The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Poetry

Couplets by Maggie Millner

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Couplets by Maggie Millner
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Couplets is a fresh and modern poetry collection that delves into polyamory, identity, and queerness amongst other themes. A love story written in stanzas, but reads like a novel or a short story, I truly cannot get enough of this. We follow one woman’s coming out and the love she yearns and searches for. A fantastic meditation not just on queerness, but also relationships as a whole, I cant recommend it enough.

Couplets by Maggie Millner, (List Price: 25, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 9780374607951, February 2023)

Reviewed by Grace Sullivan, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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World by Ana Luísa Amaral

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World by Ana Luísa Amaral
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For poetry on joy, wonder, and passion found through the observation of nature, look no further than World, a posthumous work by Portuguese poet Ana Luisa Amaral. Filled with odes and paens to spiders, magpies, and centipedes, World reads like a cheerful wave goodbye to a beautiful planet. Each translated poem sits alongside the original Portuguese, and through both we enter a unique vision of the tiny garden growing in Amaral’s heart. Grand and affirming, Amaral returns to the spring of life with the clarity of winter.

World by Ana Luísa Amaral, (List Price: 16.95, New Directions, 9780811234832, April 2023)

Reviewed by Amanda Depperschmidt, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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Closer Baby Closer by Savannah Brown

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Closer Baby Closer by Savannah Brown
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Those who spent a lot of time on the spoken word poetry side of Youtube in the 2010s will recognize Savannah Brown, who’s been bearing her soul for the internet for almost a decade. I was happy to find with this collection, that Brown’s poems have matured while maintaining the same vulnerability, humor, and unabashed desire for attention. Written in free verse and unconventional format, Brown delivers intimacy for the digital age, capturing the feelings of (among other things) being loved and in-love, jealousy and guilt. Skillfully, sensually written and easily digestible!

Closer Baby Closer by Savannah Brown, (List Price: 18.95, Not a Cult, 9781739618100, February 2023)

Reviewed by Julia Lewis, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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The Path to Kindness by James Crews

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The Path to Kindness by James Crews
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While I love poetry, I will admit to being a beginning reader still finding my way and what I like in the genre. Some of my favorite contemporary poets (and pretty much all of the dead ones) are so depressing though. Beautiful and powerful, but depressing. The Path To Kindness was an unexpected discovery! This anthology explores the themes of connection and joy. Uplifting and accessible from diverse voices, I turn to it often and have given many copies to friends.

The Path to Kindness by James Crews, (List Price: 14.95, Storey Publishing, LLC, 9781635865332, April 2023)

Reviewed by Kelly Justice, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco by K. Iver

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Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco by K. Iver
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This is a collection about grief, a persistent grief so steady, so patient, that it grows dear. Iver’s words are cinematic, their poems traceable stories by themselves that resonate and interact with each poem that follows it. I think A Medium Performs Your Visit and Who Is This Grief For? are the highlights of the collection. "My acupuncturist says/ you enjoy this, don’t you./ She’s talking about my grief. I say who else will."

Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco by K. Iver, (List Price: 16, Milkweed Editions, 9781639550609, January 2023)

Reviewed by Sam Edge, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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Animals in Pants by Suzy Levinson

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Animals in Pants by Suzy Levinson
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Practically Perfect for Poetry month, this pants filled picture book will tickle the funny bone of preschoolers and parents alike!

Animals in Pants by Suzy Levinson, (List Price: 17.99, Cameron Kids, 9781951836627, April 2023)

Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina

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The Wonder Paradox by Jennifer Michael Hecht

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The Wonder Paradox by Jennifer Michael Hecht
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In this warm and wise invitation to a poetry-enriched life, atheist poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht shows us how to gather our own collection of poems for daily practices, holidays, celebrations, and even emergencies, all through exploring how world religions, art, and science address the subject of each chapter, introducing a relevant poem, and offering a poetry lesson—from alliteration to Japanese list poems to Romanticism and beyond.

The Wonder Paradox by Jennifer Michael Hecht, (List Price: 30, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 9780374292744, March 2023)

Reviewed by Megan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia

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Above Ground by Clint Smith

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Above Ground by Clint Smith
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An April 2023 Read This Next! Title

Above Ground is a poetry collection that is a heartfelt ode to fatherhood. These poems are imbued with the love, joy, wonder, and uncertainties that accompany being a parent. They also delve into family and ancestry, history and race, turmoil, and above all, hope. This is an important collection that I will highly recommend.

Above Ground by Clint Smith, (List Price: $27, Little, Brown and Company, 9780316543033, April 2023)

Reviewed by Damita Nocton, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina

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Grocery Shopping with My Mother by Kevin Powell

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Grocery Shopping with My Mother by Kevin Powell
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This will inspire sobbing and a phone call to your mama. Deeply accessible, beautiful work.

Grocery Shopping with My Mother by Kevin Powell (List Price: $24, Soft Skull, 9781593767433, December 2022)

Reviewed by Aimee Keeble, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina

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Ice! Poems About Polar Life by Douglas Florian

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Ice! Poems About Polar Life by Douglas Florian
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Brrrrfect poetry for the winter months. The poems contained in Ice! will warm the hearts of young readers with funny frozen antics of penguins, caribou, narwhals and more cold climate critters.

Ice! Poems About Polar Life by Douglas Florian (List Price: $8.99, Holiday House, 9780823452439, December 2022)

Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina

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Spine Poems by Annette Dauphin Simon

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Spine Poems by Annette Dauphin Simon
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I love that the concept of this book seems so simple, but author and creator Annette Dauphin Simon turned it into something complex and spectacular. What fun it is to have these facts and quotes accompany the poems, especially with the beautifully composed photos. Spine Poems is funny, delightful, informative, and even touching at times. I can’t wait to put this book into the hands of every book lover I know!

Spine Poems by Annette Dauphin Simon (List Price: $27.99, Harper Design, 9780063208223, September 2022)

Reviewed by Johanna Albrecht, McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina

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Counting in Dog Years and Other Sassy Math Poems by Betsy Franco

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Counting in Dog Years and Other Sassy Math Poems by Betsy Franco
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Multiplying mice, sugary shapes, and family fractions star in this charming collection that practically shouts : Math is FUN!

Counting in Dog Years and Other Sassy Math Poems by Betsy Franco, (List Price: $18.99, Candlewick, 9781536201161, October 2022)

Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina

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Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones

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Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones
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Alive at the End of the World might not save my life, but it’s perfect company here between the rock and the hard place. Saeed Jones’ poems mold my daily depressive spiral into a crystalline mobius strip, looping endlessly back around to how we are harmed and do harm as this planet slouches towards Bethlehem. By turns grievous and grieving, this collection is a much-needed snapshot of coping mid-apocalypse.

Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones, (List Price: $16.95, Coffee House Press, 9781566896511, October 2022)

Reviewed by Terrance Hudson, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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Woman Without Shame by Sandra Cisneros

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Woman Without Shame by Sandra Cisneros
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Woman Without Shame reminds me of Nikki Giovanni’s most recent collection, in that I had a similar feeling while reading each book that these are two poets that get better and better with age. Every bit of Woman Without Shame is saturated in maturity and confidence, right down to the title. When I grow up, I want to be Sandra Cisneros.

Woman Without Shame by Sandra Cisneros, (List Price: $27, Knopf, 9780593534823, September 2022)

Reviewed by Jordan Pulaski, Small Friend Records & Books in Richmond, Virginia

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Artemis Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer

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Artemis Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer
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A September 2022 Read This Next! Title

Trista Mateer punched me directly in the chest with this poetry collection. Carved my heart out and served it back to me with a sprig of parsley on top. Every page of this book is chock full of beautiful, enchanting words that dig in deep and tear up the soil to reveal things you might not have thought about in years. Even if a poem doesn’t directly connect with you, it will in fact, ruin you.

Artemis Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer, (List Price: $16.99, Central Avenuel Publishing, 9781771682725, September 2022)

Reviewed by Caitlyn Vanorder, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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