To adapt a saying of the boxer Tyson Fury, you can take a writer out of Ireland but you can’t take Ireland out of the writer. Or so The News From Dublin, the new volume of Colm Tóibín’s short fiction, will suggest to readers. Tóibín, a Wexford-born expatriate, has never lost sight of certain themes and concerns. In the nine tales collected here, characters who live in Ireland or have moved abroad grapple with how to cross sectarian, class, and ideological gulfs and navigate firestorms of hate and strife without compromising their principles or giving in to cowardice and sycophancy.
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A review of Askew by Andy Jackson
Askew is such a powerful collection, full of pain, anger, and the ongoing struggle against ableism, prejudice and inequality. But really, at heart, it is a book about connection, cooperation, and social cohesion in the face of tough times, illness, a warming climate, and tragic geopolitics. We only have each other and that other includes the more-than-human.
A review of Tumbling by Elizabeth Cook
The effect of Tumbling is cathartic, a kind of healing through grief and memory at work. There’s loss, yes, but there’s also a kind of immortality and comfort in the memories. Just as the cover of the book shows what appears to be a circus acrobat tumbling down a flight of stairs, an image of fun as well as possible injury, so the collection ends on a poem called “Balloons,” about a man selling balloons in a public park. The balloons are the sort of things that appeal to children, of course, but at the same time the man “feels their tug”.
A review of Jean Baudrillard: Critical Lives by Emmanuelle Fantin and Brian Nicol
Baudrillard is worth revisiting. And Fantin and Nicol’s brief but substantive volume is a welcome way to do so. They present the trajectory of his thought and career as clearly and accessibly as can be done with a writer whose meaning is often so–yes–elusive. Anyone provoked by the ongoing virtualization of contemporary life to want to grapple with his work would do well to start with their book.
A review of Pirouette by Uche Nduka
Uche Nduka’s newest collection of poetry, Pirouette, from Lithic Press, is a visual masterpiece even before the book is opened. The cover and shape of this printed volume are an artful introduction to what is inside. I want to first talk about the structure of the book. There is no table of contents. The poems have no titles. Pirouette is 198 pages of poetry that, like a pirouette, spin with the force of a tornado, while simultaneously presenting themselves as the most elegant act that a body can make.
The Growing Importance of Personal Support for Older Adults
Getting older doesn’t automatically mean losing independence. Many older adults continue to enjoy active social lives, familiar routines, and the freedom to make their own decisions. However, as health and mobility needs change, certain everyday activities can become more challenging.…
Good Enough To Steal: A Conversation with R. L. Maizes
I recently had a talk with R. L. Maizes, the acclaimed author of A Complete Fiction (Ig Publishing, Nov. 2025), about writing full characters, writing about writing, and tackling topics like feminism that not every publisher wants to touch.
New giveaway!
We have a copy of Forgotten Lands: Poems of the Ancestors by Lauren Martin to give away!
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A review of Blue Physics by Mary Lou Buschi
Mary Lou Buschi is the real thing, and we are convinced as early as the epigraph, “Blue”. Buschi is a master of the poetic line. Each line has its own integrity, and it must be so. Buschi works with emotional subject matter that refuses sentimentality. Her work is invested in the precision of this emotionality better kept distanced from the speaker. She achieves remarkable authority of voice and tension through her chiseled craft and detailed attention to language.
An interview with Keya Chatterjee, author of The Revolution Will Not Be Rated G
Communal joy is the core of all of this work, real and imagined. We are told that escapism is bad, but what if there was a book that allowed us to escape into a state of bliss–but not a state of ignorant bliss – a pleasure-filled novel that provides humor and solace in a turbulent time, but also a novel that is laden with lessons for overcoming the oppressor.