Final Curtain is a well curated collection featuring a pleasant variety of stories and interesting perspectives and interpretations of the characters and themes of The Phantom of the Opera. The period pieces are heavy and languid, broken up effectively by modern retellings, more experimental works, and the doings of cats. Choosing classical in style pieces at the fore and aft of the anthology was a masterful choice; one prepares you for what follows, the latter closes the loop; the audience at the theater retreat satisfied.
Category: Anthology
A review of the Driftwood Press 2023 Anthology edited by James McNulty & Jerrod Schwarz
The study of process aspect was, at times, quite fascinating and provided greater context to some pieces that either confirmed or clarified my thoughts, or helped me understand more about pieces I didn’t quite grasp the meaning or intention of. In the case of pieces such as Bark On and the poems of Margaret Yapps the fact that they were extracts of larger works explained to me why I felt they were incomplete.
A review of Admissions: Voices within Mental Health edited by David Stavanger, Radhiah Chowdhury, Mohammad Award
Like the best anthologies, Admissions is a fluid collection where the different genres, explorations and styles of creativity inform one another, creating a montage that is inherently collective. This ‘radical empathy’ that Stavinger talks about is present throughout the book, as the different forms of pain and struggle sit together in solidarity like a supportive scaffold so that in the reading the separation between the different experiences becomes diminished and there is a sense that every perspective fits and is important.
States that Matter, a review of The Best of Tupelo Quarterly edited by Kristina Marie Darling
As a poet, my ultimate aim is to connect to my reader, so that I may get close to causing a moment of understanding, a resonance, a tapping-into of the unsayable. As a human, I feel nourished when art is not only allowed to break the mould, but it is celebrated for doing so. The rules of the universe only help us understand a fraction of what is happening to us.