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One of my favourite occasions of yr, August exudes new-school-year vibes. It radiates contemporary notebooks, new pens, and a meticulously chosen outfit for the primary day. Now, one other large half of adoring August is The Sealey Challenge.
Founded in 2017 by poet Nicole Sealey, individuals learn one poetry chapbook or full-length assortment day-after-day for 31 days through the month of August and share their reads throughout social media with hashtags together with #TheSealeyChallenge. Reading titles by various voices and buying books from unbiased bookstores shut to house can also be in the spirit of this problem.
After dabbling in the month-long problem for one work week in 2019, I’ve participated in all and each August since, making this my fourth yr. Every March, I start gathering a poetry pile early, so my guide finances feels the squeeze rather less. If a glimpse at my present Sealey Challenge stack pursuits you, I plan to learn Vanessa Angélica Villarreal’s Beast Meridian, Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s Lucky Fish, Etel Adnan’s Sea & Fog, and Ok. Iver’s Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco, to identify solely a number of titles.
Find right here, in order of publication date, eight titles starting from works celebrating their first birthday to new releases and a forthcoming guide good for Sealey Challenge piles.
Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble
Published final July, I occurred upon Tibble’s propulsive U.S. debut about hair, Māori identification, popular culture, and illustration in the poetry nook at Sundog Books. The titled vignettes and mythological references of the primary, titular piece gripped me so. I left with a replica in my hand and snapped an image of the breathtaking cowl earlier than the storefront. My thoughts retains returning to “Pania,” who yearns for the ocean: “When she was little and lived by the sea, she swam a lot and was fearless with her body . . . Her grandmother always said Never turn your back on the ocean, because you never knew what might be coming in. She used to think about sharks and stingrays, then tidal waves, then she thought about a horizon full of big white sails.”
Bluest Nude by Ama Codjoe
Last December, I left Octavia Books with this title wrapped in navy and gold, and I positioned it below the little Christmas tree in my studying nook. My remaining learn of 2022, it proved a spectacular approach to shut out my studying yr. One Sealey Challenge custom of mine is that half of my books consist of new-to-me titles, and the opposite half are rereads. Presented in 4 numbered sections, I’ve been wanting to revisit Codjoe’s fascinating debut assortment since New Year’s Eve. Pondering artwork, unhappiness, trauma, and water, it opens with “Blueprint.” A sticky flag attracts my eyes again to three of its traces, “I soaked black beans for the color they left. My blue / was a habit, a kind of river I stepped into—sometimes / crossed—because it held the sky so perfectly.” I can’t wait to see which traces I linger on and which pages I dog-ear throughout my second learn.
The Symmetry of Fish by Su Cho
One of the 5 winners of the National Poetry Series in 2021, Paige Lewis, the creator of Space Struck — one of my consolation reads — selected Cho’s unbelievable debut for publication, which catapulted it into my auto-buy class. Across three elements, these poems study coming of age in the Midwest, Korean folklore, language, and love. During Christmastime, I devoured this in New Orleans, in parking tons, wherever I might match a poem, and I’m delighted to return to this assortment this summer season, particularly “The Old Man in White Has Given My Mother a Ripe Persimmon Again,” “She Arose,” and “Another Door to the Moon.”
Phantom Pain Wings by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi
In addition to The Sealey Challenge, August marks Women in Translation Month, so have a good time by mixing in some translated poetry by girls. Told in 4 titled sections that culminate in an essay by Hyesoon, these poems are humorous, surreal, and teem with longing. Bird fans particularly, attain for this reflection on making, mourning, sound, and struggle. An endnotes fanatic, I deeply appreciated the “Translator’s Diary,” drawing hearts in the margins my complete approach by. Insights into the method of translating poetry from Korean to English, the climate and chook experiences, and goals and nightmares fascinated me.
Things I Didn’t Do with This Body by Amanda Gunn
Meditating on kitchens and fragrance, grief and romance novels, and household and reminiscence, I discovered Gunn’s debut assortment luminous. Comprised of six elements, go to these pages to fall in love with phrases, traces, poems, complete sections, the poet’s work. The opening sentence of “Notes on a Dream of Dying” launched my jaw to the ground, “I know this dream like the lines of my hand.” Throughout the guide, the mentions of meals and the care concerned in the preparation of dishes like “a pot of stuffed cabbage,” “graham / cracker cake,” and “paprikás” are all chef’s kiss.
Freedom House by KB Brookins
Unfolding in 4 elements titled after areas of a home, these gorgeous poems of Brookins transport readers to 2029, to the gynecologist, and to the moon. Delving into need, gender identification, loss, and violence, this guide absorbed my consideration. In Florida, I carried it to the seashore. The blue of the duvet and the blue undulating earlier than me mesmerized me. In utter awe, I learn “I take my therapist’s suggestion & correct worrying to caring” to my associate and close by umbrellas. Additional dog-eared items I hold flipping again to: “It’s 6 am & the Sun Is Out,” “Good Grief,” and “Finally, a Slow Weekend.”
Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology edited by Joy Priest
Edited by the creator of Horsepower, this compelling anthology highlights the phrases of 37 Louisville poets, a implausible approach to learn a range of writers in a single sitting. In the introductory essay, Priest chronicles driving from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Houston, Texas, in June of 2020. While stopping to relaxation in acquainted and residential cities through the peak of the COVID pandemic, Priest encounters protests in the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. In response, Priest facilitated a writing workshop by way of Sarabande, and plenty of of the items workshopped seem all through these pages. With the title and 4 part epigraphs spotlighting poem excerpts, this compassionate exploration of neighborhood and residential, Kentucky historical past and reminiscence, and race and resilience moved me.
The Ferguson Report: An Erasure by Nicole Sealey (8/15/2023)
Past Augusts, I’ve ended, begun, and begun and ended The Sealey Challenge with Sealey’s work, Ordinary Beast and The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named. This August, The Sealey Challenge creator has a brand new title forthcoming. In Sealey’s second full-length poetry guide, the poet redacts the investigation by the Department of Justice of the police division and courtroom system in Ferguson, Missouri, after the dying of Michael Brown in August of 2014. With everything of The Ferguson Report current, this erasure is organized into 9 elements, and the final options the eight “lifted poems.” Preorder this much-anticipated launch so it arrives in time to fold into your guide stacks.
If you need to peruse extra poetry posts impressed by The Sealey Challenge, take a look at 10 New-to-Me Poets I Discovered Thanks to The Sealey Challenge, 15 Poetry Books for the Upcoming Sealey Challenge, and Will You Join The Sealey Challenge? by yours actually.
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