REVIEW: THE LAND OF STONE AND RIVER by Claudia Putnam
Claudia Putnam The Land of Stone and River Moon City Press/ 2022 / 102 pp/ $14.95 Reviewed by Lynnell Edwards / February 2023 Claudia...
top of page
Reviews and Interviews
Crafting the Marvelous from the Mundane: A Review of Eamon Grennan’s PLAINCHANT
Eamon Grennan Plainchant Red Hen Press / 2022 / 72 pp / $15.95 Paperback Reviewed by Maud Welch / January 2023 In his gripping new poetry...
Far-flung and Personal: A Review of Stephen Benz’s READING THE SIGNS
Stephen Benz Reading the Signs and Other Itinerant Essays Etruscan Press / 2022 / $18 / 384 pp Reviewed by John Mark Jennings / January...
The Dance of Chronos and Kairos in PARADISE CLOSE
Lisa Russ Spaar Paradise Close Persea Books / 2022 / 219 pp / $25.95 Reviewed by Elizabeth Hall Magill / December 2022 Acclaimed poet...
REVIEW: THE MINUTES by Tracy Letts
Reviewed by Charles M. Rix / November 2022 On May 15, 2022, I stepped into New York City’s Studio 54 to catch the Broadway premier of the...
Review: THE WORLD THAT THE SHOOTER LEFT US by Cyrus Cassells
Cyrus Cassells The World That the Shooter Left Us Four Way Books / 2022 / 120 pp / $16.95 paper. Reviewed by Debra Kang Dean / October...
The Heart of the Matter: Family Histories Bring Immigration Stories to Life for Young Readers
Reviewed By K. L. Going / October 2022 One of the many things I enjoy about writing for young audiences—whether they’re picture book,...
Review: THE WAY A WOUND BECOMES A SCAR by Emily Schulten
Emily Schulten The Way a Wound Becomes a Scar Kelsay Books/ 2021/ 80pp/ $16.50 Reviewed by Lynette Lamp / October 2022 The Way a Wound...
Souls in Armor: A Review of George Ella Lyon’s BACK TO THE LIGHT
George Ella Lyon Back to the Light The University Press of Kentucky / 2021 / 105 pp / $19.95 Paperback Reviewed by Jimmy Long / October...
Tidbits and Courses, Not Whole Meals: A Review of David Sedaris' A CARNIVAL OF SNACKERY
David Sedaris A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020, Little, Brown and Company/Hatchette Book Group / 2021 / 576 pp / $32.00...
A Conversation with Caitlin Hamilton Summie
by Elaine Neil Orr Caitlin Hamilton Summie's Geographies of the Heart, Fomite, 2022. Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Finalist, General...
REVIEW: VIRGINIA WOOLF'S MRS. DALLOWAY by Robin Black
Robin Black Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway Ig Publishing / 2022 / $14.95 /176 pp Reviewed by Robin Lippincott / April 2022 From One...
REVIEW: DEAR DAMAGE by Ashley Marie Farmer
Ashley Marie Farmer Dear Damage Sarabande Books / 2022 / $16.95 / 200 pp Reviewed by Laura Johnsrude / April 2022 Early in 2014, in a...
REVIEW: AMERICA by Fernando Valverde
Fernando Valverde America Translated by Carolyn Forche Copper Canyon Press / 2021 / $18.00 / 176pp Reviewed by Jeremy Paden / April 2022...
Review: PINE by Julia Koets
Julia Koets's poetry collection PINE, reviewed by Lynnell Edwards.
Tender Spaces: Verse Novels Provide Healing and Hope for Middle-Grade Readers
Reviewed by Dana VanderLugt / January 2022 During the fourteen years I taught middle school English, one of the best parts of my job was...
Circles of Life: From the Inside Out in Voice Lessons: Essays
Karen Salyer McElmurray Voice Lessons: Essays Iris Press / 2021 / 128 pp / $20 Reviewed by Elaine Neil Orr / December 2021 The longest...
Book Review of Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West
Lauren Redniss Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West Random House / 2020 / 288 pp/ $30.00 Hardcover / $20.00 Paperback...
Kentucky Book Festival Highlights: An Interview with Director Sara Volpi
by Good River Review staff The Kentucky Book Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary this year with a weeklong festival, November 1-6,...
Coming Home: A Review of Jayne Moore Waldrop’s Drowned Town
Jayne Moore Waldrop Drowned Town University Press of Kentucky / 2021 / 254 pp / 24.95 Reviewed by Elizabeth Hall Magill / October 2021...
Politics, Prose, and Foreignness in Recent Romance Language Lyric Poetry
Berenguer, Amanda/Materia Prima: Selected Poems of Amanda Berenguer/Eds. Kristin Dykstra and Kent Johnson/Ugly Duckling Presse/2019/$22...
Curating an Inclusive Bookshelf: Children’s Books that Celebrate Diversity and Inspire Compassion
reviewed by Kate Bustillos / October 2021 Jasmine Warga Other Words for Home Balzer + Bray/2019/332 pp/16.99 hardback I read Jasmine...
Book Review: BEST DEBUT STORIES 2020: THE PEN AMERICA DAU PRIZE
Yuka Igarashi, Editor Best Debut Short Stories 2020: The PEN America DAU Prize Catapult / 2020 / 240 pp/ 16.95 Reviewed by R. L. Mullins...
Emma Cline Keeps Her Secrets: A Review of DADDY
Daddy, reviewed by Brent Coughenour
Nothing Gold Can Stay: Race and the American Dream in HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD
How Much of These Hills is Gold, reviewed by Elizabeth Hall Magill
Trying to Solve the Puzzle of It: Review of Melissa Faliveno's TOMBOYLAND
Reviewed by JoAnne E. Lehman
Review of under the aegis of a winged mind by Makalani Bandele
Makalani Bandele’s first full-length collection is a stunning jazz fantasia that thrums with Bandele’s deep knowledge of music and the post-
Mixing It Up: The Intimacy of Storytelling in What Are You Going Through
reviewed by Dianne Aprile Sigrid Nunez’s latest novel, What are You Going Through, embodies the fourth criterion in Italo Calvino’s list
review of Natasha Trethewey's Memorial Drive
Near the end of her memoir, Natasha Trethewey remarks, “To survive trauma, one must be able to tell a story about it.”
An Ableist Reckoning for the Literary Canon: Review of Cyborg Detective
I find myself meditating on the phrase “don’t let your disability define you” since reading Jillian Weise’s poetry collection Cyborg Detecti
bottom of page