March 2026 Roundup
DeeSoul's reading and recommendations from March 2026
Hellooooooo poets of the internet! We have finally, thankfully, found ourselves out of that dreadful snowy season. With Spring ahead of us, I’m happy to share this month’s roundup of what I’ve been reading.
In case you missed it, we dropped an episode with Summer Farah on Repetition, and this Monday, you can look forward to an episode with Tariq Thompson speaking about Prosody. These are two writers I love and respect, so I hope you’ll make some space for their words!
Keep reading below for some March highlights, and hey — thanks for being here :)
What I’ve Read This Month
1) You Get What You Pay For by Morgan Parker
Rating: ★★★★★
Genre: Essays
"Too often, for too many decades, we have had to forgo living for not dying."
—pg. 183, "Reparations (or Strategies for Boat Repair)"
In Parker's essays, we are forced to consider the boat — the one we were brought on, the one we keep in our minds, the one in need of desperate repair with no plan to do so. As Black people, we are haunted by our history, the way it passes down, how it rears its head when it thinks no one else can see it. And the lonely part is that sometimes it's true — just Black people alone with what's so plain to us & so mystifying to everyone else. Parker charts a course for us through this lens and shows us, when all is said and done, this is what we've been left with, and we're still paying for it.
2) Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil
Rating: ★★★ ½
Genre: Hybrid
Archetype: The Interrogation (combo of Essay and Formula)
"It is psychotic to draw a line between two places./ It is psychotic to go./ It is psychotic to look."
— pg. 53, "Partition"
Over and over in Schizophrene, I am compelled by Kapil's pacing and images. I am not too proud to admit that at times I found myself stumbling through the text. As a reader, I have a desire to "understand," and this book is a somatic experience, not necessarily one I can categorize neatly into a box. In this way, I believe the book achieves its project, the tracing of mental illness through a specific community, a psychosis borne of great violence. A collection I think I need to sit with a bit longer, but certainly a worthwhile read.
New Poems in the Catalog
From Andrea Cohen
“The Committee Weighs In” | The Threepenny Review, 2012
From Maya Salameh
“ALGORITHM WITH BLUE EYELINER” | Quarterly West, 2021
From Sharon Olds
“Not Once” | Poem-a-Day, 2022
From Solmaz Sharif
Essay: “The Near Transitive Properties of the Political and Poetical: Erasure” | Evening Will Come, 2013
Work to Look Out For
Watering Hole Fellow Noel Quiñones’ debut collection, Orange, is forthcoming from CavanKerry Press in May 2026. Full of poems that invite the reader in through narrative and interactive forms, the collection “explores the ripple effects of queerness, lies, and finding yourself in a family.”
Cave Canem Fellow McKendy Fils-Aimé’s debut, sipèstisyon, is forthcoming from YesYes books in mid-May 2026. In the collection, Fils-Aimé “examines wounds left by abuse, familial estrangement, and racial violence” by looking “through the lens of Haitian superstitions.” I am absolutely in love with the book’s gorgeous cover, and super excited to get into the work inside.
O, Word? guest Kay E. Bancroft’s debut collection, Bloodroom, finalist for the 2025 Alice James Book Award, is forthcoming June 2026 from Sundress Publications. In our conversation, I spoke with Bancroft about hybridity and the possibilities that exist by excavating other kinds of texts, so I’m very excited to see what they accomplish in this collection!
Acclaimed poet Phillip B. Willams’ new collection, Lift Every Voice, is forthcoming from Penguin Books in July 2026. It’s title borrowed from the Black National Anthem’s first line, the collection “explores the capacity for the past to be both a source of dread and empowerment, an unshakable reminder of violence and an indelible testament to the endurance of love.” I particularly enjoyed Williams’ sophomore collection, Mutiny, so I’m really looking forward to this one.
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:
Next week, on March 31, I will be reading as part of the Dr. Carl Calendar Visiting Writers Series at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ. I will have the honor of sharing the stage with Jeanann Verlee. The event begins at 7 pm, and we will both read and discuss our work.
On Friday, April 10, I will be reading at the O, Miami poetry festival for Family Meal: A Poetry Reading with Gabrielle Calvocoressi. For this reading, O, Miami and Dunn’s Overtown Farm invite you to grab a meal and a seat at Family Meal, a community-based poetry reading and dinner experience featuring Gabrielle Calvocoressi and this year’s Poetry Foundation Fellows (Jada Renée Allen, DeeSoul Carson, Andres Cordoba, Maryhilda Obasiota Ibe, Aris Kian), Miami Freedom Project, and potluck-style meal contributions from local chefs.
On Saturday, April 18, if you happen to be in New Orleans, I’ll be at the New Orleans Poetry Festival as a panelist for the Humor/Horror: after Douglas Kearney session. In this panel, we’ll be discussing how humor influences our ways of writing towards not only diagnosing, but also imagining alternatives to the everyday horrors that are deeply entangled in the business of living. This is an under-examined area of craft that acts as a mode of resistance against hegemonic norms necessary for empire-making. This discussion will center on humor as a method of disorientation that lends itself towards an invitation for mutual care.
Thank for reading! Until next time :)