The National Book Award for Poetry (2024)

"In the face of displacement, grief, and the ongoing horrors of war, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha scrutinizes language and the obfuscation of Palestinian history, both in Palestine and across the diaspora. Part elegy for a people and a country, Something About Living probes the borders of politics, speech, and culture, to preserve brief moments of joy in defiance of continued violence."

"Anne Carson’s latest collection considers Roget’s Thesaurus, her father, Guantánamo, water, and many more deceptively disconnected topics that, as the collection’s title suggests, might seem “wrong.” The 25 prose poems in Wrong Norma, interspersed with images hand-drawn by Carson, features glimpses at the inner workings—and often disjointed nature—of the human mind."

"Fady Joudah’s collection of poems is a rumination on the unspeakable atrocities of war; the present and ongoing erasure of Palestinian people, history, and culture; and a dedication to a people’s everyday desires and humanity. The collection’s title—[...], ellipsis in brackets—doubles as a space for mourning, and an urgent reminder for all of us to pay attention to the harms of passive voice and the need for a future voice for the stories of Palestinian people."

"Through poetry and prose, m.s. RedCherries’s debut collection tells the story of an Indigenous child adopted by a non-Native family and her journey, as an adult, to return to her tribe. Blending real and imagined histories and community lore, mother presents a poignant exploration of Indigenous identity, the relationship between daughters and mothers, and the universal desire to find a way home."

"Borrowing its title from the first poetry course she took as a college student, Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss examines contemporary poetry with irreverence and love—interrogating which voices are enshrined in textbooks, anthologies, and publishing, as well as those left out. Modern Poetry and its author claim poetry, for all of its limitations, as essential—to poets and to readers."

"Through dreamlike poems, Rowan Ricardo Phillips is determined to uncover the musicality and “the meaningfulness of this mystery we call life.” Phillips’ fourth collection, Silver, acknowledges the very worst of the years following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd’s murder, while daring readers to imagine again, with poetry as a guide."

"Spanning 400 years of history, Elizabeth Willis investigates Mormonism—the religion she was born into—and its influence on domestic labor, economics, and family dynamics. Interweaving research material—including the multilayered voices of Willis’s own family members—Liontaming in America juxtaposes performance and the long tradition of lion taming with the United States’ continuous settler colonial project."

"In her newest poetry collection, Dorianne Laux tenderly examines the quotidian—a shovel and rake, Bisquick, salt, and even a can of WD-40—alongside motherhood, aging, and loss. Life on Earth reflects on the many delights and heartbreaks of life, compels us to embrace the abundant beauty of the natural world, and, perhaps most importantly, invites us to consider that even the most ordinary aspects of our messy humanity can be worthy of poetry."

"Gregory Pardlo traces the ways in which American society has historically regarded Black people as threats and how these panic-driven perceptions influence the ongoing criminalization and persecution of Black bodies. Beginning with Tituba, the only enslaved Black woman to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials, Spectral Evidence grapples with objectification, femininity, beauty, and the painful truths that dictate how Blackness and womanhood have been viewed throughout history and into the present day."

"The Book of Wounded Sparrows reflects on all that can be lost—a sense of identity, culture, language, and even history—in pursuit of the American Dream. Traversing the borders of visual art and text and shifting between English and Spanish, Octavio Quintanilla makes a history of dislocation physical, and transforms it into a source of creativity."