Poetry Book Gift List ~ Give the Gift of Poetry this Holiday Season

This list is from a Women's Poetry Listserv that I belong to. I created it as I've been thinking about how I want to spend my money this holiday season, I realize I want to support artists and writers when I do my Christmas shopping. If we could each support each other in our creative lives, what a wonderful world...

Maybe you'll find something on here for a friend, a relative, or for yourself. Maybe you'll recognize a few of these names and maybe you'll be excited for what you find in the pages of their books. Maybe give a book of poems this year, or two, or three.

They make lovely hostess gifts too.

Feel free to share this list. Thank you for supporting your community of poets...



For All of You Who Fell in Love with Horses, or Dreamed of Doing So; and for the Lover of Rights-Both Animal and Human:
Horses and the Human Soul by Judith Barrington (Story Line Press,, 2004) $15
Available from Powells.com, Amazon.com, or direct via http://www.judithbarrington.com


For Anyone Who's Visited Alaska or Wants To:
Blaze, sensual Alaskan poems by Peggy Shumaker and paintings by Kesler E. Woodward (Red Hen Press, 2005) Hardcover $39.95, paperback $29.95
Available at http://www.redhen.org/. More titles available at http://www.peggyshumaker.com/


For your favorite Art Lover:
Femme au chapeau, Rachel Dacus, David Robert Books, 2005 - $17.00
Available David Roberts Books or Amazon


For your favorite Bad Girl--
Becoming the Villainess by Jeannine Hall Gailey (Steel Toe Books, 2006) $12
Available through Steel Toe Books, Amazon, or the author's website


For your favorite Bird Lover--
White Summer by Joelle Biele (Southern Illinois Univ. Press 2002) $15
Available at Southern Illinois Univ Press or Amazon


For your favorite Chameleon
Shapeshifting by Celia Lisset Alvarez (Spire Press, 2006) $10
Available at http://spirepress.org/book.html.


For your favorite Cook
Eat Our Words: The Montana Writers Cookbook featuring poems, excerpts and recipes from 92 Montana authors (Far Country Press, 2005).
Available at Amazon.com


For Creative Writing Teachers with an Experimental Bent, Collectors of Old Mimeos, or Lovers of Prose Poetry:
To Delite and Instruct (blue lion books, 2006), $19.26
Available only through cafe press. Be sure to search online for a cafe press coupon code before buying!


For your favorite Divorcee (or Sonneteer):
The Paragon by Kathrine Varnes (WordTech Editions 2005), $17available through WordTech, Barnes & Noble or Amazon


For your favorite Domestic Goddess:
Famous by Kathleen Flenniken
Available through Univ of Nebraska Press, Amazon or your local bookstore


For your favorite DJ or any Midwesterner:
Diane Kendig's Greatest Hits_ by Diane Kendig (Pudding House 2001). Chapbook, $8.95.
Available through the publisher at http://www.puddinghouse.com/ or phone 614 986-1881.
For a signed copy at no extra cost, contact the poet at diane@dianekendig.com


For your favorite 8-12 year old or K-8 teacher, or lover of poetry for children:
Spinning Through the Universe, by Helen Frost (FSG, 2004)
Available through your local bookstore or Amazon (If you would like a signed bookplate, email me.)
For more information: http://www.helenfrost.net/



For your favorite Feminist and Pop Culture Critic:
Unbound & Bounded by Christine Stewart-Nunez (chapbook based on a series of artists responding to icon Kate Moss). Published by Finishing Line Press, 2006. Available at http://www.finishinglinepress.com/


For your Favorite Friend Who Has Been Challenged by Loss, Love, or Illness
Small Knots by Kelli Russell Agodon (Cherry Grove, 2004) $17
Available through Cherry Grove Press, Booksense, Amazon or signed/ inscribed copies available at the author's website


For your favorite Insect lover:
Breath in Every Room by Tami Haaland (Story Line Press, 2001). $13.95.Availble at Amazon.com


For your favorite lover of vistas: Montana Women Writers:
Geography of the Heart (Far Country Press, 2006). $18.95. Edited by Caroline Patterson and containing 39 contemporary and historic writers.
Available on Amazon.com


For your favorite Food Lover or Regular Lover:
What Feeds Us, by Diane Lockward (Wind Publications, October 2006) $15.00
Available at http://windpub.com/order.htm or Amazon.com


For your favorite Friend Obsessed with Hardness and Vulnerability
Armor and Flesh, by Mendi Lewis Obadike (Lotus Press, 2004) $12.00
Available at Amazon.com and lotuspress.org


For your Friend Who Maybe Likes a Sestina Now and Then:
Passing, by Eloise Klein Healy (Red Hen Books, 2002) $11.95 Available at http://www.redhen.org/catalog.asp or Amazon


For your favorite Friend with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder):
Radiance by Barbara Crooker (Word Press, August, 2005) $17.00,
available at http://www.word-press.com/crooker.html or Amazon or Barnes&Noble.com


For your Favorite Funny Foodie--
Miracle Fruit by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Tupelo Press, 2003) $14
Available at Tupelo Press, your local bookseller and Amazon


For your favorite Global Traveler, or for your Favorite Armchair Traveler,
Cures Include Travel by Susan Rich (White Pine Press, 2006) $14
Available from http://www.susanrich.org/. Susan will inscribe the book as you would like and also sign it. Also available from http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.elliottbaybook.com/ or by calling Susan (206) 930-1276.


For your favorite Grown-Up
Five Terraces by Ann Fisher-Wirth (Wind Publications, 2005), $14.
Available at Wind Publications and Amazon


For your favorite Healer, or Older Woman, or Anyone Grieving and For all Who Need Consolations in the Face of the Terror:
Duties of the Spirit, Patricia Fargnoli (Tupelo Press, 2005) $16.95
Available through Tupelo Press, your local independent bookseller, or Amazon.


For your favourite historian, feminist, or person interested in the unwritten stories of women's lives:
Neile Graham's _Blood Memory_ (Bushek Books, 2000), $14.95,
Available from http://www.sff.net/people/neile or amazon.com, amazon.ca, powells.com or The League of Canadian Poets


For your favorite Homebody with a Checkered Past:
Laura Cherry's chapbook, What We Planted (Providence Athenaeum), $5.
Available through the Providence Athenaeum


For Anyone Who's Interested in How Poems Come into Being:
Encore: More of Parallel Press Poets (Parallel Press, 2006). $15 (Each of the 40 poets contributed a poem and a statement commenting on their experience writing the poem.)
Available through Parallel Press, $15 includes shipping and handling.


For your favorite Latina in Crisis
The Stones by Celia Lisset Alvarez (Finishing Line Press, 2006) $14
Available at Finishing Line Press


For your favorite Literate Healthcare Provider:
A Form of Optimism by Roy Jacobstein (University Press of New England, October 2006) $15.95, available at 1-800-421-1561 or http://www.upne.com/, or Amazon


For your favorite Lovelorn friend or relative:
Love is a Weed by Lana Hechtman Ayers (Finishing Line Press, October 2006, 29 pages) $12,
Available from Finishing Line Press or for a signed, personally inscribed copy with free shipping via PayPal, email author at moonlit.cloud@yahoo.com.


For Anyone who Loves Language and Sees Life's Lessons as a Journey Toward Wholeness :
Light Made from Nothing, Susan Elbe (Parallel Press, 2003). $10
Available through Parallel Press, $10 includes shipping and handling.


For Magpies in Love with Shiny Gold Items and Love Poetry:
Locket, (Tupelo Press, 2005), $16.95
Available through Tupelo Press, your local independent bookseller, or Amazon.


For your favorite Mathematicians and Pattern-seekers:
Rare Momentum by Athena Kildegaard (Red Dragonfly Press, 2006) $15. Available through http://www.reddragonflypress.org/, your favorite independent bookstore, or Amazon.


For your favorite nature-worshipper--
Calendars by Annie Finch (Tupelo Press, 2003) $14.95, available at 802-366-8185 or www.tupelopress.org, www.barnesandnoble.com/, or http://www.amazon.com/


For your favorite Neophyte Cosmic Gazer Obsessed with the Rhythm of Death, Sex, & Recklessness
South of Here by Lydia Melvin (New Issues Press, 2005), $14.http://www.wmich.edu/~newissue/


For your favorite New Mom--
Blue Positive by Martha Silano (Steel Toe Books, 2006) $12
Available at Steel Toe Books, your local bookstore or at Amazon.

For your favorite New Mother, Old Southerner, or Feminist Biblical Revisionist (and lover of heavy rains):
Garnet Lanterns, a chapbook by Sally Rosen Kindred (Anabiosis Press, 2006) $6.50 Available at: http://garnetlanterns.quietmoon.com/


For your favorite (Overworked) Woman with Mate and Children
Kitchen Heat by Ava Leavell Haymon (LSU Press, Aug, 2006) $17.95Available through LSU Press and Amazon


For your favorite Peace Activist:
Homefront, Patricia Monaghan (WordTech Communications, 2005) $17.00
Available From WordTech Communications or Amazon.


For your favorite Person Who Cares About Others and the Life of Our Planet --
Sight Lines, poems by Charlotte Mandel (Midmarch Arts Press, 1998) $12.50.With photographs by artist Judy Siegel.
Available from Midmarch Arts Press, 300 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10025.


For Your favorite Person Obsessed with Death but Looking for Comfort Anyway,
Mortal by Ivy Alvarez (Red Morning Press, 2006) $12
Available at Red Morning Press: http://redmorningpress.com/


For your favorite Philhellene:
On the Altar of Greece, winner of the 2005 Gival Press Poetry Award, Donna J. Gelagotis Lee (Gival Press, 2006) $15.00
Available through Gival Press (1.866.203.8926 + 7444; http://www.givalpress.com/) or Amazon.com (On the Altar of Greece)


For your favorite Poetry Lover: childhood/mother/marriage poems--
Keep and Give Away (Winner of the SC Poetry Book Prize) by Susan Meyers (University of South Carolina Press, 2006), $14.95
Available through the University South Carolina Press, your local independent bookseller, or Amazon.
Press info for Susan Meyers: 800-768-2500


For the restless adventurer, maternal explorer, or political activist,
Notes on Arrival and Departure by Rachel Rose (McClelland & Stewart)
Available at http://www.mcclelland.com/)


For your favorite Sister, Teenager, High School English teacher, Genealogist, Scots-Canadian, lover of historical (1850's) novels-in-poems:
The Braid, by Helen Frost (FSG, 2006)
Available through your local bookstore or Amazon (If you would like a signed bookplate, email me.)
For more information: http://www.helenfrost.net/


For your favorite Teenager, High school English teacher, or Lover of novels-in-poems (sestinas and sonnets):
Keesha's House, by Helen Frost (FSG, 2003)
Available through your local bookstore or Amazon (If you would like a signed bookplate, email me.)
For more information: http://www.helenfrost.net/


For your favorite Urban Contemplative:
Here from Away by Kate Bernadette Benedict (CustomWords, 2003) $16,
available from the publisher or Amazon.


For People You Don't Want To Give a Book of Poetry, But Do:
Whimsy Daybook, 2007 Maryrose Larkin (flash + card press, 2006)
[it is an actual day book, spiro bound, heavy stock, full color painting repros, calendar] with "poetic" (they were published as poetry) entries for everyday (ex., "Diffuse Radiance Week"), illustrated with paintings by Nita Hill
$12 directly from Maryrose Larkin, maryrose at gmail dot com.


For your favorite Person Grieving the Loss of a Parent
Night In The Shape Of A Mirror, Lynne Knight (David Robert Books, 2006) - $17.00
Available at David Robert Books or Amazon


For the scientific explorer or health care worker,
Giving My Body To Science by Rachel Rose (McGill/Queen's University Press)
Available at http://www.mqup.mcgill.ca/


For your favorite Visual Artist or Ekphrasis Enthusiast:
Nude in Winter by Francine Sterle (Tupelo Press, 2006) $16.95
Available through Tupelo Press, your local independent bookseller, or amazon.com.


For Those Who Dare To Hope
NorthSight by Lois Roma-Deeley (Singularity Press, 2006, cloth) $25.00Available at http://www.singularitypress.biz/northsight.html or Amazon.com


For a Poetry Reader Who Knows Motherhood Is Way More Complex Than Greeting Cards Ever Suggest:
What if your mother by Judith Arcana (Chicory Blue Press, 2005) $15.00
Order from your local independent bookseller, Amazon.com, or direct from http://www.chicorybluepress.com/.


For your favorite Wilderness Backpacker/Adventurous Woman/ or Buddhist:
The Strict Economy of Fire by Ava Leavell Haymon (LSU Press, Aug, 2004) $16
Available through LSU Press and Amazon


For your favorite Women’s History Buff, Medievalist, or Lover of Saints:
The Love of Unreal Things by Christine Stewart-Nunez (chapbook based on the life of Catherine of Siena). Published by Finishing Line Press, 2005. Available on amazon.com.


For women of a certain age looking for hope and a few laughs:"Hanging Out With Loose Words," by M.R. Betten, Foothills Publishing, 2005, $8.00 36 pages hand-sewn chapbook, available at http://www.foothillspublishing.com/