Beth McDermott is the author of Figure 1 and a chapbook titled How to Leave a Farmhouse. Interviewer Tiffany Troy talks to Beth about her new book which is rooted in the ekphrastic tradition and features the mind at work framing and dismantling images and exploring what exists beneath the surfaces of our socially constructed selves.
Author:
A review of Laughing Matters: Poems with a Wink and a Smile by James A. Tweedie
James Tweedie is not only a first-rate poet, but is also a musician and composer, which is very refreshing to me, as I am also both a poet and a musician. You can hear the musicality exuding from his poetry. The meter is clean and precise, the rhymes are perfect, rarely slanted, so you get the full effect of the satisfactions inherent in perfectly-executed formal poetry. But it never upstages the humor and wit of Tweedie’s funny perspective, and the results are often quite unexpected!
A review of Standing in the Forest of Being Alive by Katie Farris
Over and over, Farris lightly dances between the doors of this world and beyond, between the possibility of dying, between the possibility of continuing to live, almost daring death, daring the doctor. She continues to give the reader a very candid view of how she copes with cancer, treatment, other people’s views of her, her own sense of loss, America, and her will to live.
A review of a brief letter to the sea about a couple of things by Ali Whitelock
Ali Whitelock’s voice is so distinctive. I don’t just mean her beautiful Scottish brogue, though if you’ve ever heard her read, the richness of that accent will remain with you when you read her work on the page. Whitelock’s voice is woven throughout the work. It’s an immediacy and an openness that makes you feel, when reading her poetry, that you have been friends your whole life and she is not only confiding in you but drawing out of you your own dark secrets so you can laugh at them together.
A Conversation with Mary Leader about The Distaff Side
Mary Leader is a poet-lawyer from Oklahoma. She served as the Assistant Attorney General and later as a Referee for the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The Distaff Side, a collection about matrimony at the meeting of just-barely-on-the-surface and just-barely-underneath-it is her fifth collection of poems, The extraordinary visual aspects of the poem serve as the poet’s means for pleasure and defiance. In this interview with Tiffany Troy, Mary talks about her new book and the process of writing it, major themes, and more.
A review of Chinese Fish by Grace Yee
The book contains lists, poems in two different styles, one style is always in italic and written in a way like if the person writing the piece doesn’t have full command of the English language, the others are normal poems, some of the poems as well as the narrated pieces include some words in Chinese characters. Furthermore, the reader will encounter short dialogues, archival fragments, old policies, lists, eight pages (eight is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture) containing the pictures of a Chinese doll and some political comments.
Great new giveaway!
We have a copy of But She Looks Fine: From Illness to Activism by Olivia Goodreau to give away!
To win, sign up for our Free Newsletter on the right-hand side of the site and enter via the newsletter. Winner will be chosen by the end of July from subscribers who enter via the newsletter. Good luck!
Sun-Showered Burial: A Review of Memorial With Liminal Space by Mitchell Untchs
A Memorial With Liminal Space speaks eloquently and intimately-one of those hallowed late-night conversations with someone you’ve known for a very long time. Reading this book helped me feel more connected to myself, the larger world, and loved ones that have passed, and that is a beautiful feeling I am deeply grateful for.
A review of Ravage & Son by Jerome Charyn
The grim urban setting of Ravage & Son, its violence, cast of criminals from all classes, and atmosphere of pessimism and disillusionment are characteristics of the noir genre. In Charyn’s story, we see a promising youth who was given the chance to make something of himself in the world’s terms, yet chooses a different course for several reasons and eventually is defeated by the milieu he sought to clean up.
An interview with Meredith Stricker
Meredith Stricker is an artist and poet working in cross-genre media. She is the author of six poetry collections and recipient of the National Poetry Series Award. Her most recent book, Rewild, won the Dorset prize from Tupelo Press. She co-directs visual poetry studio, a collaborative focusing on architecture in Big Sur and projects to bring together artists, writers, musicians, and experimental forms. In this candid interview she speaks to Yasmine Guiga about her new book Rewild and the challenges she faced, reader expectations, inspirations, the search for aesthetic wholeness, TS Eliot, and lots more.