The first half of LGBTQ History Month is also the second half of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which makes the arrival of the groundbreaking anthology “Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology” (The Library of America, 2024) even more meaningful.
Not only is the expansive and essential compilation edited by gay poet and educator Rigoberto Gonzalez, but it also features a vast and impressive array of LGBTQ poets including Richard Blanco, Natalie Diaz, Dan Vera, Francisco Aragón, Blas Falconer, Gloria Anzaldúa, Jaime Manrique, Eduardo C. Corral, Miguel Piñero, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Rafael Campo, Emanuel Xavier, Oliver Baez Bendorf, Rane Arroyo, and Christopher Soto.
“Old Stranger: Poems” (Alice James Books, 2024), is the sixth poetry collection, and the first in 10 years by award-winning lesbian poet Joan Larkin. Separated into four sections, these poems, which include a series of ekphrastic pieces, feel like reflections of a life lived from the perspective of a wise and worldly octogenarian.
“Woke Up No Light” (Knopf, 2024), the debut poetry collection by Leila Mottley, a Lambda Literary Award finalist and former Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland, California, is as raw and visceral as the times in which we find ourselves. Illuminated by poems about reparations, the death of Elijah McClain, celebrities, the journey from girlhood to womanhood, sexuality, and much more. The collection even includes the wonderful “After Want by Joan Larkin,” reinforcing the previously mentioned poet’s far-reaching influence.
In his book-length elegy “Impossible Things” (Duke University Press, 2024), trans poet Miller Oberman explores “intergenerational grief,” from the perspectives of being a trans child and a father, incorporating his late father’s unpublished memoir. The result is a deeply personal examination of the impacts of family and loss.
“Letters to Forget: Poems” (Knopf, 2024) by the late trans poet Kelly Caldwell and “Your Dazzling Death: Poems” (Knopf, 2024) by queer, non-binary poet Cass Donish, Caldwell’s widow, are companion pieces. The child of Christian missionaries, Caldwell’s life was full of personal struggles, a recurring theme in her poetry. Donish’s book of poetry, their third, was written following Caldwell’s suicide at age 31 in March 2020, resulting in a shattering reading experience.
“The Pinko Commie Dyke” (Indolent Books, 2024) by Julie R. Enszer, with illustrations by Isabel Clare Paul, is subtitled “Poems From a Leftist Lesbian Cabal.” Each of the 36 poems includes the collection’s title, followed by a verb, as in the case of “The Pinko Commie Dyke Infiltrates,” “The Pinko Commie Dyke Demonstrates,” “The Pinko Commie Dyke Cultivates,” “The Pinko Commie Dyke Ejaculates,” “The Pinko Commie Dyke Hijacks,” and so on.
While not queer herself, celebrated novelist and poet Margaret Atwood has included LGBTQ characters in her work, most notably in 2003’s “Oryx and Crake.” However, years before her 1969 debut novel, and her award-winning 1987 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” helped make her a household name, Atwood was a published poet, beginning with 1961’s “Double Persephone.” Three poems from that book, as well as poems from nearly a dozen more collections, and a multitude of uncollected poems, have been gathered under one cover in “Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems, 1961-2023” (Knopf, 2024).
