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Reviews and Interviews
JAILBREAK OF SPARROWS: MartÃn Espada’s Book for All Marginalized Beings
MartÃn Espada Jailbreak of Sparrows Alfred A. Knopf / 2025 / 114 pp / $29 Hardback Reviewed by James Long / June 2025 Â About a third of...
Love’s Searching Music: A Review of MODERN POETRY by Diane Seuss
Diane Seuss Modern Poetry Graywolf Press / 2024 / 112 pp / $26.00 Reviewed by Melissa Shepherd / April 2025 Â In Modern Poetry , Diane...
Book Review: MY MOTHER IN HAVANA: A MEMOIR OF MAGIC & MIRACLE by Rebe Huntman
Rebe Huntman My Mother in Havana: Â A Memoir of Magic & Miracle Monkfish Book Publishing Company / February 2025 / 280 pp / $24.99...
A Seat on the Porch: A Review of TROUBLESOME RISING: A THOUSAND-YEAR FLOOD IN EASTERN KENTUCKY
Melissa Helton, editor Troublesome Rising: A Thousand-Year Flood in Eastern Kentucky Fireside Industries, imprint of The University Press...
Book Review: THE HALF-LIFE OF GUILT by Lynn Stegner
Lynn Stegner The Half-Life of Guilt University of New Mexico Press, Highroad Books / September 2024 / 280 pp / $27.95 Hardcover Reviewed...
Seeds for a New Dream: A review of Marisa Labozzetta’s MEN WHO WALK IN DREAMS
Marisa Labozzetta Men Who Walk in Dreams Guernica World Editions / 2024 / 172 pp / $18.95 Paperback Reviewed by Julie Delegal / February...
Henry Hoke’s OPEN THROAT: The New Cat in Town
Henry Hoke Open Throat: A Novel Picador / 2024 / 176 pp / $17.00 Paperback Reviewed by Delaney Aby Saalman / January 2024   “I’ve never...
Irish Storytelling in 1970s New York
Edward Burns  A Kid from Marlboro Road  Seven Stories Press / August 2024 / 220 pp / $27.95  Reviewed by Lisa McCormack / December...
Wrestling with Tradition: A Review of Jessica Jacobs’s unalone
Jessica Jacobs unalone Four Way Books / 2024 / 210 pp / $17.95 Paperback Reviewed by James Long / November 2024 Â In the preface to her...
A Conversation with Kevin Prufer
by Lynnell Edwards  Kevin Prufer is a poet, writer, editor, and now, a novelist. His 2024 debut novel is Sleepaway , from the newly...
Book Review: NO SON OF MINE by Jonathan Corcoran
Jonathan Corcoran No Son of Mine: A Memoir The University of Kentucky Press / April 2024 / 248 pp / $29.95 Reviewed by Amanda G....
A Debut Memoirist Traces the Factors that Led Her to Alcoholism
Jessica Hoppe First in the Family: A Story of Survival, Recovery, and the American Dream Flatiron Books / September 10, 2024 / 272 pp /...
When a Poet Writes a Novel: A review of SLEEPAWAY
Kevin Prufer Sleepaway Acre Books / April 2024 / 187 pp / $20 Reviewed by Lisa McCormack / August 2024 Â Â When a renowned poet turns his...
How It Is About It: A Review of STANDING IN THE FOREST OF BEING ALIVE
Katie Farris Standing in the Forest of Being Alive Alice James Book / 2023 / 100 pp / $18.95 Reviewed by Laura Candler / June 2024 Film...
What the Gardener Says: A Review of Jonathan Buckley’s TELL
Jonathan Buckley Tell New Directions / March 2024 / 160 pp / $16.95 Reviewed by Laura Johnsrude / June 2024 In Jonathan Buckley’s twelfth...
The Currents of Thousands of Years: A Review of ROWING TO BAIKAL: SIXTY DAYS ON MONGOLIA’S SELENGE RIVER
Peter W. Fong ROWING TO BAIKAL: Sixty Days on Mongolia’s Selenge River Latah Books / December 2023 / 330 pp / $19.95 Reviewed by Greg...
For the Love of Snails: A Review of Katerina Stoykova’s BETWEEN A BIRD CAGE AND A BIRD HOUSE
Katerina Stoykova Between a Bird Cage and a Bird House University Press of Kentucky / January 2024 / 100 pp / $19.95 Reviewed by Melanie...
Empire’s Scribe: A Review of Paisley Rekdal’s WEST: A TRANSLATION
Paisley Rekdal West: A Translation Copper Canyon Press / 2023 / 178 pp/ $22.00 Reviewed by Lynnell Edwards / April 2024 Commissioned in...
An Illusory Discovery: Review of MARE'S NEST
Holly Mitchell Mare’s Nest Sarabande / May 2023 / 84 pp / $16.95 Reviewed by Rachel Thomas / February 2024 Holly Mitchell is a New...
ÂÂFinding One’s Way through Chronic Disease: A Review of LOSING MUSIC by John Cotter
John Cotter Losing Music: A Memoir Milkweed Editions / April 2023 / 296 pp / $26 Reviewed by Judy Harju Galliher / December 2023 In his...
Naming Who's Related in the Garden: A Review of SOIL by Camille T. Dungy
Camille T. Dungy Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden Simon & Schuster / May 2023 / 336 pp / $28.99 Reviewed by Melanie...
A Conversation with Picture Book Writer Tiffany Golden
by Kathleen Driskell Tiffany Golden, an MFA graduate in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of...
A Rare Collaboration: The Multifaceted Work of Playwright Dan O’Brien
by Portia Pennington Dan O’Brien is that exceptional breed of accomplished artist who never stops asking the hard questions. His...
Reconciling Life’s Pain & Love: A Review of WHAT SMALL SOUND by Francesca Bell
Francesca Bell What Small Sound Red Hen Press / 2023 / 104 pp. / $22.00 Reviewed by Katie Massa Kennedy / October 2023 How can we exist...
A day in the life
Wesley Brown Blue in Green: A Novella Blank Forms Editions / 2022 / 68 pp / $20.00 Reviewed by Robin Lippincott / October 2023 As a...
The Shape and Substance of Self: Review of Bronwyn Fischer’s THE ADULT
Bronwyn Fischer The Adult Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill / May 2023 / 312 pp / $27 Reviewed by Laura Johnsrude / September 2023 College...
The Bite and the Charm: A Review of GHOST APPLES by Katharine Coles
Katherine Coles Ghost Apples Red Hen Press / 2023 / 120 pp / $17.95 Reviewed by Melanie Weldon-Soiset / August 2023 Ghost Apples, the...
Approachable Discomfort: A Review of the Short Story Collection IN THE BETWEEN
Brice Particelli, Editor In the Between: 21st Century Short Stories Persea / 2022 /240 pp / $14 Reviewed by Lesly-Marie Buer / June 2023...
In Search of the Ineffable: A Review of THE TREES WITNESS EVERYTHING
Victoria Chang The Trees Witness Everything Copper Canyon Press / 2022 / 144 pp / $17 Reviewed by Melanie Weldon-Soiset / April 2023...
Review: Alexandra V. Méndez’s WHAT THE JAGUAR TOLD HER
Alexandra V. Méndez What the Jaguar Told Her Levine Querido / 2022 / 416 pp / $18.99 Reviewed by Jeremy Paden / April 2023 Historical...
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