I’m not exaggerating when I say I only found out about the Sealey Challenge a day into August this year. With the amount of poetry books I’ve collected over the years from my alma mater’s book sales and various PDFs in my Google Drive, this was the perfect excuse to catch up on reading poetry.

While I couldn’t read a collection a day—actually, only three in total— I did want to show which books and chapbooks I was able to finally enjoy.

Xenos by Joanna C. Valente

Valente’s other collections have always been hauntingly beautiful, and this chapbook of the immigrant experience is no exception. I read Valente’s collection Marys of the Sea a few years ago, and I’ll always be stunned by their work.

(Agape Editions/Sundress Publications, 2016)

Jeanette Killed Her Husband (And Buried Him Off Of Shades of Death Road) by Robin Sinclair

If you’re like me and have an obsession with murder ballads and true crime, Sinclair’s collection from Ghost City Press is like reading a song by The Chicks. Yes, that’s a high tier compliment.

Similar songs that give the same vibes are “no body, no crime” by Taylor Swift and “Martha Divine” by Ashley McBryde. Basically any song about killing a cheating husband could easily make it on a playlist for this chap. Jeanette Killed Her Husband also loops in folklore and hometown legends, another common guilty pleasure of mine.

(Ghost City Press, 2020. )

A Song for PTSD by Sarah Lilius

This microchap was able to capture the pain and horrors of PTSD and lost girlhood in just a few poems. A Song for PTSD is one of many debut chaps from the press, which also has a magazine dedicated to centering disabled voices of all kinds. With lines like “Paranoia built in me like a bone” and “I can’t imagine that you bleed like a human”, it’s hard to not want more of Lilius’ sharp verses. Thankfully, this is just one of her five chaps, so I’ll have more material to dive into when the time comes.

(Blanket Sea Press, 2021)

Hopefully next year I’ll be able to be more faithful to my goal.