Arthur Kayzakian’s The Book of Redacted Paintings, Reviewed by Lee Rossi
The Book of Redacted Paintings Arthur Kayzakian Black Lawrence Press Reviewer: Lee Rossi In a recent interview in the New York Review of Books, poet and critic Ange Mlinko comments on the recent glut of “project” books (a genre I’ve come to call “term paper poetry”). She notes that publishers are striving “to make books […]
Cynthia Manick’s No Sweet Without Brine, Reviewed by Erica Goss
No Sweet Without Brine Cynthia Manick HarperCollins Reviewer: Erica Goss “I want us living, not just alive,” Cynthia Manick writes in “Dear Future Body (Keep Your Skin Thickk),” a poem from her latest collection, No Sweet Without Brine. Body image, family, and the constant pressure to conform to others’ expectations inform the book, as the […]
Richard Vargas’s Leaving a Tip at the Blue Moon Motel, Reviewed by Shawn Pavey
Leaving a Tip at the Blue Moon Motel Richard Vargas Casa Urraca Press Reviewer: Shawn Pavey Having followed the work of Richard Vargas since his first collection, 2005’s McLife, I’m not surprised to find that Leaving a Tip at the Blue Moon Motel is filled with poems that explore, in depth, that inescapable yet spirit […]
Amanda J. Bradley – Making It Right
Making It Right I heard your horizon promises, took the risk, left my husband that long May – your call, my response now inked in poems and songs, relics of a star-swept history. It is not history like army squadrons warring or marching homeward, charcoal shadows backlit by pinkish sky. Or maybe it is. Perhaps […]
Heidi Seaborn – C Is for Cruelty
C is for Cruelty Almost daily, my sisters and I terrorized our too beautiful baby brother. One summer night, we chased him off a dock. Such a small splash in the darkness, his moonface bobbing. Perhaps that evening was the turning point when we went too far. After, our cruelty to one another reduced to […]
