Review by Sandra Ramos O’Briant – Published on the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade, the cover of Get Out of My Crotch is the Statue of Liberty with her legs spread and her bare feet in the stirrups of a gynecological exam table. Her expression is demure, a bit sad, and she’s holding a sheet of paper in front of her crotch saying that inside are 21 essays on the War on Women’s Rights and Reproductive Health. The book presents a range of viewpoints, but the writers are all in agreement that their reproductive rights are being challenged in…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Review by Tara Betts and Marjorie Tesser – Note: In Looking Up Harryette Mullen, Barbara Henning interviews Harryette Mullen by means of a correspondence. Poet Lee Ann Brown suggested that poet and educator Tara Betts and MER Editor Marjorie Tesser also correspond in reaction to the book. Dear Tara, When poet Lee Ann Brown suggested we collaborate on an epistolary review of Looking Up Harryette Mullen, I was excited about the idea. You are a poet and teacher, and I’m a poet and editor, but not an academic; I thought we’d possibly have different takes on the material. Looking…
Review by Suzanne Kamata – What a voice! With her dark sense of humor and her lively, inventive prose, Kirstin Scott, author of the award-winning Motherlunge, can make even the most mundane aspects of suburban life – recycling, for instance – totally compelling. At the heart of the narrative is Thea, a hopeful young woman raised by an unreliable mother, and her dazzling older sister, Pavia, who is pregnant. When Thea’s boyfriend decides to take a break from their relationship, and Pavia decides to leave her adoring new husband, Thea moves in with her sister to help out. But this…
Author’s Note: Nicelle Davis on Becoming Judas – It could be said that Becoming Judas is a book about teeth. Many of the poems incorporate mouth images, and these images are constantly devouring each other. I’ve always had a thing for teeth—I just didn’t know that I was baring this obsession in my work until friends started sending pictures of my book and their mouths closing around it, teeth close to the cover, the pages squeezed by their incisors. In Becoming Judas, I did what poets have done for centuries; I revealed my private obsession,…
MOM EGG Review and Half-Shell Press Present On the Half-Shell a new literary series Wild West Wild East Featured readers: Holly ANDERSON Nicelle DAVIS Kate GALE Kristin PREVALLET Marjorie TESSER Monday, September 16th at 6 PM (doors at 5:30) THE GALLERY at LPR 158 Bleecker St, NY NY 10012 212.505.3474 Admission $5 Contact: Marjorie Tesser [email protected] The debut reading of the On the Half-Shell literary reading series, “Wild West Wild East”, featuring innovative poets from both coasts, will take place on Monday, September 16th at 6 PM at The Gallery at LPR. Each of the poets featured in this…
Book Note by Jim Elledge – Using Hurricane Sandy as the backdrop and nominal reason for writing Fluid New York: Cosmopolitan Urbanism and the Green Imagination, May Joseph investigates how vulnerable—and dependent—New York and New Yorkers are to ecology. Although most of us think of “ecology” as rural (forests and jungles, grasslands and plains), Joseph points out that large urban centers like New York, Bangalore, Beijing, and Dar es Salaam also have “ecologies,” which are as close to nature in their own way as small towns and villages in the American Midwest are. As important, she explains that New York…
Review by Jennifer Jean – “Why does it look like that?” my seven year old Chloe asked a few weeks ago, pointing to my bare breast as I tried to squeeze into an outworn swimsuit. I liked her question. “It’s a poet’s question!” I thought, with outsized pride. But what I explained then is how, as an infant, she used to grab and kneed the bulbous flesh as she put the milky tip into her mouth. I told her that I was giving her love when I was giving her milk. That my substance, which is love, is expressed through my…
Review by Nancy Vona – Felice Aull’s The Music Behind Me is a fine book of poetry. Aull’s poems are satisfying to read. I enjoyed the poems on an emotional level, but I was also challenged to be a better poet, to think more carefully about my choice of line breaks, and to consider how to make the ordinary astonishing and unique. The poems in this volume, like all good poems, illuminate the senses—especially the sense of hearing. The Music Behind Me is a book about sound–the sounds of wind, city sounds, “word songs” uttered in prison, and in particular…
So Mom, if you come there are rules: no talking about grandpa’s big C or making up your wacky stories. When you pack Christopher’s school lunch, don’t make peanut butter sandwiches, one of his friends might die, and no chocolate. He can have beef, but only grass-fed. True—he doesn’t eat much besides mac and cheese, so don’t try to force feed him broccoli or Brussels sprouts, none of those cruciferous vegetables. And if he gets his facts wrong, don’t correct him, he’ll throw a tantrum. Some dinosaurs are still alive, they’re called birds, and there are dragons, aka Komodo. And…
Review by Katie Baker – Coffee shops are considered diverse gathering places, establishments where all walks of life, both young and old, come to read, write, congregate and socialize- and most importantly, get their coffee fix. However, one forgets the importance of the ritual cup when they begin to read Ellaraine Lockie’s chapbook, Coffee House Confessions. The chapbook features poems written in and about coffee houses around the world, from the infamous Starbucks chain to more intimate settings in exotic locations in Italy and Portugal. Each poem is truly observant and one feels the depths of each character, no matter…