BY JOANNA C. VALENTE
Now that it's spring (aka: we can all get out of the winter funk), it's time to start reading in the park and everywhere in the sun. Because of that, I rounded up 11 books I enjoyed recently with excerpts to help you get a taste of each.
Check out the list below:
1. Dust Bunny City - Bud Smith & Rae Buleri (Disorder Press, 2017)
My favorite poem in the collection:
2. Iowa - Lucas Hunt (Thane & Prose, 2017)
3. Scale - Nathan McClain (Four Way Press, 2017)
4. She Has a Name - Kamilah Aisha Moon (Four Way Press, 2017)
5. Paper Flowers, Imaginary Birds - Amy Saul-Zerby (Be About It Press, 2017)
6. Two Teenagers - John Colasacco (Horse Less Press, 2016)
7. Every Word Was Once Drunk - Ian Bodkin (ELJ Editions, 2014)
8. Self-Portrait in Green - Marie Ndiaye, translated by Jordan Stump (Two Lines Press, 2014)
9. Simple Pleasures - A.R. Marshall (ELJ Editions, 2015)
10. Genevieves - Henry Hoke (Subito Press, 2017)
11. Jackknife - Jan Beatty (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017)
Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (The Operating System, 2017), Xenos (Agape Editions, 2016) and the editor of A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault (CCM, 2017). Joanna received a MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, a managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine and CCM, as well as an instructor at Brooklyn Poets. Some of Joanna's writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Brooklyn Magazine, Prelude, Apogee, Spork, The Feminist Wire, BUST, and elsewhere.