April is National Poetry Month, and literary journals everywhere are releasing their must-read poetry lists for the occasion. Just this week, Craig Morgan Teicher's The Trembling Answers and Chen Chen's When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities made Literary Hub's list of "13 New Poetry Collections to Read During National Poetry Month." When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities also made Bustle's list of "15 New Poetry Collections to Read During National Poetry Month." 

Of The Trembling Answers, Literary Hub says, "Teicher’s poems are largely confessional and autobiographical, and The Trembling Answers is no exception; this particular volume deals with explorations of family and fatherhood, and the role his poetry plays across each. One of Teicher’s great strengths is his honesty. He frequently reveals his flaws and mistakes to the reader, laying bare intimate details about his wife, his son, and his marriage to illustrate his humanity. His writing is full of lists and repetition, as if Teicher is searching for answers in real-time. Each poem is meaty and sprawling, providing plenty of space for interpretation and re-interpretation."

Of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, Literary Hub says, "Chen Chen’s work is versatile, skillfully adapting to different forms and functions; on one page, there will be a traditional poem, lines grouped together in rhythmic couplets. On another, lines run together into paragraphs, blurring the difference between poetry and prose. Chen Chen’s poems are odes and elegies, considerations of everyday life. In When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, Chen Chen muses his way through the idea of inheritance (specifically, what it means to inherit things like love and family), a concept that is central to his identity as a queer Chinese-American immigrant. American Book Award winner Jericho Brown gave When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities his seal of approval in his introduction to the book."

And according to Bustle, "Another title out in time to make your National Poetry Month TBR pile, debut poet Chen Chen’s When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities has, in addition to a killer book title, a beautiful and complex story of identity to share. The collection tells describes a mother/son relationship from the perspective of an Asian American immigrant, queer son, and explores the complicated grief and love of familial bonds."

Click here to see the full Literary Hub list of books to read month, and click here to see Bustle's list.

For more information on The Trembling Answers and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, visit the BOA Bookstore.

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