Review by Christy Lee Barnes In her new poetry collection, Psalms of Unknowing, Heather Lanier examines motherhood, spirituality, and grief. Lanier has previously published two chapbooks and the memoir Raising a Rare Girl. The second poem of the collection, “Free Bible in Your Own Language,” boldly rejects the offer of a free Bible and seems ready to also reject any kind of conventional sacred text, writing: Give me some space, a quiet walk in the grass, unburdened by your kiosk of Korean, Finnish, French…. With my footprints bending the blades, I’ll write a psalm of unknowing, knowing the sun…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Review by Anne Kaier In this splendid series of poems, MaryAnn L. Miller charts the lives of two of her foremothers: her own mother, Mafalda Curzi from Western Pennsylvania and Princess Mafalda of the Italian royal family who died at Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II. On first sight, the two Mafaldas have nothing in common but their name—Italian for strength in battle. Mafalda Curzi was a brilliant woman who interrupted her college education to take a job that would help support her family during the Depression. Mafalda of the House of Savoy was married in “a headdress/fashioned…
Stained: an anthology of writing about menstruation Curators/Editors Rachel Neve-Midbar and Jennifer Saunders Review by Christine Stewart-Nuñez Scholar Andrea Lunsford describes predominant rhetorical features of women’s writing—across centuries—as breaking silence and naming in personal terms. These two features resonated with me as I read Stained: an anthology of writing about menstruation, which offers poems, short stories, and personal essays of new writing by women, non-binary, and transgender men. To achieve taboo-shattering power, curators/editors Rachel Neve-Midbar and Jennifer Saunders braided pieces that explore menstruation’s presence and absence across various contexts. The inclusion of writing from diverse voices and experiences makes…
Cynthia Atkins Tapestry A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold—Carole King Who knew when I sat cross-legged on the floor eating a bowl of cottage cheese, resting the album jacket in the V of my legs—that her words could last lifetimes, weft into the fabric for all these years?—Who knew that that bowl of cottage cheese would land just now, under my arms to jiggle just so unapologetically— I had cut my thumb opening the cellophane. I didn’t even know I was flowering. Her voice stitched my loneliness with fretted chords. Those nights I wrote letters…
Caits Meissner The Summer Phife Is Born A Cento made of lines pulled directly from Cheryl Boyce Taylor’s Mama Phife Represents The summer Phife is born we have the world by its chin. Say something sweet about my child slick as rain puddle, we fall in love with that little boy, my little transistor radio will cause a rebellion! That boy entered my house by the back door, twin brother come walking unshaven— we listen— swallowed my joy then made a poem— we listen— first gold album, sugar will rise, the lushest sound— we listen What messages…
Review by Catherine Hayes In her latest novel, Foundations, Abigail Stewart tells the story of three unique, individualistic women living in three separate eras of history who find their stories connected not only through the Dallas ranch house they all inhabit at one point in time but also through their shared struggles of trying to reinvent their lives and and reconcile what it means to be imperfect in a society that expects perfection from women. Stewart introduces her reader to three protagonists across the three segments of her novel: Bunny, a 1960s childless housewife who turns to spiritualism to…
Review by Jiwon Choi In Land Marks, Sharon Tracey’s third book of poetry, the poet has created a body of work that evokes what Robin Wall Kimmerer describes as the longing to live in a world made of gifts, for “we have grown weary of the sour taste in [our] mouths”––the sour that comes from being obsessed with the economy of commodity. And though you will find commodity in Land Marks, you will find them in Tracey’s astute taxonomy of flora and fauna: California quail and gray fox after a wildfire; North Atlantic Right Whale about to be autopsied;…
Review by Laura Dennis When you hear “fragile objects,” what is the first thing that comes to mind? Do you think of valuables one keeps locked in a case lest they be destroyed, or does your mind immediately reach for the metaphors such an expression might imply? In Katy Carl’s new story collection, the expression refers to all of that and more. On the one hand, we have the collection of “frangible curiosities Bub knew he must never touch” in the title story that also opens the collection. On the other, readers encounter a whole host of intangible breakables,…
Review by Mary Ellen Talley Kate Reavey brings a sense of the circularity of seasons and motherhood in CURVE, her first full length poetry collection. The five sections of free verse encompass an arc of personal experiences: motherhood, parenting, family life, cancer, and losing parents. Metaphorical and actual curves suggest a lyrical ebb and flow within an ocean of language and the natural world. Desire for pregnancy begins the book. The first poem, “My mother’s nipples,” sets out with a heartfelt wish, “I ask for stretch marks / silver as the hairs across / my mother’s brow.” Children arrive…
Review by Gabby Gilliam In her captivating debut poetry collection, Ellis Elliot delves into the multifaceted role of mothering. In her poem “Anthem”, she writes “This is about every mother, everywhere, and the dreadful dark we find ourselves in sometimes,”(57) setting the tone for a compilation that gracefully weaves together themes of trauma and recovery, conflict and acceptance. The initial part of the collection revolves around Elliott’s stepson, who has special needs. Through her poems, she artfully captures moments of profound connection and pays meticulous attention to detail, provoking the reader to stop and reflect. Each poem serves as…