Atwood's poetry heals something in me. And then break me again. An astounding collection of moving poems.

Margaret Atwood has always been one of my favorite poets, and this collection is very welcome if not overdue. I'm old enough to remember having to hunt down print copies of her poetry books online and in used bookstores, so having such a comprehensive selection of her work--even if some of my (usually more obscure) favorites didn't make it in, which is the nature of such volumes--in both print and ebook is such a gift.

This collection of poetry is a delight, like other work I’ve read of Atwood’s.

I don’t know that I can give any criticism for anything I’ve read of hers because even if the story isn't exactly for me, her writing and delivery are compelling.

She’s clever and sometimes subtle in how she approaches modern issues. Then again, she also has an uncanny ability to punch you right in the face with her words which make you question yourself and everything around you.

You can keep you flannels and pumpkin spice. A true harbinger of fall is Margaret Atwood reading me her poetry.

This is a huge undertaking for the read and best enjoyed in snippets. With tea.

I am a huge fan of Atwood's fiction, so when I saw this on NetGalley I jumped. I should preface this by saying that I try to be an educated poetry reader, but alas, I am not. Every Friday I look forward to reading Washington Post book reviewer Ron Charles' inspiring and enthusiastic newsletter, and I appreciate that he highlights a new work of poetry in each of these. Sometimes I fly through them, many times I stumble, but I am always in awe of what a poet can do with a simple turn of phrase, a verse, a page. Atwood does not disappoint in this "best of" collection. I found myself in turns amazed, engrossed, and yes, sometimes, bewildered. I appreciated that later, in the acknowledgements, Atwood thanked her high school English teacher who figured her poetry must be good because she didn't understand it. There's a lot to be said for that feeling. I loved so many of these poems, bookmarked the ones I liked best to come back to again. Atwood is an undisputed genius, and, while I cannot claim to always understand her, I remain her devoted reader.

In "Paper Boat," Margaret Atwood crafts a poignant exploration of memory, loss, and the fragility of human connection. The narrative follows a central character navigating the complexities of her past and present, reflecting on the moments that shape her identity.

I just love Atwood's lyrical prose and her ability to evoke deep emotional resonance. The imagery of paper boats serves as a powerful metaphor for the delicate nature of relationships and the journeys we undertake. Atwood's trademark blend of wit and wisdom shines through, making even the most introspective moments engaging and thought-provoking.

The pacing may be deemed uneven at some points, with certain sections feeling more contemplative than action-driven. Yet, this introspection is often seen as a strength, allowing readers to immerse themselves in the protagonist's inner world.

Overall, "Paper Boat" is lauded as a beautifully written meditation on life’s transient nature. Atwood’s deft handling of complex themes and her rich, evocative language make this a must-read for fans of literary fiction, reinforcing her status as one of the foremost voices in contemporary literature.

Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems, 1961-2023 is a wonderful collection of Margaret Atwood's poetry. This is a big book (624) and the amount of poetry included is almost overwhelming! The poetic language is straightforward and but the imagery is rich, Highly recommended for anyone who loves poetry!

It pains me to say this, but unfortunately, this poetry collection is a DNF for me. While I think Margaret Atwood is a terrific writer and her poetry itself is well-written, it simply isn’t my preferred style when reading poetry. Atwood leans much more into descriptive aspects in her poetry versus raw relatability and I personally gravitate more towards vulnerable poetic writing that I can relate to.

Others will—and absolutely should—love this career-spanning collection of Atwood’s poetry.

Thank you to Margaret Atwood, Knopf, & NetGalley for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

Collections like these are always hard to full given an idea about in review because it spans such an incredible career. Not only does this collection, as some people have already said in reviews, explore mythology, but there is a deeper thread through this collection than even that. There are poems about Persephone, moody poems about the parts and haunts of a house, feminism/womanhood, and connections to the body and nature. More than anything, what’s impressive about a collection this long is the thread that runs through it – cycles of life. There are also several turns like in the poem “this is a photograph of me” that are haunting and you won’t see coming .

I enjoy some of these poems. They really incited emotions from me. However, I think this collection is just too long. I wished it had been split into two volume. I found by the middle I was bored and wishing it over. Overall, I enjoyed this collection.

While I love everything Margaret Atwood writes, her poetry has a special place in my heart. I always find it to be deeply meaningful and impactful, while still be so so smart.

Yesterday Penguin published Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023 by Margaret Atwood. This generous—624 pages!—book begins with Double Persephone, a 1961 chapbook by the then little-known Atwood. Famous, of course, for her novel The Handmaid’s Tale, you’ll find the same feminist mythmaking in the course of her poetry career. There are three “Previously Uncollected” sections of new poems which will enchant Atwood’s poetry fans. The final of the three of these sections contains the title poem and gives a call to poetry’s necessary reach. And Paper Boat contains her classics like this:

[you fit into me]

you fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye

Congratulations, Margaret!

Margaret Atwood delivers a poetic collection of her most important works. from 1961-2023 in one volume. Behold the beauty of mythological creatures and everyday folks through the brilliance of her writing abilities.

Margaret Atwood needs no introduction.
This mammoth collection of poetry spans over six decades and was a delight to read. The size itself made it easy for me to read other novels as I pieced my way through Paper Boat.
Atwood is truly a timeless voice of the ages and her style is not easily emulated. I will read anything and everything written in her hand.

Published October 8, 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for allowing me to read and review Paper Boat.

This was an excellent collection of poetry from the master of poetry. Margaret Atwood just has a way of writing that speaks to everyone that reads her work.

This collection was split into different time periods in her writing career and each section definitely speaks to someone in particular.

Atwood can definitely evoke so much emotion with her writing. I will certainly be checking out more of her poetry collections.

Coming into this book with only familiarity as Atwood as a novelist, and a brief ponderance over her poetry from her collection, Dearly, I approached this largely unminded. More modern poetry has been less in my own inclination (I still think all lines should rhyme in some form or fashion), but I was interested to see how an author with such vivid and unique story-telling and worldbuilding capabilities could create in a more lyrical, contained writing form. My experience within Atwood’s world of poetry was less stellar than I might have presupposed.
Atwood has such a deep sense of poetry’s past and utilizes it evocatively to bring us into the folds of the pages of this book, and all those we’ve read before it. To wield knowledge is power, and to weave that power into creativity is, for the apt of words, poetry. To keep in the traditions that predate her own writings, but also break from such traditions is the means of making new poetry and making poetry new, and I enjoyed reading how Atwood played with the craft itself. She certainly catches me with some of my favorite poetical choices: I always grew excited to see the device of utilizing the title of the poem as, in essence and practice, its first line (“this is a photograph of me”), and I love the utilization of a block poem, as I find the utter overwhelming outpouring of words in what is typically a sparser, to the word form of writing precisely in the emotional mark of great poetry.
All poetry should be resounding, but some lines, I think, must simply hit harder than those that surround them. The best poems, in my opinion, force you to stop somewhere in their midst, make you close the volume, and look away from the absolute wreckage of emotion and devastation and beauty a single line within has wrought. Poetry should devastate as much as it delights; Atwood’s does.
The invocations of poems should be of the utmost importance, and sometimes Atwood tethers us with the first line (“man with a hook,” “the small cabin”), but more often, I felt as though I were ambling into the poem rather than walking through her words like sign postings on a trail, too easily straying from the path by my one musings and wanderings and inclinations to look elsewhere than where the viewpoints drew attention.
Modern poetry, I think, fears long lines, fears losing our attention and understanding if they ask us to read more than five words without a line break, or an implied punctuation. In reality, it makes me sick to read—literally, in that moving my eyes so much back and forth disorientates me, like rocking ever back and forth on a ship in storming waters. I loathe feeling ungrounded in a poem, with roots only four words deep. It breaks me up alongside the poem. That ruptured, seasick empathy should not be my takeaway feeling from nearly every verse.
I’m frightful to admit that I more often liked the idea of the poems, where I could see them going or growing or becoming, than I did where Atwood led us and what she made of it there. The potential outperformed the execution, and that was devastating each time to read. It is one thing to imagine oneself writing alongside the poet, but it was hard to feel oneself writing over her.
The collection was solid: in theming, organization, picks, ebbs and flows. But “solid” should be how you describe a tome, not a treasury of verse. And I must admit, I hate to see “hieroglyphics” used ever (“double persephone”), especially by such a learned woman.

This is a career-spanning anthology of Atwood's work and while not complete collection, the selection is broad and varied. The chronological order of the selections allowed me to get some insights into Atwood's life and what she was thinking about at different ages. She's always strongly herself of course, but it was an interesting perspective on her. I would recommend this to any fans of her work. Obviously with poetry some will grab you and some won't, so a large collection like this is nice because you're more likely to encounter some phase of her writing that really sits with you.

Margaret Atwood may be best known as a fiction writer, captivating readers with her richly imagined dystopian story worlds. But she also did a fair share of world building as a steadily publishing poet over a writing career spanning six decades. Paper Boat gathers highlights from across that impressive span, including everything from the early formal poems of Double Persephone (1961), to previously uncollected poems written as recently as 2023. The result is a collection that showcases Atwood's endless inventiveness as she visits and revisits themes of mythology, nature, animals, feminism, history, death, and grief. Poems formerly separated by decades are newly juxtaposed, placed in dialogue with each other. And what they mainly seem to talk to each other about is how bizarre, and often brutal, the world can be.

That's not to say that Atwood's poetry is all bleak and gritty. She can be evocative describing the colors of a sunset or the hush of a lake at night reflecting stars. She can be moving, imagining her father's formative experiences in nature in the poem "butterfly" (my favorite). And her poems are frequently funny--often, darkly so, as in the well-known "you fit into me..." poem, but other times in a winking, good-natured way, like she's letting you in on a little joke that bubbled up from her singular way of looking at everything.

One thing Atwood's poems almost always are: Challenging. The language of her poems may be mostly conversational, but she is not an easy poet. I think that's a helpful thing to know going in if, like me, you've grown accustomed to highly accessible poetry that would be right at home on Instagram. It can be tough to track with some of Atwood's imaginative leaps and to orient yourself within some of her poems. But the rewards are so worth it. Paper Boat is a treasure--full of those rewards if you're willing to work just a little for them. And of course, the beautiful thing about challenging poems is, you can read them again and again and never be bored with them. I chose the fire-hose approach for my first read of Paper Boat, chugging through the whole collection in a week. But I look forward to returning for smaller, more leisurely sips.

My thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of this phenomenal poetry collection, which will be published on October 8, 2024.

Review posted to StoryGraph and Goodreads 10/1/24. Review will be posted Amazon on release day.

A lovely collection of sharp, eerie, and reflective poems spanning decades. This is the perfect collection for folks wanting to get into Atwood’s poetry.

This book would make a perfect present for holiday seasons. It's absolutely a collectible, and I love the eerie atmosphere Atwood creates. Just don't read all of it at once.