14 Poetry Books You Should Add To Your 2020 Reading List

In her newest collection, best-selling author Trista Mateer weaves a common thread through the past and present by retelling the story of Aphrodite in the form of modern poetry and powerful artwork. This a book about love, loss, war, and healing.

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In this poetry collection, Smith explores being a black queer person through words, music, and religious and non-religious experience.

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This book by Noor Unnahar, a young female poet from Pakistan, is a moving account of breaking down and rebuilding yourself through teenage and adulthood. Her poems revolve around love, loss, belonging, and the catharsis of finding your voice.

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Titled after the poem that broke Tumblr and has since inspired wedding vows, songs, and paintings, Mouthful Of Forevers is a collection of poems about the uncertainties and beauties of life that speak to an entire generation of young adults.

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In this book, Amanda Lovelace explores the complicated memory of her relationship with her now-deceased mother – "You cannot have a funeral for your mother without also having a funeral for yourself."

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The book is a collection of poems written over five years in various different cities – all bound by the themes of loss, belonging, and coming to terms with change.

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This book tells the story of a young immigrant mother escaping years of trauma and living undocumented while raising her daughter in North America. It deals with identity through the lens of culture, feminism, and stigma.

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In Peluda (hairy beast), spoken word poet Melissa Lozada-Oliva untangles the relationship between body hair and femininity through the intersectional lens of family, class, and her Latina identity.

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This book is a celebration of girlhood through the exploration of sexuality, trauma, body image, and acceptance.

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A Button Poetry favourite, Sabrina Benaim's Explaining My Depression To My Mother has garnered 8 million views since it was posted in 2014. In her debut poetry collection, she digs deep into topics like mental health, love, and family.

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Another Button Poetry gem, Neil Hilborn's poem OCD took the internet by storm with over 14 million views. In this book, Hilborn talks of heartbreak, nostalgia, and mental health. He reminds readers that we all eventually drift back together.

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Warsan Shire's Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth heralded the revival of modern poetry as we know it. With homage to her family's refugee experience, her work immerses readers in gut-wrenching images of war and survival.

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Ocean Vuyong's award-winning poetry collection digs deep into family memory to traverse the plains of war, love, and change.

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In this book, spoken word poet Olivia Gatwood questions the real and the imagined in a world that romanticises violence against women. Her work is fun and rebellious and scared and real.

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