Poetry lovers are in luck. This selection of the newest poetry books by Black women has something for everyone. Archiving histories, offering healing, widening world views, and then some, these books are above average. If you’re like us, poetry is a necessary genre to reach for because poetic expression is life-giving. In the spirit of Women’s History Month, check out these 4 new collections by Black women.
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A list of the newest poetry books by Black Women in 2023
‘God Themselves’ by Jae Nichelle
A debut that poetry lovers everywhere highly anticipate, Jae Nichelle’s ‘God Themselves’ needs to be on your to-read list. The collection contains three sections: Everything, Everywhere, and Love. The book is a celebration of queerness, Blackness, and love. With applaudable wit coupled with boldness, ‘God Themselves’ lays out the relationship between religion, church, and the body. Nichelle delicately writes the poems according to her experience growing up in the South.
Spoken word poet and rising star, Nichelle is a Tulane University graduate. She is the author of the poetry chapbook ‘The Porch (As Sanctuary)’. She is also the inaugural poetry winner of the John Lewis Writing Award from the Georgia Writers Association, and her poetry has appeared in ‘Best New Poets 2020, The Washington Square Review’, ‘The Offing Magazine’, ‘Muzzle Magazine’, and elsewhere. The release date for the collection is March 14th, 2023. It is available for preorder now.
‘Quiet’ by Victoria Adukwei Bulley
‘Quiet’ is a rebellion, urgently written with courage and voice. In particular, it is a voice that most across the Diaspora would recognize and may borrow from. ‘Quiet’ is a space for all to dissolve into a perfect state of becoming, over and over again, each time with more boldness. The poems beautifully discuss internal dialogues within Black bodies, language, and claimed space. A British-born Ghanaian, Victoria Adukwei Bulley makes an unmissable entrance with her first full collection. Having impressed the UK poetry scene, it makes sense that the poet is ready to be heard across the pond.
Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a poet, writer, filmmaker, and a champion of intergenerational dialogues particularly noted in her film ‘MOTHER TONGUES’. She was shortlisted for the Brunel University African Poetry Prize in 2016 and received an Eric Gregory Award for her pamphlet Girl B, published as part of the New Generation African Poets series in 2017. Bulley has had residencies internationally in the U.S., Brazil, and the V&A in London.
‘The Unfolding’ by Arielle Estoria
A poetry book full of words to hold sacredly in your soul, ‘The Unfolding’ is Arielle Estoria’s stunning debut. The collection is a combination of poems, personal essays, and meditations. The poems invite vulnerability to find a safe way back home ‘to the person we were always meant to be.’ The book is as tender as you imagine it to be in addition to adding an extra dose of ecstatic joy to remind you how real-life becoming feels.
Arielle Estoria is a Spoken Word Poet, Speaker, Actor, Yoga Instructor and Artist. Estoria’s work has reached many through custom spoken word pieces, workshops, and themed keynote talks with companies such as Google, Sofar Sounds, Lululemon, Dressember, Tedx, the SKIMS campaign by Kim Kardashian, and more. As a creative, she believes that we should have the ‘freedom to use the voices we have been given to speak life and spread light.’ The poems undoubtedly achieve this in ‘The Unfolding’.
‘Village’ by LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs brings in an undeniable capacity for multiplicity in ‘Village’. The collection is part poetry book, part Soundscape and entirely observant. The book uses dark humor coupled with inventive formal decisions to reshape ideas about trauma across generations. Diggs is unstoppable in ‘Village’, tearing down monuments unworthy of praise and attention, lifting up the hidden stories and labors to get to the root of memory, and grief too. The poems traipse through corners in Harlem through North Carolina to honor several lineages.
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs is the author of ‘TwERK’ (Belladonna, 2013). Diggs has presented and performed at California Institute of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, The Museum of Modern Art, and Walker Art Center and more.
Which poetry collections are you itching to read, preferably in one sitting?
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