David Woo
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davidwoo.bsky.social
David Woo
@davidwoo.bsky.social
520 followers 380 following 39 posts
Poet and Writer. Books: DIVINE FIRE (Georgia Review Books/Univ. of Georgia Press) & THE ECLIPSES (BOA). Poetry chair, Board of Directors, National Book Critics Circle. he/him

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Reposted by David Woo
bookcritics.bsky.social
Meet the National Book Critics Circle 2025-2026 Emerging Critics Fellows! www.bookcritics.org/emerging-cri...
August 11, 2025 at 1:46 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Lovely time in Minneapolis: statue of St. Francis, Donald Shepard (Como Park Conservatory); "Egret," Kitagami Seigyū (Minneapolis Institute of Art); Weisman Art Museum; Minnehaha Falls.
August 4, 2025 at 9:57 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Scenes from La Jolla: hang gliding at sunset, the Louis Kahn-designed Salk Institute, matcha tiramisu at Ee Nami Tonkatsu Izakawa.
July 13, 2025 at 4:57 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Video for our June 26th conversation on poetry criticism is available at this link: bit.ly/40qVIXJ
The June 26th National Book Critics Circle conversation on poetry criticism with Stephanie Burt, Anahid Nersessian, and David Orr is on video at this link http://bit.ly/40qVIXJ.
July 5, 2025 at 6:40 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Join us today, June 26, 6 p.m. ET, for a National Book Critics Circle discussion about poetry criticism!
A Conversation on Poetry Criticism sponsored by the National Book Critics Circle. Three of the most accomplished poetry critics today (Stephanie Burt, Anahid Nersessian, David Orr) discuss being a poetry critic, the state of poetry criticism, and the pleasures and practicalities of becoming such a critic now. June 26, 6 pm ET on Zoom. Use QR code to register.
June 26, 2025 at 1:33 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Join us Thurs., June 26, 2025, 6 p.m. ET, for Nat'l Book Critics Circle conversation with Anahid Nersessian, Stephanie Burt, & David Orr. Adam Dalva, Rebecca Morgan Frank, & I will introduce and ask questions. Link in linktree in my profile. (Quote: Keats’s Odes: A Lover’s Discourse, by Anahid.)
June 23, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by David Woo
blreview.bsky.social
Today's Weekly Read is "Word" by David Woo from Issue 5! 🖋️ @davidwoo.bsky.social

Read the full poem: blreview.org/poetry/word/
#poetry
June 20, 2025 at 2:18 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Three distinguished poetry critics, David Orr (photo: Julie Prisloe), Anahid Nersessian, & Stephanie Burt join Adam Dalva, Rebecca Morgan Frank, and me for an online conversation about poetry criticism on June 26, 6 pm ET. Register at link in linktree in my profile. @bookcritics.bsky.social
Yes, greatness narrowly defined to mean a particular windily dull type of writing is something we could all do without, and long may its advocates gag on their pipe smoke and languish in their tweeds. But the idea that poets should aspire to produce work “exquisite in its kind,” as Samuel Johnson once put it, is one of the art form’s most powerful legacies. When we lose sight of greatness, we cease being hard on ourselves and on each other; we begin to think of real criticism as being “mean,” rather than as evidence of poetry’s health; we stop assuming that poems should be interesting to other people and begin thinking of them as only being obligated, maybe, to sort of vaguely interest our friends—and, finally, not even that. Perhaps most disturbing, we stop making demands on the few artists capable of practice the art at its highest levels. —David Orr Photo of David Orr by Julie Prisloe.
June 17, 2025 at 2:09 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
@bookcritics.bsky.social presents an all-star online conversation on poetry criticism with Stephanie Burt (photo: Steph Kloss), Anahid Nersessian, & David Orr on June 26, 6 pm ET. @adamdalva.bsky.social introduces, @poetmorgan.bsky.social and I moderate. Register at link in linktree in my profile.
To read a poem is to imagine a life, whether or not it's a life that is or could be yours. Lives—especially lives that are, or have been, oppressed, or erased —deserve to be seen and heard. Poems, moreover, imagine lives by means of style; the poems most worth attention, more worth rereading, stand apart for how they sound. There is no responsible way to separate a poem from its style: what it does, not—or not just—what it says. —Stephanie Burt, "Super Gay Poems" Photo of Stephanie Burt by Steph Kloss.
June 13, 2025 at 4:21 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Santorini, one of the loveliest places that I've seen, and we were lucky to visit before the summer crowds.
Photo of David Woo before a view of Santorini, Greece.
April 28, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by David Woo
bookcritics.bsky.social
The winner of the NBCC Award for Poetry is “Wrong Norma” by Anne Carson! #NBCCAwards @ndbooks.bsky.social
March 21, 2025 at 12:25 AM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Delighted that People headlined our poetry winner Anne Carson (as well as Sandra Cisneros) in their article on our recent NBCC ceremony:

people.com/see-the-full...
Sandra Cisneros, Anne Carson and More Among Winners of 50th National Book Critics Circle Awards — See the Full List
The National Book Critics Circle announced the winners of their prestigious literary award during their annual ceremony on March 20. Founded in 1974, the NBCC, made up of over 800 editors and critics ...
people.com
March 25, 2025 at 12:35 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
The brilliant finalists for the NBCC poetry award. Join me on Wednesday as I emcee our reading in NYC for finalists in all categories. The awards ceremony is on Thursday. Tickets and details in the linktree in my bio. Buy tickets soon!
Photos of the finalists for the National Book Critics Circle poetry award: Oliver Baez Bendorf, Anne Carson, Jennifer Chang, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Carl Phillips.
March 15, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by David Woo
bookcritics.bsky.social
NBCC’s Emerging Critics Fellowship is accepting applications for 2025-2026. Apply at nbcc.submittable.com. Deadline: Friday, May 9 at 11:59 PM Pacific.
March 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by David Woo
bookcritics.bsky.social
A poem by NBCC board member and poetry chair @davidwoo.bsky.social appears in the anthology "A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker: 1925-2025":
A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker by New Yorker Magazine Inc: 9780593801932 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
Edited by the magazine’s poetry editor, Kevin Young, a celebratory selection from one hundred years of influential, entertaining, and taste-making verse in The New Yorker Seamus Heaney, Dorothy...
buff.ly
February 25, 2025 at 4:00 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Delighted to appear in this majestic anthology edited by Kevin Young for @newyorker.com. This morning I encountered this copy in pride of place at the front of my favorite local (Phoenix) bookstore, Changing Hands.
View of the anthology A Century of Poetry at The New Yorker, 1925-2025, edited by Kevin Young.
February 10, 2025 at 6:26 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Grateful to be part of the unanimous vote of the board @bookcritics.bsky.social to sign this important statement:
bookcritics.bsky.social National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · Feb 5
Statement on the Trump Administration’s January 20, 2025
Executive Order Targeting Transgender, Intersex, Nonbinary, and Gender-Nonconforming Americans:
On January 20, the White House issued an executive order stating that the United States government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, as defined “at conception.” The ripple effect of this order will undoubtedly affect public schools, public libraries, and the literature that is shelved in both. Among the many harms it causes, the order targeting transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Americans threatens unconstitutional censorship that could have a grave impact on literature for years to come. In dismissing trans, intersex, and nonbinary identities, the order blacklists LGBTQIA+ literature and invites the government to dictate the perspectives, beliefs, and identities that can exist in public forums receiving federal funding, amounting to financial coercion through the arbitrary withholding of funds. This censorship may begin with LGBTQIA+ perspectives, but it will not end there: allowing the government to censor one group erodes the First Amendment rights of all Americans, creating a precedent for silencing dissenting voices. If allowed to stand, the order will create new funding requirements imposed not only on federal entities, but private citizens and institutions who contract with them. Those requirements can and will be manipulated to dictate speech. The broader chilling effect on literature could be even harder to undo. Writers rely on funding from sources like the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the state-level institutions they fund. Trans, nonbinary, and intersex experience is vastly underrepresented in literature but disproportionately targeted by bans. During the 2022-2023 school year, 30% of books banned included LGBTQIA+ characters or themes. Such censorship robs us of perspectives that enrich the American story. Though the executive order in question tries to paint LGBTQIA+ people and allies as bullies enforcing their perspective on others through “legal and other socially coercive means,” that’s exactly what the order itself does, just as book-banning pressure groups have done since 2020 in school boards and libraries around the country. The fate of trans, intersex, and nonbinary people is not a political ideology, it’s a matter of human rights, civil rights, and freedom of expression. Government erosion of those rights should concern all Americans, regardless of their investment in LGBTQIA+ literature specifically. This executive order is censorship, pure and simple, and it has no place in a free society. It must be rescinded or stayed as soon as possible, and at the latest, before the earliest implementation deadline, February 19, 2025. Financially blacklisting trans, intersex, and non-binary perspectives will rob us of a vital literature yet to be written while insulting the dignity of LGBTQIA+ people everywhere. This return to McCarthyism by other means is a leap backwards to a grim chapter of American history. Sincerely, the undersigned, American Booksellers Association American Booksellers for Free Expression Andrews McMeel Annie's Foundation Audio Publishers Association Authors Against Book Bans Berry Powell Press Cardinal Rule Press Charlesbridge Publishing Chestnut Publishing House Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Deborah Sloan and Company and Kidsbuzz Developmental Texts Empowering Latino Futures EveryLibrary Firewater Media Group Florida Freedom to Read Project Foreword Reviews Freedom to Read Project Gryphon Publishing Consulting, LLC Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) IngramSpark Judging by the Cover: A Bookstore Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship Lambda Literary Latino 247 Media Group Lee Wind, author Levine Querido Library Futures Livingston Parish Library Alliance Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship Macmillan Children's Publishing Group The National Book Critics Circle National Coalition Against Censorship NorthSouth Books Nosy Crow Patagonia Publishers and Writers of San Diego and Orange County PEN America PFLAG Fresno PubWest Rattling Good Yarns Press Read Freely Alabama Red Comet Press LLC Rutherford County Library Alliance Sara Paretsky, Writer SCBWI SEAT SparkPoint Studio St Tammany Library Alliance Stone Bridge Press Texas Freedom to Read Project Walker Books Group for Candlewick Press, Holiday House Books, and Peachtree Publishing We Need Diverse Books Logos of the organizations that have signed the statement.
February 5, 2025 at 8:22 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Two years ago my partner and I drove from Phoenix to L.A. for a reading at this beautiful venue. In many decades of passing through the area, I had never seen the hills there look more lush and verdant. The atmospheric rivers that had deposited torrential rains were clearly unusual, and (1/2)
Photo of David and his partner at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles.
January 26, 2025 at 2:50 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Many birthdays ago, that is, on this day sometime in the last century, I was a teacher in Beijing, passing the time with Wittgenstein, who wrote, "A poet has constantly to ask himself, 'But is what I am writing really true?' and this does not necessarily mean, 'Is this how it happens in reality?'"
January 23, 2025 at 4:41 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
In addition to chairing poetry, I was honored to serve on the two committees that selected the superb work by Lauren Michele Jackson and the five extraordinary biographies by Cynthia Carr, Jane Kamensky, Tiya Miles, Amy Reading, and Jean Strouse.
Photo of Lauren Michele Jackson, winner of the Balakian citation for reviewing excellence. Book covers of five biographies by Cynthia Carr, Jean Strouse, Tiya Miles, Jane Jamensky, and Amy Reading.
January 23, 2025 at 4:14 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Congratulations to the poetry finalists: Oliver Baez Bendorf, Anne Carson, Jennifer Chang, Dawn Lundy Martin, & Carl Phillips; & our poetry nominee for the Leonard first book award, Cindy Juyoung Ok. I'm honored to emcee the finalists reading March 19; our ceremony is 3/20. @bookcritics.bsky.social
Covers of the nominated books: An Authentic Life; Consider the Rooster; Scattered Snows, to the North; Instructions for the Lovers; and Wrong Norma.
January 23, 2025 at 3:00 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
I can't wait to tell you what we on the NBCC poetry committee decided for our top five and as our poetry nominee for the Leonard award for best debut. An extraordinary shortlist from an already amazing longlist. Look for our announcement on Thursday!
Reminder about the finalist announcement on January 23 for the National Book Critics Circle,
January 20, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by David Woo
bookcritics.bsky.social
For @theemancipator.org, NBCC board member @davidwoo.bsky.social interviewed poet Danez Smith about their curation of the anthology "Blues in Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes":
The early works of Langston Hughes arm us with wisdom, hope, and power to fight for a liberation yet to arrive
“Hughes’ vision of race, country, and community is not one without despair, but despair never swallows what is joyful and possible.”
buff.ly
January 13, 2025 at 4:00 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Delighted to speak with Danez Smith about Langston Hughes for @theemancipator.org
theemancipator.org The Emancipator @theemancipator.org · Jan 13
Poet Danez Smith’s curation of poems offers a grand tour of the early period in Langston Hughes’ life when he found his poetic voice as a young man. Read @davidwoo.bsky.social's conversation with Smith discussing the importance of Hughes.
The early works of Langston Hughes arm us with wisdom, hope, and power to fight for a liberation yet to arrive
“Hughes’ vision of race, country, and community is not one without despair, but despair never swallows what is joyful and possible.”
buff.ly
January 14, 2025 at 1:46 PM
davidwoo.bsky.social
Poem of the Day, from the books longlisted for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry: “Wind Shear” from Yard Show by Janice N. Harrington (BOA Editions). Look for our finalist announcement on January 23rd #poetry (10/10)
January 12, 2025 at 2:12 PM