Jan Beatty’s Dragstripping, Reviewed by Erica Goss

Jan Beatty Dragstripping University of Pittsburg Press Reviewer: Erica Goss Dragstripping, Jan Beatty’s new collection, centers on her lifelong struggle with displacement. Born of a child’s need for safety, such an existence imposes vulnerability and danger; as she writes in “The Body’s River,” “When my mother left me in the orphanage, // I invented love […]

Kim Addonizio’s Exit Opera, Reviewed by Erica Goss

Kim Addonizio Exit Opera W.W. Norton Reviewer: Erica Goss Reading Kim Addonizio is like spending time with a witty yet reckless friend, one who drinks too much, wakes up in the beds of strangers, and suffers through numerous hangovers. Despite her questionable behavior, however, this friend is a wellspring of unvarnished truths, expounding on topics […]

Lynne Thompson’s Blue on a Blue Palette, Reviewed by Erica Goss

Lynne Thompson Blue on a Blue Palette BOA Editions Reviewer: Erica Goss In Blue on a Blue Palette, Lynne Thompson embarks on a journey through physical and personal geographies, exploring relationships, moods, and history, with a focus on the strength and resiliency of women. The color blue links these poems through direct and implied references. […]

Diane Seuss’s Modern Poetry, Reviewed by Erica Goss

Diane Seuss Modern Poetry Graywolf Press, 2024 Reviewer: Erica Goss A testimonial to Diane Seuss’s enduring commitment to the art of poetry, her latest collection is harrowing, hilarious, disconcerting, and fearless. This memoir-in-verse reverberates with pitch-perfect observations gleaned from her years as an academic outsider, the combination of pain and pride forged during her working-class […]

Andrea Hollander’s And Now, Nowhere But Here, Reviewed by Erica Goss

Andrea Hollander And Now, Nowhere But Here Terrapin Books Reviewer: Erica Goss In her new book, And Now, Nowhere But Here, Andrea Hollander looks back at the complexities and contradictions of a long life. The poems in this wise and often luminous collection explore the aftermath of betrayal and its effects on a marriage, as […]