Genre-Fluid: Non-Poetry Books by Poets
Happy National Poetry Month, friends! It’s no secret that here at BAM we love poets! Fun fact, Emma (our owner), Nick (our manager), and I all studied poetry in college, and some of us write it too!
Personally, I believe poetry is for everyone, just like music. You just need to find the type that aligns with your taste! That said, a lot of folks aren’t introduced to it that way, and it can be difficult to get past the mental obstacles that prevent one from finding their perfect poem or perfect poetry collection. Or maybe you are an avid poetry reader, but are on a novel kick, or going through a memoir moment right now. Whatever the case, this list is to help you support poets and their work, even if you’re not reading poetry.
Many of the titles here are poetic, or poetry-ish, they range from autobiographical to fictive, often landing somewhere in between. Each of them takes on a fluid, innovative, and alchemical approach to their work. So whether you’re a poetry enthusiast, a novice, or “not for me” reader, we’re confident there’s a book for you here!
written by Serena Morales
A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif Abdurraqib is one of the most fascinating writers gracing our shelves these days. His thoughts on music and race seem to just pour out over the page but all of them are engrossing and mind opening and concise. You always see the poetry in Hanif's writing and your mind is always expanded a thousand times over. It is hard to choose a favorite book of the year this early in the year but A Little Devil in America is going to be hard to beat. –Nick
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
I was first introduced to Acevedo’s work through her slim but mighty chapbook Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths, so it’s been such a delight to see this author rise triumphantly into the literary limelight. This award-winning novel-in-verse follows Xiomara, a teenaged Afro-Latina Harlemite who, like the author, discovers her power through slam poetry. Acevedo distills all the heart, sweat, and soul of the NYC slam scene into the pages of this book and the result is glorious. –Serena
Northern Light by Kazim Ali
When questions of belonging arise for Ali, he searches up his childhood town of Jenpeg only to discover that it no longer exists and that all along the settlement sat on the sovereign, unceded land of the Pimicikamak. Further investigations lead him to unearth the longstanding, ongoing conflicts between the Pimicikamak people and the Canadian government, and Ali begins to ask what his role is, or might’ve been, in this story. These questions compel him to return to the land (and waters) where so much has changed, and Ali—an ever humble and questioning witness—wonders what it means to be of/from a place but also outside of it, asking: “Where do the roads of history lead? What if there’s no answer to be found?” At once enlightening and refracting, this slim memoir takes a previously black & white narrative and lifts out its many colors with grace. –Serena
The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan
Spanning across nations and generations, this sprawling yet intimate saga follows the unforgettable Nasr family. Separated by both physical and emotional distances, the entire family—comprising a Lebanese patriarch, a Syrian matriarch, and three American children—all convene in Beirut to debate the father, Idris’, decision to sell their ancestral home. In Beirut, the many secrets and memories they each harbor begin to bubble to the surface. The result is an atmospheric, dynamic, and intricate story about betrayal and bonds: bonds between loved ones, between countries, and between people and their places. –Serena
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
You know who has the internal rage that can only adequately be described and probed by poets? Teenage girls. This book, about witchcraft and field hockey in one group of high school girls in Danvers, Massachusetts in the 1980s, is perfect for readers who like their nostalgia laced with fire. –Emma
A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
This book blew me away, and it is genuinely difficult to express how much I think you should read it immediately. A History of My Brief Body combines theory, personal history, and poetry to explore the ever-present “history” of settler colonialism and its ongoing violence, queer identity, art, freedom, and decolonized love. Belcourt’s poetic sensibility permeates every word, molding language and form towards joy, care, and resistance. –Nika
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
Here’s what I love about Melissa Broder: everything. Both her poetry and fiction are wild rides into what it feels like to have a human body, and this novel, her newest book, is about sex, disordered eating, Orthodox Judaism, and fro-yo. –Emma
Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
From the writer that gave us Cenzontle comes this intimate memoir about the author and his family’s experience being undocumented in the U.S., a nation of unique cruelty towards its migratory populace. In lyrical and viscerally-felt prose the author describes both the vigilance and invisibility he was forced to adopt, due to the constant looming threat of deportation. Castillo details his parents and his own confrontation with the dehumanizing U.S. immigration system, the many ways it fractured his family, and relentlessness with which it sought to confiscate their dignity. A candid exploration of masculinity, diaspora, displacement, desire & (be)longing. –Serena
Bestiary by K-Ming Chang
This novel hits every mark for me when it comes to the themes/structures/motifs that, without fail, make me pick up a book. Mythic and magical? CHECK. A coming-of-age about girlhood and queer desires? CHECK. A multigenerational, migrant family story? CHECK. Experimental, inventive storytelling? Please, I can’t take it! Though Chang’s voice is extremely unique, I would say fans of Akwaeke Emezi and Helen Oyeyemi will love this book. –Serena
The Crying Book by Heather Christle
We all need a good cry sometimes! A delightful poetic mosaic, The Crying Book is made of vignettes of the natural history of crying (tear-catching machines, the truth behind animal tears, tears as a racial weapon, etc) amid a backdrop of Christle’s grief after losing a friend to suicide and struggles with post-partum depression. My copy is full of underlines and dog ears, so you know you can expect some beautiful turns of phrase and moving passages. Intimate and validating on every layer. –Colleen
^ Co-signing! Real Bluets vibes here. –Serena
Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi
Amidst a failing marriage and recent loss of a parent, Grace’s life hits reset. She has just inherited a secluded beach house in Madras, Tamil Nadu and become the caretaker of her estranged sister, Lucia, whose existence was kept from her due to her disability. Now in the company of Lucia, the village housekeeper, Mallika, and a pack of wild dogs, Grace attempts to recalibrate her place in the world. Told with vibrant lyricism, Small Days and Nights is a story about existentialism, belonging, and transformation. –Serena
Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo
Safia Elhillo is an amazing poet, and her debut novel-in-verse knocks it out of the park. The book follows Nima, a 14-year-old Muslim girl who immigrated to the American suburbs with her mother and feels out place. Elhillo beautifully evokes Nima’s sense of loss around the life she could’ve lived in her homeland, with hints of magical realism that reveal the extent of Nima’s inner turmoil. Through the character of Yasmeen, the name Nima’s father had wanted to give her, Home is Not a Country offers a poignant portrait of the search for belonging and the meaning of home. –Nika
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
This is the perfect book for Spring! For when you’re in a reading rut! For when you just want to feel GOOD (but not necessarily disengaged)! That’s what I love about this sweet lil collection of short lyric “essayettes,” by critically-acclaimed poet, gardener, and (de)light within his own right, Ross Gay. As Gay documents his daily delights, he awakens us to our own surrounding and inner abundance, without sacrificing any of life’s complexities. Fulfilling and thought-provoking, uplifting and illuminating—I simply can’t imagine anyone not enjoying this book. –Serena
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
Cathy Park Hong defines Minor Feelings as the emotional sedimentary buildup that occurs when one’s everyday racial experience is constantly questioned or dismissed. She explores the results of that build-up through modular essays that interrogate, among other topics, the disparate nature of Asian Americanness, Hong’s own Korean American identity, and how damaging the model minority myth is. A deeply personal, unapologetically complex and precise view of the Asian American experience. –Michael C
How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones
This memoir is an aching bruise of a book, tender with a long-lasting impact, which makes sense, in that it follows Jones’ incredible poetry collection Prelude to Bruise. This makes sense thematically, too, I’m not just trying to be cute. Honestly, what I love most about poets who write in other forms is that their relationship to language is unparalleled, and so, apologies to everyone else who writes books, but their books are just plain better. That applies to this book but also to every other book on this whole list. Poets as poets, poets as essayists and memoirists and novelists, poets for everything, forever and ever, amen. –Emma
The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh
Fifteen year old Eun Ji’s world is turned upside down when her parents leave her and her brother to live in California while they return to Korea for work. Her mother begins writing letters in Korean, which Eun Ji only really begins to understand years later as she translates them in an attempt to better know her mother, her family, and why her parents decided to leave their children on the opposite side of the world. This is a powerful story of familial love, heartache, and forgiveness, that acknowledges how feeble language can be when trying to articulate the depths of our emotions and misunderstandings, yet blooms in the understanding that we try anyway. –Colleen
This is Major by Shayla Lawson
Merging personal meditations with cultural criticism, Lawson explores the many influences Black women and girls have on society, as well as the influences society has on Black women and girls. Sharp, funny, and fresh, this essay collection proves how powerful it is when poets tackle pop culture and politics. –Serena
World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Nothing has made me appreciate the importance of our relationship with nature like months of being locked in quarantine. Aimee’s collection of charming vignettes based around plants and animals that each hold special significance is filled with the beautiful prose of a poet examining how we can decolonize our relationship to nature and renew our sense of joy in the outdoors. –Colleen
Just Us by Claudia Rankine
Once again, Claudia Rankine artfully tackles racism in this nation. This is an honest and incredible book of discussions, images, and accounts of what it is to exist in the whiteness of America. Rankine pushes back and invites us all to do the same and come together and create true social change. –Nick
Funeral Diva by Pamela Sneed
In the tradition of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker, this stirring, mixed-genre collection immerses the reader in the 80’s/90’s NYC gay & lesbian scene. Sneed details her coming-of-age as a Black lesbian poet, paying special homage the friends, ex-lovers, and literary heroes who marked her journey into self. Here, the unsung or undersung pillars of the queer NYC underground are celebrated and grieved, as the book erects statues of love for those lost to AIDS and the unconscionable crimes of the medical industrial complex. With righteous, resonant rage, the poet draws parallels between the AIDS and COVID-19 crises, noting how both were exacerbated by governmental and medical neglect, which disproportionately impacted Black communities. Evocative, elegeic, and true, the collection leaves its readers with the powerful gift and assertion that “If we can survive...We can heal.” –Serena
Memorial Drive by Natasha Tretheway
A harrowing, carefully-crafted, and devastatingly beautiful memoir that will stay with you long after you leave it, as all good memorials do. A monument to a mother, like no other. –Serena
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
A remarkable portrait of queerness and the "American experience", Vuong's writing is sharp with clarity and his prose stuns on every page. The gorgeous lyricism speaks to his background as a poet - Night Sky with Exit Wounds is one of my favorite poetry collections and I always recommend it to people who loved the novel (that is, everyone who has read it) especially if they're not poetry people. –Shulokhana
And a few forthcoming titles!:
Plastic: An Autobiography by Allison Cobb (April 20, 2021)
Indicting and informative, this book tackles the plastic crisis, merging personal, historical, and cultural narratives to do so. What begins as a small encounter and observation, blooms into an obsession, and Cobb invites us to join the ride of her compulsive searching about the ubiquity and perilousness of plastic. However, this book does not simply invite reflection or research alone, it posits a serious reckoning and systemic call-to-arms. –Serena
Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir by Rajiv Mohabir (June 22)
In this highly-saturated and multi-textured memoir, Rajiv Mohabir invents a mode to encompass the complexities of his existence as an Indo-Guyanese poet who is “queer sexually, queer religiously, queer by caste, and queer countried.” With an intergenerational life story marked by various migrations—and some may say, transgressions—Mohabir, here, carves a vessel to contain his multitudes using the instruments of prose, song, poetry, and prayer. Authentic and defiant, this memoir responds to erasure with assertion, to derogation with reclamation, and to fragmentation with relation. Fans of Ocean Vuong, Alexander Chee, and Saeed Jones will adore this book! –Serena
Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief by Victoria Chang (October 12)
Letters, photographs, and familial ephemera abound in this moving book about both absence and the presences that make those absences felt. I’ve talked so much about Victoria Chang’s most recent poetry collection, Obit, which also tackles grief, and loss more generally. I anticipate the same level of dexterity and vulnerability in this collection, as Chang once again makes art out of the unanswerable. –Serena
