Once again December brings an opportunity to reflect upon the year’s publications. Like previous years, my “most engaging books” list reflects what I found most fascinating / useful / generative in terms of form & content. Seek out these volumes; every one will reward the search (your local, independent, bookstore can help). This is the cream of the crop for 2019, seriously:

Aguiar, Fernando. Poems without Words (Timglaset). 

Barwin, Gary. (Alessandro Porco, Ed.) For it is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe. (Wolsak and Wynn)

Cage, John. Diary: How to Improve the World (You will only make matters worse). (Siglio)

Cage, John. Love, Icebox: Letters from John Cage to Merce Cunningham. (John Cage Trust)

Courtois, Gregoire. (Rhonda Mullins, trans.) The Laws of the Skies. (Coach House Books)

Dworkin, Craig. The Pine-Woods Notebook (Kenning)

Leslie, Woody. Understanding Molecular Typography. (Ugly Duckling Presse)

rawlings, angela. Sound of Mull. (Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology)

Terry, Philip, Ed. The Penguin Book of Oulipo. (Penguin)

Waider, Isabel. We Are Made of Diamond Stuff. (Dostoevsky Wannabe)

Zawacki, Andrew. Un/Sun. (Coach House Books)