(Wilkes-Barre, PA: Etruscan Press, 2019) Historically minded and introspective of both the culture of the landscapes and the people who inhabit them, Stephen Benz’ “Topographies” is a vivid and engaging collection of overlooked places and history. Benz travels widely from … Continued
(New York: Ballantine Books, 2018) A River of Stars follows Chinese factory department head, Scarlett Chen, on her harrowing journey as an undocumented immigrant in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Scarlett falls for her married supervisor, and becomes pregnant during their affair. As … Continued
(Albany, CA: Stone Bridge Press, 2018) Tracy Franz’s memoir, My Year of Dirt and Water: Journal of a Zen Monk’s Wife in Japan, chronicles the year her husband, Koun, attends intensive training in a cloistered temple to become a Zen … Continued
(New York: Other Press, 2018) Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thompson is an in-depth historical fiction following the surrealist photographers Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore through their first meeting in the early 1900s, their move to 1920s Paris, followed by … Continued
(New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2018) Kaethe Schwehn’s The Rending and the Nest is a visceral, transcendent tale about creating life out of no life in a post-apocalyptic world. The characters we meet struggle to create normalcy out of tattered fragments. They confront … Continued