(Detroit, MI: Willow Books, 2016) My personal sense of racial identity is diffuse – I’m a half Ukrainian-quarter Scottish-quarter English Canadian, making me, I suppose, white – and my children are an even more complicated mix: divide my fractions by … Continued
(Portland Oregon and Brooklyn, NY: Tin House Books, 2016) When my brother, Chris, and I are in the mood for some good old fashioned apocalyptic prognosticating, we like to discuss the so-called Singularity. This idea, which has circulated ever more … Continued
(New York, NY: Persea Books, 2015) Every year in May, millions of students at thousands of high schools around the world take Advanced Placement (AP) Exams. Considering you are the type of person who has stopped surfing the net to read … Continued
(Sandpoint, Idaho: Lost Horse Press, 2016) Piotr Florczyk’s childhood in Poland, and adult years in the United States, create a poetry in East & West that reflects just such a worldview. In this lyrical book of poems, Florczyk turns an … Continued
(Huntsville, TX: Texas Review Press, 2015) I have come to realize that what makes a story great is purely subjective. Though it tends to hold true that every story requires some basic elements (interesting plot, relatable characters, climax, and ultimate … Continued
Translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar (New York, NY: Europa Editions, 2010) There’s a magnet on my refrigerator that pictures two sweet-faced, pony-tailed girls, perhaps sisters, grinning in a knowing way that suggests they’re sharing a private joke. Beneath the image … Continued
(Warrensburg, MO: Pleiades Press, 2016) I remember the first time that, in terms of the poem, words failed me – not my words or another’s words but words in general. I was attempting to describe a man speaking and, behind … Continued
Translated from the Spanish by Rosalind Harvey (Los Angeles, CA: And Other Stories, 2016) A narrator who insists he is not writing the novel in your hands. A character who vehemently objects to being a character, at least in this … Continued
(Portland, OR: Tin House Books, 2016) Childbirth is a ubiquitous occurrence, yet each woman deals with it differently; each woman’s experience is personal, as if scripted just for her. There are guidelines, advice, and expectations, but never are there guarantees. … Continued
(New York, NY: Other Press, 2015) After regaling us with entertaining anecdotes about his life as a screen writer in Hollywood, the late Gill Dennis threw out a curve ball: “What was your greatest moment of shame?” He was teaching … Continued
(Five Oaks Press, 2016) From the very outset of Peter E. Murphy’s The Last Pub on Earth – billed as “the story of the afterlife and times of the unfortunate Garry Morgan,” an alter ego created by the poet – … Continued
(Portland, OR: Tin House Books, 2016) In Rosalie Knecht’s debut novel, seeking relief can be just as dangerous as the problem you’re trying to escape. Set in Lomath, a small Pennsylvania town whose natural geography the author lushly chronicles, this … Continued
(New York, NY: Black Square Editions, 2015) Matvei Yankelevich’s sparse and emotionally restrained new collection, Some Worlds for Dr. Vogt, inspires deep introspection and catharsis. The book consists of a single long, lyric poem divided into forty-five suites and delineated … Continued
(Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint Press, 2015) Noy Holland’s previous work includes the short story collections The Spectacle of the Body (1994), What Begins with Bird (2005), and Swim for the Little One First (2012), and they have been praised for their … Continued
Translated from the Chinese by Fiona Sze-Lorrain (Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2015) “A stage setting has no independent life of its own. Its emphasis is directed towards the performance. In the absence of the actor it does not exist.” These words … Continued
(Burlington, VT: Fomite Press, 2016) Mental illness, family baggage, corporate culture, backstory, mythology, bombast and pretense, the fog of memory and the haze of booze and drugs, and even just the inarticulate confusion of childhood: these layers of delusion, dysfunction, … Continued
(Chicago, IL: Academy Chicago, 2016) It’s worth being reminded, from time to time, that monsters don’t really exist. At least not in the way we typically imagine them: hulking, abhorrent beasts that are the walking embodiment of inhuman evil. John … Continued
(Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016) At its absolute worst, “travel writing” (including poetry) can come off as the uninspired musings of the self-indulgent, in the way that touristy family photos really only matter to you if the subject … Continued
Translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel (Rochester, NY: Open Letter, 2016) Clocking in at only 121 pages, Georgi Tenev’s taut novel Party Headquarters is at once a tragedy, a comedy, a love story and thriller, with echoes of A … Continued
Translated from the Persian by Tom Patterdale (Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2012) In 1953, the CIA arrested the civilian Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Mossadeq, and reinstated Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Mossadeq, a democrat who had nationalized the oil industry, was thrown … Continued