Good Housekeeping
The contradictions of privilege and want, the dynamics of gay marriage, and the joy of a good cocktail all enter the mix as these 24 poems explore home, marriage, travel, war, sensuality, tea, and, yes, housekeeping.
Selected as an Editor’s Pick by BookLife Reviews, Good Housekeeping includes “The Fold Out Couch,” which was nominated for a 2024 Pushcart Prize. Some poems have appeared in The Journal of American Poetry, The Mandarin Magazine, and World Literature Today, among other publications.
Mainstream audiences, LGBTQIA+ readers, and those interested in social justice or climate issues will find much to explore in this collection. Comparative titles include Carolyn Forché’s In the Lateness of the World and Mark Wunderlich’s God of Nothingness.
Whitacre’s previous collection was the award-winning The Elk in the Glade: The World of Pioneer and Painter Jennie Hicks, which placed second in Contemporary Poetry at The BookFest 2023 and was a finalist for Narrative Poetry in the American BookFest Best Book Awards 2023.
His crown sonnet on the culture of violence won the 2023 Nebraska Poetry Society Open Poetry Prize, and his work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including a sample poem in Diane Lockward’s craft book The Strategic Poet.