April is National Poetry Month, and here are eleven novels in verse that deserve a place on your shelf and reading list–plus two more for later!

Just Another Epic Love Poem by Parisa Akhbari

Told in lyrical, confessional prose and snippets of poetry Just Another Epic Love Poem takes readers on a journey that is equal parts joyful, heartbreaking, and funny as Mitra and Bea navigate the changing nature of I love you.

Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson

Black Girl You Are Atlas encourages young readers to embrace their future with a strong sense of sisterhood and celebration. With full-color art by celebrated fine artist Ekua Holmes throughout, this collection offers guidance and is a gift for anyone who reads it.

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

Joy McCullough’s bold novel in verse is a portrait of an artist as a young woman, filled with the soaring highs of creative inspiration and the devastating setbacks of a system built to break her.

Bless the Blood by Walela Nehanda

A searing debut YA poetry and essay collection about a Black cancer patient who faces medical racism after being diagnosed with leukemia in their early twenties, for fans of Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals and Laurie Halse Anderson’s Shout.

Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman

Enter the Body by Joy McCullough

In the room beneath a stage’s trapdoor, Shakespeare’s dead teenage girls compare their experiences and retell the stories of their lives, their loves, and their fates in their own words. Bestselling author Joy McCullough offers a brilliant testament to how young women can support each other and reclaim their stories in the aftermath of trauma.

When We Make It by Elisabet Velasquez

An unforgettable, torrential, and hopeful debut young adult novel-in-verse that redefines what it means to “make it,” for readers of Nicholasa Mohr and Elizabeth Acevedo.

And We Rise by Erica Martin

A powerful, impactful, eye-opening journey that explores through the Civil Rights Movement in 1950s-1960s America in spare and evocative verse, with historical photos interspersed throughout.

Respect the Mic

An expansive, moving poetry anthology, representing 20 years of poetry from students and alumni of Chicago’s Oak Park River Forest High School Spoken Word Club.

SHOUT by Laurie Halse Anderson

A New York Times bestseller and one of 2019’s best-reviewed books, a poetic memoir and call to action from the award-winning author of Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson!

African Town by Charles Waters and Irene Latham

Chronicling the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860, African Town is a powerful and stunning novel-in-verse.

Mark your TBR for…

Sync by Ellen Hopkins – August 27

From #1 NYTbestselling author Ellen Hopkins comes a new heartbreaking young adult novel in verse about twins separated in the foster care system and the different paths their lives take.

Light Enough to Float by Lauren Seal – October 8 v

Deeply moving and authentic, this debut novel-in-verse follows teenage Evie through her eating disorder treatment and recovery―a Wintergirls for a new generation.