Cold Enough for Snow is a deeply beautiful novel, richly potent in its themes, while resisting simple explication. It reads quickly, driven forward by the tension between presence and absence, love and shame, caring and being cared for, past and present, belonging and otherness, while its meaning unfolds slowly, lingering.
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A review of Ox in Metal by Jennifer Maiden
It’s as if there’s a dream-universe in which the characters continue to develop like a series—they meet and talk, referencing previous situations and combining those with what is happening in the real public and political spectrum. The effect is both stimulating and unsettling, as the characters are both representative and self-contained.
A review of Pretend I Don’t Exist by Morgan Bell
Pretend I Don’t Exist is a delight to read – the kind of book a parent can have a lot of fun reading to a child (or vice versa) but also one that tells a serious and important story about the beauty of animal sentience, the rich interplay of the human and the natural, animate world, and perhaps most importantly, the precariousness of the latter, particularly when it comes to koalas who are increasingly vulnerability, facing a significant and rapidly increasing loss of habitat.
A review of Off Limits by Louise Wakeling
Wakeling writes lines methodically, in a measured way, never letting her words race ahead of her intended message, whether she is writing about underground stormwater pipes, a power station or the underbelly of a secret Sydney. The poet filters ordinary experiences and places through vibrant images and poignant words.The poet brings to the front paradigms of life and the world, sometimes her observations are like theorems others like syllogisms and others like a work of art.
Tree Stumps Adorn Their Graves: A Conversation with Author Javier Sinay and Translator Robert Croll about The Murders of Moisés Ville
In The Murders of Moisés Ville, award-winning journalist Javier Sinay investigates a series of murders from the late nineteenth century, unearthing the complex history and legacy of Moisés Ville, the “Jerusalem of South America,” and his personal family connection to a little-known period of Jewish history in Argentina, linked to his great-grandfather Mijl Hacohen Sinay.
A review of Count Four: Poems by Keith Kopka
These speakers, Kopka’s tellers – their attitudes – interest me more than anything else. They seem to hurt, as if they live as emotionally bruised, successful failures whose memories of fathers and mothers, family, course the past coming in on the writer’s desire to tell all – and more – to live to play music so close to grieving, I want to wince then sigh for the horrific plight joy brings alive on the planet.
A review of Greedy Cow by Fiona Sinclair
The collection opens with Sinclair’s humorous experiences with internet dating, from the pervy responses to her profile picture to flirting with emoticons; “over the week I virtual two time / men from Rochester and Deal.” Soon enough, though, she begins a relationship with a man – “our steps synchronize like Fred and Ginger” – and over time they adjust to one another.
A review of Shaky Town by Lou Mathews
In Shaky Town, Mathews expertly shows us how things work and why they break down, taking apart and putting back together a range of small, yet fully felt lives. His overlapping worlds are mapped in prose that shimmers like hammered copper. He knows this territory well: you don’t doubt that when a certain bug shrinks the leaves of a eugenia hedge, more of a morose neighbor’s sad guitar music will bleed through.
A review of A Critical Inquiry: Text, Context and Perspectives by Sutanuka Ghosh Roy
The section Indian English Poetry is quite daring in its inclusion of all modern age poets like, Adil Jussawalla, Sanjeev Sethi, Meena Kandasamy and Vihang A. Naik. Mostly, she looks for a hint of a world other than the real, mundane workaday world in the creations of these poets.
An interview with Tessa Wegert
