One of my favorite things about August (besides it being my birthday!) is that it is Sealey Challenge time! The Sealey Challenge was started by poet Nicole Sealey in 2017 as a way to challenge herself to read more poetry for pleasure, at a time when she was busy promoting her own book. Since then, thousands of readers worldwide have participated in the Challenge, which is free and requires no signup! Simply choose the books you want to read, and participate in the Sealey Challenge community through social channels by following #TheSealeyChallenge or #SealeyChallenge.

I participated in my first Sealey Challenge in 2022 and, while I won’t officially be participating in 2023, I am going to use the month to read several of the poetry books on my overstuffed TBR shelf, and will be featuring them daily on Instagram and here. Head to your local indie, or check out my bookshop.org storefront to purchase any of these titles.