Tulips are red, violets are blue, and we’ve got better poetry than this to share with you.
April is National Poetry Month, and we called Open Books: A Poem Emporium in Wallingford to hear what poetry titles by Northwest authors or presses have been flying off the shelves this season. Why Open Books? Get this: Not only is it the sole all-poetry bookstore in Seattle, it’s one of just four poetry-only bookstores in the entire U.S.
Billie Swift is Open Books’ owner — and a poet herself. Ten thousand titles are hanging out in her 500-square-foot shop, and these, in no particular order, are the ones she told us Seattle’s poetry community is scooping up the fastest:
- This Glittering Republic by Quenton Baker
- A Song of Dismantling by Fernando Perez
- The Empty Season by Catherine Bresner
- Water & Salt by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
- Mary’s Dust by Melinda Mueller (published by local press Entre Ríos Books)
- Ram Hands by Ellen Welcker (published by NW press Scablands Books)
- Book of Exodus by Kathryn Smith (published by NW press Scablands Books)
- (v.) by Anastacia-Renée Tolbert (published by local press Gramma Poetry) — Psst! Anastacia-Renee is Seattle’s civic poet.
- Killing Marías by Claudia Castro Luna (published by local press Two Sylvias Press) — Psst! Claudia is Washington’s poet laureate
Thanks to everyone who recommended we chat with Open Books and shared out other awesome poetry resources in the city. If you read one of these, let us know what you think. 📚