Review by Jiwon Choi Frances Donovan’s Arboretum in a Jar is an assertive and confident work in which the poet’s voice feels tautly woven into the cacophony of internal dilemmas and S.O.S mayhem fueling this who’s who in…
Browsing: Book Reviews
Review by Sarah Lyn Rogers In Elysha Chang’s debut novel, A Quitter’s Paradise, two sisters buckle under lifelong pressure from their mother, Rita, who immigrated with their father, Jing, from Taipei and made enormous sacrifices to ensure that the…
Review by Julia Lisella In Subhaga Crystal Bacon’s fourth collection of poems, Transitory, an epigraph from Carolyn Forché instructs: “‘Poetry of witness’ . . . doesn’t mean to write about political matters; it means to write out of having…
Review by Mindy Kronenberg The poems in Carolina Hotchandani’s stunning debut comprise a woman’s journey to the self through many guises—daughter, scholar, mother, poet—and reveals how identity can be a fragile construct, whether inherited, imagined, or influenced by those…
New and Notable Lisa Grunberger, For the Future of Girls. Kelsay Books 2023. Poetry. For the Future of Girls is at once family album, inventory of memories, a reckoning with time, and a plea for love to last. Lisa Grunberger’s…
Review by Emily Webber Audra Kerr Brown’s collection of flash fiction, hush hush hush, at twelve stories and under forty pages, holds its power in its brevity. It is the shortest collection I’ve read this year, yet it stands…
Review by Lara Lillibridge Nicelle Davis is poet, collaborator, teacher, and performance artist residing in California who “…uses uses video, poetry, performance and publication to discuss topics ranging from artistic collaboration, feminist identity, poverty and power, and the environment.”…
Review by Gabby Gilliam Talk Smack to a Hurricane is a powerful debut collection from Lynne Jensen Lampe that explores the complicated relationship a child has with a parent who is mentally ill. Lampe’s mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia…
Review by Christine Salvatore In her first full-length poetry collection, long-time editor and reviewer Theresa Burns gives us a close-up examination of the everyday world around us. Riffing off Robert Frost’s much-loved poem “Design,” titular poems are sprinkled throughout…
Review by Sharon Tracey In Navigating the Reach, Mary Buchinger’s fourth full-length poetry collection, the poet wrestles with the slow grief and disorientation of losing a parent and one’s place in the world and how to make meaning of…