#SeptWomenPoets
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simeonberry.bsky.social
(61/61) “Say to the animal: heavy is / an apology inside the wind.” — @maidervang.bsky.social, “Death in Captivity, a Surrender” (Primordial) @graywolfpress.bsky.social #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Mai Der Vang’s Primordial: a photonegative in dark aqua wash of a bi-horned quadruped standing in the jungle
October 1, 2025 at 3:45 AM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(46/61) “Clicks of the keyboard sound like high heels walking / nowhere in particular.” — @nezhukumatathil.bsky.social, “Firefly Ars Poetica” (Night Owl) Ecco #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s Night Owl: a painting of two trees reflecting in the water against a sunset and a dark-blue sky speckled with stars
September 15, 2026 at 4:40 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(35/61) “you think I do nothing / all day / I am busy loving / human beings” —Marcie R. Rendon, “Dream Songs” (Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium) @uminnpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Marcie R. Rendon’s Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium: an abstract photograph of a smeary and crystalline band of orange, pink, and purple.
September 4, 2025 at 8:59 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(16/61) “My brother was the one at the coroner’s. Our father’s body in their custody. My brother was the one to say, yes, he is ours, though not in those words.” —Aracelis Girmay, “Funeral” (Green of All Heads) @boa-editions.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Aracelis Girmay’s Green of All Heads: a green-tinted photo of dirt with dried leaves
August 16, 2026 at 10:16 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(59/61) “the Black witches know that / the terror is not in the moon” —Lucille Clifton, “In Salem” (An Ordinary Woman) Random House #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Lucille Clifton’s An Ordinary Woman: the title and author in vertically and horizontally staggered purple script with the first letter of each word in red
September 28, 2026 at 11:30 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(57/61) “It is not possible to count ideology. It is not possible to count e. It is not possible to count snow. It is not possible to count blue. They are all eternal.” —Don Mee Choi (DMZ Colony) Wave Books #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Don Mee Choi’s DMZ Colony: the text of the title and author name against a white background
September 26, 2023 at 10:29 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(12/61) “in other words / the water is rising / in the relic of rain” —Aja Monet, “the water is rising” (Florida Water) @haymarketbooks.org #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Aja Monet’s Florida Water: a black and white photograph of a woman with long dark hair, wearing a white top and a polka-dot coat, standing at the edge of the water in a swamp.
August 13, 2026 at 1:22 AM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(52/61) “Amin’s killings were called simply // a natural byproduct / of events” —Hope Wabuke, “If Not David” (The Body Family) @haymarketbooks.org #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Hope Wabuke’s The Body Family: an abstract collage of inky footprints
September 22, 2025 at 9:06 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(7/61) “In the other memory the severed arm speaks. / In the other memory it is as silent as snow.” — @jmaebarizo.bsky.social, “New York” (The Cumulus Effect) @fourwaybooks.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of J. Mae Barizo’s The Cumulus Effect: a photograph of a rumpled blanket and sheets on a bed in blue light
August 7, 2025 at 11:24 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(4/61) “my prayer is a furnace. // A flame runs down the back of a generational horror. / It loosens itself from my womb.” —Yalie Saweda Kamara, “Three Days Before My Baptism” (Besaydoo) Milkweed Editions #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Yalie Saweda Kamara’s Besaydoo: a silk-screened print of a shadowy, splayed hand with white fingernails and metal bracelets laid against another splayed hand
August 4, 2025 at 8:03 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(60/61) “So many people / are interested in how you may multiply, even if puberty / made you cry” — @asaldrake.bsky.social, “To Someone Who’s Heard I Love You Too Many Times” (Maybe the Body) Tin House Books #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Asa Drake’s Maybe the Body: a painting of pink flowers and a snake curled around a bell jar with a brown and white rabbit sitting inside it
September 29, 2026 at 5:04 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(39/61) “My friend, who lost her husband / twice, first in death / and then in betrayal, orders / the pinot noir.” —Jennifer Chang, “A Conversation between Women” (An Authentic Life)
@coppercanyonpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Jennifer Chang’s An Authentic Life: a painting of a pale, loosely-joined, peach-colored room with a built-in bench and bed, and a window and skylight giving way to a pale blue sky
September 8, 2025 at 9:08 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(11/61) “who would i expect / to understand / what it be like / what it be like / living under a star / that hates you” —Lucille Clifton, “shooting star” (Quilting) #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Lucille Clifton’s Quilting: a drawing of an interlocking pattern of orange, black, and aqua geometric shapes.
August 11, 2024 at 9:05 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(22/61) “We weren't fooling anyone— / rehearsing neutral faces, hands / down each other's pants / in the minivan's back seat.” —Rage Hezekiah, “On Vacation” (Yearn) @diodeeditions.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Rage Hezekiah’s Yearn: a painting of a white ginkgo leaf against a blue background
August 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(25/61) “Today / I will not return // to the airport drunk” —Dilruba Ahmed, “Resolution” (Bring Now the Angels) @upittpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Dilruba Ahmed’s Bring Now the Angels: a photograph of a carved stone angel in bas-relief lightly covered in yellow lichen
August 25, 2026 at 9:02 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(7/61) “The audience / wanting a stoning / offered the podium” —Shani Mootoo, “The Smoothest Stones” (Cane | Fire) Book*hug Press #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
August 8, 2023 at 9:44 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(42/61) “What do you teach? / Poetry. // I hate poetry, the officer says. / I only like writing / where you can make an argument” —Solmaz Sharif, “He, Too” (Customs) @graywolfpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Solmaz Sharif’s Customs: a watercolor of a red square.
September 11, 2025 at 7:56 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(51/61) “A fish drowns itself in the Mississippi. The one-eyed tabby is not allowed in the hotel. She too will float, but in a different city.” — @karismaprice.bsky.social “What’s It Like Escaping Something Trying to Kill You?” (I’m Always So Serious) @sarabandebooks.bsky.social #WOC #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Karisma Price’s I’m Always So Serious: a painting of a black girl with a white, sleeveless dress and earrings, flanked by a blue silhouette and a white silhouette, overlaid with patterned spheres
September 20, 2025 at 10:34 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
August is upon us, which means it’s time for me to begin my sixth (2024) annual mashup of #TheSealeyChallenge and #SeptWomenPoets, where I read 61 poetry books by women of color over the next two months.
August 1, 2024 at 11:28 AM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(44/61) “Yes, I say, for calligraphy, for the golden threads of our mouths.” —Sahar Muradi, “How Do You Laugh in Dari?” (OCTOBERS) @upittpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Sahar Muradi’s OCTOBERS: a scratched photograph of an Afghani family of a man, woman, and three children standing against a white wall, overlaid with paintings and sketches of flowers, body parts, and mythological creatures
September 14, 2025 at 1:50 AM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(53/61) “when the horse of my body / stopped, I walked. // Nights of unspeakable stars.” —Danielle Legros Georges, “Crossings” (Three Leaves, Three Roots) @beaconpress.bsky.social #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Danielle Legros Georges’ Three Leaves, Three Roots: an abstract painting of a collage of overlapping red, green, blue, orange, and black fronds
September 23, 2025 at 12:02 AM
simeonberry.bsky.social
August is upon us, which means it’s time for me to begin my fifth annual mashup of #TheSealeyChallenge and #SeptWomenPoets, where I read 61 poetry books by women of color over the next two months.
August 1, 2023 at 5:35 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(36/61) “Dead children become sediment, a red moon / hovers over a river. From a telephone pole, / a barn owl watches the house.” —Thea Matthews, “At Gramma’s House” (GRIME) @citylightsbooks.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Thea Matthews’ GRIME: a black-and-white photograph of a silhouetted street light against a cloudy sky
September 5, 2026 at 7:16 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
(33/61) “She goes before me, / shining darkly, into a city— // of gold, of salt—that I will never see.” —Danusha Laméris, “Daughter” (Blade by Blade) @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social #61WomenPoets #WOC #61Books61Days #TheSealeyChallenge #SeptWomenPoets
The cover of Danusha Laméris’ Blade by Blade: a microscopic photograph of the serrated edge of a blade of green grass
September 2, 2025 at 8:47 PM
simeonberry.bsky.social
August is upon us, which means it’s time for me to begin my seventh annual mashup of #TheSealeyChallenge and #SeptWomenPoets, where I read 61 poetry books by women of color over the next two months.
August 1, 2025 at 11:38 AM