Although Debutiful has primarily focused on novels and short story collections, poetry has started becoming a regular part of the site’s coverage (with poets making frequent appearances on the First Taste version of the podcast, reading selections from their collections).
Below are the twelve best debut collections Debutiful founder Adam Vitcavage read this year, some of which were on the Best Debut Books of 2025 list.
Cosmic Tantrum by Sarah Lyn Rogers
From the publisher: A debut full-length poetry collection from Sarah Lyn Rogers rewriting girlhood and summoning mischief
Listening to Sarah Lyn Rogers read from her collection during our Virtual Poetry Night was completely captivating. She explores what girlhood means and how society treats young women with a brilliant eye.
Dead Girl Cameo by m. mick powell
From the publisher: A dazzling docupoetic debut collection interweaving personal loss with the life stories of Aaliyah Haughton, Whitney Houston, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Phyllis Hyman, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, and others to explore sexuality, survival, queer mourning, and the afterlives of stardom
powell is a ferocious writer with an unapologetic voice. She explores how we treat our heroes, and what heroes do and do not owe us. The poems are odes to those we lost (Whitney Houston, Left Eye) and a reminder that we’re all hiding pain. Moving and refreshing. A knockout.
Hardly Creatures by Rob Macaisa Colgate
From the publisher: Through nine sections that act as gallery rooms, the book shepherds the reader through the radiance and mess of the disability community.
An eye- and heart-opening collection about being yourself through thick and thin. Colgate is a lyrical mastermind. I could reread these poems until the ends of days.
Helen of Troy, 1993 by Maria Zoccola
From the publisher: Part myth retelling, part character study, this sharp, visceral debut poetry collection reimagines Helen of Troy from Homer’s Iliad as a disgruntled housewife in 1990s Tennessee.
I didn’t know what to expect when this one arrived on my doorstep. I ended up reading it in one sitting and was moved by the creativity and the modern take on an all-time classic. The moment I finished it, I knew it was going to be a favorite book for a long, long time.
Let the Moon Wobble by Ally Ang
From the publisher: In poems born of intense loneliness, grief, anger, and uncertainty at a convergence of apocalypses: a raging pandemic, a worsening climate crisis, and numerous global uprisings, Ally Ang’s Let the Moon Wobble asks and seeks to answer the question: What makes the end of the world worth surviving?
The emotions in Ang’s poems jumped from the line and into my soul. They explore queerness without filter or apology. The poems are radiant.
The Past is a Jean Jacket by Cloud Delfina Cardona
From the publisher: Reminiscent of being in a heavily postered room with rock music blasting, Cloud Delfina Cardona’s debut collection the past is a jean jacket is a time capsule of a 90s queer, Latinx teenhood.
Selected for the Hub City BIPOC Poetry Series this collection cuts like a knife. In it, Cardona asks, “why am I nostolgic for the shitty times in my life?” Throughout the poems, Cardona’s voice shines. It was formed on Tumblr, but is timeless.
Someone Else’s Hunger by Isabella DeSendi
From the publisher: Dislocated in her own skin after a sexual assault, Isabella DeSendi wrestles with the thorny border between desire and appetite in her incandescent debut collection. Poised between her Cuban matrilineage and her first-generation adolescence in America, between assimilation and reclamation, between owning her own cravings and becoming a sacrifice to “someone else’s hunger,” these poems dissect our human obsession with beauty and the body.
DeSendi allows readers into intimate moments about topics ranging from eating disorders to fitting into toxic places controlled by masculinity. She somehow is able to radiate beauty with her words while writing about the darkest of times. This collection touched my heart and soul. Her poems are unforgettable.
Something Small of How to See a River by Teresa Dzieglewicz
From the publisher: Through the weaving of documentary poetics, first-hand accounts, dialogue, and lyric, these poems tell the story of co-running a school at the Ocethi Sakowin Camp at Standing Rock.
A revelatory collection about operating a school in Standing Rock that opened my eyes to stories often forgotten. It feels like a docuseries in poetry form. Dzieglewicz strikes with undeniable force.
Strange Beach by Oluwaseun Olayiwola
From the publisher: A debut poetry collection wrangling the various selves we hold and perform–across oceans and within relationships–told through a queer, Nigerian-American lens
Olayiwola’s poems made me stop and catch my breath. He writes without fear, inviting readers to experience raw emotions and unspoken truths. Strange Beach was profoundly moving.
True Mistakes by Lena Moses-Schmitt
From the publisher: In her debut collection True Mistakes, the poet Lena Moses-Schmitt unleashes her powers of scrutiny on herself and on works of art to interrogate the essential nature of consciousness, identity, and time.
Reading these poems is like being implanted into someone’s brain. Moses-Schmitt puts thoughts on the page that we may all think, but are too afraid to admit to even ourselves.
We Contain Landscapes by Patrycja Humienik
From the publisher: To whom do we belong, and at what cost? Patrycja Humienik’s debut poetry collection, We Contain Landscapes, is haunted by questions of desire, borders, and the illusion of national belonging
A collection of uniquely written poems that made me think a lot about my relationship with my parents and family.
What God in the Kingdom of Bastards by Brian Gyamfi
From the publisher: From the publisher: What God in the Kingdom of Bastards is a poetic exploration of grief, memory, Blackness, and the haunting legacy of familial trauma by way of colonialism, told through the lens of two brothers: Lot, the elder, who is flesh and alive, and Frank, the younger, a ghost navigating his post-suicide existence.
Diving into Gyamfi’s poem proves he has an eye for rich and evocative imagery on top of emotional language. He expertly blends a personal lens with the larger cultural roots that built him as a writer.