MARCH 2026

"Because we do this work wholeheartedly, tirelessly, intensely, and passionately, we are thankful to be celebrated and championed during this season in history."

—Annar Veröld-Miranda, publisher and co-executive director of Host Publications, winner of the 2026 Constellation Award

Every month, we spotlight books that have received extra attention lately—and in March, we're thrilled to showcase our Constellation Award winner, Host Publications. Be sure to take a look at these titles:

The Hungering Years by Summer Farah (Host Publications | 979-8-9905483-4-3), a debut poetry collection, is “a rush of breathless song, voicing confessions so often left unsung amidst personal and collective crisis.” Hanif Abdurraqib says, “These poems are richly and generously populated, and teeming with beauty.”

Wayward Creatures by heidi andrea restrepo rhodes (Host Publications | 978-1-7376050-8-9) is a poetry collection in which “the colonizer’s language has been overgrown by an ecology of strangeness and possibility—poetry disrupts, rituals, and revolts, rendering queer abolition irresistible.” Aracelis Girmay says, “These striking, sensuous poems are vibrant with dreaming and embodied political analysis.”

they/she/he: ritual to forget your [un]becoming by dezireé a. brown (Host Publications | 979-8-9905483-2-9)—a debut poetry collection “influenced by video game worlds, choose-your-own adventures, and a multifaceted collective of Mesopotamian goddesses”—is “a conjuring of selves encountered through gender who arise to meet one another in all their Black queer joy and rage.” Destiny Hemphill calls it “at once speculative excavation and glorious incantation.”

local remedies by Chiagoziem Jideofor (Host Publications | 979-8-9905483-6-7) is a debut poetry collection that “dismantles colonial histories and reshapes them” and explores Igbo stories “through memory, myth, and strangeness.” ‘Gbenga Adeoba says, “I am grateful for this poet and the worlds to which her poems and imagination call us.”

Host Publications is distributed by Asterism Books. Bookseller ordering information can be found here.

"We have continued to remain true to and build upon our long-standing mission of celebrating writers from all backgrounds, especially people of color who have historically been overlooked/under-represented by the publishing world as a whole."

—Gabriel Cleveland, executive director and managing editor of CavanKerry Press, finalist for the 2026 Constellation Award

April is Arab American Heritage Month, and to help you celebrate, we've put together a roundup of eleven poetry collections, all from indie presses, to spotlight for the occasion and year-round.

Celebrate National Poetry Month, observed every April, with poetry! The sixteen poetry collections in this roundup were all honored with major awards in 2024 and 2025.

In our latest spotlight on a print literary magazine, Timothy Schaffert, editor in chief of Prairie Schooner, says, "I imagine, as we lean into the next hundred years, we’ll have writers and readers of literature rejecting the digital age; we’ll benefit from the pleasures people are taking by locking their phones up, closing their laptops, writing on typewriters, reading books and magazines in print."

March is Women's History Month! Don't miss our roundup of sixteen books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, all from indie presses, to spotlight for the occasion and year-round.

Discover poetry, fiction, and nonfiction published last month by independent literary publishers—including Alice James Books, Graywolf Press, Orison Books, Sarabande Books, Yellow Arrow Publishing, and more.