Compulsive Reader

Compulsive Reader News
maggieball@compulsivereader.com
http://compulsivereader.com
Volume 24, Issue 9, 1 Sept 2022

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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. Here is the latest batch of reviews and interviews:

A review of Pentimento by Daniel Ionita

There are angels, demons, Death with a capital D, a plot against Santa Claus, and potato salad, all playing off one another with exuberance. Though occasionally confronting, Pentimento is a charming, inventive, smart and slightly audacious collection that will delight all but the most squeamish readers. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/24/a-review-of-pentimento-by-daniel-ionita/

A review of Stalker Stalked by Lee Matthew Goldberg

Stalker Stalked nails the chaos and uber-dramaticism of reality television with Lexi’s self-destructive nature making the implosion of her life equally satisfying and tragic. The plummeting decay of order aligns well with the reality television aesthetic, compounded by explicit and raunchy scenes, the novel certainly appeals to lovers of messy dramas, chick-flics, and reality shows. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/22/a-review-of-stalker-stalked-by-lee-matthew-goldberg/

A review of Selected Poems: The Director’s Cut by John Yamrus

The poems in this book are courageous in that they defy expectations of what some may consider “poetic material.” Yamrus forgoes lyricism by shooting straight (and sometimes being crass). He eschews punctuation and literary device. He compresses everything, as in the two-word poem “nothing / helps,” or, a poem half that length: “endure.” That’s right. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/19/a-review-of-selected-poems-the-directors-cut-by-john-yamrus/

A review of In The Roar of the Machine by Zheng Xiaoqiong

The poet skilfully describes how youth and dreams are lost quickly as the result of hard work, becoming part of the machine: “I see myself resembling this cast iron.” Iron is in her hands, in her mind, in her verses, iron controls her life. Anonymity, monotony, boredom, pain and exploitation are observed with poetic care; politics into poetry. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/17/a-review-of-the-roar-of-the-machine-by-zheng-xiaoqiong/

Reframing History with ‘Redeclarations’ by Halim Madi

Halim Madi, a Santa Barbara–based digital poet, highlights this ironic relationship in his new digital art project, Redeclarations, an interactive endeavor that invites viewers to write their own declarations by selecting words and phrases from the original Declaration of Independence. Madi says he opted to use parts of the original document rather than rewrite the whole thing from scratch in an attempt to “reuse the soil from which we grew as a nation to reinvent the nation itself.” Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/14/reframing-history-with-redeclarations-by-santa-barbara-based-artist-halim-madi/

A review of Beachcomber by Colleen Keating

The poet has the ability to immerse herself in nature, her senses capture the beauty that surround us whether at the beach, in a forest or in her own garden. For example, a little rock falls at her feet, she picks it up and she reads its secrets, its past, she hears its voice and she treasures it. Keating has the skill to draw pictures with words bringing to the reader very vivid descriptions. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/10/a-review-of-beachcomber-by-colleen-keating/

An Interview with Sean Singer about Today in the Taxi

The author of Today in the Taxi talks about his book and its structure, poems, about his 8000 taxi trips, prose poems, literary influences, Kafka, and lots more. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/09/an-interview-with-sean-singer-about-today-in-the-taxi/

A review of The Vegan Cake Bible By Sara Kidd

I doubt I’ll ever get my cakes to look as gorgeous as Sara Kidd’s but The Vegan Cake Bible is inspiring, and although I only baked the easiest cakes in the book, I’m keen to build my skills and try some of the harder ones as well. Because the book is so attractive it also makes a lovely gift for any vegan cooks in your life and a great way to create delicious and impressive treats that are ecologically sustainable and cruelty-free. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/07/a-review-of-the-vegan-cake-bible-by-sara-kidd/

A review of Arthurian Things: A Collection of Poems by Melissa Ridley Elmes

Taking on a legend is never an easy task, and the Arthurian legend is ages old and feels as if it were set in stone. In her collection of poems giving voice to Arthurian Things, Melissa Ridley Elmes has undertaken to add to the canon of Arthuriana poems that imagine voices, tell tales, and create scenes in which the once-and-future King Arthur and his knights are endowed with humor and humanity. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/07/a-review-of-arthurian-things-a-collection-of-poems-by-melissa-ridley-elmes/

Pay Attention – Taste – Remember: Review of Diane LeBlanc’s Poetry Collection, The Feast Delayed

In LeBlanc’s poetry, grief enters through the senses, often the sense of taste. The collection is imbued with flavors. While I read, they lingered on my tongue. In some of the poems, the flavors are bitter and reflect the bitterness of loss and injustice. The prose poem “Expired” takes us through the journey of cleaning out the spice cupboard, of searching out the jars past their expiration dates. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/06/pay-attention-taste-remember-review-of-diane-leblancs-poetry-collection-the-feast-delayed/

A review of Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters by Maya Sonenberg

As the reader gets into the stories, the fairytale nature of their shortcomings likewise becomes clear, giving these stories an air of fable – not a moral lesson so much as an insight into human frailties and failings, both mothers and their offspring, merely two sides of the same coin; a parade of characters who come up short. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/03/a-review-of-bad-mothers-bad-daughters-by-maya-sonenberg/

An interview with East of Troost’s Ellen Barker

The author of East of Troost talks about her new novel and its inspiration, the decisions she made about the book and areas of potential pushback, other books dealing with racism that have had a strong impact on her, her new book set in St Louis, and more. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/08/01/an-interview-with-east-of-troosts-ellen-barker/

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 2,998 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 first annual Sonny Mehta Fellowships and Sonny Mehta Scholarships are being awarded to four international students at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the University of East Anglia. At the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Bader Al-Awadi has been named Poetry Fellow and Waseem Rashid has been named Fiction Fellow. At the University of East Anglia, Zui Kumar-Reddy has been awarded a Scholarship in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) and Perla Kantarjian has been awarded a Scholarship in Creative Writing (Poetry). Founded in honor of longtime Knopf publisher Sonny Mehta, who died in 2019, the awards are funded by an endowment from Gita Mehta, novelist, documentary filmmaker, and Mehta’s widow. The awards give preference to applicants from underrepresented countries, particularly the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and North Africa.

Finalists have been announced for the C$10,000 2020 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Nonfiction, which recognizes “a Canadian writer of a first or second published book with a Canadian locale and/or significance.” The winner will be named later this month. Quill & Quire reported that shortlists for the 2021 and 2022 prizes will be released later this year as Wilfrid Laurier University catches up after a pause for the pandemic. The 2020 shortlisted titles are: We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib, Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from, Canada’s Chinese Restaurants by Ann Hui, In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch by John Zada.

The shortlist has been selected for the £5,000 (about $5,915) Gordon Burn Prize, recognizing “the year’s boldest and most innovative fiction and nonfiction.” In addition to the cash prize, the winner, who will be named October 13 at the Durham Book Festival, has the chance to undertake a three-month retreat at Gordon Burn’s cottage in the Scottish Borders. This year’s shortlisted titles are:About a Son by David Whitehouse, Aftermath by Preti Taneja, Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet, Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson, and Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi.

The winner of the $25,000 National Biography Award 2022 is Bernadette Brennan for Leaping Into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears (Allen & Unwin). The judges praised Brennan’s “graceful writing and sensitive approach to an enigmatic and often contradictory personality.”The winner of the $5,000 Michael Crouch Award for a Debut Work is Amani Haydar for The Mother Wound, a searing and significant memoir that unravels the devastating topic of murder within her own family. The winners were announced live on ABC 702. View the judges’ comments and shortlist here: https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/national-biography-award

The shortlists for the 2022 NSW Premier’s History Awards are: Australian History Prize ($15,000)  : French Connection: Australia’s Cosmopolitan Ambitions by Alexis Bergantz (NewSouth)  , Semut: The Untold Story of a Secret Australian Operation in WWII Borneo by Christine Helliwell (Penguin Random House Australia)  , Australia and the Pacific: A History by Ian Hoskins (NewSouth) . For the full list visit: https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/nsw-premiers-history-awards

Longlists in three categories have been released for the Diverse Book Awards, which recognize “diverse and inclusive books by authors based in the U.K. and Ireland across children’s, YA and adult books,” the Bookseller reported. Shortlists will be revealed September 20 and the winners in each category named October 20. See the complete longlists here: https://www.thediversebookawards.co.uk/the-longlist-2

Author and illustrator Gavin Bishop won three categories in the 2022 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, including the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year for Atua: Māori Gods and Heroes. The category winners each receive NZ$7,500 (about US$4,840). See the full list here: https://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards-for-children-and-young-adults/2022-awards/winners/

Winners were announced for the 2022 Aurora Awards, which recognize the best Canadian science fiction and fantasy literature, CBC reported. This year’s Aurora Awards, voted on by members of the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association, were presented in a livestreamed ceremony. See the complete list of category winners here: https://prixaurorawards.ca/and-the-awards-went-to/

A longlist has been released for the Laurel Prize, honoring the “best collection of nature or environmental poetry to highlight the climate crisis and raise awareness of the challenges and potential solutions at this critical point in our planet’s life.” Funded by U.K. poet laureate Simon Armitage from the honorarium he receives annually from the Queen, the prize is run by the Poetry School. The winner, who will be named September 9, receives £5,000, with £2,000 going to the second place finisher and £1,000 (for third. There is also £500 for best first collection. Check out the complete Laurel Prize longlist here:https://www.thebookseller.com/news/laurel-prize-for-nature-poetry-longlist-revealed

The Australian Society of Authors has released a shortlist for the 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award, which celebrates women in literature and is awarded biennially for “the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society.” The winner, who will be named at a ceremony on September 22, receives A$50,000 with a further A$5,000 distributed among the shortlisted authors. The shortlisted titles are: Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down, Ordinary Matter by Laura Elvery, Benevolence by Julie Janson, Revenge: Murder in Three Parts by S.L. Lim,Smart Ovens for Lonely People by Elizabeth Tan, and The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld.

Winners of the £10,000 James Tait Black Prizes, “celebrating the best works of fiction and biography in the previous 12 months,” were announced at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. A Shock by Keith Ridgway has won the fiction prize. Organizers said the book “follows several different characters living in south London. Over nine overlapping chapters the novel shines a spotlight on their lives and relationships.” Fiction judge Dr. Benjamin Bateman called A Shock “a sensitive, creative, and highly humane examination of lives that, in so much other fiction, would be relegated to the status of minor characters.” Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music by Amit Chaudhuri has won the biography prize. Organizers called the book “a mesmerising exploration of the author’s relationship with North Indian classical music.”

Finally, The winners of the 2022 Davitt Awards, sponsored by Sisters in Crimes and recognizing the best crime and mystery books by Australian women, are: Best Adult Novel: Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy, Best Young Adult Novel: The Gaps by Leanne Hall, Best Children’s Novel: The Detective’s Guide to Ocean Travel by Nicki Greenberg, Best Debut Book and Readers’ Choice: Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz, and Best Non-Fiction Book: The Winter Road: A Story of Legacy, Land and a Killing at Croppa Creek by Kate Holden

Have a great month!

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COMPETITION NEWS

Congratulations to LuAnn Morgan who won a copy of Midstream by Lynn Sloan.

Congratulations to Mary Preston who won a copy of Relentless by AVIVA.

Finally, congratulations to Anita Yancey who won a copy of Winter’s Reckoning by Adele Holmes.

LuAnn, Mary and Anita, I hope you enjoy your books!

Our new site giveaway is for a copy of Valley of Shadows by Rudy Ruiz. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line: “Valley of Shadows” and your postal address in the body of the email.

We also have a copy of The Absurd Rules of Life by Raul Gallardo Flores to giveaway. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line: “The Absurd Rules of Life” and your postal address in the body of the email.

Finally, we have a copy of the fun master by Jeff Seitzer to giveaway. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line: “fun master” and your postal address in the body of the email.

Good luck, everyone!

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