Ignatz, by Monica Youn

A collection inspired by the 1930s cartoon characters created by George Herriman, Krazy Kat and the mouse Ignatz, forever locked in a tortured and madcap love duel. Youn's second book of poems, a National Book Award finalist, investigate the meanderings and trickery of love and relationships, of belief and understanding/misunderstanding, of legend and how belief sustains and fools us, and with spare yet significant language. This collection feels solidly structured around the inspiration of those characters, and as such gives a sense of completeness, though some poems are mere words strung on the page. An impressive, elegant and stirring second book of poems.

Barter, by Monica Youn

A debut collection of poems that are both lyrical and at the same  time disturbing, the sounds rhythmic and sensory, the images brief, fleeting, evocative and immediate. Her voice is almost staccato at times, the words sometimes sounding too careful, but what lies beneath seems to touch an urgency and grasp at emotions too difficult to name.