Best Books 2025: Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

The Intentions of Thunder

Patricia Smith (Simon & Schuster)

Smith’s astonishing volume of selected and previously uncollected work reveals memory to be an act of defiance and love in poems that resurrect past voices and rejoice in the spirit of Black joy. It’s an unforgettable offering from one of the most important voices in poetry.

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The New Book: Poems, Letters, Blurbs, and Things

Nikki Giovanni (Morrow)

In this moving posthumous collection, Giovanni gathers poems and reflections that are alive with gratitude and wit. Her steadfast, wise voice traces happiness and sorrow as it brings friends and literary confidants to the page. The result is a testament to resilience and a reminder of poetry’s lasting guidance.

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The New Economy

Gabrielle Calvocoressi (Copper Canyon)

With humor, tenderness, and curiosity, Calvocoressi explores the dichotomy of human embodiment: the “skin sack” of the corporeal form and the “light body” of the soul. These poems celebrate the wisdom of aging, the pain of longing, and the strangeness of being alive and sentient.

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An Optimism

Cameron Awkward-Rich (Persea)

Expansive and introspective, this collection offers a rich portrait of Black trans life during a dangerous political moment. Weaving together past and present, Awkward-Rich celebrates the imagination of Black activists and thinkers. Marked by its hopefulness for the possibility of self-actualization, this is a generous and revelatory volume.

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Regaining Unconsciousness

Harryette Mullen (Graywolf)

Mullen delivers an unsettling and incisive interrogation of the technology-driven world. A work of unflinching imagination, its timely dystopian lens makes the connection between innovation, commerce, and the climate catastrophe plain.

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