Compulsive Reader

Compulsive Reader News
maggieball@compulsivereader.com
http://compulsivereader.com
Volume 23, Issue 12, 1 December 2021

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IN THIS ISSUE

New Reviews at Compulsive Reader
Literary News
Competition News
Sponsored By
Coming soon

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Hello readers. Happy last month of the calendar. Here is the latest bumper batch of reviews and interviews:

A review of Glass Bikini by Kristin Bock

In Bock’s alternate universe, the reader is immersed in a carnival ride that questions and interprets how our current reality could easily follow a much darker timeline. In this world of monsters and chaos, happening “after the extinction of whales”, in which trees as nourishers become murderous “flame trees”, the reader is instantly and viscerally reminded of the fires that have ravaged Australia, the Amazon, and much of the western United States. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/27/a-review-of-glass-bikini-by-kristin-bock/

An interview with Elaelah Harley

The author of A Plan to Save the World talks about how she started writing, her debut novel and its inspiration, her (self-) publishing journey, and lots more. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/26/an-interview-with-elaelah-harley/

A review of The Museum of Heartache by Paul Luikart

Luikart’s short stories are like glimpses of reality television episodes of the down-and-out and downtrodden. Each excerpt gives the reader a video clip in the mind, briefly immersing in the stories of bad parents, drug addicts, prostitutes, the suicidal, the desperately lonely, the neglected, the abandoned, the mentally ill, the grieving, and many more lost and despondent types. His writing puts one right into the desperate situations and into the brains of his characters. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/24/a-review-of-the-museum-of-heartache-by-paul-luikart/

A review of The Crumbling Mansion by Charles Freyberg

Some of the poems in The Crumbling Mansion are reprinted from Dining at the Edge, but in this new context the work picks up on the theme, highlighting the entropy that is always undoing: mansions crumble, trees fall, makeup runs, love dissolves, animals become extinct, and great poets and playwrights die, leaving us bereft and struggling for meaning. What The Crumbling Mansion shows is is how beautiful the struggle is. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/21/a-review-of-the-crumbling-mansion-by-charles-freyberg/

A review Poly by Paul Dalgarno

There are two things I appreciate most about this brave novel by Dalgarno. The first is that it explores so candidly the inner world of the narrator—Chris – who is painted with such pathos, to provoke tenderness and vulnerability in the reader and cast toxic masculinity under scrutiny. Secondly, I appreciate how it aroused in me important conversations on love and ethics, coloured by story. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/19/a-review-poly-by-paul-dalgarno/

A review of The Collection Plate by Kendra Allen

The poem, “Let’s leave” is even more of a departure from conventional verse-on-the-page, with words literally overlapping other text (unfortunately, this cannot be reproduced here), presumably suggesting emotional complexity/density, but also for sheer aesthetic effect. “Solace by earl” is another example, and, significantly, this poem highlights another of Allen’s themes, the reverence with which she regards her female elders, womanhood in general. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/17/a-review-of-the-collection-plate-by-kendra-allen/

A review of Naimah and Ajmal on Newton’s Mountain by Nancy Dafoe

For the conscientious writer, many experiences of loss and pain can be conveyed only by using a special language, one that stretches somewhat beyond the norm. To accomplish this, Dafoe chooses the method of writing her story as fantasy; she never strays from her course: that of allowing her characters to come to terms with their devastating losses and helping them promote their dream of peace to others. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/15/a-review-of-naimah-and-ajmal-on-newtons-mountain-by-nancy-dafoe/

A review of Focal Point by Jenny Qi

But then comes this marvellous book where she finally succeeds in pulling us toward her so we may join her in this painful experience. We feel we are with her, those who have suffered the death of a loved one and even those who haven’t yet. With the speaker, and to the extent possible—and risking an assumption—we feel we are with Jenny Qi. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/11/a-review-of-focal-point-by-jenny-qi/

A review of Henceforth I Ask Not Good Fortune by Dotty E. LeMieux

The view is sadly breathtaking and showcases LeMieux’s greatest strength—crafting images that compel us to see the world that she sees.The poet’s uncompromising attitude towards her subject matter is the unifying thread of her poetry. The reader eventually surrenders to the juxtaposition of seemingly mismatched topics and finally comes to appreciate the variety of ways in which LeMieux accomplishes this. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/10/a-review-of-henceforth-i-ask-not-good-fortune-by-dotty-e-lemieux/

A Review of Alleys are Filled with Future Alphabets by Gopal Lahiri

This is a brilliant collection of 110 poems which take us on a meaningful journey as if on a spacecraft, where we sometimes get a rollercoaster ride of negotiating the past with the present, sometimes on a straight ride through scudding clouds where cogitations on the transitory struggle with meditations on the everlasting, sometimes there is a pining for the worldly charms negated by the search for the unknown, the summum bonum. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/09/a-review-of-alleys-are-filled-with-future-alphabets-by-gopal-lahiri/

A Q&A with Mike Mattison and Ernest Suarez

Musician Mike Mattison and literary historian Ernest Suarez talk about their new book, Poetic Song Verse: Blues Based Popular Music and Poetry. They cover such topics as the nature of poetic song verse, the transformative nature of artists like Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Jimi Hendrix, the role of coffee houses in the 50s, and lots more. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/09/a-qa-with-mike-mattison-and-ernest-suarez/

A review of Nemerov’s Door by Robert Wrigley

For what Wrigley does so well with analyzing his own and others’ poetry, there is also a uniqueness with his ability to switch between poetic analysis and intimate memoir on command. The book as a whole is a highly original composition in that it succeeds in combining close readings of poetry, personal narrative, and poetry by Wrigley himself. All of which are quick to grab readers’ attention with a highly in touch sense of pathos and nostalgia. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/06/a-review-of-nemerovs-door-by-robert-wrigley/

A review of The Sauna is Full of Maids by Cheryl J. Fish

One poem stands out as really bringing in many layers, from personal, national and nature. “Origin & Motion, “a top poem in this collection, merges Finnish literary and creation myths, sauna culture, and Finnish food and uses those elements to interpret an aging American mother “a widow, [who] grows old in a hot place.” This mother though far away is felt close: “My mother’s voice cuts through woods like the earth/in dark rye bread.” The poem moves from Finland’s epic poem and piece of national pride, the Kalevala, where “a barren water-mother’s knee is the place/where birds lay eggs. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/04/a-review-of-the-sauna-is-full-of-maids-by-cheryl-j-fish/

A review of Olive Muriel Pink by Colleen Keating

I would like to congratulate Colleen Keating not only for writing this incredible book but also for honouring a woman from the past which like many other Australian heroines are often forgotten or not given credit for their achievements. Reading about Olive Muriel Pink will inspire you and give you strength to struggle to achieve your aims. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/11/02/a-review-of-olive-muriel-pink-by-colleen-keating/

All of the reviews and interviews listed above are available at The Compulsive Reader on the front page. Older reviews and interviews are kept indefinitely in our extensive (and growing) categorized archives (currently at 2,868), which can be browsed or searched from the front page of the site.

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LITERARY NEWS

In the literary news this month, The winners of the £2,000 Polari Prize and the £1,000 Polari First Book Prize, recognizing works by writers born or based in the U.K. and Ireland that explore the LGBTQ+ experience, are: Polari Prize: No Modernism Without Lesbians by Diana Souhami, and Polari First Book Prize: A Dutiful Boy by Mohsin Zaidi.

Sujit Sivasundaram won the £25,000 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding for his book Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire. The award, formerly known as the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize, was established in 2013 to “reward and celebrate the best works of nonfiction that demonstrate rigor and originality, have contributed to global cultural understanding and illuminate the interconnections and divisions that shape cultural identity worldwide.

Senegalese author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr won the 2021 Prix Goncourt for his novel The Most Secret Memory of Men (La plus secrète mémoire des hommes). He is the first sub-Saharan African to win France’s most prestigious literary award, France24 reported, adding that laureates receive just €10 in prize money, but the award “traditionally guarantees the sale of hundreds of thousands of books.” “With this young author, we have returned to the fundamentals of the Goncourt,” said the Goncourt Academy’s secretary general Philippe Claudel. Goncourt president Didier Decoin said he read Mbougar Sarr’s work in one sitting, describing it as “a hymn to literature.”

After being widely tipped to win, South African author Damon Galgut is this year’s Booker Prize winner for his novel The Promise. His 9th novel follows a white South African family from the apartheid era to the present day, and it centres on a broken promise to the family’s black maid. It’s the first time Galgut has claimed the prestigious $90,000 prize after 2 of his previous novels just missed out. Beating the likes of Richard Powers’ Bewilderment* and Patricia Lockwood’s debut No One is Talking About This, Galgut’s “tour de force” is “dense with historical and metaphorical significance”, the judges said. Galgut used his acceptance speech to back African authors and “the writers heard and unheard from the remarkable continent I’m part of. Please keep listening to us,” he said.

Ryann Stevenson has won the 2021 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize for his manuscript Human Resources, which will be published next June by Milkweed Editions. Stevenson also receives $10,000. Judge Henri Cole said about Human Resources: “The controlled anxiety of the present is captured brilliantly by this wary, lucid book. We live in an era when our humanness is worn down–by virtual beings, bots, synced devices, battery life, data, radiation, sulfates, and lead–so we must practice mindfulness to keep from losing track of who we are. This brave, tough book suggests that flowering maples, yoga, orcas, and the hands of our mothers might help us preserve our innocence. Human Resources is a lyric transcript of what it is to be a citizen at a punishing time.”

Omar El Akkad was announced as the winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel What Strange Paradise. The novel is published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart and in the U.S. by Knopf. The novel depicts the lives of, and relationship between, a nine-year-old Syrian refugee and a teenage girl who finds him washed up on the shore of her island home and tries to save him.

The winner of the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature 2021 is Christos Tsiolkas for his body of work, which has made an outstanding contribution to Australian literature and to cultural and intellectual life. The Prize is supported by Major Partner, The Vera Moore Foundation. The winner of the NEW $20,000 Professional Development Award 2012 is Evelyn Araluen. The funds are for a project to assist in pursuing the recipient’s writing career. The Award is supported by the Melbourne Prize Trust. The winner of the $15,000 Writer’s Prize 2021 is ELOISE GRILLS for her essay, which is of outstanding originality, literary merit and creative freshness. The Award is supported by its sole patron The Robert Salzer Foundation. The finalist’s essays are published at www.melbourneprize.org.

The winner of the biennial Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award has been announced – congratulations to Sydney poet Emily Stewart. The Award is Australia’s richest poetry prize, valued at $40,000 and is dedicated to celebrating women poets. Stewart’s winning manuscript, titled Running Time, was described by the judges as ‘nimble and light, precise and seemingly casual’. The collection will be published by Vagabond Press.

The National Book Awards were livestreamed from Penguin Random House offices in New York City. (Watch the entire presentation here: https://www.nationalbook.org/awards2021/) The winners were: Fiction: Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (Dutton), Nonfiction: All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles (Random House), Poetry: Floaters by Martín Espada (Norton), Translated Literature: Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins (Open Letter), and Young People’s Literature: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (Dutton Books for Young Readers).

The Canada Council for the Arts revealed the 2021 winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards. Each winner receives C$25,000, with the publisher receiving C$3,000 to promote the winning book; and finalists getting C$1,000 (each. For fiction the winner was Tainna: The Unseen Ones – Norma Dunning (Edmonton, Alberta) Douglas & McIntyre. For poetry the winner was The Junta of Happenstance – Tolu Oloruntoba (Surrey, British Columbia) Anstruther Books / Palimpsest Press. For the full list of winners visit: https://canadacouncil.ca/press/2021/11/ggbooks-2021-winners

Deborah Levy’s Real Estate was named the Hay Festival Book of the Year 2021, for which hundreds of book lovers nominated their favorite titles of the year online. The announcement came on the eve of Hay Festival Winter Weekend, which is running November 24-28 as the festival’s first ticketed, in-person events in the U.K. for two years.

Finally, shortlists in five categories have been announced for the 2021 Costa Book Awards, recognizing some of the most enjoyable books published in the last year by authors living in the U.K. and Ireland. Category winners, who each receive £5,000, will be announced January 4, and the £30,000 overall winner of the Costa Book of the Year will be named February 1. See the complete Costa Book Awards shortlists here: https://www.costa.co.uk/behind-the-beans/costa-book-awards/book-awards

Have a great month!

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