Review by Judy Kaber A scholar and a prolific writer, Claire Millikin’s ninth book of poetry, Magicicada (Unicorn Press, 2024), reflects her continuing feminist stance. In it she examines the fate of girls and young women who grow up voiceless and abused in a patriarchal society. Having been raised in the deep south, the song of periodical cicadas wove itself into Millikin’s consciousness and in this book of poems she uses the life cycle and the song of those cicadas as a vehicle to express the brutality of a young teen placed in isolation and her ultimate release. The…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Review by Ruth Hoberman Joan Kwon Glass’s first full-length collection of poems, Night Swim, was steeped in the grief of having lost to suicide first her young nephew, then her sister. This second collection, Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms, explores loss in broader terms—placing it in the context of geographical dislocation, political violence, and America’s own strange cruelties and dangers. With their (mainly) long lines and unadorned diction, these poems are accessible and compelling. Many start in familiar settings—Pizza Hut, the Barbie movie, the mall, a Big Boy restaurant—then zoom out into deeper considerations before returning us to an…
Review by Sarah W. Bartlett In her debut chapbook, Nina Prater shares a series of simple pleasures, moments, and their simple lessons. Again and again and again. Often, when asked to assemble a collection of poems, I seek the story arc, progression or circle. This collection, by contrast, offers delicious sinking-in, encouraging and supporting in-the-moment lingering. An arc of sheer experience, as if walking alongside the poet through her day. And really, how could one miss this intent, with the wonderful book-end poems of “The Drive to Work” and “Acceptance”? In the former, right out of the gate, we…
For an upcoming online folio themed “Mother/Writer-Artist” we seek unpublished poems (up to 2 in one document), short fiction or prose (to 750 words) related to the conflicts and confluences, inspirations, and other facets of these two worlds. Submissions will be via Google form. Submissions will open 11/1 and close 11/11. SUBMIT TO “MOTHER/WRITER” FOLIO
Doralee Brooks Hips —After Lucille Clifton/Patricia Smith My hips hold me on weak knees and unsteady ankles as I pull spiky weeds like needles from the side of the house wearing Michael’s leather work gloves. He tells me to spray and wait, but I don’t have patience. I used to brace Janine on the left hip and take her older brother by the hand many mornings when we walked a block to the sitter’s house. Hips girdled and stockinged, I’d speed down a steep cobble-stoned street past Crescent Elementary, hop the 88 Frankstown, transfer to the Hill, arrive an…
Curated by Melissa Joplin Higley Upcoming and new books on our radar! Megan Merchant, Hortensia, in Winter, New American Press, October 2024, poetry Hortensia, in Winter, winner of the New American Poetry Prize, is a series of prose poems addressed to an ancestor who travelled with Joseph Smith to help establish Nauvoo, IL, then left everything she knew and loved when Brigham Young came into power and instituted polygamy. These poems span motherhood, desire, spirituality, and what it means to take agency of your own life. Jennifer Schomburg Kanke, The Swellest Wife Anyone Ever Had, Kelsay Books, August…
Review by Carole Mertz Composed around its title’s theme, Braving the Body formed when Editor Callihan addressed the issue of her breast cancer in 2020. After she issued This Strange Garment (Terrapin Books, 2023), she felt the urge to dig deeper into the exigencies of the body. She and co-editors Bao and Franklin immersed themselves in body poems. Following various workshops, ekphrastic experiences, and community sharings, this eclectic and electric collection took birth. There are many ways to enjoy the anthology. I began haphazardly, selecting first those poets whose works I know or have previously reviewed. My initial readings…
Review by Lara Lillibridge DeMisty D. Bellinger’s short story collection, All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere, just released by University of Nebraska Press, won the Barbara DiBernard Award, an annual prize for a book published by Zero Street and named for Dr. DiBernard who is professor emeritus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a pioneer in LGBTQIA+ studies. Bellinger also wrote the novel, New to Liberty and two collections of poetry, Peculiar Heritage and Rubbing Elbows. Bellinger teaches creative writing in central Massachusetts. She has a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, an MFA from Southampton College, and a PhD from the University of…
Review by Celia Jeffries This is the first book I have read that opens with a Content Warning. I should not have been surprised; we live in a world where the evening news should come with a content warning. That Christy Tending chose to open her memoir with one is testament to how tenderly she cares for herself, her family, her readers, and our world. “How do we meet the feeling that the world as we know it is ending? How do we maintain compassion for ourselves in the midst of grief and chaos? How do we inspire ourselves…
Review by Sarah Walker Caron I never considered myself a feminist. Even as I parented outside the confines of what mother is “supposed” to look like, I didn’t apply feminism to what I was doing. That all changed when I became a single mother in my 30s, starting over with my children in a new state and eventually obtaining a divorce. That experience of rediscovery and redefining myself is what drew me to Coming Into Being: Mothers on Finding and Realizing Feminism, edited by Andrea O’Reilly, Fiona Joy Green, and Victoria Bailey. This academic book of essays on feminist…