Review by Nancy Gerber – When I opened Me First, a collection of poems by Ann Curran, I found two pages of “testimonials” from historically important artists, writers, industrialists, and even Jesus Christ, who has this to say: “Don’t blame…
Browsing: Reviews
Review by Lisa Cheby – Good poetry, like a good sermon, finds a balance between wisdom and humility, between insight and struggle, to bring the painful into the light so we can see its beauty. Iris Jamahl Dunkle is not…
Review by Cathy Warner – As an infant my oldest daughter loved being cuddled and entertained by aunts and grandparents, but she cried for days after their visits. She threw her first tantrum at 18 months and continued, almost daily,…
Review by Ivy Rutledge Laura Grace Weldon’s poetry collection, Tending, tells the story of a life deeply felt. Read from beginning to end, the poems collectively form a larger poem detailing images of farm life, domesticity, family life, and beyond.…
Review by Libby Maxey – I love the concept of four chapbooks published in one volume, four poets brought together in a conversation that only the reader can hear. Apparently, this kind of “quartet” is a specialty of Toadlily Press,…
Review by Dallas Woodburn – It is safe to say I have never before read a book quite like Margo Berdeshevsky’s Beautiful Soon Enough, winner of the American Book Review/Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize. During the first few pages of…
Review by Nancy Vona – The best books can be enjoyed over and over again. Kyle Potvin’s chapbook Sound Travels on Water is one such book: a satisfying collection of poems with nuances of meaning that emerge on subsequent readings. Potvin…
Review by Kathrine Yets – Everything comes down to the center of Tami Haaland’s collection When We Wake in the Night—the heart. No matter how hard I try, I am funneled there. The collection is divided into five sections—As Many…
Review by Linda McCauley Freeman – It’s been far too long since I’ve picked up a poetry book that I couldn’t put down. But from the opening poem in Still Life with Dirty Dishes, I knew I would not only…
Review by Zara Raab – Levi’s earlier books, Once I Gazed at You in Wonder, winner of the 1998 Walt Whitman Award, and Skyspeak (2005), give a large place to relationships: to a mother whose death she grieves and a…