by KARAH MITCHELL LeAnne Howe, Savage Conversations (Coffee House Press, February 2019), pp. 104 LeAnne Howe’s Savage Conversations is devastating. In this experimental book that hovers between drama and poetry, dreams and the deepest reality, Howe presents a “conversation” that … Read more

by KATHARINE COLDIRON Brice Matthieussent, Revenge of the Translator, translated by Emma Ramadan (Deep Vellum, October 2018), pp. 352 I truly do not know where to begin with Revenge of the Translator. It’s a metatextual novel, and it’s confusing, sexy, … Read more

by MARY SCOTT MANNING Amy Meng, Bridled (Pleiades Press, 2018), pp. 66 The flashbulb of an old-fashioned film camera throws light on the subject in the split second before the shutter opens, making the details of the scene visible. When … Read more

by NICOLE BERLAND Ursula K. Le Guin and David Naimon, Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing (Tin House, 2018), pp. 150 Rather than proposing solutions, Ursula K. Le Guin’s novels ask questions. To enter into one of her storyworlds … Read more

by JORDAN KLEVDAL May-Lan Tan, Things to Make and Break (Coffee House Press, October 2018), pp. 204 The arrival of the new year means that coffee shops, bars, and restaurants are filled with the same canned exchanges: “Last year flew … Read more

by KATHARINE COLDIRON Ófeigur Sigurðsson, Öræfi: The Wasteland (Deep Vellum Books, October 2018), pp. 352 Without atmospheric accumulation, glaciers would not exist. No matter how they begin, precipitation helps them grow so large as to dwarf human perspectives. Öræfi, Ófeigur … Read more

by DON HOLMES Nella Larsen, Passing. Introduction by Darryl Pinckney & Illustrations by Maggie Lily (Restless Books, 2018), pp. 174 It was 1928 when Nella Larsen burst onto the scene during the boom of the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic period … Read more

by JOSHUA TAIT Maria Gabriela Llansol, Geography of Rebels Trilogy. Trans. from the Portuguese by Audrey Young (Deep Vellum, October 2018), pp. 345 “My vocation is to speak eternally,” wrote Maria Gabriela Llansol (1931-2008). And in Geography of Rebels, an ecstatic … Read more

by KYLAN RICE Hilary Plum, Strawberry Fields (Fence 2018), pp. 224 In 2018, Time Magazine named journalists its “Person of the Year.” The magazine published four different versions of the issue’s cover featuring images of either Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal … Read more

by ELISA FAISON Abby Geni, The Wildlands (Counterpoint Press, September 2018), pp. 368 “Man is the animal who tells stories,” Cora repeats. “We have to remember them. We have to tell the stories.” As with her previous fiction, Abby Geni’s … Read more