Compulsive Reader

Compulsive Reader News
maggieball@compulsivereader.com
http://www.compulsivereader.com
Volume 25, Issue 2, 1 Feb 2023

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IN THIS ISSUE

New Reviews at Compulsive Reader
Literary News
Competition News
Sponsored By
Coming soon

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Hello readers. Here is the latest bumper batch of reviews and interviews:

A Taste of History: A review of A Place at the Nayarit by Dr. Natalia Molina

A talented oral historian, Molina describes how her grandmother, Doña Natalia Barraza, found a place in Echo Park, a diverse neighborhood located on the eastside of Los Angeles, to open her restaurant, The Nayarit. The Nayarit, of course, is also one of the states comprising the federated nation of Mexico and the regional cuisine local to the Nayarit was the driving force of the restaurant’s menu and eventual draw.

A review of I Have Decided to Remain Vertical by Gayelene Carbis

An old literature professor I once had used to say, regarding the writing of poetry, “Don’t use the I”, “Don’t talk about feelings”, “Don’t be personal”, “Don’t use dialogue in poetry”. In I Have Decided to Remain Vertical Carbis breaks every rule, and the result is magnificent.

A review of Kepler’s Son by Geoff Nelder

His worlds are full of anomalies that draw on real-life quantum quirks, cosmic paradoxes and biological anomalies, and his aliens are both delightfully bizarre and yet somehow plausible. He is a writer who knows his sci-fi tropes well enough to twist them into a Möbius strip and take them to new places while still providing plenty of easter eggs to keen readers of the genre. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/20/a-review-of-keplers-son-by-geoff-nelder/

A review of Magician Among the Spirits by Charles Rammelkamp

In any biography of a great and celebrated figure, we’re always carried along by the climb to the top of their field. And it’s the same here. We applaud as Houdini goes from triumph to triumph, accompanied by his darling wife Bess, and even more by his first great love, his Mama. Inevitably, the crash occurs, if not the fall from grace, then at least the consequences of advancing years. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/18/magician-among-the-spirits-by-charles-rammelkamp/

A Review of The Sounds of Life by Karen Bakker

Between and around the book’s hard science, the author wraps accessible and warmly told human narratives such as the tale of the dying man who on his last sea trip first realized whales communicated with each other. Thus, The Sounds of Life is filled with a certain kind of wild, brilliant charm that makes it very readable for the scientific and the nonscientific minded alike. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/18/a-review-of-the-sounds-of-life-by-karen-bakker/

A review of Dancing with the Muse in Old Age by Priscilla Long

This compact 204-page handbook exhorts elders to manifest their creative passions, regardless of their past experience in creativity. The book is an invitation and a call to action. “Old age is a prime time to flourish in creative productivity,” Long says. “It is also a time to begin creative work.” Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/16/a-review-of-dancing-with-the-muse-in-old-age-by-priscilla-long/

A conversation between Cynthia Good and Stelios Mormoris

Authors of two new poetry collections get together to interview one another about their work. Cynthia Good, author of What We Do with Our Hands, and Stelios Mormoris, author of The Oculus take a deeper look at what compels a person to write a poem. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/15/a-conversation-between-cynthia-good-and-stelios-mormoris/

“A poem is an object made of words”: A conversation with Flemish poet, novelist, and art critic, Willem M. Roggeman

In re-reading the interview now, it is clear that Gary Snyder was just an entry point for me to have a conversation with a true renaissance man of poetry. I’m reminded of the Pakistani proverb that says when you share the first cup of tea, you are a stranger. With the second cup, you are a friend, and with the third cup, you become family. Mr. Roggeman and I sipped coffee during our conversation, and it was clear that we quickly moved through the three cups from strangers to friends. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/14/a-conversation-with-a-renaissance-man-an-interview-with-willem-m-roggeman/

A review of Hello Nothingness by Eric Stiefel

The contradictory images reflect themes throughout Stiefel’s verse, which oscillates between nihilism and contentment – or at least resignation and a sensual appreciation of the ephemera of the world. As he writes in the opening poem, “Lest”: “I devour everything I can, the mind defaced, a tattered gown, strawberry leaf, a statue, half-submerged.” Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/14/a-review-of-hello-nothingness-by-eric-stiefel/

A review of thresholds by Philip Radmall

This ability to make us, as readers, ‘opener and unfamiliar’ is one the poet exploits deftly, peeling away any preconceptions we may have until we, too, see and feel his world anew. In part, this is down to his style. A novelist as well as a poet, Radmall’s poetry has many prose-like traits, in particular a freedom from rhyme or metre, heavily enjambed lines, and the hovering arc of a narrative. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/13/a-review-of-thresholds-by-philip-radmall/

A review of Tide Should Be Able to Rise Despite Its Moon by Jessica Bell

A Tide Should be Able to Rise Despite Its Moon is Bell’s first book of poetry in over ten years, but regardless of where her extensive creative practice takes her, her work has always reflected a poetic sensibility, so it feels almost like this is her centrepoint. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/12/a-review-of-tide-should-be-able-to-rise-despite-its-moon-by-jessica-bell/

A review of The Unintended Consequences of the Shattering by Linda Adair

Adair is not afraid to bring up difficult issues such as the cruelty of online chats, sacrificed ecosystems and the greed and entitlement of First World multinationals. The poet is also very skilled in narration, and tells stories with a voice that is poetic beautiful and deliberate. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/10/a-review-of-the-unintended-consequences-of-the-shattering-by-linda-adair/

How Light Comes Up Off the Lake: a review of Old Snow, White Sun by Caroline Goodwin

Not at all self conscious, these poems are quite deliberate, the made thing. Each has its note of authority, as in the first poem’s first image, “the common loon made a thumbprint on the lake.” Part elegy, part journal, part memoir, part love song, part accusation, part celebration, all in the voice a person with something to say, a poet with the ability to make a word—loon, cattails, meadow—all her own. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/09/how-light-comes-up-off-the-lake-a-review-of-old-snow-white-sun-by-caroline-goodwin/

Grief and How It Shapes Identity: An Interview with Rachel Harper on The Other Mother

After reading and reviewing The Other Mother, I was given the fortunate opportunity to connect with Rachel through her agent, Anjali Singh (Pandeliterary). Due to busy schedules, we decided email was the best way to have a conversation about the novel, what inspired its story, and how it connects to her personal grief and challenges. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/08/grief-and-how-it-shapes-identity-an-interview-with-rachel-harper-on-the-other-mother/

A review of The Other Mother by Rachel M. Harper

Harper’s novel will engage fans of generational sagas and family dramas where long-buried family histories and secrets are unearthed, and where past choices explicitly affect the present and future of others in a snowball effect. The novel excels at revealing motherhood—or parenting––truly: falling in love with a person you’ve helped to create, and, in doing so, loving yourself in ways you couldn’t imagine; knowing you will sacrifice absolutely everything for them. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/01/06/a-review-of-the-other-mother-by-rachel-m-harper/

To Want and To Want: Desire in Shilo Niziolek’s Memoir Fever

My reading experience of Fever was equivalent to gulping down water after a long run. I read it with haste and curiosity. I became fascinated by desire and the way Niziolek intellectualizes her vulnerability, placing her own story among the work of contemporary writers, like Sarah Manguso, Jay Ponteri, and Mary Oliver, among others.

A review of Monster Field by Lucy Dougan

The work feels intimate and subtle, as if a curtain were being opened, little by little, inviting the reader to peak behind the immediate appearance to find something more, for example, the simple act of putting up wallpaper–child and father, revealing so much that is unspoken and understood with hindsight:

All of the reviews and interviews listed above are available at The Compulsive Reader on the front page. Older reviews and interviews are kept indefinitely in our extensive categorised archives (currently at 3,075) which can be browsed or searched from the front page of the site.

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LITERARY NEWS

In the literary news this month, the winners of the 2023 Silvers-Dudley Prizes Announced: The prizes are administered by the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, and recogniae “outstanding achievement in literary criticism, arts writing, and journalism.” Full details here: https://silversfoundation.org/2022-grant-recipients/

Sonnets for Albert by Anthony Joseph has won the 2022 £25,000 (about $30,540) T.S. Eliot Prize. Chair of judges Jean Sprackland called Sonnets for Albert “a luminous collection which celebrates humanity in all its contradictions and breathes new life into this enduring form.” Joseph is the author of five poetry collections, including Desafinado, Teragaton, Bird Head Son, and Rubber Orchestras, and three novels: The African Origins of UFOs, Kitch: A Fictional Biography of a Calypso Icon, and The Frequency of Magic. He was the Colm Tóibín Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Liverpool in 2018, was awarded a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship 2019/20 and is a lecturer in creative writing at King’s College London. He’s also a musician who has released eight albums.

Giramondo Publishing, Fitzcarraldo Editions and New Directions have announced the shortlist for The Novel Prize, the biennial award for a book-length work of literary fiction written in English by published and unpublished writers around the world. The shortlist of eight books, selected from almost 700 entries worldwide, is as follows: Tell by Jonathan Buckley, Forever Valley by Darcie Dennigan, Aurora Australis by Marie Doezema, Palimpsest by Florina Enache, The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana, It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken, Moon Over Bucharest by Valer Popa, and Anonymity Is Life by Sola Saar. The Novel Prize offers US$10,000 to the winner in the form of an advance against royalties, and simultaneous publication of their novel in Australia and New Zealand by Sydney publisher Giramondo; in the UK and Ireland by the London-based Fitzcarraldo Editions; and in North America by New York’s New Directions. The judges are looking for novels which explore and expand the possibilities of the form, and are innovative and imaginative in style. The inaugural prize was won by Australian author Jessica Au for Cold Enough for Snow, which was published in English in February 2022 and is set to be published in 18 territories.

The Mystery Writers of America has announced the nominees for the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honouring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced in 2022. The awards ceremony, celebrating the 214th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, will be held on April 27 in New York City. To see the full list of nominees, which include, for best novel, Devil House by John Darnielle (Farrar, Straus and Giroux – MCD), Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown & Co./Mulholland Books), Gangland by Chuck Hogan (Hachette Book Group – Grand Central Publishing), The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown & Co./Mulholland Books), Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (HarperCollins – William Morrow), and The Maid by Nita Prose (Penguin Random House – Ballantine Books), click here: https://mysterywriters.org/mwa-announces-2023-edgar-award-nominations/

Longlists have been released for the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards, which honor writers and translators with awards totalling more than $350,000. Including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essay, science writing, translation and more, “these longlisted books are dynamic, diverse, and thought-provoking examples of literary excellence,” PEN America noted. Finalists for all book awards will be revealed in February, and the 2023 Literary Awards ceremony will be held March 2. The longlisted titles may be viewed here. https://pen.org/literary-awards/2023-pen-america-longlists/

John Scalzi won the Robert A. Heinlein Award, which honours “outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space.” Scalzi has 16 novels and numerous short stories, a majority of which features a future in space for humanity including his groundbreaking novels in the Old Man’s War series and the Interdependency series. The award will be presented on May 26, during opening ceremonies for Balticon 57, the 57th Maryland Regional Science Fiction Convention. Balticon and the Robert A. Heinlein Award are both managed and sponsored by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society.

Small in Real Life, a manuscript by Kelly Sather, has won the 2023 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, which honours a collection of short stories. The prize includes $15,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press, which will take place on October 3.

The longlist for the $50,000 2023 International Prize for Arabic Fiction has been announced and includes 16 writers, eight of whom are women (the highest number in the prize’s history), all from nine countries. The shortlist will be released March 1 and the winner announced May 21. To see the longlisted titles, click here: https://arabicfiction.org/en/node/2126

Shortlists have been announced for the Sarton Awards and Gilda Prize, sponsored by the Story Circle Network and honoring May Sarton and Gilda Radner. Winners and finalists will be announced in April. To see the shortlists, click here: https://www.storycircle.org/contest/story-circle-womens-book-awards/

The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land, a short story collection by Omer Friedlander (Random House), has won the $1,000usd Association of Jewish Libraries Jewish Fiction Award. Two other titles won honour awards were Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum (Grand Central Publishing) and Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott (Anchor Books).

The winners of the Jewish Book Council’s 72nd National Jewish Book Awards have been announced. The Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award was given to Koshersoul by Michael W. Twitty (Amistad Books). Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro (Knopf) won the JJ Greenberg Memorial Award in Fiction. Cooking alla Giudia by Benedetta Jasmine Guetta (Artisan Books) won the Jane and Stuart Weitzman Family Award for Food Writing & Cookbooks. The Berru Award for Poetry in Memory of Ruth and Bernie Weinflash went to Today in a Taxi by Sean Singer (Tupelo Press). Let There Be Light: The Real Story of Her Creation by Liana Finck (Penguin Press) won the Visual Arts award. The American Jewish Studies award went to American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York by Nomi M. Stolzenberg and David N. Myers (Princeton University Press). Other winners and finalists in several categories can be seen here: https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/72nd-national-jewish-book-award-winners

The longlist has been released for the £20,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, honoring “the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under, the prize celebrates the international world of fiction in all its forms including poetry, novels, short stories and drama.” A shortlist will be unveiled March 23 and the winner named May 11, prior to International Dylan Thomas Day on May 14. See the full longlist here: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office/news-events/news/2023/01/african-diaspora-and-stories-of-alienated-youth-dominate-longlist-for-the-swansea-university-dylan-thomas-prize-2023.php

If you’re looking for a delightful rabbit’s hole of interesting links to spend a few hours on, Metal Floss has a piece on the ten most famous and oldest pieces of literature that have helped to shape our views of the past. In it they list Gilgamesh, The Book of Job, The Vedas, The Odyssey, and many others. The treasure trove is here: https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/oldest-literature

Finally, my promised piece on Maurice Sendak is now up on the wonderful Lee Kofman’s The Writer Laid Bare blog. If, like me, you grew up on Sendak’s books, please have a read: https://leekofman.com.au/the-writer-laid-bare/fear-as-a-tool-for-creativity-a-guest-post-by-magdalena-ball

Have a great month!

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COMPETITION NEWS

Congratulations to Marcela Nader who won a copy of Dead Heat to Destiny by J B Rivard.

Congratulations also to Cristina McDowall who won a copy of The Alphabet According to Several Strange Creatures by Simon Nadar.

Our new site giveaway is for a copy of The Last Lion of Karkov by Dale Griffen. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line: “The Last Lion of Karkov” and your postal address in the body of the email.

We also have a copy of I’m Never Fine by Joseph Lezza. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line: “I’m Never Fine”.

Good luck!

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