Translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith (Rochester, NY: Open Letter Books, 2016) Reading Bae Suah’s novel, A Greater Music, is much like the experience of listening to the concertos of Beethoven. I listened to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, … Continued
(Norman, OK: Texture Press, 2015) If real life is stranger than fiction, Nathan Leslie’s new collection Root and Shoot is the splendid exception. Vivid, bizarre, and hilarious, each individual piece of short fiction forms a mosaic of the everyday and … Continued
(Ann Arbor, MI: Dzanc Books, 2016) It’s not every book of short stories that feels like a book of poetry. Equally, it’s not every book that reads like a film. Enter John Domini’s Movieola!, a slim collection for those who … Continued
Translated from the Polish by Stephanie Kraft (Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2016) “Only a man who is suffocating knows what an open window is,” Istvan Terey, a Hungarian poet serving as a diplomat in India, tells his Australian lover Margit … Continued
(Portland, OR: University of Hell Press, 2016) The funeral director took my hand between her palms, looked into my eyes, and murmured I’m sorry for your loss. There were papers to sign, urns to peruse. Did we like a traditional … Continued
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015) I recently visited Nevada’s National Atomic Testing Museum. I expected to be taken back by certain images – the apocalyptic mushroom clouds and obliterated cities – but something else remained with me, too. I … Continued
Translated from the German by Jen Calleja (New York, NY: Other Press, 2017) I am a “tobacco chipper.” Two days ago, I had never heard the term, but according to Gregor Hens in Nicotine, it is someone who can smoke … Continued
Am I Here Alone? Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live (New York, NY: Catapult, 2016) In his intriguing new book Am I Alone Here? Peter Orner plays with the difference between reading and writing as therapeutic human … Continued
Translated from the Catalan by Mary Ann Newman (Brooklyn, NY: Archipelago Books, 2015) In 1932, revered Catalan novelist Josep Maria de Sagarra put it upon himself to produce the great Barcelonan novel. Determined to produce a raw and gritty representation of … Continued
Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion (San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books, 2016) I sat captivated in a featureless lecture hall, absorbing the compelling autobiographical events that shape Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American … Continued
(New York, NY: Black Lawrence Press, 2016) I’ll confess, when Renée Ashley’s sixth full-length collection of poetry arrived in the mail, the title, The View from the Body, gave me pause. Body, body, body. More than enough poets, I thought, … Continued
(Evansville, IN: Southern Indiana Review Press, 2015) As a writer, a crucial, early lesson often taught is to learn how to show an experience with craft and content, rather than tell of what happened. That was one of my first … Continued
(Amazon Kindle Singles, 2016) Vez and Rake aren’t sorry to be deployed to the desert. This is what they trained for; this is what they’re meant to be doing. But when a mission gone south and ends with Rake picking … Continued
Books Discussed: The Sad Epistles by Emma Bolden (Chicago, IL: Dancing Girl Press, 2008) Desiring Map by Megan Kaminski (Atlanta, GA: Coconut Books, 2013) In much of contemporary experimental writing, there is a tendency to valorize fragmented approaches to the … Continued
(Brooklyn, NY: The Operating System, 2016) If you’re familiar with poet Mark Gurarie, it’s likely you know he’s a musician as well. You might recognize him as a member of the indie-rock band, Galapagos Now! Moreover, his chapbook, Pop :: … Continued
(Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2016) Lindsay Tigue’s System of Ghosts gives its reader a sharp observation about one’s isolation and individual environment. Her word choices are plain and used with reverence towards what they refer to. She … Continued
(Because You Asked: A Book of Answers on the Art & Craft of the Writing Life. Sandpoint, ID: Lost Horse Press, 2015) I have a deep appreciation for writers. Our lives and talents are wildly diverse; we are poets, novelists, essayists, … Continued
(Brooklyn, NY: Ugling Duckling Presse, 2010) Berlin, July 30, 2010 The ticket-taker wears a black tuxedo with red silk cummerbund. He has a ruddy face and his body is round and broad like a bear. He tears our tickets gruffly, … Continued
Translated from the French by Sheila Fischman (Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2016) A mother gives her child life. She cradles him, loves him, feeds him and nurtures him. The death of that child is a mother’s worst fear. She will … Continued
(Los Angeles, CA: Underground Voices, 2016) There is a famous moment in William Faulker’s As I Lay Dying when a blank space exists on the page where language fails to describe Addie’s feminine experience. Similarly, Wendy J. Fox’s The Pull … Continued