Susan Kelly-DeWitt
Frangible Operas
Gunpowder Press, 2024
$18
Playlist:
The diversity of forms and subjects in Susan Kelly-DeWitt’s Frangible Operas is breathtaking. With grace, precision, insight, and care, she engages nearly every aspect of our world—the political, the natural, the theoretical, the familial, the theological, the personal. One section of the book is devoted entirely to poems about works of art, ranging from Rembrandt to Diane Arbus—a fitting metaphor for the expansive reach of her vision. —Dean Rader
Poems read:
“Moon Bee"
“Photograph of Your Father Sewing Needlepoint at Precinct Headquarters, 1956"
“After the War"
“Passing By"
Sarah Lyn Rogers
Cosmic Tantrum
Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press, 2025
$18
Playlist:
Cosmic Tantrum is a tragicomic exploration of transactional relationships, myths, masks, rituals, and what happens when we reject the stories we've inherited about our worth. I wrote parts of it while going through my Saturn Return and reexamining everything I thought I knew about how to be "good" and "worthy"—and who decides that. Sometimes all we have is our refusal, even in small ways, and our ability to laugh.
Poems read:
“A Toast to the Dismay of Certain Industries"
“It's the Local Beast, Charlie Brown" “Cosmic Tantrum"
former DMQ Review contributor
maw Shein Win
Percussing the Thinking Jar
Omnidawn, 2024
$22.95
Playlist:
In Percussing the Thinking Jar, her third full-length poetry collection, Maw Shein Win reveals how a mind can log thoughts and observations. Through deft braiding of the pleasures, pains, and anxieties of living in a human body, Win has developed new forms which carry the reader to realms that are both deeply personal and universal. This generous collection includes 16 Sumi ink drawings by artist Mark Dutcher. Reflecting on our strange times, Percussing the Thinking Jar is a hypnotic book that invites readers into conversation with their own vulnerability and resilience.
Poems read:
“Catalog”
“Hyphen Log”
“The Thinking Jar”
“Hyphen Log”