Once upon a time, authors’ lives were separate from their works. Readers took the written work from the page. Today, that is not the case. Life and art are inextricably entwined for public consumption. Often, I question the wisdom of this, but in Orwell’s case, it’s valid. Animal Farm is political, and it is reasonable to explore Orwell’s life in order to see the novel in context.
A review of The Loneliest Whale in The World by Tom Hunley
Throughout the book, the poet offers a view of life that is full-throated and built around generosity, tenacity, openness to joy and to wanderlust. He asks us to shake up our complacency, to be fierce and open to seeing things through a different lens. It is an urging to live life fully even in the midst of circumstances that are harrowing.
A Review of Penultimates: The Now & the Not-Yet by Thomas Farber
Farber rarely lets the reader take a breath through the entire collection. Whether he’s starting his explorations with “Re William Blake (1757-1827)” or “Neighbors” or “School Days,” there’s every chance he’ll segue to another seemingly unrelated topic, although he generally connects them in the end.
A review of Outcaste by Sheila James
Most scenes in the novel achieve several things at once, developing the characters key to the complex family story while also showing the caste system and the political realities of the day. When Gandhi comes to Korampally to speak about the dangers of Hyderabad joining Pakistan, he addresses the peasant untouchables, with whom he’d lived for a while in 1934.
Murder, Mountain Magic, and Embracing the Weird, A Review of Alisa Alering’s Smothermoss
Alisa Alering’s debut novel Smothermoss absorbed me like a fog. Alering grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania where this book is set. From the opening pages, I felt completely immersed in the world of the mountain—its rhythms, sounds, and inexplicable mysteries.
An Interview with Dr. Dipak Giri on Poetics of Creation
In this wide ranging interview, Dr. Jernail Singh Anand talks at length about poetry, the role of poets, aspirations, inspirations, speaking truth, and lots more.
A review of Wild Pack of the Living by Eileen Cleary
The words are sharp; they make the matter of fact description of the act of abduction feel like tearing off one’s fingernails. It would be hard to read this without holding one’s breath in fear.
Double Vision: A review of Sun Eye Moon Eye by Vincent Czyz
While there is wonderful word work throughout, Czyz’s prose really sparkles here. Like the “returnal” James Joyce, Czyz leads his readers on a merry chase through myth, literature, and art history.
A review of Beam of Light by John Kinsella
In many ways the characters of Beam of Light are cut off from themselves, but looking up at the stars (multiple light beams) or walking in the woods, they have moments, often fleeting, of self-awareness, where the individual becomes part of a collective and the pain resolves.
A review of Maze by Jennifer Juneau
Jennifer Juneau deftly plays the reader with astounding grief one minute and manic hilarity the next, sometimes both at once. It’s a cinematic maze of emotions, as in a film noir where you wonder if that lady at the playground is the kindly caregiver she appears to be or a monstrous child molester.