The Naomi Letters: A Review
by MARY SIMS Rachel Mennies, The Naomi Letters (BOA Editions, 2021). Rachel Mennies’ The Naomi Letters opens with a question, an invitation to devotion: “The love poets say suffering is relative, but would they pull a plane whole / from …
by DONAL MACADAM Gina Nutt, Night Rooms (Two Dollar Radio, 2021). Gina Nutt writes that horror in film is “a reaction, recognition, a response to a call.” Nutt is the author of the poetry collection Wilderness Champion and two chapbooks— “Here …
by Chelsie Bryant Grandma Owens didn’t often invoke the Lord’s name in vain, but when the news hit that another child had been murdered, she let loose a quiet “Lordy.” It was nearly silent, the lament, and Morgan hadn’t … Read more by SHANA SCUDDER Jesse McCarthy, The Fugitivities (Melville House, 2021). Jesse McCarthy’s debut novel The Fugitivities asks the weighty and perhaps unanswerable question: what does it mean to be Black? Is it a static form of identity which one carries across …
by DEREK WITTEN Jesse DeLong, The Amateur Scientist’s Notebook (Baobab Press, 2021). Anyone who has vaguely intuited an unknown poetic language behind terms like electroweak, phosphorous, chlorofluorocarbons—or even behind the law of gravity– will find a skillful interpreter in Jesse DeLong. …
by Mathew Goldberg Saturday, we attended Safety Day at Davy Crockett High School where Levi got to sit in a fire engine, helicopter, and police car. In early October, summer assaulted Austin a second time, baking us inside the … Read more by MINDY BUCHANAN-KING Nikki Wallschlaeger, Waterbaby (Copper Canyon Press, 2021). Reading Nikki Wallschlaeger’s third collection of writing is an immersive experience. The title, Waterbaby, elicits a sense of submersion, and the theme of water winds and slips between the …
by Sarah Walker It is the first time I have been home in seven years. I watch the windows, fixed on the blobs of light inside. I wait for the house to turn completely dark and when it does, … Read more by MATTHEW POTTS Devin Jacobsen, Breath Like the Wind at Dawn (Sagging Meniscus Press, 2020), pp. 208. Scary stories are probably about as ancient to human culture as campfires, but there’s a special sort of monster that lurks in the …
Night Rooms: A Review
An Assembly
The Fugitivities: A Review
Jesse DeLong’s Poetic Chemical Reaction: A Review of The Amateur Scientist’s Notebook
Bad
Waterbaby: A Review
Skin Like You
Breath Like the Wind at Dawn: A Review