The Best Poetry Books of 2020 (A Year-End List Aggregation)

“What are the best Poetry books released in 2020?” We looked at 116 of the top Poetry books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 19 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Poetry” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 75+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

Our other Best Of 2020 Articles:

• The Best Art, Photography, And Coffee Table Books
• The Best AudioBooks
• The Best Biography And Memoir Books
• The Best Graphic Novels And Comics
• The Best Cookbooks
• The Best Fiction Books
• The Best Books (All Categories)
• The Best History Books
• The Best Kids, Children, and Youth Books
• The Best Mystery, Horror, and Thriller Books
• The Best Nonfiction Books
• The Best Poetry Books
• The Best Science And Nature Books
• The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
• The Best Young Adult Books

Previous Years: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015

All titles have been added to a Bookshop list as well!

Happy Scrolling!

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Top 19 Best Poetry Books From 2020

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19.) Home Body written byRupi Kaur

Lists It Appears On:

• Barnes & Noble
• Goodreads

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey and the sun and her flowers comes her greatly anticipated third collection of poetry. rupi kaur constantly embraces growth, and in home body, she walks readers through a reflective and intimate journey visiting the past, the present, an

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18.) How to Fly written byBarbara Kingsolver

Lists It Appears On:

• Barnes & Noble
• BookPage

In this intimate collection, the beloved author of The Poisonwood Bible and more than a dozen other New York Times bestsellers, winner or finalist for the Pulitzer and countless other prizes, now trains her eye on the everyday and the metaphysical in poems that are smartly crafted, emotionally rich,

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17.) Just Us: An American Conversation written byClaudia Rankine

Lists It Appears On:

• The Guardian
• NPR

Claudia Rankine’s Citizen changed the conversation–Just Us urges all of us into it As everyday white supremacy becomes increasingly vocalized with no clear answers at hand, how best might we approach one another? Claudia Rankine, without telling us what to do, urges us to begin the discussions that

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16.) Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose written byNikki Giovanni

Lists It Appears On:

• BookPage
• Barnes & Noble

One of America’s most celebrated poets challenges us with this powerful and deeply personal collection of verse that speaks to the injustices of society while illuminating the depths of her own heart.For more than fifty years, Nikki Giovanni’s poetry has dazzled and inspired readers. As sharp and ou

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15.) My Darling from the Lions written byAlice Denham

Lists It Appears On:

• The Guardian
• The Telegraph

Alice Denham’s My Darling from the Lions portrays the passionate conflict between a young painter and her macho composer husband, their lovers, her female rage, his brutality, and her struggle for self-realization as an artist. The Sunday New York Times Book Review said, “When Miss Denham is being l

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14.) Poor written byCaleb Femi

Lists It Appears On:

• Financial Times
• The Guardian

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13.) Rendang written byWill Harris

Lists It Appears On:

• Financial Times
• The Guardian

Using long poems, ekphrasis, and ruptured forms, RENDANG is a startling new take on the self, and how an identity is constructed. Drawing on his Anglo-Indonesian heritage, Will Harris shows us new ways to think about the contradictions of identity and cultural memory. He creates companions that spea

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12.) Runaway written byJorie Graham

Lists It Appears On:

• Publishers Weekly
• NPR

A new collection of poetry from one of our most acclaimed contemporary poets, Pulitzer Prize winner Jorie Graham In her formidable and clairvoyant new collection, Runaway, Jorie Graham deepens her vision of our futurity. What of us will survive? Identity may be precarious, but perhaps love is not? K

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11.) Seeing The Body written byRachel Eliza Griffiths

Lists It Appears On:

• NPR
• Largehearted Boy

Poems and photographs collide in this intimate collection, challenging the invisible, indefinable ways mourning takes up residence in a body, both before and after life-altering loss.In radiant poems–set against the evocative and desperate backdrop of contemporary events, pop culture, and politics-

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10.) The Age Of Phillis written byHonorée Fanonne Jeffers

Lists It Appears On:

• NPR
• Library Journal

In 1773, a young, African American woman named Phillis Wheatley published a book of poetry that challenged Western prejudices about African and female intellectual capabilities. Based on fifteen years of archival research, The Age of Phillis, by award-winning writer Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, imagines

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9.) The Air Year written byCaroline Bird

Lists It Appears On:

• The Guardian
• The Telegraph

Winner of the 2020 Forward Prize for Best Collection. A Telegraph Poetry Book of the Month (February 2020). The Air Year is a time of flight, transition and suspension: signatures scribbled on the sky. Bird’s speakers exist in a state of unrest, trapped in a liminal place between take-off and landin

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8.) The Malevolent Volume written byJustin Phillip Reed

Lists It Appears On:

• Washington Post
• NPR

Subverting celebrated classics of poetry and mythology and examining horrors from contemporary film and cultural fact, National Book Award winner Justin Phillip Reed engages darkness as an aesthetic to conjure the revenant animus that lurks beneath the exploited civilities of marginalized people. In

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7.) Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass written byLana Del Rey

Lists It Appears On:

• Barnes & Noble
• Goodreads

THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED DEBUT BOOK OF POETRY FROM LANA DEL REY, VIOLET BENT BACKWARDS OVER THE GRASS “Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I

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6.) When The Light Of The World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology Of Native Nations Poetry written byJoy Harjo

Lists It Appears On:

• BookPage
• NPR

This landmark anthology celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back centuries.

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5.) Finna: Poems written byNate Marshall

Lists It Appears On:

• Largehearted Boy
• NYPL
• NPR

Sharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular–its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacy “Terrific . . . illuminates life in this country in a strikingly original way.”–Ron Charles, T

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4.) Dearly written byMargaret Atwood

Lists It Appears On:

• Financial Times
• Goodreads
• The Telegraph
• Library Journal

A new book of poetry from internationally acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling author Margaret AtwoodIn Dearly, Margaret Atwood’s first collection of poetry in over a decade, Atwood addresses themes such as love, loss, the passage of time, the nature of nature and – zombies. Her new poetry is in

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3.) Obit written byVictorian Chang

Lists It Appears On:

• NPR
• Book Riot
• Publishers Weekly
• NY Times

Longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award in Poetry After her mother died, poet Victoria Chang refused to write elegies. Rather, she distilled her grief during a feverish two weeks by writing scores of poetic obituaries for all she lost in the world. In Obit, Chang writes of “the way memory gets u

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2.) Postcolonial Love Poem written byNatalie Diaz

Lists It Appears On:

• Book Riot
• Financial Times
• NYPL
• The Guardian
• NPR

FINALIST FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR POETRY Natalie Diaz’s highly anticipated follow-up to When My Brother Was an Aztec, winner of an American Book Award Postcolonial Love Poem is an anthem of desire against erasure. Natalie Diaz’s brilliant second collection demands that every body carried

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1.) Homie written byDanez Smith

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• Publishers Weekly
• Financial Times
• NYPL
• NPR
• Largehearted Boy

Danez Smith is our president Homie is Danez Smith’s magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss of one of Smith’s close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer. In poems of rare pow

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The 75+ Additional Best Poetry Books Released In 2020

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#	Book	Author	Lists
20	13th Balloon	Mark Bibbins	NPR
21	A Nail the Evening Hangs On	Monica Sok	NYPL
22	African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song	Kevin Young	Barnes & Noble
23	After Callimachus	Stephanie Burt Mark Payne (Contribution by)	The Telegraph
24	After Fame		The Telegraph
25	All Along You Were Blooming: Thoughts for Boundless Living	Morgan Harper Nichols	Goodreads
26	All Heathens	Marianne Chan	Largehearted Boy
27	An Incomplete List Of Names	Michael Torres	NPR
28	And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories And Other Revenges	Amber Sparks	NPR
29	Beowulf: A New Translation	Maria Dahvana Headley	NPR
30	Break Your Glass Slippers (You Are Your Own Fairy Tale, #1)	Amanda Lovelace	Goodreads
31	Citadel		The Telegraph
32	Collective Gravities	Chloe N. Clark	NPR
33	Coming to Age		BookPage
34	Conjure		Library Journal
35	Dance On Saturday: Stories	Elwin Cotman	NPR
36	Dandelion	Gabbie Hanna	Barnes & Noble
37	Dark Blood Comes From The Feet	Emma J. Gibbon	NPR
38	DMZ Colony	Don Mee Choi	Publishers Weekly
39	Every Day We Get More Illegal	Juan Felipe Herrera	Library Journal
40	Feed	Tommy Pico	NY Times
41	Felon: Poems	Reginald Dwayne Betts	NY Times
42	Field Music	Alexandria Hall	Library Journal
43	Foreign Bodies: Poems	Kimiko Hahn	NPR
44	Funny Weather: Art In An Emergency	Olivia Laing	NPR
45	Gigantic Cinema	Paul Keegan Alice Oswald	The Telegraph
46	Grimoire	Cherene Sherrard	NYPL
47	Gut Botany	Petra Kuppers	NYPL
48	Having And Being Had	Eula Biss	NPR
49	Here For It: Or, How To Save Your Soul In America	R. Eric Thomas	NPR
50	Here is the Sweet Hand	Francine J. Harris	Largehearted Boy
51	Hood Criatura	Féi Hernandez	NPR
52	Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That A Movement Forgot	Mikki Kendall	NPR
53	How To Carry Water: Selected Poems Of Lucille Clifton	Lucille Clifton	NPR
54	How To Wash A Heart	Bhanu Kapil	The Guardian
55	I Don’t Want To Die Poor: Essays	Michael Arceneaux	NPR
56	I Hold A Wolf By The Ears: Stories	Laura van den Berg	NPR
57	I Will Take The Answer: Essays	Ander Monson	NPR
58	I Would Leave Me If I Could	Halsey	Barnes & Noble
59	Inmates		The Telegraph
60	Intimations: Six Essays	Zadie Smith	NPR
61	Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry	John Murillo	NYPL
62	Lean Against This Late Hour	Garous Abdolmalekian Idra Novey (Translator) Ahmad Nadalizadeh (Translator) & 1 more	Library Journal
63	Light for the World to See: A Thousand Words on Race and Hope	Kwame Alexander	Barnes & Noble
64	Living Weapons: Poems	Rowan Ricardo Phillips	Library Journal
65	Love Child’s Hotbed Of Occasional Poetry: Poems & Artifacts	Nikky Finney	NPR
66	Magnetic Field		The Guardian
67	Music For The Dead And Resurrected: Poems	Valzhyna Mort	NPR
68	My Baby First Birthday: Poems	Jenny Zhang	NYPL
69	Negotiations	Destiny O. Birdsong	Largehearted Boy
70	Notes From An Apocalypse: A Personal Journey To The End Of The World And Back	Mark O’Connell	NPR
71	On the Horizon	Lois Lowry	Goodreads
72	Overstated: A Coast-to-Coast Roast Of The 50 States	Colin Quinn	NPR
73	Pale Colors in a Tall Field	Carl Phillips	Washington Post
74	Paris		The Guardian
75	Road Trip		The Telegraph
76	Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America	Nora Shalaway Carpenter	NPR
77	Sanatorium		The Guardian
78	Shine, Darling		The Telegraph
79	Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide To Modern Cinema	Lindy West	NPR
80	So We Can Glow: Stories	Leesa Cross-Smith	NPR
81	Something That May Shock And Discredit You	Daniel M. Lavery	NPR
82	Sometimes I Never Suffered	Shane McCrae	The Telegraph
83	Squid Squad	Matthew Welton	The Telegraph
84	Still Life	Ciaran Carson	Washington Post
85	Summer Snow: New Poems	Robert Hass	Library Journal
86	Swimming Lessons: Poems	Lili Reinhart	Goodreads
87	The Absurd Man	Major Jackson	Library Journal
88	The Black Flamingo	Dean Atta	Book Riot
89	The Cactus League: A Novel	Emily Nemens	NPR
90	The Fire of Joy		The Guardian
91	The Galleons: Poems	Rick Barot	NYPL
92	The Girl and the Goddess: Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom	Nikita Gill	Goodreads
93	The Hidden Girl And Other Stories	Ken Liu	NPR
94	The Historians	Eavan Boland	Publishers Weekly
95	The Lost Spells	Robert Macfarlane	Barnes & Noble
96	The Martian’s Regress		The Telegraph
97	The Nancy Reagan Collection	Maxe Crandall	NYPL
98	The Nightfields	Joanna Klink	Washington Post
99	The Problem of the Many	Timothy Donnelly	The Telegraph
100	The Socrates Express: In Search Of Life Lessons From Dead Philosophers	Eric Weiner	NPR
101	The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth	Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson (editors)	NPR
102	The Threadbare Coat	Thomas a. Clark Matthew Welton (Editor)	The Telegraph
103	Thin Places: Essays From In Between	Jordan Kisner	NPR
104	This Is One Way To Dance: Essays	Sejal Shah	NPR
105	Three Poems	Hannah Sullivan	Library Journal
106	Tomboyland: Essays	Melissa Faliveno	NPR
107	Tongues of Fire	Seán Hewitt	The Guardian
108	Vesper Flights	Helen Macdonald	NPR
109	Whale Day: And Other Poems	Billy Collins	Barnes & Noble
110	What Kind of Woman: Poems	Kate Baer	Goodreads
111	Where The Wild Ladies Are	Aoko Matsuda	NPR
112	Where Things Touch: A Meditation On Beauty	Bahar Orang	NPR
113	Wicked Enchantment	Wanda Coleman	Washington Post
114	World Of Wonders: In Praise Of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, And Other Astonishments	Aimee Nezhukumatathil	NPR
115	Wow, No Thank You.: Essays	Samantha Irby	NPR
116	You Want More: Selected Stories Of George Singleton	George Singleton	NPR

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14 Best Poetry Book Sources/Lists

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Source	Article
Barnes & Noble	Barnes & Noble’s Best Poetry of 2020
Book Riot	Best Books of 2020 (So Far)
BookPage	Each of these poetry books is a balm—for the soul and for the world
Financial Times	Best books of 2020: Poetry
Goodreads	Best Poetry
Largehearted Boy	Favorite Poetry Collections of 2020
Library Journal	Best Poetry of 2020
NPR	NPR’s Book Concierge
NY Times	100 Notable Books of 2020
NYPL	Best Books for Adults 2020
Publishers Weekly	Best Poetry Books
The Guardian	Poetry
The Telegraph	The best poetry books of 2020
Washington Post	Best poetry collections of 2020