Jupiter Hammon was born on October 17, 1711. He is known as the father of African American literature, a distinction that recognizes him as the first published African American poet. Black poetry day began in 1985 as a day to honor Hammon and has since transformed into a celebration of Black poets past and present. The poetry books and novels-in-verse were all published this year, and three, Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, Home Is Not a Country, and Me (Moth) made the Longlist for the 2021 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, with the latter moving into the finalist category.
The October release date of Alice Walker’s Sweet People Are Everywhere (Tra Publishing) has been changed to November 2, 2021. Go to our Bookshop Page for more poetry books and verse novels!
1. Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem
Amanda Gorman | Loren Long | Viking | September 21, 2021 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
2. What Do You Know?
Aracelis Girmay | Ariana Fields | Enchanted Lion Books | September 07, 2021 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
3. Coyote’s Soundbite: A Poem for Our Planet
John Agard | Piet Grobler | Lantana Publishing | April 6, 2021 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
4. What the Road Said
Cleo Wade | Lucie de Moyencourt | Feiwel & Friends | March 23, 2021 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
5. Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre
Carole Boston Weatherford | Floyd Cooper | Carolrhoda Books | February 2, 2021 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
6. America, My Love, America, My Heart
Daria Peoples-Riley | Greenwillow Books | April 6, 2021 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
7. Me (Moth)
Amber McBride | Feiwel & Friends | August 17, 2021 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
8. The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country
Amanda Gorman | Viking BYR | March 30, 2021 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
9. Home Is Not a Country
Safia Elhillo | Make Me a World | March 2, 2021 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
10. Muted
Tami Charles | Scholastic Press | February 2, 2021 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
11. Chlorine Sky
Mahogany L. Browne | Crown BYR | January 12, 2021 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
12. Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance
Nikki Grimes | Bloomsbury Children’s Books | January 5, 2021 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
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