Sensational November New Releases

This month, with the weather cooling down and nights getting shorter, there’s more time than ever for reading and reflection. The poetry collections set to release in November mirror this cozy, contemplative vibe, with books that are both deeply internal, digging into the most vulnerable details of a speaker’s lived experience, and books that feel far-reaching and expansive, examining some of the biggest spiritual questions. This month’s collections also remind us to be open to change, from shifts in relationships to shifts in ritual, faith, and the body. Don’t miss these sensational November new releases.

The Opening Ritual by G.C. Waldrep

Release date: Nov. 1

With a blurb from Kaveh Akbar and a rave review from the Los Angeles Review of Books, G.C. Waldrep’s The Opening Ritual is the poet’s eighth release and perhaps his most anticipated. The collection connects spiritual practice with the body and the experience of chronic illness, reckoning with how or if sickness can coincide with faith. Waldrep unrelentingly searches for a new definition of healing and questions its role and meaning. 

Where Will We Live If the House Burns Down? by Allison Blevins

Release date: Nov. 5

Where Will We Live If the House Burns Down? is a must-read for fans of hybrid genre work, as Allison Blevins expertly weaves prose poetry, memoir, fairytale, and autofiction in an effort to reinvent these genres and reflect a shifting emotional landscape. Blevins embraces the surrealist as she writes from the perspective of two lead characters, delving into the complex dynamics of their marriage as it undergoes illness, disability, and a spouse’s gender transition. 

The Widow’s Crayon Box by Molly Peacock

Release date: Nov. 5

Award-winning poet Molly Peacock challenges the popular and singular narrative of widowhood and loss in her ninth collection. While Peacock assumed the experience would be gray or mauve, she one day realized that it had awakened her to “life in all its colors,” from the extremes of devastation and fury to the rush of unexpected joy. Peacock charts this journey as she tells the familiar but often overshadowed story of caregivers.

Mermaids of Albuquerque by Elizabeth Cohen

Release date: Nov. 8

Mermaids of Albuquerque by Elizabeth Cohen showcases the importance of place in poetry. This collection comes alive with the rich, inimitable tapestry of New Mexico, as Cohen uses the setting around her and her love for it to reflect on loss, violence, climate change, and more. While this collection confronts tragedy, it leads with the joy Cohen has for her home state and the magic, beauty, and teachings of our environment. 

Blues in Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes, edited by Danez Smith

Release date: Nov. 19

It’s likely that almost every poetry fan has come across Langston Hughes’s famous, incredible works, but never like this. Blues in Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes goes beyond Hughes’s most popular works to include earlier writing that showcases Hughes’s raw talent and foreshadows his enduring literary legacy. This can’t-miss anthology also includes insightful commentary from National Book Award finalist Danez Smith, who traces Hughes’s most pivotal and prevailing themes. 

Rimonim: Ritual Poetry of Jewish Liberation by Aurora Levins Morales

Release date: Nov. 26

In Rimonim: Ritual Poetry of Jewish Liberation, poet and activist Aurora Levins Morales shows how traditions can evolve and expand to provide a storied foundation in modern times. In fact, Levins Morales notes that this collection “honors, unravels, and rebuilds Jewish liturgies,” showing how they can be used to bring communities together and to protest in the face of injustice. 

Happy reading! If digging into these sensational November new releases inspire your own creativity and writing process, check out our recent writing tips for a creative fall and get an early start on your 2025 submitting goals with five contests to look forward to.