The National Book Awards’s longlist for poetry was announced this morning, and as in years past, it’s an impressive roundup of some of the nation’s most vital and thought-provoking poets. Kudos to the many independent and university presses represented in this year’s list:
Among the poets receiving a nomination is Mai Der Vang for her brilliant, award-winning debut collection, Afterland. In our interview with the poet this past May, she explained the meaning of the title:
The afterland, in its obvious sense refers to the place after death, but it also embodies the after-place or after-country of the refugee.
Here’s the full list:
Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016
By Frank Bidart
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities
By Chen Chen
BOA Editions, Ltd.
The Book of Endings
By Leslie Harrison
University of Akron Press
Magdalene: Poems
By Marie Howe
W. W. Norton & Company
Where Now: New and Selected Poems
By Laura Kasischke
Copper Canyon Press
WHEREAS
Layli Long Soldier
Graywolf Press
In the Language of My Captor
Shane McCrae
Wesleyan University Press
Square Inch Hours
Sherod Santos
W. W. Norton & Company
Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems
Danez Smith
Graywolf Press
Afterland
Mai Der Vang
Graywolf Press
You can read more about the nominees over at the National Book Foundation’s website. Remember to begin requesting titles from your local bookstores and libraries today! They won’t stay in stock long.
