Reyes, Barbara Jane. Invocation to Daughters. San Francisco: City Lights, 2017. 86 pp (paper). $14.95. [View Title on Goodreads] Reviewed by Soleil David Barbara Jane Reyes’ fifth poetry collection Invocation to Daughters (City Lights, 2017) is a missal for Filipino women, one that uses Western poetic forms to utter an unapologetically transnational feminist poetics. In [...]

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Cunningham, P. Scott. Ya Te Veo. Fayetteville, AR: of Arkansas P, 2018. 96 pp (paper). $17.95. [View title on Goodreads] Reviewed by Michael VanCalbergh Ya Te Veo by P. Scott Cunningham begins with the poem “Giles Corey.” This poem retells the story of a victim of the Salem witch trials who is executed by pressing, [...]

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Martinez, David Tomas. Post Traumatic Hood Disorder. Louisville, KY: Sarabande, 2018. 72 pp., (paper). $15.95. Reviewed by by Michael VanCalbergh [View title on Goodreads] Fitting in, however defined, is a complicated and universal part of life. Whether it be entering a specific community, a job, or something more individual, many feel the pangs of nervousness [...]

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Brinkley, Jamel. A Lucky Man. Graywolf. Minneapolis: 2018. 264 pp. $26.00 (cloth). [View Title on Goodreads] Reviewed by Brian Gilmore It was Edgar Allan Poe who wrote that “the long poem is a paradox.” Poe’s famous exploration of limitations of the long poem form was declared to shine brighter light on short story, or “the [...]

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Reviewed by Pat Valdata

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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; [...]

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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 [...]

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