The author of Radiance talks about his novel, its premise, themes, inspiration, influences, how his writing career and career of a psychotherapist conflict and align, surprises, challenges, language, characters, on teaching poetry, and lots more.
A review of Radiance by Phil Kenny
Employing lyrical prose, Kenney narrates the poignantly observed story of a fictional family, the Brennans, as they voyage from poverty to comfort, from one era to the next during the latter half of the last century. Dividing his themes into separate chapters, the author focuses on different members of the Brennan household thus creating a complex oral history wherein time circles backwards and forwards around a series of family events and experiences.
A review of City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
City of Dark Magic is could be described as a psychedelic time traveling adventure. From the first chapter, it’s clear that this is no ordinary novel and the colorful cast of characters have their own agendas.
A review of Peace, Love and Khaki Socks by Kim Lock
The novel’s strength is the very personal journey the reader takes alongside Amy as she weighs up conventional First World medical procedures with the almost Cavewoman-style natural homebirthing. It is a suspenseful ride with her as she battles conventions, the expectations of others as well as a category three tropical cyclone to boot.
The Status Report of an Independent Woman: Alicia Keys, Girl on Fire
She is an artist I like and respect, but I find her consistent concern with independence worrying, and not because I do not understand or respect that mission, but because, despite her affirmations, some aspect of that desired state seems to elude her.
Inspiration for Independent Rock found in New Orleans: the album Algiers by the band Calexico
In working in New Orleans the band members were finding a home in a town that has long been known for the interactions of different cultures, African, European, Native American—and a place some people think of as Caribbean. New Orleans is a city and a village, a place of family, work, religion, food, music, sex, and violence; a place of piety and pleasure—of private passions that become public. The members of Calexico were able to see the past and the future in New Orleans, the rich and the poor, the familiar and the strange—the complexities.
Crossing that Line to Freedom: Heart on the Wall, African American Art Songs, by Louise Toppin and the Dvorak Symphony Orchestra; and the anthology Sence You Went Away
What poetry means is open to interpretation, but those lines suggest to me that memory possesses what the hand does not hold, and that there are different ways of gaining the world, a spiritual way beyond the material. That is also the realm of art, a form of beauty, craft, emotion, idea, memory, spirit, and thought.
Nature, Spirit, Love, and Protest: Wild Songs, classical soprano Polly Butler Cornelius’s performance of songs by Steve Heitzeg and Lori Laitman
On Polly Butler Cornelius’s album Wild Songs, the use by composer Lori Laitman of Emily Dickinson’s “Will there really be a morning?” becomes an expression of more than spiritual doubt, but a recognition of the possibility of real world cataclysm. The high long notes can be beautiful but nearly blur the sense of the words.
The Dreams and Rage of Manhood: Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
Bruce Springsteen’s focus and intensity remain connected to recognizable characters and situations; and that is what makes his work more than self-indulgent feeling and mythmaking.
A Musician’s Musician and a Pervert’s Pervert: Here’s Little Richard
A man who wears glass suits would not throw stones, but he sure can throw light and plenty of shade. Little Richard has been a legend for decades; and there is no one who speaks or sings like him. Little Richard had to be a force of nature: he had a lot of terrain to conquer and there was no established social infrastructure to help him; and he had only his charisma, energy, talent, and will.