7 Anticipated 2024 Poetry Releases to Preorder Now

2024 is already shaping up to be an unforgettable year of poetry. This year, collections from Pulitzer Prize winners and Guggenheim fellows hit shelves — diving into big themes like intergenerational trauma, nature, marriage and divorce, displacement, and more. Despite their differing subject matter, most of these collections directly take on the role of art and the purpose of creating it — considering the often conflicting, nuanced roles that poetry plays in times of turmoil. These seven stand-out poetry collections will remind any reader why they always return to the genre. 

Root Fractures by Diana Khoi Nguyen

Release date: Jan. 30

Kundiman fellow Diana Khoi Nguyen’s first collection, Ghost Of, was a finalist for the National Book Award and was selected by Terrence Hayes as the winner of the Omnidawn Open Contest. Its follow-up, Root Fractures, builds on many of the same themes — examining family relationships, the blur between the past and the present, and stories that unfold across generations. The mention of fractures in the title relates to the collection as a whole, as it most closely studies what’s broken and what it means to repair and heal. 

Happy Everything by Caitlin Cowan

Release date: Feb. 5

Like Root Fractures, Caitlin Cowan’s debut collection Happy Everything also investigates familial relationships and how they shift across time periods and generations. Cowan, who has been nominated for both a Pushcart and a Best of the Net Award, takes an unflinching look at the relationships women in her life have had with men, exploring the continual influence of patriarchy. Cowan also pinpoints the juxtaposition inherent to these relationships — contrasting deep love with gendered societal expectations and persisting inequality.

Wrong Norma by Anne Carson

Release date: Feb. 6

From Nox to Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson has written some of the most renowned and beloved modern-day poetry collections. In Wrong Norma, she blurs genre and brings together a wide range of her lyrical prose, noting that they all speak to different subject matter. Carson said she included the descriptor “wrong” in the book’s title as a nod to this dissonance, as works reflect on everything from the weather and classic writers to her relationship with her father. 

Modern Poetry by Dianne Suess

Release date: March 6

Dianne Suess has won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, but the outspoken writer has spoken and written about feeling both intimidated and excluded by traditional poetry canons and traditions. In Modern Poetry, she reflects on her storied history and evolving relationship with her art form, as the title comes from the first poetry textbook she ever studied. The collection both celebrates and challenges what we know about literature and the writing community, ultimately making a fierce argument that there will always be space for poetry in the world.

The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan

Release date: March 12

In The Moon That Turns You Back, novelist and poet Hala Alyan writes out of the in-between spaces and questions boundaries, borders, and the meaning of home in the face of geopolitical violence. While the poet reflects on being forced out of physical, familial, and ancestral homes, she also relates this to a feeling of being away from home or even colonized in one’s own body. In the face of these both blatant and insidious violences, the collection is ultimately a reminder of what can bring us back to ourselves and how to hold onto cultural ties and spaces when they’re threatened. 

With My Back to the World by Victoria Chang

Release date: April 2

With previous titles like Barbie Chang, which took on racialized capitalism and sexism, to Obit, which boldly and beautifully addresses the individual complexities of grief, Victoria Chang is already carving out a poetic legacy that doesn’t shy away from some of the most difficult topics. With My Back to the World continues this trajectory, as the poet vulnerably writes about a day-to-day life colored by depression. Chang also finds ways to make these topics both relatable and highly specific and personal — in With My Back to the World, she views mental health and emotions through the lens of female art and art-making, especially within the works of Agnes Martin.

Gospel of a Whole Sun by Katerina Jeng

Release date: May 7 

Gospel of a Whole Sun marks the debut poetry release from poet and community organizer Katerina Jeng. Within its pages, she finds the space to reflect and make sense of three tumultuous but ultimately life-changing years — years in which she underwent a traumatic breakup, navigated the realities of racialized violence during a pandemic, and came out as queer. In the midst of these intersecting struggles, Jeng finds herself falling in love with her life and examines how centering liberation contributed to this newfound joy. 

Happy reading! Looking for more poetry content for the start of the year? Check out our tips for staying motivated to write through winter.