Elisa Gabbert’s collections of poetry and essays include, most recently, “Normal Distance” and “Any Person Is the Only Self.” ...

When I taught high-school English, I loved planning out the syllabus, book by book. Once chosen, one novel might lead naturally to another; certain titles seemed to go with certain seasons.

Inside the book, readers can scan a QR code to listen to them. She’s even working on MTV-style music videos. BookPage called it early, saying in April, “Animal Albums, which will surely go ...