Available from Cheeseburger Nebula Press, Do$e from William S. Bonnie is a stark, almost madden travelogue. This isn’t just because Bonnie’s latest poetry collection references travel at great length, with the distance achieved by chemical means, and/or through a hyper-focused desire for freedom. It is also because the book drinks deep from Bonnie’s memories, anxieties, and ambitions, and then spits them out, creating a miraculously careful mess. Bon’ Voyage is just one example of Bonnie making us equal parts uncomfortable and captivated, as he breathes his own unique, vital brand of life into the familiar roads he describes. Seward might be exhausted, but his writing is dangerously alert. 

Slut Songs is a deep catalog of tribute to a complex word. The title of this mesmerizing, potentially triggering collection from Jade Hurter represents shared songs of the horrors women collectively face, and understand in near-unison. Those who already have these songs of their own will pick up on the intense, evocative language, and the rhythm of a survivor who will not be trivialized. It’s easy to read poems like “Self-Portrait, Age Nineteen” and “Red Song”, call them brave, and just stick with that. Bravery engages us. Poems that balance rage with anxious, soothing calm, which are the poems of Slut Songs, demand something more than that. They have every right to ask us for everything we have.