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An indispensable collection of more than four decades of profound, luminous poetry from acclaimed poet Marie Howe.
Characterized by "a radical simplicity and seriousness of purpose, along with a fearless interest in autobiography and its tragedies and redemptions" (Matthew Zapruder, New York Times Magazine), Marie Howe's poetry transforms penetrating observations of everyday life into sacred, humane miracles. This essential volume draws from each of Howe's four previous collections―including What the Living Do (1997), a haunting archive of personal loss, and the National Book Award–longlisted Magdalene (2017), a spiritual and sensual exploration of contemporary womanhood―and contains twenty new poems. Whether speaking in the voice of the goddess Persephone or thinking about aging while walking the dog, Howe is "a light-bearer, an extraordinary poet of our human sorrow and ordinary joy" (Dorianne Laux).
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (1/22/2026)
I finished "New and Selected Poems by Marie Howe"and really enjoyed some of the selections. I should have time to finish "Skipping Christmas" by John Grisham tomorrow and start the apparently heavy...
-Anthony_Conty
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (1/15/2026)
I am reading "New and Selected Poems" by Marie Howe. It won the Pulitzer, and I read the winner every year, even though I struggle with poetry. It is a little uneven, but some of them are very deep. I was very pleased with "The Correspondent" last week and cannot wait to see what else Virginia Ev...
-Anthony_Conty
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (1/8/2026)
...hed The Correspondent yesterday and really enjoyed it. The ending packs are punch and you get what the author was trying to say. I am going to start "New and Selected Poems by Marie Howe," the Pulitzer Winner for Poetry, later tonight.
-Anthony_Conty
Who Has Read the Pulitzer Winners?
...Native Nations: A Millenium in North America," "Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life," "Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir," "New and Selected Poems by Marie Howe," or "To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement"? These categories of History, Memoir, and Poetry take me...
-Anthony_Conty
Pulitzer Prize, 2025
"Howe's bountiful fifth collection (after Magdalene) offers a crown of new poems to open selections from her quietly astonishing body of work…the unmistakable objects of Howe's attention remain steadfastly present ('thing and spirit both: the real/ world: evident, invisible'), suffused by a tender doom. This is a necessary compilation for times of crisis." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A sampling 30 years of [Howe's] acutely observed verse…Howe's poems, both new and old, are a revelation as she expertly illuminates quiet, intimate moments." ―Minneapolis Star Tribune
"[New and Selected Poems] makes a concise case for Howe's status as an essential poet…Marie Howe is writing some of the most devastating and devastatingly true poems of her career―and some of the best being written by anyone…Howe is the rare poet whose poems one wants to hug closely for company, companionship, and empathy; and yet they are works of literature of the highest order, layered, full of booby traps and shoots and ladders that suddenly transport one between the words. It's tough love that these poems offer, but it's undeniably love." ―NPR
This information about New and Selected Poems was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Marie Howe is the former poet laureate of New York. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Academy of American Poets, she teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.
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