Books Selected from the Reading Period: the Big Reveal!

This year’s reading period buoyed the editors with an embarrassment of riches, and an exciting year of planning and production lies ahead. The new (and returning) authors will be:

Jennifer Barber: The Sliding Boat Our Bodies Made
Andrea Carter Brown: September 12
Grace Cavalieri: New & Selected Poems
Chloe Martinez: Ten Thousand Selves
Anatoly Molotkov: Future Symptoms
Roger Smith: Radiation Machine Gun Funk
Cheryl Clark Vermeulen: They Can Take It Out

Over the next 18 months, these books will find their cover art, unite with the perfect fonts, scheme for reviews and audience, get their feet in the door at the nation’s many fantastic reading series, and become that magic thing: a poetry book in the hand. Stay tuned for more detailed announcements about these wonderful authors, their books, and the timeline for each.

To all the marvelous writers who entrusted us with their work this year, oh, how we wish we had a bigger staff and a bigger budget! We can offer you this thought, however: several of the books listed above were on their second, third, or even fourth submission to The Word Works. Our eyes and minds are continually evolving on the editorial board, and as poets, we’re always tinkering with our manuscripts. So you never know…