What Are We Reading for Poetry Month?

In celebration of National Poetry Month, we wanted to share with you the poets we’ve recently been reading and enjoying. We all know how difficult it is to choose a book–especially when there are so many incredible ones piling up around us–so here’s a nice short list of recommendations–both in translation and not–for you to pick from this month:

Kim Yideum’s Cheer Up, Femme Fatale(opens in a new tab), translated from the Korean by Ji Yoon Li, Don Mee Choi, and Johannes Görensson: “Very much in the tradition of Kim Hyesoon: rangy, with almost a polyphonic quality, incorporating both high and low registers.” — CJ Evans, Two Lines Press Editorial Director

Olena Kalytiak Davis’s The Poem She Didn’t Write and Other Poems(opens in a new tab)

Christopher Logue’s War Music(opens in a new tab). Wyatt Mason wrote a great letter of recommendation(opens in a new tab) in The New York Times about this creative translation of Homer’s Iliad

Tomasz Rozycki’s Colonies(opens in a new tab), translated from the Polish by Mira Rosenthal

Jorge Esquinca’s Description of a Flash of Cobalt Blue(opens in a new tab), expertly translated from the Spanish by Dan Bellm

Beloved Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik’s Extracting the Stone of Madness(opens in a new tab) will soon come out from New Directions, translated from the Spanish by Yvette Siegert

The Mansion of Happiness(opens in a new tab) by Robin Ekiss: “Vaguely inspired by old board games, curiosity cabinets, and automatons (as well as the poet’s personal history).” — Erin Branagan, Communications Director

And of course, this year’s PEN Award for Poetry in Translation winner The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa(opens in a new tab), translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu

So get dust off your bookshelves, hit the book stores, and get reading!