A Bowl of Goodness

Nourishing Poems with a Side of Soup, Celebrating Community, Friendship, and Resilience

Contributors

By Major Jackson

Foreword by Michael Ruhlman

Formats and Prices

On Sale
Oct 13, 2026
Page Count
176 pages
ISBN-13
9798897080007

Price

$25.00

Price

$33.00 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Hardcover $25.00 $33.00 CAD
  2. ebook $17.99 $22.99 CAD

An anthology of contemporary poems and soup recipes to nourish us, comfort us, and bind us together–gathered by award-winning poet Major Jackson.

Both poetry and soup offer sustenance and comfort. And yet, the secret ingredient to every great meal is not what we see on the plate, but who we see around the table. This anthology features poems by today’s best poets that embody the idea of nourishment, comfort, and connection across cultures and generations. Among the poems are 24 of Major’s own favorite soup recipes: from apple-parsnip to gumbo, borscht to bouillabaisse, there’s something to tickle and warm all tastebuds. Sprinkled throughout are side-dishes of soup-inspired stories by award-winning writers and chefs, including Ann Patchett and chef Jim Huntington of Maple Soul. Other contributors include Garret Hongo, Nikki Giovanni, Jane Hirshfield, Pablo Neruda, Natasha Tretheway, Paul Muldoon, Rita Dove, Ilya Kaminsky, Kwame Dawes, Gary Snyder, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Kevin Young, and more.


Major Jackson

About the Author

Major Jackson is the author of six books of poetry, including Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems and hosted The Slowdown, a podcast from American Public Media and the Poetry Foundation. A recipient of fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, John S. Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Jackson has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Writers’ Award, and has been honored by the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress. Jackson lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
Michael Ruhlman is the author of The Elements of Cooking, The Soul of a Chef, and The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America, among others.

Learn more about this author