by JULIA EDWARDS Kathryn Nuernberger, Rue (BOA Editions, 2020), pp. 104. In an online reading series via Green Mountains Review, Kathryn Nuernberger declares that the closing poem in her new book Rue, “The Real Thing,” is “the closest thing a … Read more
by DEBORAH BACHARACH Pamela Sneed, Funeral Diva (City Lights Books, 2020), p. 148. Pamela Sneed is a Black lesbian scholar, activist, poet, historian, and professor, and she brings all this expertise to Funeral Diva, her new cross-genre book. The first two … Read more
by JESSICA CORY Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Poem (Graywolf Press, 2020). pp. 120 pages. “My brother has a knife in his hand. / He has decided to stab my father,” read the opening lines of the collection’s second poem, “Blood-Light.” … Read more
by Kara Moskowitz “Ow!” Evie sits on a chair in the breakfast room facing into the window, hands pressed down on her thighs, leaning forward expectantly. “Hold still then!” Tanya stands behind her, waging an assault on the tangles that … Read more
by Alice Shechter We heard a soft knock on the door. Kathy jumped to open it; she often took charge, the de facto Wendy to all of our lost boys, or rather, lost people, at the commune. Susanne stood in … Read more
Lanny is depicted as untainted by the moral failings of the adults around him. As a child, his purity is precarious—not only because he will grow up, but because his childishness makes him vulnerable to those who might prey on goodness.
by Natalie Tsay The castle was so much smaller than I remembered. My pulse quickened as we approached the front gates and joined the impossibly long line leading to them. I had already waited months for the trip, and yet … Read more
In each story, rural China grates against urbanization. Tradition grates against technology, and poverty grates against new wealth.
The poems move between both the urgency and complacency of living in a world which is being destroyed by our way of life.
