29 Best Women Authors, Poetry Books

“Chwile zamyslenia” – Beata Pozniak, aktorka – tuz przed niespodziewana smiercia krewniaczki, Barbary Bukowskiej, otrzymuje wiersze napisane przez nia. Barbara “pisala tylko tak dla siebie”. Wiersze sa osobiste, rodzinne – autorka przeprowadza rozmowe ze swoja podswiadomoscia, z nadprzyrodzona sila, z Bogiem. Pozniak piszac Wstep do tomiku “Chwile zamyslenia”(ebook i paperback) i czytajac wiersze Bukowskiej (audiobook), przypomina nam wszystkim, zeby sie nie poddawac, czas doceniac, i…. jak autorka stwierdza, zeby “dobry slad pozostawic po sobie na ziemi”. A znow Andriej Siniawski utrzymuje, ze ,,Czlowiek rodzi sie w jednym egzemplarzu i kiedy ginie, nikt go nie moze zastapic.” Zatem kazdy z nas ma potencjal w sobie i cos do ofiarowania z siebie innym. Nalezy tylko znalezc to i dalej przekazywac maluczkim mieszkancom planety Ziemi.

The 115th volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, What Noise Against the Cane is a lyric quest for belonging and freedom, weaving political resistance, Caribbean folklore, immigration, and the realities of Black life in America. Desiree C. Bailey begins by reworking the epic in an oceanic narrative of bondage and liberation in the midst of the Haitian Revolution. The poems move into the contemporary Black diaspora, probing the mythologies of home, belief, nation, and womanhood. Series judge Carl Phillips observes that Bailey’s “poems argue for hope and faith equally… These are powerful poems, indeed, and they make a persuasive argument for the transformative powers of steady defiance.”

Najwa Zebian: The Collected Poems is an audio collection of Zebian’s bestselling poetry, including the full text of Mind Platter, The Nectar of Pain, and Sparks of Phoenix. This bundled audiobook allows readers to access all of Zebian’s moving work in one place, in the author’s own voice.

Crossfire collects Staceyann Chin’s empowering, feminist-LGBTQ-Caribbean, activist-driven poetry for the first time in a single book.

According to The New York Times, Chin is “sassy, rageful and sometimes softly self-mocking.” The Advocate says that her poems “combine hilarious one-liners with a refusal to conform” and note “Chin is out to confront more than just the straight world.”

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Kind of Woman returns with a collection of erasure poems created from notes she received from followers, supporters and detractors–an artform that reclaims the vitriol from online trolls and inspires readers to transform what is ugly or painful in their own lives into something beautiful.

“I’m sure you could benefit from jumping on a treadmill”

“Women WANT a male leader . . . It’s honest to god the basic human playbook”

These are some of the thousands of messages that Kate Baer has received online. Like countless other writers–particularly women–with profiles on the internet, as Kate’s online presence grew, so did the darker messages crowding her inbox. These missives from strangers have ranged from “advice” and opinions to outright harassment.

At first, these messages resulted in an immediate delete and block. Until, on a whim, Kate decided to transform the cruelty into art, using it to create fresh and intriguing poems. These pieces, along with ones made from notes of gratitude and love, as well as from the words of public figures, have become some of her most beloved work.

I Hope This Finds You Well is drawn from those works: a book of poetry birthed in the darkness of the internet that offers light and hope. By cleverly building on the harsh negativity and hate women often receive–and combining it with heartwarming messages of support, gratitude, and connection, Kate Baer offers us a lesson in empowerment, showing how we too can turn bitterness into beauty.

From the British viral poet Della Hicks-Wilson comes an empowering and lyrical collection of short, interconnected poems about the heart, letting go, and a healing love, that readers can carry and quote for a lifetime.
Small Cures is at once a compelling reminder to anyone struggling with heartbreak, mental health, or trauma, that they are not alone, an inspirational manual on how to survive, and a stirring call to arms for self-love. This unique volume brings together 150 poems into one seamless narrative based on the different stages of an “illness” – diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Through words that are as breathtakingly sparse and raw, as they are honest and memorable, Hicks-Wilson’s soothing and soulful voice serves as the gentle guide to self-healing we all need.

‘darling,
you feel heavy
because you are
too full of truth.

open your mouth more.
let the truth exist
somewhere other than
inside your body.’

Rupi Kaur performs the first-ever recording of the sun and her flowers, her second #1 New York Times bestselling collection of poetry and prose. This production was recorded in 2021 along with the brand-new audio edition of milk and honey and the debut audio recording of home body.

Divided into five chapters, this volume is a journey through the life cycle of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. It is a celebration of love in all its forms.

Following the success of her breakout poem, “B,”Sarah Kay releases her debut collection of poetry featuring work from the first decade of her career. No Matter the Wreckage presents listeners with new and beloved poetry that showcases Kay’s talent for celebrating family, love, travel, and unlikely romance between inanimate objects (“The Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire”). Both fresh and wise, Kay’s poetry allows listeners to join her on the journey of discovering herself and the world around her. It is an honest and powerful collection.

One of America’s most celebrated poets challenges us with this powerful and deeply personal collection of verse that speaks to the injustices of society while illuminating the depths of her own heart.

For more than fifty years, Nikki Giovanni’s poetry has dazzled and inspired readers. As sharp and outspoken as ever, she returns with this profound book of poetry in which she continues to call attention to injustice and racism, celebrate Black culture and Black lives, and and give readers an unfiltered look into her own experiences.

In Make Me Rain, she celebrates her loved ones and unapologetically declares her pride in her Black heritage, while exploring the enduring impact of the twin sins of racism and white nationalism. Giovanni reaffirms her place as a uniquely vibrant and relevant American voice with poems such as “I Come from Athletes” and “Rainy Days”–calling out segregation and Donald Trump; as well as “Unloved (for Aunt Cleota)” and “”When I Could No Longer”–her personal elegy for the relatives who saved her from an abusive home life.

Stirring, provocative, and resonant, the poems in Make Me Rain pierce the heart and nourish the soul.

ALL THREE VOLUMES OF AMANDA LOVELACE’S POETRY IN ONE AUDIO COLLECTION–READ BY THE AUTHOR AND GUEST CONTRIBUTORS!

Goodreads Choice Award-winning poet and USA TODAY bestselling author Amanda Lovelace’s “women are some kind of magic” series is now available in one amazing audio collection!

the princess saves herself in this one:

Winner of the 2016 Goodreads Choice Award, the princess saves herself in this one is a collection of poetry about resilience. It is about writing your own ending.

This poetry collection is told in four parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, and you. The first three sections piece together the life of the author while the final section serves as a note to the listener. This moving book explores love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, and inspiration.

the witch doesn’t burn in this one:

The witch: supernaturally powerful, inscrutably independent, and now–indestructible. These moving, relatable poems encourage resilience and embolden women to take control of their own stories. Enemies try to judge, oppress, and marginalize her, but the witch doesn’t burn in this one.

the mermaid’s voice returns in this one:

The third and final installment in the “women are some kind of magic” series, features a foreword from Lang Leav and 13 guest poems from leading voices in poetry such as Nikita Gill, KY Robinson, and Orion Carloto.

The mermaid is known for her siren song, luring bedroom-eyed sailors to their demise. However, beneath these misguided myths are tales of escapism and healing, which Lovelace weaves throughout this empowering collection of poetry, taking you on a journey from the sea to the stars. They tried to silence her once and for all, but the mermaid’s voice returns in this one.

*The guest poems in the mermaid’s voice returns in this one are narrated by Janina Edwards, Soneela Nankani, and Emily Woo Zeller.

Readers have called her work “life changing,” “pandemic medicine,” and “part of my daily ritual.” Oprah Magazine and the Today Show have featured her work for its timely, uplifting wisdom. Now, Self Love Philosopher Melody Godfred shares her first poetry book, Self Love Poetry: For Thinkers & Feelers, a collection of 200 thought-provoking and heart-opening self love poems.
In Self Love Poetry, Godfred explores concepts like authenticity, surrender, resilience, gratitude, believing in yourself, and of course, love, through 100 pairs of poems, each dedicated to a central theme. The first poem in each pair is a “thinker” poem that lights up the analytical, more literal, left side of the brain, and the second poem is a companion “feeler” poem that speaks to the creative, more emotional right side of the brain. Combined, the poems electrify the mind, body and soul through a completely unique poetry experience that inspires each of us to embrace all parts of ourselves. This empowering poetry book will not only engage you to think and feel, but will make you feel seen, show you how to love yourself, and encourage you to seek out the hope and beauty in the world … and in yourself. It’s the perfect gift for yourself or someone you love, especially after a most difficult year.

Audiobook highlights:

• Narration by author Melody Godfred, a speaker known for her warm, soothing voice and thought leadership in the self love space
• Five meditations set to emotional music with poem selections touching on Self Love, Self Care, Worth, Hope, and Authenticity

From Self Love Philosopher Melody Godfred comes an audio experience embodying her collected poetry works – highly acclaimed Self Love Poetry: for Thinkers & Feelers, and its follow up, The Shift: Poetry for a New Perspective.
In Self Love Poetry, Melody introduces her signature style of dual poetry, with each pair of poems speaking to left brain thinkers and right brain feelers, and takes listeners on a self-love journey that activates not just the left and right brain, but the heart, body, and soul. In The Shift, Godfred again uses a dual style, this time using her poetry pairs to reframe how listeners move through a brave, new, post-pandemic world. Covering themes including authenticity, surrender, gratitude, and love, this unique poetry collection provides an uplifting salve for our collective burnout and inspires a hopeful outlook despite the overwhelming uncertainty of these times.

Audiobook highlights:

• Narration by author Melody Godfred, a speaker known for her warm, soothing voice and thought leadership in the self love space
• Five meditations set to emotional music with poem selections touching on Self Love, Self Care, Worth, Hope, and Authenticity
• An interview with Melody that shares her road to becoming the poet known as the Self Love Philosopher
• A PDF copy of The Shift that provides access to the line drawings that accompany Melody’s poems

The debut US poetry collection from social media star Elvira Sastre, exploring the sharp, slippery moments that turn a beloved relationship into something self-destructive.

Counting the days that pass after a devastating breakup, Elvira Sastre confronts the haunting questions that surround every failed relationship: What happened? Where did it all go wrong? How did it all fall apart? With a bold, lyrical voice poised on the knife’s edge of romance and grief, Sastre evokes the heady rush of first love and the sorrow of its painful end–even as she learns to pick up the pieces and move on after the worst has happened.

At once deeply personal and universally resonant, painful and resoundingly hopeful, One Day I Will Save Myself speaks to the poet in all of us. An intimate journey through loving, losing, and living that inspires readers to begin their own healing and is perfect for fans of Rupi Kaur, r.h. Sin, and Atticus.

The second full length poetry collection from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Kind of Woman.

Kate Baer shot into the literary stratosphere with the publication of her debut poetry collection, What Kind of Woman, which became an instant #1 New York Times bestseller.

Kate’s second full-length book of traditional poetry, And Yet, dives deeper into the themes that are the hallmarks of her writing: motherhood, friendship, love, and loss. Taken together, these poems demonstrate the remarkable evolution of a writer working at the height of her craft, pushing herself and her poetry in a beautiful and impressive way.

Intimate, evocative, and bold, Kate’s beguiling poetry firmly positions her in the company of Dorianne Laux, Mary Oliver, Maggie Nelson, and other great female poets of our time.

An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

A Goop Book Club Pick

“If you want your breath to catch and your heart to stop, turn to Kate Baer.”–Joanna Goddard, Cup of Jo

A stunning and honest debut poetry collection about the beauty and hardships of being a woman in the world today, and the many roles we play – mother, partner, and friend.

“When life throws you a bag of sorrow, hold out your hands/Little by little, mountains are climbed.” So ends Kate Baer’s remarkable poem “Things My Girlfriends Teach Me.” In “Nothing Tastes as Good as Skinny Feels” she challenges her reader to consider their grandmother’s cake, the taste of the sea, the cool swill of freedom. In her poem “Deliverance” about her son’s birth she writes “What is the word for when the light leaves the body?/What is the word for when it/at last, returns?”

Through poems that are as unforgettably beautiful as they are accessible, Kate Bear proves herself to truly be an exemplary voice in modern poetry. Her words make women feel seen in their own bodies, in their own marriages, and in their own lives. Her poems are those you share with your mother, your daughter, your sister, and your friends.

As the phoenix emerges from its ashes, Zebian emerges ablaze in these pages, not only as a survivor of abuse, but as a teacher and healer for all those who have struggled to understand, reclaim, and rise above a history of pain. The book is divided into six chapters, and six stages of healing: Falling, Burning to Ashes, Sparks of Phoenix, Rising, Soaring, and finally, A New Chapter, which demonstrates a healthy response to new love as the result of authentic healing. With her characteristic vulnerability, courage, and softness, Zebian seeks to empower those who have been made to feel ashamed, silenced, or afraid; she urges them, through gentle advice and personal revelation, to raise their voices, rise up, and soar.

Rupi Kaur performs the first-ever recording of home body, her third #1 New York Times bestselling collection of poetry and prose. This production was performed and recorded in 2021 along with the brand-new audio edition of milk and honey and the first audio recording of her second collection, the sun and her flowers.

Kaur constantly embraces growth, and in home body, she walks listeners through a reflective and intimate journey visiting the past, the present, and the potential of the self. home body is a collection of raw, honest conversations with oneself–reminding listeners to fill up on love, acceptance, community, family, and embrace change. Themes of nature and nurture, light and dark, rest here.

i dive into the well of my body
and end up in another world
everything i need
already exists in me
there’s no need
to look anywhere else

-home

Following the success of her breakout poem, “B,” Sarah Kay releases the LIVE recording of her debut collection of poetry featuring work from the first decade of her career. This live recording of Sarah Kay’s reading of No Matter the Wreckage, at The Wild Project in NYC, presents listeners with the new and beloved poetry that showcases Kay’s talent for celebrating family, love, travel, and the unlikely romance between inanimate objects (“The Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire”). Both fresh and wise, Kay’s poetry allows listeners to join her on the journey of discovering herself and the world around her. It is an honest and powerful collection.

“A rare feat for any book of poems, let alone a debut, in that the lines, wrought with such deft precision and care, mark the sum total of a life richly lived and felt at the seat of poetry…These poems care, first and foremost, for what they write of and through, which is a much needed–yet increasingly rare–achievement.” — Ocean Vuong

Engaging the matriarchal structure of the beehive, Amanda Moore explores the various roles a woman plays in the family, the home, and the world at large. Beyond the productivity and excess, the sweetness and sting, Requeening brings together poems of motherhood and daughterhood, an evolving relationship of care and tending, responsibility and joy, dependence and deep love.

The poems that anchor this collection don’t shy away from the inevitability of a hive’s collapse and consider the succession of “requeening” a hive as “a new heart ready to be fed and broken and fed again.” The collapse is both physical–there are poems of illness and recovery–and emotional, as the mother-daughter relationship shifts, the daughter becoming separate, whole, and poised to displace. The liminal spaces these poems traverse in human relationships is echoed in a range of poetic and hybrid form, offering freedom and stricture as they contemplate the way we hold one another in love and grief.

Requeening is a vivid and surprising collection of poems from a winner of the National Poetry Series Open Competition.

From beloved Malawian storyteller Upile Chisala comes the revised and expanded edition of her second collection of poetry.
In nectar, Chisala guides readers through a beautiful process of growth and renewal. These poems celebrate our always complex, sometimes troubled roots while encouraging us to grow through and beyond them toward a passionate self-love. Chisala’s hope is that her words will encourage readers to sow seeds of change in their own lives and the lives of others.

TikTok poet Shelby Leigh presents a moving and inspirational collection of poetry about growing up and embracing all the beauty life has to offer. The perfect gift for fans of Rupi Kaur, Connor Franta, and Cleo Wade.

Shelby Leigh breaks up her poignant and reflective poetry collection into two themes: the anchor and the sail. While the anchor explores issues of insecurity, heartbreak, and anxiety, the sail focuses on healing and hope after the storm.

With an emphasis on self-empowerment, changing with the tides is an evocative and celebratory set of poems for anyone who dreams of following their heart and embracing their true self.

A debut collection exploring the experience of first love and heartbreak through poetry, from actress and artist Bella Mayo.

My Greenhouse is a collection of poems inspired by the author’s first romance, beginning with the seeds of infatuation, blooming for a time into real love, and then eventually dying back, making room for new growth. The pieces evoke the feelings of enchantment, uncertainty, pain, and ultimately healing that come with your first love and heartbreak.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2021 BY NPR

“To read Maggie Smith is to embrace the achingly precious beauty of the present moment.” —Time
“A captivating collection from a wise, accessible poet.” —People

From the award-winning poet and bestselling author of Keep Moving and Good Bones, a stunning poetry collection that celebrates the beauty and messiness of life.

With her breakout bestseller Keep Moving, Maggie Smith captured the nation with her “meditations on kindness and hope” (NPR). Now, with Goldenrod, the award-winning poet returns with a powerful collection of poems that look at parenthood, solitude, love, and memory. Pulling objects from everyday life–a hallway mirror, a rock found in her son’s pocket, a field of goldenrods at the side of the road–she reveals the magic of the present moment. Only Maggie Smith could turn an autocorrect mistake into a line of poetry, musing that her phone “doesn’t observe / the high holidays, autocorrecting / shana tova to shaman tobacco, / Rosh Hashanah to rose has hands.”

Slate called Smith’s “superpower as a writer” her “ability to find the perfect concrete metaphor for inchoate human emotions and explore it with empathy and honesty.” The poems in Goldenrod celebrate the contours of daily life, explore and delight in the space between thought and experience, and remind us that we decide what is beautiful.

A collection of poetry from the 2019 winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Rosanna Warren

In her remarkable and assured debut, Alexandria Hall explores the boundaries and limits of language, place, and the self, as well as the complicated space between safety and danger, intimacy and isolation, playfulness and seriousness, home and away. With a keen eye for the importance of place, Hall shows us daily life in rural Vermont, illuminating the beauty and difficulty inherent in the dichotomies of human language and experience.

Incisive and tender, Field Music is a thoughtful and alert collection from a major emerging voice.

From a poet and celebrated spoken-word performer comes a debut poetry collection that takes readers on an empowering, lyrical journey exploring truth, silence, wounds, healing, and the resilience we all share.
Dear Girl is a journey from girlhood to womanhood through poetry
It is the search for truth in silence
The freeing of the tongue
It is deep wounds and deep healing
And the resilience that lies within us
It is a love letter
To the sisterhood

The Rose That Blooms in the Night is a collection of poems from spoken word poet, yoga instructor, podcaster, and Instagram influencer Allie Michelle. The collection is meant to be a mirror reflecting the love inside of those who read it. It tells the tale of transformational cycles we experience throughout our lives. Falling in and out of love. Feeling lost and rediscovering our purpose. Learning to create a home within our own skin instead of seeking it in other people and places.

Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry

Alice Walker, author of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Color Purple–“an American novel of permanent importance” (San Francisco Chronicle)–reads the English-language editions of the poems in her new bi-lingual collection, a collection that is both playfully imaginative and intensely moving.

Alice Walker shares a timely volume of nearly seventy works of passionate and powerful poetry that bears witness to our troubled times, while also chronicling a life well-lived. From poems of painful self-inquiry, to celebrating the simple beauty of baking frittatas, Walker offers us a window into her magical, at times difficult, and liberating world of activism, love, hope and, above all, gratitude. Whether she’s urging us to preserve an urban paradise or behold the delicate necessity of beauty to the spirit, Walker encourages us to honor the divine that lives inside all of us and brings her legendary free verse to the page once again, demonstrating that she remains a revolutionary poet and an inspiration to generations of fans.

Alice Walker, the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple–“an American novel of permanent importance” (San Francisco Chronicle)–offers the Spanish-language editions of poems in her new bi-lingual collection, a collection that is both playfully imaginative and intensely moving.

Alice Walker shares a timely volume of nearly seventy works of passionate and powerful poetry that bears witness to our troubled times, while also chronicling a life well-lived. From poems of painful self-inquiry, to celebrating the simple beauty of baking frittatas, Walker offers us a window into her magical, at times difficult, and liberating world of activism, love, hope and, above all, gratitude. Whether she’s urging us to preserve an urban paradise or behold the delicate necessity of beauty to the spirit, Walker encourages us to honor the divine that lives inside all of us and brings her legendary free verse to the page once again, demonstrating that she remains a revolutionary poet and an inspiration to generations of fans.

New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance’s heartrending collection of poetry and essays recounts a dark chapter of her own life, her first marriage to an alcoholic–a powerful look at the emotional cost of addiction and an inspiring story of courage and triumph in the wake of crushing defeat

Before she found fame as a bestselling mystery author, Judith Jance wrestled with the anguish of being married to an alcoholic. For years she channeled her pain into words, composing the poems in this moving volume, first published in 1984, a year before her debut novel.

In searing and direct language, After the Fire chronicles the collapse of Jance’s first marriage under the weight of her husband’s addiction–and her own unwitting denial and codependence while she struggled to find herself. “I will not be the price of your redemption,” she wrote then. “I will not pay my life to ransom yours.”

An intimate, deeply personal look into a wrenching time in Jance’s life, After the Fire is a portrait of addiction and its insidious effects on lives and love. It illuminates universal truths about unbearable loss and finding the courage to carry on, and offers inspiration and profound insight into the heart and work of a beloved bestselling author.