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 […]
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 […]
Amy Small McKinney’s One Day I Am a Field, Reviewed by Erica Goss
Amy Small-McKinney One Day I Am a Field Glass Lyre Press Reviewer: Erica Goss “Instantly, soundlessly, a meadow called bereft.” — “One Day I Am a Field” In her most recent poetry collection, Amy Small-McKinney delivers a devastating account of caregiving’s emotional and physical tolls. By turns fierce, exhausted, passionate, and wise, the speaker in […]
Ra Malika Imhotep’s gossypiin, Reviewed by Erica Goss
Ra Malika Imhotep gossypiin Red Hen Press Reviewer: Erica Goss In her new collection gossypiin, Ra Malika Imhotep filters her quest for truth through multiple entities. Ancestors float in and out of these poems, offering stories, guidance, and corrections to commonly held misconceptions regarding the lives and experiences of African-American women. Taking its title partially […]
Amanda Moore’s Requeening, Reviewed by Erica Goss
Amanda Moore Requeening Ecco/HarperCollins Reviewer: Erica Goss “The hive will come to know the new, caged queen. Her scent, alarming at first, will become recognized, comforting.” —“Requeening” Amanda Moore’s new collection explores the consequences of succession, in beehives and in her own family. “Requeening,” or the process of introducing a new queen to an […]
