As a writer, it’s important both to fall in love with other writers’ words and to take a critical look at how they do what they do. I write about other poetry books regularly (both in official “reviews” and via reading notes), and sometimes I take time to post/publish my thoughts. I’ve linked to some of my poetry book reviews in the lists below.
Published poetry book reviews
- for Shining Rock Poetry Anthology & Book Review: The Visible Woman by Allison Funk, 2022
- for Shining Rock Poetry Anthology & Book Review: Bridled by Amy Meng, 2019
- for The American Poetry Journal: How to Wear this Body by Hayden Saunier, 2018
- for The American Poetry Journal: Bliss Crisis by Jules Gibbs, 2018
- for The American Poetry Journal: My Black Angel by Kim Addonizio, 2017
- for Shining Rock Poetry Anthology & Book Review: Sad Math by Sarah Freligh, 2017
- for River Teeth: This Is Only a Test by B. J. Hollars, 2016
- for Poets’ Quarterly: Ravenous Audience by Kate Durbin, 2010
- for Read Write Poem: Mister Skylight by Ed Skoog, 2009
- for Poets’ Quarterly: Even Now by Susanna Lang, 2009
- for Poets’ Quarterly: With the Memory, Which is Enormous by Tony Trigilio, 2009
Books I’ve written about at this blog (“Reading Notes”)
- November 2023: The Poetics of Wrongness by Rachel Zucker
- August 2023: Barbie in the Poetry World with reading notes on Kinky by Denise Duhamel, Barbie Chang by Victoria Chang and Never Picked First for Playtime by Dustin Brookshire
- January 2023: The Best of Tupelo Quarterly edited by Kristina Marie Darling
- November 2022: A Book of Days by Patti Smith
- March 2022: Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret by Judy Blume
- January 2022: Love Letter to Who Owns the World by Corey Van Landingham
- October 2021: The Guild of the Infant Saviour by Megan Culhane Galbraith
- March 2021: the pedestrians by Rachel Zucker
- February 2021: We by Sarah Freligh (microfiction)
- January 2021: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
- January 2021: All Day I Dream About Sirens by Domenica Martinello (poetry)
- January 2021: The Book of Delights by Ross Gay (“essayettes”)
- August 2020: In the Field Between Us by Molly McCully Brown & Susanna Nevison (poetry)
- August 2020: To Make Room for the Sea by Adam Clay (poetry)
- August 2020: Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes by Kerrin McCadden (poetry)
- July 2020: Emergency Brake by Ruth Madievsky (poetry)
- July 2020: Homie by Danez Smith (poetry)
- May 2020: Madwoman by Shara McCallum (poetry)
- April 2020: love, robot by Margaret Rhee (poetry)
- April 2020: Dirty Bomb by Mark Neely (poetry)
- April 2020: Oculus: Poems by Sally Wen Mao (poetry)
- January 2020: Partial Genius by Mary Biddinger (poetry)
- December 2019: Garments Against Women by Anne Boyer (poetry)
- December 2019: Save Our Ship by Barbara Ungar (poetry)
- December 2019: Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (poetry)
- November 2019: Sweet Insurgent by Elyse Fenton (poetry)
- November 2019: The Galaxy Is a Dance Floor by Bianca Lynne Spriggs (poetry)
- November 2019: The Wynona Stone Poems by Caki Wilkinson (poetry)
- November 2019: Mysteries in a World That Thinks There Are None by Gary McDowell (poetry)
- November 2019: Some Planet by Jamie Mortara (poetry)
- November 2019: There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce by Morgan Parker (poetry)
- November 2019: Every Room in the Body by Kerri French (poetry)
- October 2019: Something Like Forgiveness by Rebecca Schumejda (poetry)
- October 2019: Let’s Not Live On Earth by Sarah Blake (poetry)
- October 2019: Inmost by Jessica Fisher (poetry)
- October 2019: Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky (poetry)
- October 2019: every love story is an apocalypse story by Donna Vorreyer (poetry)
- October 2019: Autoplay by Julie Babcock (poetry)
- October 2019: By My Precise Haircut by Cheryl Clarke (poetry)
- October 2019: Groundspeed by Emilia Phillips (poetry)
- October 2019: Half-Hazard by Kristen Tracy (poetry)
- September 2019: The Second O of Sorrow by Sean Thomas Dougherty (poetry)
- September 2019: Misery Islands by January Gill O’Neil (poetry)
- September 2019: A Cruelty Special to Our Species by Emily Jungmin Yoon (poetry)
- September 2019: What I Learned at the War by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish (poetry)
- September 2019: Paradise, Indiana by Bruce Snider (poetry)
- September 2019: American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes (poetry)
- September 2019: Be Recorder by Carmen Gimenez Smith (poetry)
- September 2019: In the Pockets of Small Gods by Anis Mojgani (poetry)
- August 2019: The Octopus Museum by Brenda Shaughnessy (poetry)
- February 2016: Sad Math by Sarah Freligh (poetry)
- July 2013 & June 2013: The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball (memoir)
- June 2013: The Great Failure by Natalie Goldberg (memoir)
- April 2013: Blowout by Denise Duhamel (poetry)
- December 2012: The Oracle of Hollywood Boulevard by Dana Goodyear (poetry)
- October 2012: ABBA: The Poems by Denise Duhamel & Amy Lemmon (poetry)
- July 2012: Long Quiet Highway by Natalie Goldberg (memoir)
- June 2012: Wild by Cheryl Strayed (memoir)
Books I wrote about at my previous blog
- December 2011: The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch (memoir)
- March 2011: Mercy Island by Ren Powell (poetry)
- March 2011: Human Shade by Robert Peake (poetry)
- February 2011: Blameless Mouth by Jessica Fox-Wilson (poetry)
- February 2011: Rough Honey, Melissa Stein (poetry)
- February 2011: The Poets Laureate Anthology (poetry), section on Philip Levine
- September 2010: Lives of the Animals by Robert Wrigley (poetry)
- May 2010: Underlife by January O’Neil (poetry)
- January 2010: A Walk through the Memory Palace by Pamela Johnson Parker (poetry)
- May 2009: One Hidden Stuff by Barbara Ras (poetry)