The cover of Mai Der Vang’s Primordial: a photonegative in dark aqua wash of a bi-horned quadruped standing in the jungle
(61/61) “Say to the animal: heavy is / an apology inside the wind.” — @maidervang.bsky.social, “Death in Captivity, a Surrender” (Primordial) @graywolfpress.bsky.social #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Kimiko Hahn’s Foreign Bodies: a grid of framed and numbered curios fastened to a wall, including a hinge, a small blue horse, metal jacks, and a washer.
(59/61) “the brimstone and bile of this book left open / to Bosch's realm beneath the left hand of God, / my foxed legacy of human bonfire.” —Kimiko Hahn, “Unearthly Delights” (Foreign Bodies) W. W. Norton & Company #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Vievee Francis’ The Shared World: a black-and-white photograph of a concerned-looking woman with dark hair holding a white cloth the neck and face of a dark-haired man whose white shirt has dark stains on it.
(58/61) “Witness, / if you can, listen: I slurped the frog-leg soup / gone bad. Held a brass spoon like a barrel / to my mouth.” —Vievee Francis, “Break Me and I’ll Sing” (The Shared World)
@nupress.bsky.social #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Marianne Chan’s Leaving Biddle City: a collage of radiating rectangles of a photograph of a dark car driving away on a dirty, snow road toward bare trees and a white sky
(57/61) “I knew this family was strange. What’s with this boy who loves flowers? The crowds of people whispered. Football players tied him up.” —Marianne Chan, “Winter Flowers in Biddle City” (Leaving Biddle City) @sarabandebooks.bsky.social #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Toi Derricotte’s Tender: a photograph of a reddish stone sculpture of a naked, seated female figure holding something against its chest.
(56/61) “The secret / is to give a little / wine before killing.” —Toi Derricotte, “Tender” (Tender) @upittpress.bsky.social #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Toi Derricotte’s Tender: a photograph of a reddish stone sculpture of a naked, seated female figure holding something against its chest.
(56/61) “The secret / is to give a little / wine before killing.” —Toi Derricotte, “Tender” (Tender) @upittpress.bsky.social #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Danielle Legros Georges’ Three Leaves, Three Roots: an abstract painting of a collage of overlapping red, green, blue, orange, and black fronds
(53/61) “when the horse of my body / stopped, I walked. // Nights of unspeakable stars.” —Danielle Legros Georges, “Crossings” (Three Leaves, Three Roots) @beaconpress.bsky.social #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Hope Wabuke’s The Body Family: an abstract collage of inky footprints
(52/61) “Amin’s killings were called simply // a natural byproduct / of events” —Hope Wabuke, “If Not David” (The Body Family) @haymarketbooks.org #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Karisma Price’s I’m Always So Serious: a painting of a black girl with a white, sleeveless dress and earrings, flanked by a blue silhouette and a white silhouette, overlaid with patterned spheres
(51/61) “A fish drowns itself in the Mississippi. The one-eyed tabby is not allowed in the hotel. She too will float, but in a different city.” — @karismaprice.bsky.social “What’s It Like Escaping Something Trying to Kill You?” (I’m Always So Serious) @sarabandebooks.bsky.social #WOC #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Leslie Sainz’s Have You Been Long Enough at Table: a grainy black and white photo of a jagged rocky outcropping at the water’s edge of a beach
(50/61) “There is no country / where the dead don't float.” — @lesannsai.bsky.social, “Ño” (Have You Been Long Enough at Table) Tin House Books #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Dorsía Smith Silva’s In Inheritance of Drowning: a watercolor of beach houses and palm trees blowing in the wind under dark and stormy clouds
(49/61) “At first, the rain comes in whispers: / thin slants on the windows, then it scrawls / across the glass like long graffiti” —Dorsía Smith Silva “The Awakening of Hurricane María” (In Inheritance of Drowning) @cavankerrypress.bsky.social #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Emma Trelles’ Tropicalia: a photo of strings of clear beads hanging from a blue metal trellis in a potted plant on a green, wooded lawn
(47/61) “Fill the glass; light the wick, / prick three drops upon a sheet.” —Emma Trelles, “Novena Poderosa” (Tropicalia) Notre Dame Press #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Alison C. Rollins’ Black Bell: a drawing of an iron harness tree of bells designed to be fitted around the waist and neck of runaway slaves
(46/61) “Like cartographers, the Language poets / hold tight to their non-sequitur ships.” —Alison C. Rollins, “Cognitive Mapping” (Black Bell) @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Elizabeth Woody’s Luminaries of the Humble: a painting of a black bird flying in a yellow sky underneath a striated, light blue grid
(45/61) “The body is flat and dull as a pie pan” —Elizabeth Woody, “Twy-Twy” (Luminaries of the Humble) The University of Arizona Press #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Sahar Muradi’s OCTOBERS: a scratched photograph of an Afghani family of a man, woman, and three children standing against a white wall, overlaid with paintings and sketches of flowers, body parts, and mythological creatures
(44/61) “Yes, I say, for calligraphy, for the golden threads of our mouths.” —Sahar Muradi, “How Do You Laugh in Dari?” (OCTOBERS) @upittpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard: a photograph of a hand-written Civil War letter, with a perpendicular overlay of another letter
(43/61) “the endless why and why and why / my mother cannot answer, her mouth closed, a gesture / toward her future: cold lips stitched shut” —Natasha Trethewey, “Southern Gothic” (Native Guard) Ecco #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Solmaz Sharif’s Customs: a watercolor of a red square.
(42/61) “What do you teach? / Poetry. // I hate poetry, the officer says. / I only like writing / where you can make an argument” —Solmaz Sharif, “He, Too” (Customs) @graywolfpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s Something About Living: an abstract watercolor painting of a uneven grid of aqua, light blue, and light grey squares
(41/61) “The snipers are distracted, sexting their girlfriends. // The snipers’ eyes are blinded by smoke from our burning tires.” — @lenakt.bsky.social, “Variations on a Last Chance” (Something About Living) @uakronpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Dipika Mukherjee’s Dialect of Distant Harbors: a colored drawing of various people at a museum looking at a collaged painting red and peach-colored distorted bodies
(40/61) “My vegetative brother lives. / But who wanted this?” —Dipika Mukherjee, “Buddha Sharanam Gachchami” (Dialect of Distant Harbors)
@cavankerrypress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Jennifer Chang’s An Authentic Life: a painting of a pale, loosely-joined, peach-colored room with a built-in bench and bed, and a window and skylight giving way to a pale blue sky
(39/61) “My friend, who lost her husband / twice, first in death / and then in betrayal, orders / the pinot noir.” —Jennifer Chang, “A Conversation between Women” (An Authentic Life)
@coppercanyonpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Tacey M. Atsitty’s (At) Wrist: a photo of a black-haired woman with a black top and dark blue jeans lying on her back on a speckled beige floor, with a man wearing a loincloth and a buffalo head embracing her from the side.
(38/61) “I went wading / into stars, pulling my dress up // to my knees—I get like this / when it precipitates: fall // like salt” —Tacey M. Atsitty, “A February Snow” [(At) Wrist] @uwiscpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Janice N. Harrington’s Yard Show: a collage of quilted squares with images of a two white houses and green fruit overlaid over an irregular grid of cream squares bordered in black and green
(37/61) “The historical marker does not say: You could hear / the body's heels knocking against the trunk” —Janice N. Harrington, “With the Walls Remaining” (Yard Show) BOA Editions, Ltd. #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Tara M. Stringfellow’s Magic Enuff: a painting of a silhouette of a dark-skinned woman in profile with flowing black hair followed with blossoms amidst multi-colored foliage
(36/61) “learned to roll my hair with funeral programs” —Tara M. Stringfellow, “Only Read from Exodus” (Magic Enuff) The Dial Press #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Marcie R. Rendon’s Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium: an abstract photograph of a smeary and crystalline band of orange, pink, and purple.
(35/61) “you think I do nothing / all day / I am busy loving / human beings” —Marcie R. Rendon, “Dream Songs” (Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium) @uminnpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Stella Wong’s Stem: a drawing of a black-haired woman in a red dress holding an open book and standing on an orange stoop at the edge of a sea of black books as the wind blows her hair and the trees around her
(34/61) “Your right knee is a haunted staircase” —Stella Wong, “Need” (Stem) @princetonupress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Danusha Laméris’ Blade by Blade: a microscopic photograph of the serrated edge of a blade of green grass
(33/61) “She goes before me, / shining darkly, into a city— // of gold, of salt—that I will never see.” —Danusha Laméris, “Daughter” (Blade by Blade) @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Yaccaira Salvatierra’s Sons of Salt: a black-and-white photo of a figure facing away and standing in the desert wearing a dark cape and lace shawl backwards with a tattoo of the Virgin Mary on their back.
(32/61) “The sun sets & we walk towards it / without our shadows behind us.” —Yaccaira Salvatierra, “We Are Boys” (Sons of Salt) BOA Editions, Ltd. #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Mahogany L. Browne’s I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love: a black figure, made up of collaged black-and-white photos of people, sitting against a wall with their head on their knees and hugging their legs
(31/61) “I wonder: // Does he approve / of my line breaks?” — @mobrowne.bsky.social (I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love) @haymarketbooks.org #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Tracy K. Smith’s The Body’s Question: an abstract painting of capillary-like black lines in front of a red background
(29/61) “Is Luis crying? No—but makeup / Streaks his face like newsprint / That’s been rained on” —Tracy K. Smith, “Serenade” (The Body's Question) Graywolf Press #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Brittany Rogers’ Good Dress: a photo of a black woman with a black Afro wearing a black coat over a red dress, holding up a bundle of baby’s breath in front of her face and standing barefoot on concrete in front of a nailed-together yellow wooden wall with weeds growing up from the cracks in the ground.
(26/61) “Outsiders didn’t call her what they call us / for wearing sunglasses in a city / where we are the only light.” — @britrogers.bsky.social, “Doin’ Too Much” (Good Dress) @tinhouse.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
