Michael Hettich’s The Halo of Bees: New & Selected Poems 1990-2022, Reviewed by Vivian Wagner
Michael Hettich The Halo of Bees: New & Selected Poems 1990-2022 Press 53 Reviewer: Vivian Wagner Michael Hettich’s The Halo of Bees is a remarkable collection of poems from several decades, and together they form a kind of tapestry with recurring themes, images, and motifs. Many of the poems explore nature and wilderness, often as […]
Yehoshua November’s The Concealment of Endless Light, Reviewed by Vivian Wagner
Yehoshua November The Concealment of Endless Light Orison Books Reviewer: Vivian Wagner Yehoshua November’s The Concealment of Endless Light is a beautiful and moving exploration of the wavering between hope and hopelessness in our lives. The collection’s poems examine how the profound and the mundane—the light and the sometimes seeming lack of light—are indelibly connected, […]
Francesca Bell’s What Small Sound, Reviewed by Vivian Wagner
What Small Sound Francesca Bell Red Hen Press Reviewer: Vivian Wagner What Small Sound, a new poetry collection by Francesca Bell, is an exploration of life, death, and love, and of the myriad ways these essential elements of human existence intersect and define each other. The poems in this collection don’t offer any easy answers […]
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 […]
Farnaz Fatemi’s Sister Tongue, Reviewed by Vivian Wagner
Farnaz Fatemi Sister Tongue Kent State University Press Reviewer: Vivian Wagner Farnaz Fatemi’s Sister Tongue explores the experience of living between the cultures of Iran and the United States, and of trying to find a voice to describe that in-betweenness. The poems take root in various liminal spaces, tracking the poet’s journey through cross-cultural identity […]
