Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World

Praise for Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World

A tender collection of [Ó Tuama’s] informal personal essays written in response to works of contemporary poetry.… [These] poems are playful, humble, and human.
— Eliza Griswold - The New Yorker

Irresistible.… Ó Tuama and the eclectic range of international poets he shares make an irrefutable case for poetry’s power to enrich and enlarge our lives, while at the same time focusing our overtaxed attentions on key questions and profound truths.
— David Wright - Seattle Times

A very good introduction to how to think about poetry. Even old poetry hands will enjoy and appreciate Pádraig Ó Tuama’s brief and insightful essays accompanying each poem, as well as the poems themselves.
— Literary Hub

Ridiculously good.… [Poetry Unbound] covers a wide range of topics, forms, and writing styles, making it a fantastic read for poetry-lovers and reluctant poetry-readers alike.… Maybe the best part of the book is Ó Tuama’s unparalleled ability to understand, interpret, and write about poetry.


— Kateri Kramer - Rumpus

[A] fascinating collection.… With grace and insight, [Ó Tuama] demonstrates how a poem can become a part of your life.… With his intimate tone, Ó Tuama takes poetry out of the classroom and puts it back into the hands of the reader. He thereby makes the world a better place.
— Library Journal, starred review

[A] uniquely intimate anthology.… Ó Tuama’s unassuming prose welcomes readers into an unfettered enjoyment of poetry for the sake of introducing new ideas, new lands, and new ways of being in the world.
— Booklist

Offering keen reflections on poems by Margaret Atwood, Ilya Kaminsky, Ada Limón, and Ocean Vuong, Ó Tuama juxtaposes critical insights with appealing personal anecdotes.… Ó Tuama has succeeded in organizing a valuable introduction to poetry for those just familiarizing themselves with the form, and a timely way to renew and deepen that appreciation for seasoned readers.
— Publishers Weekly

Pádraig Ó Tuama’s close reading of my ‘Wonder Woman’ poem was a gift. I was and am deeply moved.
— Ada Limón, United States Poet Laureate

The Poetry Unbound podcast, and Pádraig’s way of finding language to describe the details and intricacies and the shades of gray of the human experience have made me a better person, a better songwriter, and a better artist.… I would urge everyone to dive into this deeply rewarding book.


— Camila Cabello

Poetry Unbound is fifty poems and 300 pages of commentary revealing and confessing why a line of verse might make you weep. But more than that, it is a collection of moments and meditations and a turning toward the ways that some memories, of sorrow and joy, might make us hold on a little while longer, long enough in fact.


— Reginald Dwayne Betts, author of Felon

Magnificent.… Pádraig Ó Tuama’s abilities as a curator of poems, combined with his remarkable gift for unpacking poems in such illuminating and generous ways, make this ground-breaking publication one of the most engrossing books I have read in recent years.
— Stephen Fry

Pádraig Ó Tuama has been called to bring his illuminating insights into what some might consider encroaching darkness, and we are all the fortunate beneficiaries of his response. This book is a testament to the rare fineness of feeling and understanding that mark his brilliant work for the On Being Project.
— Lorna Goodison, former Poet Laureate of Jamaica

A poem to Pádraig is like a child to Mary Poppins. It sits, alert, in wonder that he should know it so well. I would go out at night to hear Pádraig talk of the poems. The next best thing, maybe even better, is Poetry Unbound.… There should be a copy of Poetry Unbound in every bar, every cafe, every train station, every bus station, every airport, every workplace, every school, every university, everywhere!


— Lemn Sissay, author of Let the Light Pour In

A wonderful anthology of poetry filled with fascinating and thought-provoking commentary from one of the best voices in contemporary poetry today.
— William Sieghart, author of The Poetry Remedy