Laura Isabela Amsel
A Brief Campaign of Sting and Sweet
Brick Road Poetry Press, 2024
$17.95
Playlist:
By the time I came to poetry in 2016, my study of the Spanish language had already awakened in me a love of the sounds of words, of how they feel in your mouth when spoken aloud, and of the nuances of meaning that change and grow richer over time. Words also afforded me the power to manage the unmanageable, to reimagine endings, to make of the chaotic and the ugly beautiful arrangements.
Poems read:
“Father"
“Cain"
“Black Fox"
Katie Berta
retribution forthcoming
Ohio University Press, 2024
$17.95
Playlist:
In the lineage of New York School poets like Alice Notley and Bernadette Mayer, retribution forthcoming does its exploratory work through narrative and lyric modes, by simile and catalogue. Katie Berta’s poems look vulnerably and honestly at sexual coercion and the psychological fallout of assault. The world of these poems and their trauma narrative is deepened by the heartful speaker’s sense of humor and eagerness to love and trust.
Poems read:
“The Rattlesnakes
They Keep in the Life Sciences Building Remind Me of My Dog”
“I Realized Skincare Would Not Save My Life”
“Will I Survive This New Season?”
former DMQ Review contributor
James gering
Tickets to the Fall of Icarus
Interactice Press, 2023
$18
Playlist:
Tickets to the Fall of Icarus charts the flight of two flamboyant characters, Icarus and Audrey, as they navigate their way through the maelstrom of modern life amidst natural disasters, pandemics, online dating and even a little self-sabotage.
“Gering achieves artistic flair through deft control of language and shots of Kafkaesque absurdism.” —Daniel Ionita
“Full of literary references, puns and wit, this collection is a waterfall of mordant humour, note-perfect and a mirror to our post-pandemic selves.” —Anna Kerdijk Nicholson
Poems read:
“Icarus”
“Companionship Comes Sailing” “Sublime Old Fig”