Well, it’s been a remarkable year for poetry and the Poetry School. So remarkable, in fact, that we haven’t had time to do full justice to our annual best-of-the-year list.
Worry not: we’ve managed to scrabble together enough time not spent in poetic reverie or arguing over kerning to recommend fifty-two of the year’s finest poetry books, one for every week of the year. Now, with so many fantastic collections being released in 2019 – ranging from exciting debuts, work from innovative new publishers, and loads of stonking new publications from seasoned favourites and stalwarts – we can only ever offer a mere morsel of what’s out there, and we hope that you use this guide to stray further into the wilds of UK’s incredibly diverse and exciting independent poetry publishing-scape.
As ever, the books are in no particular order. Although it is worth noting, when drawing up the list two titles were recommended three times or more: Surge by Jay Bernard, and Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky. As for personal favourites: get on to The Problem of the Many by Timothy Donnelly like your very life depends on it (or wait until Picador publish it next year).
Have a jolly good Christmas and a marvellous 2020!
The Protection of Ghosts by Natalie Linh Bolderston (V. Press)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/ghosts.jpg)
The Unquiet by L. Kiew (Offord Road Books)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/unquiet-1.jpg)
Dodo Provocateur by Anita Pati (Rialto)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/Rialto-Pamphlet-Anita-Pati-Dodo-Provocateur-759x1024.jpg)
Oculus by Sally Wen Mao (Graywolf Press)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/40121999.jpg)
Hard Damage by Aria Aber (University of Nebraska Press)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/44294949-683x1024.jpg)
Whereas by Layli Long Soldier (Picador)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/original_400_600.jpg)
Surge by Jay Bernard (Chatto & Windus)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/9781784742614-641x1024.jpg)
States of the Body Produced by Love by Nisha Ramayya (Ignota)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/9781999675943.jpg)
Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky (Faber)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/29719.books_.origjpg-667x1024.jpg)
Naturally It Is Not by Callie Gardner (The 87 Press)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/9781916477421.jpg)
Flèche by Mary Jean Chan (Faber)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/42268695._SY475_.jpg)
1919 by Eve L. Ewing (Haymarket)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/1919_cover_drafts_15_2-9ed4f9af32099ed4a27f39d00b8c84f2-1024x1022.jpg)
If All the World and Love Were Young by Stephen Sexton (Penguin)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/61jVfOHvxHL-667x1024.jpg)
The Million-Petalled Flower of Being Here by Vidyan Ravinthiran (Bloodaxe)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/5ba5515138dff-655x1024.jpg)
The Black Place by Tamar Yoseloff (Seren)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/The-Black-Place-cover-683x1024.jpg)
The Problem of the Many by Timothy Donnelly (Wave)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/The_Problem_of_the_Many_cover_FOR_WEB_grande.jpg)
A Sand Book by Ariana Reines (Tin House)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/A-Sand-Book-Cover-RGB-800x1233-1-664x1024.jpg)
Enemy Luck by Nicholas Laughlin (Peepal Tree)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/Enemy-Luck-cover-image.jpg)
The Tradition by Jericho Brown (Picador)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/original_400_600-1.jpg)
A Cézanne Haibun by Maitreyabandhu (Smith|Doorstop)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/Maitreyabandhu_Web_Cover__copy_grande.png)
Significant Other by Isabel Galleymore (Carcanet)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/31yoJke6qwL._AC_SY400_ML2_.jpg)
The Caiplie Caves by Karen Solie (Picador)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/original_400_600-2.jpg)
The Feeling Sonnets by Eugene Ostashevsky (clinic)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/feelingsonnets.jpg)
Dear, Beloved by Sumita Chakraborty (Verve)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/Sumita-SQ-954x1024.png)
Vertigo & Ghost by Fiona Benson (Cape)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/71S5I7bb-aL-679x1024.jpg)
Try To Be Better ed. Sam Buchan-Watts & Lavinia Singer (Prototype)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/download.jpg)
Kingdomland by Rachael Allen (Faber)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/61Mjp4Q1ypL._AC_UL600_SR390600_.jpg)
Afterwardness by Mimi Khalvati (Carcanet)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/91kboYHwxgL-640x1024.jpg)
After the Formalities by Anthony Anaxagorou (Penned in the Margins)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/aftertheformalities_frontcover-651x1024.jpg)
WITCH by Rebecca Tamás (Penned in the Margins)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/witch_frontcover-657x1024.jpg)
Hello by Crispin Best (Partus Press)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/best_grande.png)
Lantern by Seán Hewitt (Offord Road Books)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/41prIYGyqlL_grande.jpg)
A Very Short Introduction to Ghosts by Timothy Thornton (Face Press)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/45276905._SX318_.jpg)
Magical Negro by Morgan Parker (Tin House)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/Magical-Negro-Cover-RGB-800x1236-1-663x1024.jpg)
While I Yet Live by Gboyega Odubanjo (Bad Betty Press)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/GO_RGB-1-664x1024.jpg)
A Fortune For Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib (Tin House)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/A-Fortune-for-Your-Disaster-Cover-RGB-800x960-1.jpg)
In Search Of Equilibrium by Theresa Lola (Nine Arches Press)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/In-Search-of-Equilibrium-Cover-WEB.jpg)
We that Wither Beneath by Thembe Mvula
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/New-Cover-ph-724x1024.jpg)
A Warning To The House That Holds Me by Amina Jama (Flipped Eye)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/ELBH4VsWkAAYIlI-681x1024.jpg)
Sissy by Ben Borek (Boiler House)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/download-1.jpg)
In Nearby Bushes by Kei Miller (Carcanet)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/71yDi0hEfCL.jpg)
No Matter by Jana Prikryl (Tim Duggan Books)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/91qGb9PRPbL-683x1024.jpg)
Paid in Lilies by Elias Knorr (Partus Press)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/D3ZWYiVWAAAE1LF-1024x657.jpg)
Dear Big Gods by Mona Arshi (Liverpool University)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/9781786942159.png)
Plainspeak by Astrid Alben (Prototype)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/Plainspeak_Astrid-Alben_frontcover-e1572860197396-775x1024.jpg)
Nobody by Alice Oswald (Cape)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/9781787331969-677x1024.jpg)
Erato by Deryn Rees-Jones (Seren)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/D8JV7i7XoAEHU9Q-1024x1024.jpg)
Germ Songs by Will Burns & Jess White (Rough Trade)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/Screenshot-2019-03-07-at-08.55.02.png)
Sweet, Like Rinky Dink by Mark Waldron (Bloodaxe)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/5ba4c33f2b42f-655x1024.jpg)
The Last Verses of Beccán by Rowan Evans (Guillemot Press)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/Cover-769x1024.jpg)
Noctuary by Niall Campbell (Bloodaxe)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/5b9eac3259dcb-655x1024.jpg)
The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem edited by Jeremy Noel-Tod (Penguin)
![](https://poetryschool.com/assets/uploads/2019/12/image.jpg)
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