Time Out New York Recommends 10 Chapbooks!

Time Out New York adores chapbooks, who knew. The weekly finds them to be "pocket-sized gems" "favored by poets" that often offer "exceptional lesser-known writing talent." TONY's recommendations for the holiday season include some greats: Emily Skillings, Wendy Xu, Kate Zambreno, Natalie Eilbert, Sampson Starkweather, May-Lan Tan, Sarah Certa, and Leah Umansky. Here's what they say about a couple of these pals (with help from Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop and McNally Jackson!):

Flowers of Rad by Sampson Starkweather (Factory Hollow Press, $10)
This new chapbook presents a long poem sequence that weaves between childhood memories and metapoetic revelations, deftly balanced by the poet’s unabashed self-awareness.

Sample line: “I want to write a poem as long as California / like lying on a couch forever.”

Linnaeus: The 26 Sexual Practices of Plants by Emily Skillings (No, Dear/Small Anchor, $8)
In her portrait of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (yes, really), Skillings proves that even a life vastly removed from our own can be infinitely interesting and uncannily relatable.

Sample line: “A woman tells Linnaeus that he smells like moss.”

Girly by May-Lan Tan (Future Tense Books, $5)
Girly collects two new stories from Hong Kong-born, London-based writer Tan, who, in just over 30 pages, skillfully addresses the oppression of youth, the relationship between sisters and the inescapable longing to flee.

Sample line: “To exhale an emptiness the size of the Pacific.”

Read 'em all at Time Out! At top: Emily Skillings' Linnaeus: The 26 Sexual Practices of Plants (No, Dear) (full cover at the link).