It’s the time of year when work winds down (unless you’re in retail), the semester fades out, and some downtime might finally be found for reading, musing, & delving. When the impulse for introspection strikes, turn to the small presses and journals that this month offer a wonderful bounty to liven up the winter landscape. Not to mention books are the best gifts ever!

Small Presses

You’ve heard it’s healthy to “eat locally”? We think intellectual nutrition requires us to “support locally,” especially as we curl up before the fire with tiny tomes in our hands for the holiday season! Lounge with Cynthia Sailers’s latest, Lady of Leisure, just out from Cy Press. Thom Donovan’s The Hole burrows warmly into your hearth via Displaced Press. How about glistening your nightstand with a little giovanni singleton? Counterpath Press raises the ontological stakes with her Ascension.

Feeling a little sciency? Coach House Books soothes your predilections with Leigh Kotsilidis’s debut collection, Hypotheticals. Elsewhere, Rachel Eliza Griffiths pays dynamic, awesome homage with Mule & Pear (New Issues Poetry & Prose), while Shane McCrae brings his own Mule home by way of Cleveland State University Press. Across the pond, we dig and applaud Salt Publishing’s long-lasting belief in poets like Amy De’Ath with her debut collection, Erec & Enide. You will also liven up with Action Books’s latest, All the Garbage of the World, Unite! Kim Hyesoon’s acrobatics may show the season’s underbelly and redefine cheer!

O Bon, not to be outdone, arrives with Brandon Shimoda’s delicate, considered bells on, thanks to Litmus Press’s gorgeous handiwork. And if you’ve ever loved Sleeping with the Dictionary (or were, sadly, never introduced), you’re just in time for Barbara Henning’s Looking Up Harryette Mullen: Interviews on Sleeping with the Dictionary and other Works, with an Introduction by Juliana Spahr, fresh off the press at Belladonna. Finally, not to be ignored, Coffee House Press just keeps on giving, and in that spirit, they outdo themselves this year with Anne Waldman’s The Iovis Trilogy (not for the faint of heart). We hope you’ll make way to these, and other small presses, that do so much for the lifeblood of poetry that keeps us invigorated all year long!

Journals

If you’re an objet d’art kind of person, look no further than the new Spinning Jenny. Issue 12 offers Maureen Alsop, Zvonko Karanovic, Ryan Murphy, Danniel Schoonebeek, Sara Jane Stoner, Paige Taggart …. Also to be placed under the tree is the new Model Homes, built by Brian Ang, Brandon Brown, Carol Mirakove, Vanessa Place …

And while print does glint, clicking is quicker (and free!): the new GlitterPony / lucky issue 13 is out with poems by Heather Christle, Daniela Olszewska, Sampson Starkweather, Dara Wier, and who else not! We are also excited about Tim Trace Peterson…s EOAGH which has recently launched a redesigned site and an epic (and endless?) new issue that publishes new work on a rolling basis. Check out fresh poems by Macgregor Card, Steve Dickison, Debrah Morkun, Matvei Yankelevich, and who else yes! EOAGH is now a small press too, to boot. For those who long for an Advent countdown, Delirious Hem reads the days aloud—click each title to hear 25 poets deck the halls of your home!

You might also want to take a look at the Boston Review’s Poet’s Sampler, which this month features Corina Copp.

Finally, if Amerikan, sorry—American poetry has left you thirsting for broader borders, 3:am Magazine’s SJ Fowler runs an astounding series of interviews with European poets called Maintenant that also offers selections of their work. This is our go-to source for Euro po; do not miss it.