Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward. Scribner, 2017. $26, 304 pages.
Award-winning novelist Jesmyn Ward has been called both “the heir to Faulkner” and “a failed poet.” The former comes from a glowing piece in Time magazine about Ward, …
Book Review
Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016
Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016, by Frank Bidart. FSG, 2017. $35, 736 pages.
I wonder how many readers, upon first glancing at the cover of this magnificent doorstopper, misread the first part of the title of Bidart’s career-spanning volume, Half-Light, as …
Full Body Pleasure Suit
Full Body Pleasure Suit, by Elsbeth Pancrazi. Tavern Books, 2017. 76 pages, $17.
Elsbeth Pancrazi’s debut poetry collection Full Body Pleasure Suit consists of a series of linked poems in four sections, in which a first-person narrator leads readers …
French Quarter Beautification Project
French Quarter Beautification Project, by C. W. Cannon. Lavender Ink, 2016. 244 pages, $17.
With his latest novel, French Quarter Beautification Project, C.W. Cannon unleashes an outrageous tour de force that situates him squarely in the pantheon of New Orleans …
Four Reincarnations
Four Reincarnations, by Max Ritvo. Milkweed Editions, 2016. 96 pages, $15.
At just twenty-five, Max Ritvo leaves behind a small but incredibly accomplished body of work in his debut collection, Four Reincarnations. Ritvo fought a long battle with …
States of Motion
States of Motion, by Laura Hulthen Thomas. Wayne State University Press, May 2017. $19, 304 pages.
Laura Hulthen Thomas displays a wide range of skills in the haunting stories that comprise her debut collection, States of Motion, …
Everything We Don’t Know
Everything We Don’t Know, by Aaron Gilbreath. Curbside Splendor, 2016. 312 pages, $17.
In this era of random and useless information competing for a reader’s attention, the long-form essay can be a welcome respite. Blurring the distinctions between essay …
Sonora
Sonora, by Hannah Lillith Assadi. SOHO Press, 2017. $16, 208 pages.
Hannah Lillith Assadi’s debut novel, Sonora, is a kaleidoscopic venture for the senses. Like a video montage set to the timbre of desert wind chimes, …
The Absolute Gravedigger
The Absolute Gravedigger, by Vítězslav Nezval. Translated from the Czech by Stephan Delbos and Tereza Novická. Twisted Spoon Press, October 2016. $23, 214 pages.
Vítězslav Nezval (1900-1958) dreamt of changelings; he saw mutations where others saw stability. Square-faced and …
small, fierce things
small, fierce things, by lj moore. Achiote Press, 2015. $12
While it might be a stretch to call the short stories, vignettes, flash fictions, and drawings in lj moore’s small, fierce things fables, fables nevertheless provide a useful lens …
