21 must-read nonfiction books like Owed by Joshua Bennett

Cover of Owed by Joshua Bennett

Owed

By: Joshua Bennett

4.24

Format: 96 pages, Paperback

From a 2021 Whiting Award and Guggenheim Fellow recipient, a “rhapsodic, rigorous poetry collection…

If you liked the nonfiction plot in Owed by Joshua Bennett , here is a list of 21 books like this:

Cover of Dream Work by Mary Oliver

1. Dream Work

By: Mary Oliver

4.35

Format: 90 pages, Paperback

Dream Work, a collection of forty-five poems, follows both chronologically and logically Mary Olive… read more

Similar categories in Mary Oliver's Dream Work book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
"I saw what love might have done had we loved in time."

-Mary Oliver, Dream Work

"I wanted to live my life but I didn’t want to do what I had to do to go on,"

-Mary Oliver, Dream Work

"Mostly, I want to be kind. And nobody, of course, is kind, or mean, for a simple reason."

-Mary Oliver, Dream Work

"the black fox that lies down to sleep beneath you, the moon staring with her bone-white eye"

-Mary Oliver, Dream Work

Cover of The Wild Iris by Louise Glück

2. The Wild Iris

By: Louise Glück

4.18

Format: 65 pages, Paperback

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature From Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louise Glück, a stunnin… read more

Similar categories in Louise Glück's The Wild Iris book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • contemporary
  • poetry
  • the united states of america
"things that can't move learn to see"

-Louise Glück, The Wild Iris

" No one's despair is like my despair-- "

-Louise Glück, The Wild Iris

"I'm tired of you, chaos of the living world--"

-Louise Glück, The Wild Iris

"What does the horse give you That I cannot give you?"

-Louise Glück, The Wild Iris

Cover of Look by Solmaz Sharif

3. Look

By: Solmaz Sharif

4.16

Format: 84 pages,

*Finalist for the 2017 PEN Open Book Award* *Finalist for the 2016 National Book Award* Solmaz Shar… read more

Similar categories in Solmaz Sharif's Look book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • the united states of america
Cover of Don't Call Us Dead: Poems by Danez Smith

4. Don't Call Us Dead: Poems

By: Danez Smith

3.97

Format: 0 pages, Paperback

The highly anticipated second collection by Danez Smith--"Hallelujah is an understatement" (Patrici… read more

Similar categories in Danez Smith's Don't Call Us Dead: Poems book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
Cover of Incarnadine: Poems by Mary Szybist

5. Incarnadine: Poems

By: Mary Szybist

3.00

Format: 76 pages, Paperback

The troubadours knew how to burn themselves through, how to make themselves shrines to their own lo… read more

Similar categories in Mary Szybist's Incarnadine: Poems book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • the united states of america
Cover of Counting Descent by Clint   Smith

6. Counting Descent

By: Clint Smith

4.50

Format: None pages, Paperback

Clint Smith's debut poetry collection, Counting Descent, is a coming of age story that seeks to com… read more

Similar categories in Clint Smith's Counting Descent book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • african american
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
Cover of Crush by Richard Siken

7. Crush

By: Richard Siken

3.67

Format: None pages, Paperback

Richard Siken's Crush, selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful c… read more

Similar categories in Richard Siken's Crush book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • contemporary

8. Calling a Wolf a Wolf

By: Kaveh Akbar

4.00

Format: 98 pages, Paperback

"The struggle from late youth on, with and without God, agony, narcotics and love is a torment rare… read more

Similar categories in Kaveh Akbar's Calling a Wolf a Wolf book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

9. Blue Horses

By: Mary Oliver

4.24

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

In this stunning collection of new poems, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her l… read more

Similar categories in Mary Oliver's Blue Horses book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

10. What Is This Thing Called Love: Poems

By: Kim Addonizio

4.24

Format: 128 pages, Paperback

A chestnut with a white blaze is scorching across the turf towards the finishing post. read more

Similar categories in Kim Addonizio's What Is This Thing Called Love: Poems book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

Cover of Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans

11. Black Girl, Call Home

By: Jasmine Mans

4.44

Format: 245 pages, Paperback

From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, a… read more

Similar categories in Jasmine Mans's Black Girl, Call Home book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • african american
  • nonfiction
"I know grace and mercy was raised by the same single mother."

-Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

"Are women labeled crazy when you feel like their rage outweighs the evidence of their pain?"

-Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

Cover of Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

12. Time Is a Mother

By: Ocean Vuong

3.94

Format: 114 pages, Hardcover

In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershoc… read more

Similar categories in Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • contemporary
Cover of The Tradition by Jericho Brown

13. The Tradition

By: Jericho Brown

4.24

Format: 77 pages, Paperback

Jericho Brown’s daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at … read more

Similar categories in Jericho Brown's The Tradition book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • african american
  • social justice
  • contemporary
"The opposite of rape is understanding."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

"Nobody in this nation feels safe, and I'm still a reason why."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

"There is the happiness you have And the happiness you deserve."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

"We few left who listen to the radio leave Ourselves available to surprise."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

Cover of Pilgrim Bell: Poems by Kaveh Akbar

14. Pilgrim Bell: Poems

By: Kaveh Akbar

4.24

Format: 80 pages, Paperback

Kaveh Akbar’s exquisite, highly anticipated follow-up to Calling a Wolf a Wolf. With formal virtuos… read more

Similar categories in Kaveh Akbar's Pilgrim Bell: Poems book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • the united states of america
"Wrath is the desire to repay what you've suffered."

-Kaveh Akbar, Pilgrim Bell: Poems

"Whatever I learn makes me angry to have learned it."

-Kaveh Akbar, Pilgrim Bell: Poems

Cover of The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi

15. The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

By: Franny Choi

3.99

Format: 144 pages, Hardcover

From acclaimed poet Franny Choi comes a poetry collection for the ends of worlds--past, present, an… read more

Similar categories in Franny Choi's The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • contemporary
"I have last year's ashes in my throat, stories stuffed so full of morals they bleed sugar."

-Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

"How can I explain the things and things and things I did wrong? I was never any good at telling the difference between what wanted me and what wanted me gone"

-Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

Cover of Girls That Never Die: Poems by Safia Elhillo

16. Girls That Never Die: Poems

By: Safia Elhillo

4.30

Format: 144 pages, Paperback

Intimate poems that explore feminine shame and violence and imagine what liberation from these thre… read more

Similar categories in Safia Elhillo's Girls That Never Die: Poems book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
"I will begin by writing a sentence about cutting. I will begin by writing a sentence about silence. I will continue by writing a sentence about cutting. I will proceed to ask the question about cutti…"

-Safia Elhillo, Girls That Never Die: Poems

Cover of Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire

17. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

By: Warsan Shire

4.21

Format: 86 pages, Paperback

Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma, and resilience from the celebrated collaborator on Beyoncé's… read more

Similar categories in Warsan Shire's Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
"You only leave home when home won't let you stay."

-Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

"No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark."

-Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

"Under your feet, the trapdoor to heaven opens its mouth, its teeth grazing your toes."

-Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

"Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women. Sometimes, the men--they come with keys, and sometimes, the men--they come with hammers."

-Warsan Shire, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

Cover of Alive At The End Of The World by Saeed Jones

18. Alive At The End Of The World

By: Saeed Jones

4.35

Format: 104 pages, Paperback

Pierced by grief and charged with history, this new poetry collection from the award-winning author… read more

Similar categories in Saeed Jones's Alive At The End Of The World book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • african american
  • nonfiction
"The end of the world was mistaken for just another midday massacre in America."

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

"I wish I knew a woman who was both the light and every shadow the light pierces."

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

"I'm most dangerous when I'm hungry. I'm most hungry when I'm hurting. Seems like I'm always hurting."

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

"A few months and many deaths ago, I asked someone "how are you doing" and felt, in the way her eye fell, how I had failed her before I had even reached the end of my question. I've hurt many people b…"

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

Cover of Homie by Danez Smith

19. Homie

By: Danez Smith

4.42

Format: 96 pages, Paperback

Homie is Danez Smith’s magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss … read more

Similar categories in Danez Smith's Homie book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
"the b in debt is a silent black trapped"

-Danez Smith, Homie

"what good is hiding the gun & locking the cabinet if the boy can still find his own hands? if anything that loops can be a rope?"

-Danez Smith, Homie

Cover of Goldenrod: Poems by Maggie  Smith

20. Goldenrod: Poems

By: Maggie Smith

3.94

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning poet and bestselling author of Keep Moving and Good Bones, a stunning poetry… read more

Similar categories in Maggie Smith's Goldenrod: Poems book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
"I am offering the only thing I have. I am holding out my hand, feeding myself to the hungry future."

-Maggie Smith, Goldenrod: Poems

Cover of Dearly by Margaret Atwood

21. Dearly

By: Margaret Atwood

3.74

Format: 124 pages, Hardcover

A new book of poetry from internationally acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling author Margaret … read more

Similar categories in Margaret Atwood's Dearly book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
"If there were no emptiness, there would be no life."

-Margaret Atwood, Dearly

"Lwy nie wiedzą, że są lwami. Nie wiedzą, jak bardzo są odważne"."

-Margaret Atwood, Dearly

"Many things that are not what you want arrive in the disguise of flowers."

-Margaret Atwood, Dearly

"Here are the tulips, budded and full-blown, their swoops and dips, their gloss and poses, the satin of their darks."

-Margaret Atwood, Dearly

Cover of Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Díaz

22. Postcolonial Love Poem

By: Natalie Díaz

4.33

Format: 107 pages, Paperback

Natalie Diaz’s highly anticipated follow-up to When My Brother Was an Aztec, winner of an American … read more

Similar categories in Natalie Díaz's Postcolonial Love Poem book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
"Unsoothable thirst is one kind of haunting"

-Natalie Díaz, Postcolonial Love Poem

"In Mojave, our words for want and need are the same – because why would you want what you don’t need?"

-Natalie Díaz, Postcolonial Love Poem

"Maybe death is a way to clean the self, of the body, to finally celebrate it. A celebration should leave a mess."

-Natalie Díaz, Postcolonial Love Poem

"At the National Museum of the American Indian, 68 percent of the collection is from the United States. I am doing my best to not become a museum of myself. I am doing my best to breathe in and out."

-Natalie Díaz, Postcolonial Love Poem

Cover of Customs: Poems by Solmaz Sharif

23. Customs: Poems

By: Solmaz Sharif

4.21

Format: 86 pages, Paperback

In Customs , Solmaz Sharif examines what it means to exist in the nowhere of the arrivals terminal,… read more

Similar categories in Solmaz Sharif's Customs: Poems book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • contemporary
  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • the united states of america
Cover of The Chiffon Trenches by André Leon Talley

24. The Chiffon Trenches

By: André Leon Talley

3.83

Format: 284 pages, Hardcover

During André Leon Talley's first magazine job, alongside Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeti… read more

Similar categories in André Leon Talley's The Chiffon Trenches book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • nonfiction
"On holidays, I cave in to the memory of love, and associate desserts and eating with the love I experienced at my grandmother's table. She was a great cook, and sweets crowded the side console cabine…"

-André Leon Talley, The Chiffon Trenches

Cover of Flèche by Mary Jean Chan

25. Flèche

By: Mary Jean Chan

4.23

Format: 78 pages, Paperback

Flèche (the French word for 'arrow') is an offensive technique commonly used in fencing, a sport of… read more

Similar categories in Mary Jean Chan's Flèche book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
"What does three years of famine teach a person? Nothing."

-Mary Jean Chan, Flèche

"if the legislators of our world looked to their trees for guidance would they reconsider everything?"

-Mary Jean Chan, Flèche

Cover of Pig: Poems by Sam Sax

26. Pig: Poems

By: Sam Sax

4.32

Format: 112 pages, Paperback

From the brilliantly talented National Poetry Series and James Laughlin Award winner comes a third … read more

Similar categories in Sam Sax's Pig: Poems book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
Cover of A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib

27. A Fortune for Your Disaster

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

4.47

Format: None pages, None

In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and mu… read more

Similar categories in Hanif Abdurraqib's A Fortune for Your Disaster book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • african american
  • nonfiction
Cover of Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

28. Wade in the Water: Poems

By: Tracy K. Smith

4.10

Format: 95 pages, Kindle Edition

The extraordinary new poetry collection by Tracy K. Smith, the Poet Laureate of the United States … read more

Similar categories in Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • african american
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
"History is a ship forever setting sail."

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

"In the '70s, everything shone as bright as brass."

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

"Is it strange to say love is a language Few practice, but all, or near all speak?"

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

"Is this some enigmatic type of test? What if we Fail? How and to whom do we address our appeal?"

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

Cover of Finna by Nate Marshall

29. Finna

By: Nate Marshall

4.49

Format: 128 pages, Paperback

Dynamic poems that celebrate the Black vernacular and engage with the world through the lens of Hip… read more

Similar categories in Nate Marshall's Finna book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • african american
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
Cover of Owed by Joshua Bennett

30. Owed

By: Joshua Bennett

4.24

Format: 96 pages, Paperback

From a 2021 Whiting Award and Guggenheim Fellow recipient, a “rhapsodic, rigorous poetry collection… read more

Similar categories in Joshua Bennett's Owed book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • poetry
  • the united states of america
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • contemporary
  • african american
Cover of Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi

31. Little Rot

By: Akwaeke Emezi

3.67

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

A thrilling new novel from the bestselling, award-winning Akwaeke Emezi, about five friends trying … read more

Similar categories in Akwaeke Emezi's Little Rot book and Joshua Bennett's Owed

  • contemporary

16 must-read contemporary books like Owed by Joshua Bennett

Transform Your Habits

The Wild Iris

Louise Glück

4.18

Transform Your Habits

Don't Call Us Dead: Poems

Danez Smith

3.97

Transform Your Habits

Crush

Richard Siken

3.67

Transform Your Habits

Time Is a Mother

Ocean Vuong

3.94

View all the books

12 must-read contemporary books like Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire

Transform Your Habits

Time Is a Mother

Ocean Vuong

3.94

Transform Your Habits

If They Come for Us

Fatimah Asghar

4.24

Transform Your Habits

The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

Franny Choi

3.99

Transform Your Habits

Girls That Never Die: Poems

Safia Elhillo

4.30

View all the books

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