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.

Atwood is one of my very favorite poets. I like nearly everything that she writes but her poetry is what has always captured my heart.

It was lovely to spend so much time with such an intelligent woman as she showered me with the gift of her mastery with words and turn of phrase.

What I have always liked most about Atwood is her keen awareness that even the extraordinary is absolutely ordinary. We are all in this being humans thing together and these poems show that connection.

This was a stunning and convenient way to explore Atwood’s poetry.

I received an ARC from NetGalley.

I’m new to Margaret Atwood’s poetry and I found this collection to be well written and beautiful. I will definitely have to read more of her older poetry.

Margaret Atwood always delivers, and this poetry collection is no different. Her poetry has that sharp, cutting style that makes you stop and think, much like her novels, but somehow even more intense in these shorter pieces. I found myself going back to certain poems just to sit with them a little longer.

Having read most of Atwood’s work, it was awesome to see how this collection spans so much of her career. You can really feel her voice evolve while still holding on to that raw, unapologetic edge she’s known for. Some poems jumped out as new favorites right away, and others I know will grow on me over time, which is exactly what I want from a collection like this.

From her reflections on nature and time to the powerful voices of women, each poem felt like a meditation I wanted to return to. Some pieces were immediate favorites, while others will certainly grow with future rereads. And that’s the beauty of Atwood—her work never stops revealing itself.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the e-ARC! I'll be grabbing a physical copy to keep by my bedside for many revisits.

Atwood’s poetry comes with a sharp bite; just like her novels. The strong voice in her books packs a bigger punch in her shorter pieces. I found myself rereading quite a few of them to find new things to marvel at. The sections that stood out the most on this read through were Power and Politics, Snake Poems, and Uncollected Poems 2. I just know that I’d love other sections more when going through different phases in life. I wanted to set so many aside in my personal collection of favorites. If any future readers want to start somewhere, listed below is a pared down version of my favorites and why I liked them:

“eden is a zoo”
-She takes a craft to a new level, potent color and imagery

“dreams of the animals”
-Starts so lovely and sweet…then…oh man, it hurt my heart, something to say

“siren song”
-it does exactly what it’s fated to do, this one is so, so clever

“marrying the hangman”
-a story-like poem, Atwood’s voice for women is strong within it, simmering rage and exasperation

“Postcard”
-strong visuals, something we’re all familiar with turned more honest

“after herclitus”
-I can’t capture this one with my own words, its potency stays with me though

“orpheus (1)”
-it’s own little retelling of Eurydice

“the last rational man”
-another one like a short story, we all play pretend

“small book”
-a short journey that I love, great flow

“opera villains”
-short character story, fun

“Thirty”
-just because I turned 30 this month and could relate. It felt like a small piece of wisdom for me

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! These are really fantastic.

What a fantastic collection of Margaret Atwood's poetry, spanning decades of her work. It makes it so easy to read through her work in one place, I love when prominent prolific writers have collections like this so I can just sit with one book and read it through. Thank you Netgalley for this wonderful ARC!

I will read anything and everything Margaret Atwood and I have loved her poetry for years. This is decades and career-spanning, so, by necessity, it covers an extremely long period of time and is most definitely a tome. To be perfectly honest, some of this poetry felt out of my grasp - I struggled with connection to certain poems, but that happens to me in 35-page poetry chapbooks, so no surprise it happened with a 600-page behemoth. The themes I drew the most from it were the the most primal versions of nature and love and favorite poems include : the interior decorator, this is a photograph of me, Eden Is a Zoo, Spring Poem, You think you are safe, Aging Female Poet on Laundry Day, and Blackberries. I feel like Margaret’s fiction so often reads like poetry, it makes sense that her poetry flows so beautifully as well. I’ll be buying a copy of this for my bedside table, because this feels like a collection to draw from frequently, to return to.

I’ve been reading Margaret Atwood since I discovered The Handmaid’s Tale on a friend’s mother’s bookshelf when I was in 8th grade. She is one of my favorite authors, and I was excited to read Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023. The collection is organized chronologically, allowing readers to witness the evolution of Atwood’s craft and understand why her influence on the literary world has been so profound. She is adept at taking seemingly mundane objects and moments and turning them into encounters that make readers pause, think, and reread–often multiple times. My students often exclaim, “What just happened?” after they read “This Is a Photograph of Me,” and then analyze and discuss to try to unlock the complexities of the text. I love the discussions of Atwood’s poetry in my classroom and how the poems invite multiple entry points for interpretation.

The poems in Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023 show Atwood’s affinity for Greek Mythology, women’s issues, and navigating relationships making this collection perfect for readers interested in an introduction to her poetry as well as readers who are familiar with her work. There were many poems that were new to me and some I consider old friends. I highly recommend this text!

Long live Margaret! I love this author so much. There is something so down to earth about her. Her poetry is so approachable. I am not a poetry expert by any means. This entire giant tome was a pleasure to read.

Even if you're not normally a poetry reader, this is quite enjoyable, and I definitely recommend it.

…and that’s what poetry is: a hot wire. You might as well stick a fort in a wall socket. from sor juana works in the garden by Margaret Atwood

Golly, I loved this collection of poems from across Atwood’s career. She addresses so many things: nature, marriage, the oppression of women, aging, disease, grief, the ‘plasticine’ age, the writer’s life, the transience of fame. She recreates the lives of historical womens, including an immigrant to Canada and a woman hung for being a witch who survived.

Here are some of my favorites.

the small cabin describes returning to the burnt ruins of a house once lived in. Nostalgia for previous homes always draw me in; I never recovered from the loss of my first home.

miss july grows older reflects on the loss of a sexual life, with the terrific line, “But after a while these flesh arpeggios get boring, like Bach over and over; too much of one kind of glory.”

the loneliness of the military historian who believes “Wars happen because the ones who start them think they can win,” and continues, “But rats and cholera have won many wars.”

half-hanged mary is the chilling story of a woman who may have been Atwood’s ancestor. Mary Webster was accused of witchcraft and hung overnight; the next morning her body was taken down and she was found to be alive. She tells her story, saying “My audience is God, because who the hell else could understand me? Who else has been dead twice?”

flowers recounts a dying father, whose “suffering you can neither cure nor enter–there are worse things, but not many.” Having spent two months at my dying father’s bedside, this poem especially affects me.

In the daylight we know
what’s gone is gone,
but at night it’s different.
Nothing gets finished,
not dying, not mourning;
the dead repeat themselves, like clumsy drunks
lurching sideways through the doors
we open to them in sleep;
these slurred guests, never entirely welcome,
even those we have loved the most,
especially those we have loved the most,
returning from where we shoved them
away too quickly:
from under the ground, from under the water,
they clutch at us, they clutch at us,
we won’t let go.

from two dreams, 2 by Margaret Atwood

I loved these lines from crickets : “September. Wild aster. Fox grapes, tiny and bitter,/ the indigo taste of winter/already blooming inside them.”

And from owl and pussycat, some years later, considering the role of an aging artist in the world: “Whatever/made us think we could change the world?/Us and our clever punctuation marks.” She continues, “But surely there is still/a job to be done by us, at least/time to be passed; for instance, we could/celebrate inner beauty. Gardens./ Love and desire. Lust. Children. Social justice/of various kinds. Include fear and war./Describe what it is to be tired.” And ends, “But sing on, sing/on, someone may still be listening/besides me.”

We are listening still. Sing it, girl.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

*Paper Boat* by Margaret Atwood is a beautifully crafted work that blends poetic elegance with emotional depth. Atwood's mastery of language shines through, creating a vivid and poignant exploration of memory, loss, and resilience. It's a captivating read that lingers long after the final page.