Tara Betts’s Refuse to Disappear, Reviewed by Erica Goss
Refuse to Disappear Tara Betts Word Works, 2022 Reviewer: Erica Goss In this propulsive, urgent collection, Tara Betts weighs perceptions of strength and weakness, microaggressions and politics, against the day-to-day experiences of life for Black women in America. As she creates a meticulous catalog, from Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhuru to Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, Betts […]
Connie Post’s Between Twilight, Reviewed by Ann Wehrman
Between Twilight Connie Post NYQ Books Reviewer: Ann Wehrman In her new collection, Between Twilight, Connie Post explores memories and her present world, searching for healing, justice, and understanding. Post’s sensitive, often delicate poetry is grounded in honest, ruthless self-exploration; bottomless fear, loss, and fury tempered by her will to survive and end patterns of […]
Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong’s The Quenching, Reviewed by Vivian Wagner
The Quenching Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong Finishing Line Press Reviewer: Vivian Wagner The Quenching, by Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong, is a study in translation between languages, cultures, and selves. Kwong opens the collection with an introduction meditating on this process: “Translational motion involves a body moving from one point in space to another. To carry across is […]
George Franklin’s Remote Cities, Reviewed by Shawn Pavey
Remote Cities George Franklin Sheila-Na-Gig Editions Reviewer: Shawn Pavey George Franklin’s exquisite Remote Cities is, as John Burt expertly points out on his back-cover blurb, a collection of “poems for grown-ups.” These mature, honed, expertly crafted poems display for the reader Franklin’s current existence in Miami and his memories of travel. His unflinching imagery and […]
Nathan Leslie’s The Invisible Hand, Reviewed by Charles Rammelkamp
The Invisible Hand Nathan Leslie Hamilton Stone Editions (Short Fiction) Reviewer: Charles Rammelkamp Nathan Leslie often arranges his short fiction collections around a theme. Madre features stories that deal with motherhood; Sibs is stories about brothers and sisters in various combinations and situations; Drivers involves cars, and Believers is stories about snake-handlers and other religious […]
