Popular North American Poetry Books
Find poetry books written by authors from North America for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (55)
2.
A Book of Days by Patti Smith EN
Country: North America / 
United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A deeply moving and brilliantly idiosyncratic visual book of days by the National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids and M Train, featuring more than 365 images and reflections that chart Smith’s singular aesthetic—inspired by her wildly popular Instagram. In 2018, without any plan or agenda for what might happen next, Patti Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand with the simple message “Hello Everybody!” Known for shooting with her beloved Land Camera 250, Smith started posting images from her phone including portraits of her kids, her radiator, her boots, and her Abyssinian cat... continue
Panama4.
Appalachian Elegy : Poetry and Place by Bell Hooks EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A collection of poems centered around life in Appalachia addresses topics ranging from the marginalization of the region's people to the environmental degradation it has endured throughout history.
5.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A New York Times Bestseller and National Book Award Winner Jacqueline Woodson, the acclaimed author of Red at the Bone, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for... continue
6.
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart EN
Country: North America / 
Canada
Canada
Description:
Elizabeth Smart’s passionate fictional account of her intense love-affair with the poet George Barker, described by Angela Carter as ‘Like MADAME BOVARY blasted by lightning ... A masterpiece’.
7.
Cape Verdean Blues by Shauna Barbosa EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
“These words feel like experiences. Some are personal, most are enlightening, but all connect. Connect on a higher Level. A spiritual level.” —Kendrick Lamar, Grammy Award-winning artist, and winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music A Lit Hub Favorite Book of 2018 The speaker in Cape Verdean Blues is an oracle walking down the street. Shauna Barbosa interrogates encounters and the weight of their space. Grounded in bodily experience and the phenomenology of femininity, this collection provides a sense of Cape Verdean identity. It uniquely captures the essence of “Sodade,” as it refers to th... continue
8.
Catrachos : Poems by Roy G. Guzmán EN
Country: North America / 
Honduras
Honduras
Description:
The breathtaking debut collection from one of America’s most inventive new poets A name for the people of Honduras, Catrachos is a term of solidarity and resilience. In these unflinching, riveting poems, Roy G. Guzmán reaches across borders—between life and death and between countries—invoking the voices of the lost. Part immigration narrative, part elegy, and part queer coming-of-age story, Catrachos finds its own religion in fantastic figures such as the X-Men, pop singers, and the “Queerodactyl,” which is imagined in a series of poems as a dinosaur sashaying in the shadow of an oncoming com... continue
9.
Celebrations : Rituals of Peace and Prayer by Maya Angelou EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
"Celebrations is a collection of timely and timeless poems that are an integral part of the global fabric. Several works have become nearly as iconic as Angelou herself: the inspiring 'On the Pulse of Morning', read at President William Jefferson Clinton's 1993 inauguration; the heartening 'Amazing Peace, ' presented at the 2005 lighting of the National Christmas Tree at the White House; 'A Brave and Startling Truth, ' which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations; and 'Mother, ' which beautifully honors the first woman in our lives. Angelou writes of celebrations public and priv... continue
10.
Citizen : An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine EN
Country: North America / 
Jamaica
Jamaica
Description:
"Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named 'post-race' society."-