Reviewed by Pat Valdata
Meticulous Empathy: A Review of the Newest Collections from Kim Roberts and Sarah Browning
Of Place, Color, and Abdel Halim Hafez: A Review of Safia Elhillo’s THE JANUARY CHILDREN
Elhillo, Safia. The January Children. Lincoln,NE: U of Nebraska P, 2017. 72 pp. $15.95 (paper). [View Title on Goodreads] *__________*__________* As a writer who was born in Cameroon, a place imagined and conceived by Europeans, I continue to reflect on the impact of the encounter between those who named it and those who actually occupy [...]
Dancing Over Coals: A Review of Ailish Hopper’s Debut Collection DARK~SKY SOCIETY
Hopper, Ailish. Dark~Sky Society. Kalamazoo, MI: New Issues, 2014. 97 pp. $15.00 (paper). [View title on Goodreads.com] Reviewed by Ellen Hagan “The flash-/ bulb pops; the splash/ kerosene/ [door behind]/and then the flint/ the arcing match—/ flame” ends Ailish Hopper’s opening poem: “Self Portrait as Smoke,” in her first full-length collection, Dark~Sky Society (12). As [...]
A Loss but Never a Leaving: A Review of Viola Allo’s Chapbook BIRD FROM AFRICA
Allo, Viola. Bird from Africa. Brooklyn, NY: Akashic Press, 2015. [View title on Goodreads.com] Reviewed by Kangsen Feka Wakai Viola Allo’s chapbook Bird from Africa is part of Akashic Books’ 8 New-Generation African Poets chapbook box set, which also features works from Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Angola. Edited by Kwame Dawes and [...]
“My Past Seeing”: A Review of Phillip B. Williams’ Debut Poetry Collection THIEF IN THE INTERIOR
Williams, Phillip B. Thief in the Interior. Farmington, ME: Alice James Books, 2016. 82pp. $15.95 (paper). [View title on Goodreads.com] Reviewed by Khadijah Queen From the start, Phillip B. Williams’ Thief in the Interior situates the reader in sensorial language both abject and beautiful, horrific and tender. Leading with salt, sweat, breath, the body’s automatic excretions; [...]
Seeing Secrets: A Review of David Nicholson’s Long-Awaited Debut FLYING HOME
Nicholson, David. Flying Home: Seven Stories of the Secret City. Arlington, VA: Paycock Press, 2015. 147 pp. $12.95 (paper). [View title on Goodreads.com] Reviewed by Brian Gilmore In the 1937 essay “Blueprint for Negro Writing,” Richard Wright wrote that “no theory of life can take the place of life.” It is, according to Wright, “the [...]
Aftershocks: A Review of Beth Bachmann’s DO NOT RISE
Bachmann, Beth. Do Not Rise. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 2015. 72 pp. $15.95 (paper). Reviewed by Will Byrne “The dead we__________burn; the living we bury in our faces.” _____~From the poem “shell” Beth Bachmann’s 2009 collection of poems, Temper—her debut—is a fascinating book: a true-life murder mystery twisted with familial tragedy, pressed down on [...]
BEYOND THE REFERENCE: An Interview with Novelist Ravi Howard
by Joseph Ross Though the Civil War is relatively distant memory, the story of the American South remains a conflict.—the reality being that the South belongs to the ancestors of those who fought under the rebel flag as much as it belongs to the ancestors of those who fought to escape the institutions for which [...]
From Shadows into the Light: A Review of Raina León’s BOOGEYMAN DAWN
León, Raina. Boogeyman Dawn. Cliffs of Moher, Ireland: Salmon Poetry, 2013. 93 pp. $13.00 (paper). [View title on Goodreads.com] Reviewed by Brian Gilmore Raina León’s latest poetry collection, Boogeyman Dawn, ultimately wonders about our shadowy thoughts and impulses and where these ideas disappear to when the daylight, or perhaps the daylight within all of us, [...]
A Mother’s Blood: A Review of Laurie Ann Guerrero’s Montoya Prize-Winning Debut A TONGUE IN THE MOUTH OF THE DYING
Guerrero, Laurie Ann. A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying. South Bend, IN: U of Notre Dame P, 2013. 66 pp. $15.00 (paper), $15.00 (electronic). Reviewed by Niki Herd [View title on Goodreads.com] Contemporary poetry collections about war bring to mind, for me, the survivalist frame of mind that weighs the pages of Yusef [...]
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Recent Entries
- An Open Letter to the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities
- Meticulous Empathy: A Review of the Newest Collections from Kim Roberts and Sarah Browning
- Of Place, Color, and Abdel Halim Hafez: A Review of Safia Elhillo’s THE JANUARY CHILDREN
- Dancing Over Coals: A Review of Ailish Hopper’s Debut Collection DARK~SKY SOCIETY
- A Loss but Never a Leaving: A Review of Viola Allo’s Chapbook BIRD FROM AFRICA
- “My Past Seeing”: A Review of Phillip B. Williams’ Debut Poetry Collection THIEF IN THE INTERIOR
- Seeing Secrets: A Review of David Nicholson’s Long-Awaited Debut FLYING HOME
- Aftershocks: A Review of Beth Bachmann’s DO NOT RISE
- From Within What’s Between: Brian Gilmore Reflects Upon Ta-Nehisi Coates’ BTWAM
- Forging the Empathy Chain: An Interview with Bettina Judd
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