I have to restrain myself from simply summarizing some these marvelous 84 essays culled from over two decades of publishing, but as with all flash, fiction as well as nonfiction, it’s the gem-like brilliance of the individual pieces that stands out.
A review of Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young
As a whole, I really enjoyed the story and setting of the text, as well as the themes being expressed, which highlight particular areas/issues in relation to modern society. On average, I don’t normally read this type of genre, GWST has altered my perspective on several things and encouraged me to seek out more sci-fi, dystopian, psychological thrillers.
An interview with Leslie Klein
Poet and artist Leslie Klein talks about her new book Driving Through Paintings, the influence of living in the northeast US, her sculpture, libraries, birds, the relationship between visual art and writing, her work-in-progress, and more.
A review of Poems of bay, beach & harbour By Margaret Owen Ruckert
The reader will encounter in Ruckert’s poems rich imagery and profound reflexions. The musicality of the tanka awaken the reader’s imagination. Going through the pages is like visiting Sydney beaches from Botany Bay to Manly, we get a glimpse of the beauty that surrounds this town.
A review of Arsenal / Sin Documentos by Francesco Levato
Levato declutters (and de-bullshits) the pages with margin-to-margin mark-outs with a thick-ass Sharpie. His omissions reveal the national publications’ foundational intentions—to legally dehumanize and inflict harm on Latin American bodies in the name of the American state. This book is going to piss you off.
A review of Thread, Form, and Other Enclosures by Carol Smallwood
It is a collection to be read again and again, as each reading offers new ways of seeing and thinking, threads, forms, and other the enclosures appearing before us, evolving, changing shape and ultimately presenting us with new insights.
An interview with Gail Godwin
A three-time nominee for the National Book Award and a former Guggenheim Fellow, Godwin is the author of two short story collections, three nonfiction books, and fifteen novels. The latest one, Old Lovegood Girls, was published this year. In this interview, conducted just prior to publication, Godwin talks about her upcoming novel, her writing process, thought on the mystical and her experiences with Scientology, ghosts, grief, autobiography and fiction, and much more.
A review of The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun
The Disaster Tourist, the first novel of the South Korean author Yun Ko-Eun to be translated into English, is a sharp, intricate, and too realistic story on how capitalism’s ravenousness can turn almost every person into a disposable mannequin and almost every land into waste disposal.
An interview with Deborah Turner
The author of Sweating It Out talks about her educational background, the important of sports in her life and work, her themes, some of the striking lines in her work, feminism, on the influence of being a librarian, on identity and transformation, and lots more.
A review of Five Feet Apart by Rachel Lippincott
Calling all romantic-comedy and tear-jerker lovers! Five Feet Apart is for you! With a very ‘When Harry met Sally’ style romance and filled with beautiful, albeit, sad moments. Five Feet Apart is a gorgeous YA novel, with similar aspects to John Greens’ The Fault in Our Stars.