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Editor’s Note: Jan. ‘25: Year One: What worked, what didn’t, and what to expect
by Aiden Hunt
“Happy New Year! Welcome to year two of the strange little poetry and poetics journal called the Philly Poetry Chapbook Review!” Editor Aiden Hunt looks back at our first year and discusses changes to Philly Poetry Chapbook Review in 2025.
Book Excerpt: Further Thought by Rae Armantrout
by Philly Poetry Chapbook Review
“This poem is about the troubled human relationship to meaning. … I thought about Genesis—not so much Adam and Eve as the voice out of the burning bush or the whirlwind. The second part came from watching my twin granddaughters acquiring language.” Read the featured Excerpt Poem of the Month for January 2025, “Further Thought” from Go Figure by Rae Armantrout, along with a few words from the poet.
Chapbook Poem: The Poem as an Act of Betrayal by Benjamin S. Grossberg
by Philly Poetry Chapbook Review
“Consider how powerful an act of witnessing can be. How it validates and affirms. This poem is built on just the opposite gesture, a refusal to witness my mother’s dying as a thing happening to her…” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for January 2025, “The Poem as an Act of Betrayal” from As Are Right Fit by Benjamin S. Grossberg, along with a few words from the poet.
by A. L. Nielsen
“That was the era when the ‘DMV,’ as we now call the District-Maryland-Virginia region, was constructing the Metro system, and streets were torn up everywhere. The project was an employment boom for the area, and also brought many experienced mining workers to the city to operate the huge machines that were chewing and crawling their way through the earth beneath our feet.” Read five poems by poet A.L. Nielsen, our first biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue, along with a few words about the poem “When We Walked”.
by Shelli Rottschafer
“‘Because We Remember’ was first written January 16, 2023 in remembrance of Martin Luther King Junior Day. This docu-poetics protest poem nods toward the need for Peaceful Protest and the right to use our voice for Social Justice.” Read three poems by poet Shelli Rottschafer, our second biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue, along with a few words about the poem “Because We Remember.”
Review: Dancing With the Dead: On Ragnarök at the Father-Daughter Dance by Todd Dillard
by D.W. Baker
“Todd Dillard successfully transgresses the unspoken cultural embargo on work that grapples with life during the COVID-19 pandemic in his new chapbook, Ragnarök at the Father-Daughter Dance… By tracing the surfaces presented to us by the poet, readers can approximate the mass and location of disease and loss underneath.” Read the full review.
by Wendell Hawken
“As our family hurtled down the rabbit hole of disability, my writing gave me an outlet for my heightened awareness, and something to do—like ‘the Lourdes water’—sitting in my helpless place. Now 13 years later, revisiting old drafts, as poets do, I found a rough form of this piece that took me right back to Shepherd.” Read three poems by poet Wendell Hawken, our third biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue, along with a few words about the poem “First Hurt”.
Book Excerpt: Slow Chalk by Elaine Equi
by Philly Poetry Chapbook Review
“‘Slow Chalk’ takes a big picture, almost cosmic, point of view – like watching something evolve over a long period of time. But it’s also about someone trying to discover, in the moment, what they actually do believe in.” Read the featured Excerpt Poem of the Month for February 2025, “Slow Chalk” from Out of the Blank by Elaine Equi, along with a few words from the poet.
Chapbook Poem: Caro M. by Angela Siew
by Philly Poetry Chapbook Review
“I was intrigued by the idea of how love/other feelings can change from place to place and how place affects those feelings. In this poem, I was also interested in the breath of a shorter line and how spacing can enhance this for the reader.” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for February 2025, “Caro M.” from Coming Home by Angela Siew, along with a few words from the poet.
by Natalie Marino
Read four poems by poet Natalie Marino, our fourth biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue.
Author Interview: A Conversation with Kate Colby
by Aiden Hunt
“I decided to write a poem for each of the 88 official constellations. I barely made it to 25 before I ran out of steam, but the impetus worked, and the poems in ThingKing are the bulk of the result.” Poet Kate Colby discusses her latest chapbook, ThingKing, her creative writing practices, and her penchant for poetry chapbooks with PCR Editor Aiden Hunt in this interview piece.
by Adele Ross
“‘Heavy Water’ suggests fatalism as a way to accept and move with reality rather than succumb to it. We can and should improve our realities, but we can’t fault ourselves for our smallness. My hope is that my work illuminates the creative process as a microcosm of this balance.” Read three poems by poet Adele Ross, our fifth biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue, along with a few words about the poem “Heavy Water”.
Book Excerpt: The Self-Combed Woman by Laynie Browne
by Philly Poetry Chapbook Review
“The term ‘self-combed woman’ refers to a cultural phenomenon of marriage resistance in the Pearl River Delta in Southern China between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. ‘Self-combed’ women chose independence and life-long chastity.” Read the featured Excerpt Poem of the Month for March 2025, “The Self-Combed Woman” from Apprentice to a Breathing Hand by Laynie Browne, along with a few words from the poet.
Chapbook Poem: To Let Go by Deirdre Garr Johns
by Philly Poetry Chapbook Review
“[T]his poem brings closure to more than just what we experience when we fall in and out of love. The poem captures the whimsical dandelion ‘fluff’ – willing to free itself from its core. In letting go, renewal is found.” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for March 2025, “To Let Go” from Fallen Love by Deirdre Garr Johns, along with a few words from the poet.
by Sarena Tien
“All too often, I’ve witnessed monolingual speakers engage in linguistic discrimination, so I began gathering my mom’s mispronunciations to show how accents should be seen as a source of love, struggle, and sacrifice and not as grounds for judgment.” Read four poems by poet Sarena Tien, our sixth biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue, along with a few words about the poem “Mother Tongue”.
Review: Life’s Lazy River Journey: On Tributaries by Aspen Everett
by Shelli Rottschafer
“A thread of adulation for matriarchal spirituality and the lifegiving value of water runs through the collection. Its first poem pays homage to [Toni] Morrison… The poems encourage us to care for the places in which we live, the people we encounter, and most importantly, for ourselves.” Read the full chapbook review by Shelli Rottschafer.
by Jeanne Bamforth
“This is part of a series of poems where I explore my experience of learning to sail later in life, an activity brought on by falling in love with someone who loves sailing more than anything – everything – else.” Read three poems by poet Jeanne Bamforth, our seventh and final biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue, along with a few words about the poem “New Course.”
New Books
New Poetry Titles (1/7/25)
New Poetry Titles (1/14/25)
Poetry Chapbooks (December 2024)
New Poetry Titles (1/21/25)
New Poetry Titles (1/28/25)
New Poetry Titles (2/4/25)
New Poetry Titles (2/11/25)
Poetry Chapbooks (January 2025)
New Poetry Titles (2/18/25)
New Poetry Titles (2/25/25)
New Poetry Titles (3/4/25)
New Poetry Titles (3/11/25)
Poetry Chapbooks (February 2025)
New Poetry Titles (3/18/25)
New Poetry Titles (3/25/25)
Meet Our Contributors
Meet Our Contributor: Shelli Rottschafer
Meet Our Contributor: D.W. Baker
Meet Our Contributor: Wendell Hawken
Meet Our Contributor: Sarena Tien
