to talk about their latest work. In What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life, Mark Doty effortlessly blends biography, criticism, and memoir in what the New York Times described as “an incisive, personal meditation” on the Leaves of Grass author. In her collection Rocket Fantastic, Gabrielle Calvocoressi – senior […]
In original kink, Jubi Arriola-Headley explores kink as mythscape of promised pleasure, lush and lustral, kink as Godzilla’s desire for softness and the boy gone “starburst,” kink as “the sun-soaked / surface of impossible kick,” as “something loose enough / to dance in.” At once soliloquy, praise song, and injunction, original kink divines the brutal […]
The poems in Yusef Komunyakaa’s Night Animals climb so deeply into the being of various beasts, from cricket to leopard to snowy owl, that we read them with an uncanny shiver of recognition. Without ever fully abandoning his human skin, Komunyakaa inhabits both the outer and inner lives of these creatures. The images are a […]
Year of the Dog refers to the year 1970 – the Year of the Metal Dog in the lunar calendar – which was the year of the author’s birth, the year her father prepared to deploy to Vietnam along with many other Mexican-American immigrant soldiers, and a year of tremendous upheaval across the United States. […]
Special introduction by Daniel Halpern, founder of HarperCollins imprint Ecco and the National Poetry Series. The National Poetry Series was established in 1978 to recognize and promote excellence in contemporary poetry by ensuring the publication of five books of poetry annually through participating publishers. In addition, the National Poetry Series has partnered with Miami Book Fair […]
Event starts Sunday, November 15 at 5 p.m. Book purchase required for admittance to this program; click here to purchase. In Dearly, Margaret Atwood, a novelist who happens to be one of our most significant contemporary poets, addresses themes such as love, loss, the passage of time, the nature of nature – and zombies. Steering […]
Tommye Blount’s Fantasia for the Man in Blue orchestrates a chorus of distinct, unforgettable voices that speak to the experience of the black, queer body as a site of desire and violence. The speaker in Ricardo Alberto Maldonado’s The Life Assignment sorts through relationships, trying to discern what was healthy from what was exploitative, and […]
Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry: Poems & Artifacts by Nikky Finney is a twenty-first-century paean to the sterling love songs humming through four hundred years of Black American life. Be Holding: A Poem by Ross Gay connects the famously impossible move by legendary basketball player Julius Erving – known as Dr. J – during […]