January 2026 Roundup
DeeSoul's reading and recommendations from January 2026
Hellooooooo poets of the internet. Now that I’ve started the podcast series in earnest (new episode dropping soon, I promise), I have been wondering how to incorporate this Substack’s original intention, which was to keep myself accountable to my reading and share work with you that truly interested me.
With the podcast episodes so long in text form, and with me wanted to give proper time to the guests, I don’t want my reviews and such to get lost in the mix. So I’ve decided that I’ll drop a monthly roundup of the things I’ve read and things I’m excited for on the horizon. Hope this is useful for some/any of you, and hey — thanks for being here :)
What I’ve Read This Month
1) We the Gathered Heat: Asian American and Pacific Islander Poetry, Performance, and Spoken Word
Rating: ★★★★
Genre: Poetry (Anthology)
Stand out lines:
I want to transition into a bird, not a boy. Try that one next time at Kaiser. Gender marker? A caw. A hollow bone. A pair of lines slitting a burning blood-orange sky. — Jenevieve Ting, "Bird Blue Bones" you're safe until you're alone. you're american until the towers fall. until there's a border on your back. — Fatimah Asghar, "Partition" The ancient sapien instinct: love is an approximation to danger You make me feel safe, so I want to run away. — Jireh Deng, "An Algorithm Matches Me with a Nice Girl and I Tell Her" What disappeared is not a metaphor for anything. What disappeared is gone. — Luisa A. Igloria, "Postnatural"
Anthologies are such important references for offering folks a diverse body of work under a common theme. I have also been historically daunted by anthologies. I am grateful for the clear intention that went into the curation of this collection, the broad spectrum of joy & anger & grief & love that comes with an assumed or bestowed identity. This book is a terrific sample of the wealth of AAPI poetry, and a start for any of us asking how we come to belong to one another.
2) The Death of a Jaybird by Jodi M. Savage
Rating: ★★★★★
Genre: Essays
Quotes:
On one of these nights full of signs, Granny calls 911 again — pg 4
The Death of a Jaybird reminds me that there is no easy way to prepare for loss, but we can cultivate the community that cares for us when it happens. Reading Savage’s essays about her mothers brought up all the similarities I see in my own — my step-mother who raised me and passed from cancer, my responsibility-avoidant biological mother, my granny, thankfully still in retention of all of her faculties. Our mothers shape us and show us the way, and as Savage demonstrates, they continue to lead us long after they’ve passed.
3) Bloodmercy by I.S. Jones
Rating: ★★★★★
Genre: Poetry (Debut)
Archetype: The Speaker’s Journey
Hunger is a savage god all bodies must kneel to
- pg. 28, "Feast"
Bloodmercy is a spectacular reimagining of the relationship between Cain & Abel, an exploration of violence & desire & what is done with our hands. This entire collection, I was enamored with the richness of Jones’ language, the clarity of the voices she was writing in. the world of this collection is haunted by questions of belonging, how we move through a world that shows us so little mercy, how merciful we choose or choose not to be. Hands down one of the strongest debuts I’ve read.
4) Yeet! by jason b crawford
Rating: ★★★★
Genre: Poetry (Sophomore)
Archetype: Archeype
How did the great migration begin?
we cannot talk about history without mentioning its war-
drawn blades.
- pg. 64, “History of Leaving: a pop quiz”
Yeet! imagines Black people somewhere alive and safe, imagining a new language for the way we breathe. The poems of this collection are formally daring and expansive, asking us to consider the architecture of our experience, the systems and powers that mediate our existence. In this collection, we are dancing, and the flowers bloom with our living. The only thing we must worry about is what to do with all of this beauty.
New Poems in the Catalog
“Finna” by Nate Marshall (Adroit, Issue 31)
“PIG BTTM LOOKING FOR WHEN” by sam sax (Adroit, Issue 30)
“TRACK 4: REFLECTION (as performed by Diana Ross)” by Jericho Brown (Callaloo Volume 32, No 1, Winter 2009)
Work to Look Out For
As you may have seen in my end-of-the-year wrap up post, there are a few folks whose collections I am presently hyped for!
R.A. Villanueva’s sophomore collection, A Holy Dread, is forthcoming in February 2026 from Alice James Books. In the collection, Villanueva “reckons with identity, family, and history to illuminate the tenderness and calamity of the world we make together--the beauty and grief our children will inherit.” I am drawn to the way Villanueva observes and witnesses, and I think you will be too.
Summer Farah’s debut full-length, The Hungering Years, is also forthcoming in February 2026 from Host Publications. It is described as “a rush of breathless song, voicing confessions so often left unsung amidst personal and collective crisis.” Farah’s sense of the lyric is so singular and enticing to me, so I’m excited to dig into it.
Maya Salameh’s sophomore collection, Mermaid Theory, is forthcoming from Haymarket Books in April 2026. On the heels of her chapbook rooh and stunning debut, How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave, this new collection “offers a profound exploration of Arab American identity, weaving together themes of myth, science, and cultural heritage.” A defining feature of Salameh’s poetics is her inventiveness and experimentation, so I look forward to the journey she will take us through in this new work.
Nick Martino’s debut, Scrap Book, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in June 2026. On the poet’s page for the book, the description reads “Set within a Midwestern family home along the shores of Lake Michigan, Scrap Book explores the prison sentence Martino’s father served before he was born and its aftermath in which he was raised.” Central to this book are Martino’s “Polaroid” series, some of which you can find on his website.
What’s Going On? (with me)
I’ve got a couple of things going on in the near future, if you want to catch me/ know what I’ve been up to:
We’re already a few weeks in, but I’ve been leading a course for Poets House called Better Readers, Better Writers. The purpose of the course was to discuss how we cultivate our reading practice and incorporate it into our writing practice. In that spirit, we’ve been focusing on five collections that I highly recommend you check out:
I’m Always So Serious (Sarabande, 2023) by Karisma Price
Yeet! (Omnidawn, 2025) by jason b crawford
Bloodmercy (Copper Canyon, 2025) by I.S. Jones
I could die today and live again (Game Over Books, 2023) by Summer Farah
Soft Science (Alice James Books, 2019) by Franny Choi
On February 21 at 7 pm ET, I will be reading for the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center’s Poets in Print reading series with Saba Keramati. It should be fun, and they’ll be making broadsides of our poems. Neat!
On February 25 at 6:30 PM, I’ll be reading at P&T Knitwear to celebrate the release of My God’s Been Silent by Darius Phelps, along with Andrew Chi Keong Yim, Karl Michael Iglesias, & Taiyo Na.
On February 26 at 7 pm, I will be leading a workshop, The Afterparty, as part of PSNY’s virtual workshop series. It will be a workshop about how we approach “after” poems! The ~description~ reads:
As artists, there is always a concern with the originality of our work and how we stand out without biting off someone else’s style. However, as the old adage goes, no man is an island. We are constantly inspired and influenced by the various mediums we encounter in the world. How can we use these influences to jumpstart our own writing without creating parody? In this workshop, we’ll read work by Nate Marshall, Summer Farah, Shara McCallum, and others as we consider how we borrow from, take inspiration from, reinvent, and recontextualize the texts and media we consume on a daily basis while maintain our own poetic voices.
Thank for reading! Until next time :)
Reading with Saba!!! I wish I could be there!