Meridian

Kathleen Jesme

Selected by Patricia Fargnoli

“… a study, by a probing spirit, in darkness and snow, of private sorrow…  These taut, resonant lines bear not one extra ounce of language, but only and exactly what will suffice.”

— Eleanor Wilner

Babel’s Moon

Brandon Som

Selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

“… a stunning musical perceptiveness on a global scale…  I trust in his weird and delightful imaginings of the moon, cactus, kites, and the origins of tea. What a sparkling debut!”

— Aimee Nezhukumatathil 

the lake has no saint

Stacey Waite

Selected by Dana Levin

“… into an experience of the fluidity of gender …  of a heart and body trying to find a place in the between. Always moving and always grounded, a deeply interesting, deeply affecting book.”

— Dana Levin

In the Mynah Bird’s Own Words

Barbara Tran

Selected by Robert Wrigley

Finalist, ForeWord Magazine’s

Poetry Book of the Year

“… lyrically delicious collection that comes very close to have the sweep of a novel.”

— Robert Wrigley

A House Waiting for Music

David Hernandez

Selected by Ray Gonzalez

“These poems whacked me in the head as no other book has in some time. Each page gave me pause— the signal of a true poet. This is a book worthy of at least one book prize, perhaps even the Pulitzer Prize.” — Francis Alix

The Making of Collateral Beauty 

Mark Yakich

Selected by Mary Ruefle

“… a virtuoso performance, serious play that demands a suspension of the usual expectations of narrative, allusion, and textual commentary.”

— Susan Settlemyre Williams

staring at the animal

John Cross

Selected by Gillian  Conoley

“… prickly, finely wrought, shattered gems cast of awe and ruin… full of the guilt and pain and the ferocity of imagination it takes to get through the day…”

— Gillian Conoley

Narcissus

Cecilia Woloch

Selected by Marie Howe

“A searching not so much for thewhy of love as for the how — how we can love given what we know, what we've already lost.”

— Carine Topal

The Garden Room

Joy Katz

Selected by Lisa Russ Spaar

“Joy Katz's surreal, witty lyrics are jaunty and surprising. Cerebral, ironic, these poems seem to be all glancing light, all curiosity, but under their brilliant surfaces, they are haunted.”

— Jean Valentine