Here is the March edition of The Poetry Shelf, our suggested poetry assortment, compiled by Michelle Halket of Central Avenue Publishing.
Lately--I guess since the popularity of this project has grown--I have had requests from presses and authors asking me to put their books on this list. I have had to gently explain that this list is made with the bestseller list in mind and then with a very small amount of curation that is purely research driven. Many of the books end up on this list, not because I know them, but because they seem to bubble to the top in my research. Please know that I won't put books on just because they were pitched to me (as good as they might look). Also, I need you to know that I'm not an expert. I don't have an MFA or editorial background when it comes to poetry. I'm only researching as best I can via web searches, awards, and bestseller lists in hopes that it saves you having to do it.
As always, there are new titles on the bestseller list, including:
They Bloom Because of You by Jessica Urlichs
You're Going to Be OK by Darby Hudson
The Witch Doesn't Drown in This One by Amanda Lovelace
This month, I struggled on a theme for April given it is Poetry Month. So, I landed on featuring independent presses that do poetry well--or as best I can tell, they do. The featured presses I called out for this month do not have books that appeared on the most recent bestseller list, although there are some great indie presses like Andrews McMeel, Button, Milkweed, Sundress, and Wave who do have bestsellers. This list is by no means exhaustive, and I'm sure some of you might disagree with me on who should be on here. I'm only trying to provide a jumping off point for a busy bookseller to get their shelf refreshed--because no one likes a stale shelf! The books I selected are the ones each press was featuring on their home page so I figured these were the ones to watch, but I strongly suggest reviewing their catalogs to see what gems lie within!
Like books themselves, there are presses that specialize in different parts of the poetry ecosystem, including academic/literary, reader driven, and experimental. I've tried to pull out examples of presses that fit into each segment. I also hope you'll seek out your local or university presses that have some poetry to feature as well as some of the larger, more famous ones since they all do the good work of publishing great poetry.
As always, these are all just suggestions meant to spark ideas of your own. Have fun getting ready for Poetry Month!