Seven years ago, we left our Upper West Side co-op for many reasons. My husband needed a driveway. My toddler deserved a bedroom with windows. I had to get out of the kitchen — that narrow room, where, cramped in a window nook, I spent my days writing. As Virginia Woolf said, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” I don’t write fiction, but I can say that Woolf, that champion of women’s rights, was spot on. Without getting into the money part (that’s for another day), there’s a point when…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Review by Nancy Gerber – Reading Tsaurah Litzky’s newest collection of poems, Cleaning the Duck, is like partaking of a sumptuous feast, with words that are juicy, tender, salty, piquant. When I finished reading I was stuffed, but I wanted more. The title poem contains many of the themes that simmer throughout this book: desire, loss, pleasure, lust, sorrow, loneliness. “Cleaning the Duck” is both ode and elegy, a celebration of living, a bowing before death, and an acknowledgement of all the beauty and messiness we encounter on the journey: then with the knife I cut the chest, separated the…
Review by Ramona McCallum The Voices Rise – Reading Virginia Bell’s From the Belly, I felt a sort of indulgent, almost guilty thrill, akin to eavesdropping on purpose to the various conversations that wrap around me in a public place, like in a crowded line somewhere or an auditorium before a concert. Bell’s poems rise to the eye and ear with intensity and distinction, in both style and voice. They take turns speaking openly, as people do in everyday life, about memories, health concerns, jogging through the city, and the multitude of routes our relationships take. The reader gleans a…
Review by Amy Watkins – Heterotopia, according to philosophers, is a real or imagined place of escape, transformation or reflection. If I tell you that the Heterotopia of Lesley Wheeler’s prize-winning poetry collection is Liverpool, England, the setting of her mother’s childhood, you will likely expect a book of nostalgic musings, but that’s not the book Wheeler has written. It is a book about memory and language, about what is remembered, forgotten or repressed, but rather than reflective elegies or escapist reminiscences, the poems in Heterotopia are clear-eyed, specific and transformative artifacts. Take for example “Sunday Afternoon in Liverpool, 1950,”…
Review by Nancy Vona – I experienced a serious case of writer envy after reading Rosaly DeMaios Roffman’s latest book of poetry. Many of the poems evoked an exclamation of “that’s how I feel—I wish I’d written that!” Roffman has a beautiful, strong voice that transforms ordinary events in wise, elegiac utterances. The author of several books of poetry, Roffman taught creative writing, myth and literature and founded a Center for the Study of Myth and Folklore at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her poems have been translated into Slovak, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese, and she has contributed text or poems…
Review by Jennifer Jean – I love dark chocolate. The higher the percentage of bitter to sweet the better for me. No surprise then that I found myself gnashing on Nicelle Davis’ bitter-intensive poetry in Circe, her recent collection out by Lowbrow Press. When reading these impressionistic lyrics I had no need for the original Homeric tale that serves as primary source for Davis’ mythos. The charms of this book—the strength of Circe’s voice, her sharp world, and her fatal whirlpool emotions—hold fast: “Sorrow/ can be delicious” says Circe, “…the sea is full of ceaseless want needing to be paid…
Review by Wendy Babiak Not Stung – I have read a lot of bad poetry. Between having moderated a poem-sharing site and now judging a monthly online contest, I’ve read more than my share. I know bad poetry. And I dread it. And let’s face it: these days there’s less guarantee than ever that because something has made it into book form it must be at least passably good. So when I’m given a book to review, it’s not received without at least a modicum of trepidation. The artful cover of Barbara Rockman’s debut, Sting and Nest, put that fear…
Review by Lynne Shapiro – Once I got past my initial fear that The Archivist’s subject matter and language was too remote for my taste, I found I had misjudged the book entirely. I couldn’t put it down and read it cover to cover in a single sitting. And read it again. Jean creates a highly satisfying and complex story about family, youth, desire and love, told with beginnings and begat-ings that is at once ancient and modern. These poems get better and better with subsequent reading as we recognize how deft, precise and musical is the language that creates…
A pen in hand works like bloodletting. Something in the gut. It’s the Voice of all voices asking to reign and leave my body behind, but I need more time. I trust other people when I want to believe they’re like me when I’m small in thought, shrinking to make room for their needs. The sweeper arrives and tells me to clean, hands me a broom. I sweep and find that God is here with knees to kneel and hands to pray, but God is made of rivulets, winding every way. Secrets are insoluble. They litter a shore called Plastic…
Our body is our beloved, and our destiny is found in our dreams: “Where are you?” asked Marjorie. “On a boat off the coast of The Big Island of Hawaii,” I answered as a dozen dolphins took flight into the air on both sides of the tourist boat. “What are you doing there?” “I came to meet Marion Woodman. I’m studying with her for the week and wanted to give her a copy of my script Beginner at Life. It was inspired by her writing.” “Who?” “She’s a famous Jungian analyst, and author of Addiction to Perfection. She’s worked with…