Books
Heads up, poetry fans. The 10 poetry collections longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award have finally been announced, so you have new books and dozens of poems to add to your TBR today. This 10-book longlist will be shortened to five finalists on Oct. 8, and all of the 2019 National Book Award winners will be announced on Nov. 20.
The 2019 National Book Award for Poetry longlist is the third list of nominated books to come out this week, following the announcements for Young People's Literature on Monday and Translated Literature on Tuesday. Still to come are the longlists for the Nonfiction and Fiction categories, which are expected to arrive on Sep. 19 and Sept. 20.
As reported by The Baltimore Sun, one of the poets nominated for the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry, Camonghne Felix, is making national news in another way. Felix is currently working as the Director of Surrogates and Strategic Communications for Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-MA) presidential campaign. Her book, Build Yourself a Boat, is among the 10 longlisted titles for the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry.
If Felix's book wins the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry, she'll be the first female author to win the category since Robin Coste Lewis took home the honor with Voyage of the Sable Venus in 2015. Recent winners include Justin Phillip Reed's Indecency in 2018, Frank Bidart's Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 in 2017, and Daniel Borzutzky's The Performance of Becoming Human in 2016.
Check out the 10 books eligible for the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry below, and share your winning predictions with us on Twitter!
'The Tradition' by Jericho Brown
The New Testament author Jericho Brown invokes mythology and flower symbolism to write his way to the core of the Black, queer, male experience in the U.S. in The Tradition.
'"I": New and Selected Poems' by Toi Derricotte
This new collection from Cave Canem Foundation co-founder Toi Derricotte draws on the poet's previous releases, honing in on the intersection of race and gender.
'Build Yourself a Boat' by Camonghne Felix
Camonghne Felix's lauded debut explores Black womanhood in America, from the author's coming-of-age in New York City, to the daily aggressions Black women face in the Trump era.
'Deaf Republic' by Ilya Kaminsky
Weaving together verse and fable, Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic imagines an occupied territory deafened by a soldier's child-killing gunshot. In the aftermath, members of the community develop a sign language and begin to organize against their invaders.
'A Sand Book' by Ariana Reines
Ariana Reines' A Sand Book turns the current state of affairs on its head, relating modern-day issues, large and small, to the human condition in the late 2010s.
'Dunce' by Mary Ruefle
In her 12th book, Mary Ruefle brings magic to life's most banal moments in work peppered by references to the great poetic works that came before her.
'Be Recorder' by Carmen Giménez Smith
What is a person in the capitalist system? Carmen Giménez Smith explores this question and others in her new poetry collection, Be Recorder.
'Sight Lines' by Arthur Sze
Told from a variety of unexpected viewpoints, the poems in Arthur Sze's Sight Lines move between important and strange moments in world history.
'Doomstead Days' by Brian Teare
Passing from one image of destruction and devastation to the next, Brian Teare's Doomstead Days is a thought-provoking new collection that should be on everyone's TBR.
'Variations on Dawn and Dusk' by Dan Beachy-Quick (Oct. 15)
A poetry collection centered on a particular art installation, Dan Beachy-Quick's Variations on Dawn and Dusk takes readers through Robert Irwin's Marfa, Texas sculpture, untitled (dawn to dusk).
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