The University of Michigan—LSA, in particular—has a long history of poetic greatness. W.H. Auden, Joseph Brodsky, Anne Carson, Robert Frost, Robert Hayden, Jane Kenyon, Frank O’Hara, and Theodore Roethke are some of the most well-known poets who have studied and taught here. This tradition of verse continues at LSA with acclaimed contemporary work from recent alumni.
Here are a few collections worth celebrating this National Poetry Month and beyond.
- Kenzie Allen’s (M.F.A. ’14) debut book Cloud Missives (Tin House, 2024) has been described as “an investigation, a manifestation, and a celebration: of the body, of what we make and remake, of the self, and of the heart. With care and deep attention, it asks what one can reimagine of Indigenous personhood in the wake of colonialism,” and was longlisted for a 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award.
- Irregular Heartbeats at the Park West, written by Russell Brakefield (M.F.A. ’11), and published by Wayne State University Press in 2024, “explores how poetry can be influenced, propped up, and contorted by the American canon.”
- Franny Choi’s (M.F.A. ’18) The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On (Ecco/Harper Collins, 2022) moves forward and backward in time, describing the multiple apocalypses of human history and imagining hope and solidarity in the future.
- Autobiomythography of by Ayokunle Falomo (M.F.A. ’21), published by Alice James Books in 2024, was awarded an Honor-Winner title for the Texas Institute of Letters 2025 Burdine C. Johnson Award for Best Book of Poetry. It examines mythmaking, joys, worries, and the identity of a Nigerian man living in Houston, Texas
- Hanae Jonas’s (M.F.A. ’16) poetry collection, Softly Undercover (Mad Creek Books/The Ohio State University Press, 2024) is described by Linda Gregerson, Helen Zell Writers’ Program Caroline Walker Bynum Distinguished University Professor of English, as “spell-woven...A bold and absorbing debut."
- Molly Pershin Raynor’s (A.B. ’06) debut book, Zaftig (Fifth Street Press, 2024), is a love-letter to the wild women of her family, “imbued with deep Judaic traditions and a sprinkle of Yiddish.”
- Homie (Graywolf Press, 2020) by Danez Smith (M.F.A. ’17), is dedicated to Smith’s friends. “Part friendship diary, part bright elegy, part war cry, Homie is the exuberant new book written for Danez and for Danez’s friends and for you and for yours,” says the publisher’s description.
- In Concentrate (Graywolf Press, 2022) by Courtney Faye Taylor (M.F.A. ’17) the poet melds visual art, archival collage, essayistic meditations, and verse, centered on the murder of of Latasha Harlins—a 15-year-old Black girl killed in Los Angeles in 1991 after being falsely accused of shoplifting a bottle of orange juice. Taylor’s debut is the winner of the Poetry Society of America’s 2023 Four Quartets Prize, and she was a Finalist for the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work–Poetry.
Look to Michigan for the foundational knowledge and experience to ignite purposeful change.
LSA is the place where creative thinkers engage with a complex, diverse, and changing world. See how your support can make an impact on what’s next, for a better tomorrow. Learn more.
