Phoenix Poets, Poetry, Reading list

What to Read for National Poetry Month

To celebrate National Poetry Month, we’re excited to share a reading list of new poetry collections. Here at the University of Chicago Press, we’ve recently published Daniel Mendelsohn’s new translation of The Odyssey. This magnificent feat of translation conveys the poetics of the original while bringing to vivid life the gripping adventure of Homer’s most popular epic. On Chicago’s own Phoenix Poets Series, we’re pleased to share five new titles published this year, including two bilingual editions.

There’s even more to discover from our distributed client presses. You’ll find moving collections from up-and-coming poets at Acre Books, Athabasca University Press, Brandeis University Press, CavanKerry Press, Omnidawn Publishing, Seagull Books, Swan Isle, and Tupelo Press.

Shop our poetry collection directly from our website using the promo code UCPENEW and take 30% off at checkout.


From the University of Chicago Press

The Odyssey by Homer. Translated, with an introduction and notes by Daniel Mendelsohn

The Phoenix Poets Series

Infinity Pool by Jonathan Thirkield 

The Great Zoo: A Bilingual Edition by Nicolás Guillén, translated by Aaron Coleman

Slashing Sounds: A Bilingual Edition by Jolanda Insana, translated by Catherine Theis

Dissonance by Kristin Dykstra

Moon Mirrored Indivisible by Farid Matuk


Acre Books

The Alcestis Machine by Carolyn Oliver

Scream / Queen by CD Eskilson

Athabasca University Press

My Works, Ye Mighty by Christian Bök

Brandeis University Press

The Prelude by William Wordsworth, edited by James Engell and Michael D. Raymond with an afterword by Helen Vendler

Swan Isle Press

Rome: Pedestrians Beware by Rafael Alberti

The Men Who Killed My Mother | Los hombres que mataron a mi madre by Fernando Valverde


CavanKerry Press

All at Once by Jack Ridl

In Inheritance of Drowning by Dorsia Smith Silva

All that We Ask of You Is to Always Be Happy by Bridget Bell

Beyond the Watershed by Nadia Alexis

The Last Beast We Revel In by Noah Davis

The Lost Nostalgias by Esteban Rodriguez


Seagull Books

Ever Since I Did Not Die by Ramy Al-Asheq

The Universe, All at Once by Salim Barakat

Cahier by Friedericke Mayröcker

Light Everywhere by Cees Nooteboom

A Calligraphy of Days by Krzysztof Siwczyk

The World Is Made Up Every Day by Alok Dhanwa

Poems by K. G. Subramanyan

The Minotaur’s Daughter by Eva Luka


Omnidawn Publishing

music from behind a stone wall by Steven Rood

Whosoever Whole by Elizabeth Scanlon

Underscore by Julie Carr

Call This Mutiny by Craig Santos Perez

Defensible Space/if a crow— by Ian Lockaby

Omitting All That Is Usually Said by Robin Caton

The Wayfarer by Cyrus Console

Archon / After by Ruth Ellen Kocher

The Patient Is an Unreliable Historian by Brody Parrish Craig

Percussing the Thinking Jar by Maw Shein Win

SUR by David Koehn

Apprentice to a Breathing Hand by Laynie Browne

Inventorys by Sam Creely

Hover by Liza Flum

NAOMIE ANOMIE by Jennifer Hasegawa

Bloodletting by Kimberly Reyes

Clay by Martha Ronk

Alibi Lullaby by Norma Cole


Tupelo Press

The Beautiful Immunity by Karen An-hwei Lee

Landsickness by Leigh Lucas

Green Island by Liz Countryman

Called Back by Rosa Lane

The Right Hand by Christina Pugh

The Opening Ritual by G.C. Waldrep

The Radiant by Lise Goett

The Haunting by Cate Peebles

Phantom Number by Spring Ulmer

Mycocosmic by Lesley Wheeler

The Last Milkweed by Jeffrey Levine

Jalousie by Allyson Paty

Perishable by Stelios Mormoris

Westminster West by Chard deNiord

Nebulous Vertigo by Belle Ling

Daphne by Kristin Case


National Poetry Month Events


These titles are available now from our website or from Bookshop. Happy National Poetry Month!