Compulsive Reader

Compulsive Reader News
maggieball@compulsivereader.com
http://www.compulsivereader.com
Volume 25, Issue 5, 1 May 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 batch of reviews and interviews:

An Inner Habitat for Searching: a Review of Rewild by Meredith Stricker

I do not think Rewild suggests that love will save the human race. Rather, it brings us to consider that by participating in love we will save love, perhaps contributing to its existence and triumph in the cosmos—animism from an earlier human understanding of the world, wielded against indifference. We can infer the possibility of a universe without mankind. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/25/an-inner-habitat-for-searching-a-review-of-rewild-by-meredith-stricker/

An interview with Kelly Weber, author of We Are Changed to Deer at the Broken Place

The author of We Are Changed to Deer at the Broken Place talks about her latest book and how it evolved, her composition process, on writing about alternative erotics in kindship with the ecological world and in platonic relationships, on family stories that directly and indirectly teach about power dynamics, gender and sexuality expectations, and wounds, mythology and symbolism, and lots more.

A review of The Misconceiver by Lucy Ferriss

It’s gobsmacking how much author and prognosticator Lucy Ferris got right in this book, first published in 1997 and reissued in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs. Wade. Ubiquitous online access, electronic payments, electric vehicles, environmental destruction, codified discrimination against gays and lesbians — the Lucy Ferris of the 1990s foresaw this current, fraught decade with uncanny accuracy. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/16/a-review-of-the-misconceiver-by-lucy-ferriss/

A review of Bad Art Mother By Edwina Preston

There is so much about this book that is compelling. It manages to be both funny and tragic at the same time, without stereotypes or polemic. Though there are moments of bad behaviour on the part of pretty much every character, nothing is over-simplified. There are as many different ways to create art, from Jo’s food or charity work, to the Mirka Mora styled murals of Jo’s waitress Rosa, or the ikebana flower arrangements of Mrs Parish, as there are ways to be a partner, a parent, or a patron. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/15/a-review-of-bad-art-mother-by-edwina-preston/

A review of Just Outside the Tunnel of Love by Francine Witte

There’s heartbreak and humor, magic and flawed humanity, disappointment and longing, charming wordplay and breathtaking literary craft, but no happy endings. Cheating husbands and boyfriends abound, as do unreliable fathers, disappointed girlfriends and deceived women stretching all the way back to Eve. Literally. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/12/a-review-of-just-outside-the-tunnel-of-love-by-francine-witte/

A review of And to Ecstasy by Marion Mossammaparast

One of the poet’s salient concerns is life, the fragility of life, death as well the afterlife. I was fascinated about the metaphysical aspects of her works, works that are coloured by the brush of mythology, philosophy and religion. In this beautiful collection of poems she utilises many literary devices with extraordinary skills. Her voice is strong as a sirocco yet is gentle as a resting heartbeat. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/10/a-review-of-and-to-ecstasy-by-marion-mossammaparast/

On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche

Nobody needs a manuscript. Nobody needs a short story. Or a poetry collection. Or the next great American novel. Recounting James Baldwin’s advice in the Paris Review to ‘Write. Find a way to keep alive and write,’ Marche distills the bulk of dozens of pages of wisdom into four words: discipline, love, luck, and endurance. But these can all be distilled to endurance. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/09/on-writing-and-failure-by-stephen-marche/

Of Hair, Humming, and Histrionics: A Review of Bark On by Mason Boyles

Bark On is not an easy-breezy read. It has a bleak and cerebral vibe. It’s equal parts surreal and sophisticated. An edge of grit laces everything, but there’s also poetry in the pages, an example being the terms, “A drowning drive” and “The comas of those commutes” appearing only a page apart. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/07/of-hair-humming-and-histrionics-a-review-of-bark-on-by-mason-boyles/

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. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/06/a-review-of-the-driftwood-press-2023-anthology-edited-by-james-mcnulty-jerrod-schwarz/

A review of Moon Wrasse by Willo Drummond

All sorts of colours flicker through the book, but particularly blue, from the aqua shore to Iris’ that fall, blue as the rare blue moon, the blue of hope in an indigo night, the bluest carbon of our breath, Brisbane blue, a blue man suit, bluebottles, autumn blue, and of course the blue of the Moon Wrasse also known as the Blue Wrasse. Drummond’s blues are luminescent and rare shades, not normally the colour of a moon, a suit, or autumn, but nocturnally accurate, confounding tropes. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/05/a-review-of-moon-wrasse-by-willo-drummond/

An interview with Scott Erickson on Mommy, Why Did America Collapse?

Many years after America’s collapse, a young girl asks her mother to explain why it happened. Her mother explains that the tragic story has a good side. The rest of the world was spared America’s fate by learning from America’s example what changes needed to be made. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/04/an-interview-with-scott-erickson-on-mommy-why-did-america-collapse/

A review of Like to the Lark by Stuart Barnes

The poems are sinuous and sensual, working within the many constrictions and still managing to feel so light and with the strict scansion so subtle and integrated into the rhythm that you have to look closely to realise, for example, that “Persian Love Cake” is a pantoum, its innate rhythms varying slightly, in a deliciously sensual piece of dried rosebuds, green pistachios, almond praline and lemon icing. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/03/a-review-of-like-to-the-lark-by-stuart-barnes/

An interview with Cindy Morgan

Singer/songwriter Cindy Morgan is a two-time Grammy nominee, a thirteen- time Dove winner, and a recipient of the prestigious Songwriter of the Year trophy. In this in-depth interview, she talks about her first novel, The Year of Jubilee, the real-life story behind it, first memory impacts, faith, civil rights, the mother-daughter dynamic, her characters, settings, the “poor mind”, and lots more. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/01/an-interview-with-cindy-morgan/

A review of No Angels by Mary Makofske

There is so much more to like here, too many wonderful poems to single out, but I have chosen “Nasreen’s Story” also from Part I to quote in full. It’s a masterful variation on the ghazal, the oldest poetic form still in use. It relies on a repeated word, which gives the form a hypnotic effect. The name imitates the sound of a dying wounded gazelle, and the form has roots in Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, and Hebrew. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/04/01/a-review-of-no-angels-by-mary-makofske/

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 3,131) which can be browsed or searched from the front page of the site.

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LITERARY NEWS

A few personal news items. I’ll be participating in the Addi Road Writers Festival in Sydney on Saturday the 20th of May. At 11:15am I’ll be moderating a panel on the boundaries of art and motherhood, built around Edwina Preston‘s novel Bad Art Mother with Edwina and Gillian Swain. At 2:45 I’m moderating a session on the ‘literary arts of oppression and transcendence’ with Alan Fyfe, author of T, and DG Lloyd, author of Alive in Dubbo. For the full program or to book visit: https://addiroad.org.au/writers-festival/#artmother.

On Sunday the 21st of May, I’ll at the Lake Macquarie Write Here festival talking about the art of nonfiction with Alisa Bryce and Fiona McArthur about their new books Grounded and Aussie Midwives. The event requires only a gold coin donation, and is at Belmont Library, 19 Ernest Street, Belmont. Book here: https://library.lakemac.com.au/Events/Write-what-you-know-non-fiction-publishing. If you attend either festival please come say hello!

In the regular literary roundup, the winners of the $50,000 Whiting Awards, sponsored by the Whiting Foundation and given to 10 exceptional emerging writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, are: Tommye Blount (poetry), Mia Chung (drama), Ama Codjoe (poetry), Marcia Douglas (fiction), Sidik Fofana (fiction), Carribean Fragoza (fiction), R. Kikuo Johnson (fiction-graphic), Linda Kinstler (nonfiction), Stephania Taladrid (nonfiction), and Emma Wippermann (poetry and drama). Since 1985, the Whiting Awards are given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. You can read about each of the winners here: https://www.whiting.org/writers/awards/current-winners

Katherine Rundell’s Super-Infinite and Osman Yousefzada’s The Go Between won the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize, the Bookseller reported. They will share the £2,500 prize, sponsored by the Biographer’s Club. The judges described Rundell’s biography of English poet John Donne as “playful, heartfelt and elegant,” while praising Yousefzada’s book, which explores the author’s upbringing in a devout, patriarchal Pakistani family, as a “masterful evocation of the unknowing but ever watchful child’s eye view of the world.”

The Windham-Campbell Prizes, which give winners $175,000 to support their work, have been announced and include “both literary legends and emerging talents.” The eight winners are: Fiction: Percival Everett (U.S.), Ling Ma (U.S.). Nonfiction: Susan Williams (U.K.), and Darran Anderson (Ireland/U.K.). Drama: Dominique Morisseau (U.S.) and Jasmine Lee-Jones (U.K.), and Poetry: Alexis Pauline Gumbs (U.S.), and dg nanouk okpik (Iñupiaq-Inuit).

The winners of the 88th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, sponsored by the Cleveland Foundation and honoring literature that confronts racism and explores diversity, are: Geraldine Brooks for Horse (Viking), Lan Samantha Chang for The Family Chao (Norton)
Matthew F. Delmont for Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad (Viking), Saeed Jones for Alive at the End of the World (Coffee House Press), and Charlayne Hunter-Gault for lifetime achievement. The winners will be honored Thursday, September 28, at Case Western Reserve University during Cleveland Book Week.

Yiyun Li won the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Book of Goose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). She will receive $15,000, with the other shortlisted writers each getting $5,000. All five will be honored May 11 at the annual PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration in Washington, D.C., featuring an appearance by 2023 PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion Terry Gross.

Susan L. Shirk won the C$50,000 Lionel Gelber Prize, which honours the “best nonfiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues,” for Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise (Oxford University Press). The award is presented by the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

Shortlists have been released in 13 categories, including six dedicated to books, for the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards, “celebrating the very best in food and drink writing, publishing, broadcasting and photography.” The winners, who are voted for by the public, will be announced at a reception at Fortnum & Mason, the Royal Exchange, on May 11. Check out the complete list of book finalists here: Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards

A longlist has been released for the £10,000 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, which is awarded annually to “an outstanding work of fiction, nonfiction or poetry that best evokes the spirit of a place.” The shortlist will be announced April 26 and a winner named May 10. Check out the complete RSL Ondaatje Prize longlist here: https://rsliterature.org/2023/04/rsl-ondaatje-prize-longlist-announced/

A shortlist for the International Booker Prize, honouring the “best work of international fiction translated into English, selected from entries published in the U.K. or Ireland,” has been released. The winning book will be named May 23, with the £50,000 (about $62,150) prize money, divided equally between the author and translator. In addition, the shortlisted authors and translators each receive £2,500 (about $3,105). This year’s shortlisted titles are:Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey, Standing Heavy by GauZ’, translated by Frank Wynne, Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel, The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé, translated by Richard Philcox, Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated by Chi-Young Kim, and Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches.

Commonwealth Foundation Creatives has released the shortlist for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. This year’s shortlist was chosen by the international judging panel from more than 6,600 submissions. Regional winners, who each receive £2,500, will be revealed May 17, and the overall winner, who receives £5,000, will be named June 27. See the complete list of finalists here. https://commonwealthfoundation.com/short-story-prize/

The Griffin Trust has released a shortlist for the Griffin Poetry Prize, which aims “to raise the profile of poets and poetry in Canada, and internationally, for works written in, or translated into, English.” The winner, who will be named June 7, receives C$130,000, while the other finalists will each be awarded C$10,000. The shortlisted Griffin titles are: The Threshold by Iman Mersal (Egypt/Canada), translated from the Arabic by Robyn Creswell (U.S.), The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón (U.S.), Exculpatory Lilies by Susan Musgrave (Canada), Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves (U.S.), and Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong (Vietnam/U.S.). The Griffin Poetry Prize Readings, to be held in Toronto on June 7, will include a selection of readings by the five shortlisted poets, this year’s Lifetime Recognition Award recipient, and the Canadian First Book Prize winner, who will be announced May 17.

The International Publishers Association has released the shortlist for the Prix Voltaire, which honours those “who have typically published controversial works amid pressure, threats, intimidation or harassment, be it from governments, other authorities or private interests. Alternatively, they may be publishers with a distinguished record of upholding the values of freedom to publish and freedom of expression.” The laureate, who receives CHF10,000, will be announced on May 22 during the World Expression Forum in Lillehammer, Norway. The shortlist: Mazen Lateef Ali, Iraq. He is the founder of the publishing house Dar Mesopotamia, which has published a range of books, including many about the Jewish communities and individuals of Iraq. On January 31, 2020, he was kidnapped at gunpoint, and his fate remains unknown. Günışığı Kitaplığı Publishing House, Turkey. Founded in 1996, this publisher specializes in contemporary literature books for children and young adults; many of its titles have been banned and declared obscene. Mehr Husain, Pakistan. She is a journalist, editor, author, and publisher–and founder of ZUKA Books, which aims to “create a cultural disruption by speaking up for the freedom of creative expression, gender equality, and inclusive publishing.” Ahmed Mahmoud Ibrahim Ahmed, Egypt. He is an author, photographer, and co-founder, in 2016, of Kotopia, the Egyptian publishing house. He was arrested during the Riyadh International Bookfair in October 2022 and released and returned to Egypt only last month, and Mercier Press, Ireland. Founded in 1944 by Captain Seán and Mary Feehan, Mercier Press provides accessible histories and cultural books for all who are interested in Irish life. Its titles have “challenged Catholic dogma which dominated Irish society as well as censorship in Ireland.”

Ada Limón, who has been the U.S. Poet Laureate for a two-year term, has been given a second two-year term, marking the first time in history that a U.S. Poet Laureate has been given two two-year terms. Limón’s second term runs from September 2023 to April 2025.

The winners of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes include, for fiction, Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter, poetry, Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems by Dionne Brand, and The Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement: James Ellroy. For the full list of winners, visit: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2023-04-21/los-angeles-times-book-prizes-winners-announced

Two winners have been announced for the Gotham Book Prize, recognizing the best book–fiction or nonfiction–that is either about or takes place in New York City. They are: Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana (Scribner) and The Sewing Girl’s Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America by John Wood Sweet (Holt). The two winners split the $70,000 prize, and they will be honuored at an upcoming celebration at P&T Knitwear, the new independent bookstore, podcast studio, and event space on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

The New York Public Library released a shortlist for the $10,000 Young Lions Fiction Award, presented annually to an American writer 35 years old or younger for either a novel or a collection of short stories. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony on June 15. This year’s finalists are: When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar, Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou, Brother Alive by Zain Khalid, The Book of Wanderers by Reyes Ramirez, and All Day Is a Long Time by David Sanchez

The Mystery Writers of America has announced the winners of the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and TV including, for Best Novel: Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (William Morrow). For the full (extensive list), visit: https://mysterywriters.org/mwa-announces-2023-edgar-award-winners/

The shortlist for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced. The winner will be announced June 14. The shortlist includes Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell, Pod by Laline Paull, Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks, and Trespasses by Louise Kennedy.

Finally, The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt has won the A$60,000 2023 Stella Prize, which celebrates Australian women’s writing. It’s the second year running that a poetry collection has won.

Have a great month!

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COMPETITION NEWS

Congratulations to Anna Xu who won a copy of The Year of Jubilee by Cindy Morgan.

Congratulations also to Annette Estell, who won a copy of The File by Gary Born.

Our new site giveaway is for a copy of Dylan Dover: Into the Vortex by Lynne Howard. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line: “Dylan Dover” and your postal address in the body of the email.

We also have a copy of The Fruit You’ll Never See by Gail Brenner Natasha. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line: “The Fruit You’ll Never See” and your postal address in the body of the email.

Good luck!

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