We all could stand to read more poetry. I say this as a poet who is immersed in poetry daily. You can never have too much of it–and personally, I don’t understand why more people don’t read poetry more. It’s short, which means you can digest a poem (the first time) anywhere. It’s all very momentary. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t go back to the poem later, and reread it with new eyes.
This is why I’m rounding up 13 women-identifying poets whose work I admire. We can always cope with more poetry, am I right?
1. Abigail Welhouse – “Dawson Gets a Haircut” (Brooklyn Poets)
2. Camille Rankine – “History” (Poetry Foundation)
3. Patricia Spears Jones – “What Beauty Does” (Poetry Foundation)
4. Monica Ferrell – “Emma Bovary” (Poets.org)
5. Marisa Crawford – “Manic Panic” (Poets.org)
6. Rachel Eliza Griffiths – “Dear America” (Four Way Review)
7. Nikki Wallschlaeger – “Blue Tuesdays” (The Feminist Wire)
8. Emily Skillings – “Fort Not” (Hyperallergic)
9. Wendy Xu – “The Window Rehearses” (PEN America)
10. Samgen Chin – “After Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?” (Yes Poetry)
11. Claire Donato – “Dead Meat” (Poor Claudia)
12. Elisabet Velasquez – “New Brooklyn” (Brooklyn Poets)
13. Hannah Lee Jones – “Insomniac Fugue” (Superstition Review)
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 (2016, ELJ Publications), & Xenos (2016, Agape Editions) and the editor of “A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault” (CCM, 2017). They received their MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Joanna is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, as well as the managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine and CCM. Some of their writing has appeared in Prelude, Apogee, Spork The Atlas Review, The Feminist Wire, BUST, The James Franco Review, and elsewhere. They also teach workshops at Brooklyn Poets.
