New Reviews: Poetry & Drama

Saeed Jones, an award-winning poet, unapologetically writes and speaks with conviction and purpose. This poetry collection evokes past and present personal experiences, as well as iconic moments and figures who have shaped popular culture. Jones creates poetic tales that honor artists like Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Luther Vandross, and more. His words draw listeners in... Read More

Fans of Mary Oliver will recognize familiar themes in this collection of poems first published in 2014. Newly released on audio, they are narrated beautifully by Kimberly Farr. Farr's low voice is slow and even. She takes care with her words, pausing often, leaving plenty of space for the images and ideas to settle. Her narration evokes the kind of careful attention that Oliver... Read More

Chiara Atik's play is performed with flair by a vivacious cast of talented actors. The play intertwines three subplots involving pregnancy and childbirth. One features hilarious posts on a message board for "December moms," and another is about the tender but comical interactions between a midwife in 1790 and a first-time mother. The play's centerpiece tells the story of... Read More

This musical, based on Sidney Kingsley's play of the same name and specially adapted for audio, has a lively score and a script that exposes social problems on the mean streets of New York during the Depression. The play focuses on issues of class struggle, poverty, crime, and hunger. It features 20 fully orchestrated musical numbers and sound effects, along with engaging... Read More

Billy Collins embraces extreme compression in this collection of very short poems. Some of them are worthy of Henny Youngman; others are potentially heartbreaking if you pause the audiobook to think about them. Most of the poems are under 25 words. Even more than with most audio poetry collections, this one rewards the pause for reflection, since without it you are already into... Read More

Brutal, soul-crushing, surreal, and duplicitous. What else would you expect from a North African Nazi labor camp in the midst of WWarII? With a voice that is at once heartless and urbane, the camp commandant, portrayed by English voice talent Simon Templeman, pits two young couples--one Jewish and the other Muslim--into betraying their friendships, their faiths, and everything... Read More

Based on the popular podcast "Poetry Unbound," this audiobook is a fine anthology of poetry, as well as a very good introduction, for those who need it, to how to think about poetry. Even old poetry hands will enjoy and appreciate Pádraig O Tuama's brief and insightful essays accompanying each poem, as well as the poems themselves, many of which are likely to be unfamiliar even... Read More

Leading a cast of well-established, award-winning African American voice talents, Tamika Katon-Donegal gives a voice full of bright sensitivity, intelligence, and hope to Rachel, a young early-twentieth-century Black woman who is coming of age and looking to the future. When Rachel runs headlong into the real-life horrors of American racism, she doubts whether she can follow... Read More

It's easy to imagine being at an in-person reading while listening to Su Cho narrate these lyrical poems. There's a rhythmic intensity to her performance that gives her work a sense of urgency and immediacy. In poems that are both playful and formal Cho explores the intersections of language, translation, lineage, immigration, family, and food. The poems centered around food... Read More

Franny Choi delivers these hopeful, heartbreaking, beautiful, sorrowful poems with quiet ardor. Her voice is soft and expressive, perfectly capturing the musical yet conversational tone of the whole collection. The poems are about everyday apocalypses and historical apocalypses; small moments of terror and joy; and the paradox of living on this planet, full of so much suffering... Read More