The Sealey Challenge describes itself as “a community challenge to read one book of poetry a day for the month of august”. The community is one of readers, writers/poets, publishers, booksellers and the poetry-curious. Since its inception in 2017, championed by US poet Nicole Sealey, it was always an online entity, since it was built not just on reader participation, but on boosting the challenge with the hashtag #TheSealeyChallenge. As such, that social media foundation means that it is inherently an international – albeit perhaps somewhat rarified – phenomenon.

I’ve been a steadfast reader of poetry long before then, but I joined the challenge in 2020 … why? To be honest, I don’t fully recall in what would have been the first six months of the pandemic, right? It might have been filling some time-related and other voids at a time when those of us who read a lot thought reading more more more would be a twisted upside to the many pandemic downsides … and then discovered “reading just [didnt’] feel the same or offer the same solace and escape as it did before the world changed as it did.” Whatever the reason, I did it, found it indeed challenging and a unique reading experience of the kind of works I read but seemed to read differently when it wasn’t compressed into 31 days.

I’ve risen to The Sealey Challenge every year since, so 2023 was my fourth year. Here is not all but most of what made up this year’s breathtaking poetry rush …

(Some books are not part of the group photo because, for the first time this year, I included audiobooks on my reading list.)

On the eve of this year’s challenge, I tweeted (yes, like many, I still tweet, not x/post/whatever) that I was feeling exhilarated, a bit full and a touch weary – but oh, the poetry had challenged and delighted me again this year! I remarked that I’d read some great collections that I will be happily revisiting.

Anything you read for the first time during The Sealey Challenge that sparks your interest, you’re likely going to need to revisit to give it your full attention and assessment. (Well, if something is patently off-putting in one way or another, maybe not …) All four years I’ve done the challenge, I kept up but found the pace of 31 works in 31 days to be demanding. Even if your reading strategy includes pacing yourself with some shorter works – chapbooks and selections from literary journals spliced in between full poetry collections that could range from an average of 60 to over 100 pages – and even if you’re a regular and experienced poetry reader, that’s a rich and full plate to consume in a comparatively short period of time. The words, the text formats and layouts, the subject matter, the layers of reference and meaning, the richness of how things are structured and textured and formally constructed (or not) and orchestrated – it’s all going to demand a lot of you. If you averaged it out as, say, 70 pages per day for 31 days: that’s 2,170 pages of what could be wonderful, possibly unpleasant or bewildering at times, regularly emotionally taxing, intoxicating and cumulatively overloading stuff.

Under these conditions, I didn’t think it was fair or really possible to attempt to review any of these works – although I admire those challenge participants who did, in mini or even full reviews. I do think it would be fair to say I derived something from every single work I read, though – from snippets of startling wordplay or imagery to overall themes, concepts or subject matter that were arresting.

I note that I’ve been pretty consistent in several respects over the four years I’ve completed The Sealey Challenge:

• Full collections vs chapbooks/journals/smaller works – 23/8 this year, compared to the same in 2022, 24/7 in 2021 and 25/6 in 2020.
• Canadian works – 24/31 this year, compared to the same in 2022, 25/31 in 2021 and 22/31 in 2020.
• Rereads – 9 this year, compared to 8 in 2022, 5 in 2021 and 6 in 2020.
• Audiobooks – This is the first year I included audiobooks in the mix. I enjoyed four, three of which were read by the poets and one by a narrator/voice actor.

And with that, here is my 2023 reading list from the Sealey Challenge, including links to more information, images from some of the social media posts (posted completely to Twitter, Mastodon and Bluesky, partially to Spoutible and periodically to Instagram), and links to the full posts on Twitter, which included poetry excerpts.

1/31: Trouble by Amanda Earl (2022 Hem Press) (2022 Hem Press) Read the full post here.

2/31: Local Interest by Emily Hasler (2023 Pavilion Poetry / Liverpool University Press) Read the full post here.

3/31: The Built Environment by Emily Hasler (2018 Pavilion Poetry / Liverpool University Press) Read the full post here.

4/31: Cosmic Horror by James Knight (2022 Hem Press) Read the full post here.

5/31: Xanax Cowboy by Hannah Green (2023 House of Anansi Press) Read the full post here.

6/31: Boat by Lisa Robertson (2022 Coach House Books) Read the full post here.

7/31: Selections from Cincinnati Review (Spring 2023), including Allison Adair, Brittany Cavallaro, Dean Rader, Jiewan Yang + more Read the full post here.

8/31: An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo (2019 WW Norton) Read the full post here.

9/31: There’s More by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike (2023 University of Alberta Press) Read the full post here.

10/31: Emptying the Ocean by Kim Fahner (2022 Frontenac House) Read the full post here.

11/31: Quarrels by Eve Joseph (2018 Anvil Press) Read the full post here.

12/31: Who is Your Mercy Contact? by Ronna Bloom (2022 espresso/paperplates books) Read the full post here.

13/31: Purge Fluid by Ivy Allsop (2022 Hem Press) Read the full post here.

14/31: Beasts of the Sea by Kate Sutherland (2018 knife fork book) Read the full post here.

15/31: Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong (2022 Penguin Audio) Read the full post here.

16/31: Selvage by Kate Siklosi (2023 Invisible Publishing) Read the full post here.

17/31: Dreams and Journeys by Frederick McDonald (2022 Harbour Publishing) Read the full post here.

18/31: The Pet Radish, Shrunken by Pearl Pirie (2015 Bookhug Press) Read the full post here.

19/31: Monitoring Station by Sonja Ruth Greckol (2023 University of Alberta Press) Read the full post here.

20/31: Cluster by Souvankham Thammavongsa (2019 McClelland & Stewart) Read the full post here.

21/31: Some States by Tom Snarsky (2023 Ghost City Press) Read the full post here.

22/31: Indie Rock by Joe Bishop (2023 University of Alberta Press) Read the full post here.

23/31: Shadow Blight by Annick MacAskill (2022 Gaspereau Press) Read the full post here.

24/31: Among the Untamed by dee Hobsbawn-Smith (2023 Frontenac House) Read the full post here.

25/31: Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson (1998 / 2016 McClelland & Stewart) Read the full post here.

26/31: The Art of Plumbing by Brecken Hancock (2013 above/ground press) Read the full post here.

27/31: Ossuaries by Dionne Brand (2010 McClelland & Stewart) Read the full post here.

28/31: Lime Kiln Quay Road by Ben Ladouceur (2014 above/ground press) Read the full post here.

29/31: The Broken Ark – A Book of Beasts poems chosen by Michael Ondaatje, drawings by Tony Urquhart (1971 Oberon Press) Read the full post here.

30/31: Good People by Gwendolyn Guth (2010 above/ground press) Read the full post here.

31/31: The Journals of Susanna Moodie by Margaret Atwood & Charles Pachter (1997 Macfarlane Walter & Ross) Read the full post here.

Am I already planning my 2024 reading for The Sealey Challenge? Of course I am!