Fall 2021

INTERVIEWS

Small, Light, Portable Universes: An Interview with Richard Powers
Richard Powers discusses his latest novel, Bewilderment: an amazing journey that has in-and-out of this world experiences and shows the boundless love that a father has for his son. Interviewed by Allan Vorda

The World to Come: An Interview with David Keplinger
David Keplinger’s seventh collection of poetry, The World to Come, ventures through dozens of contexts, in the company of a sensitive speaker. If applications of the imagination design the future, what is the role of poetry?
Interviewed by Amy Wright

The Unending Beauty of the Longpoem: A Conversation with T Thilleman
Read along as we catch up with publisher and author T Thilleman, a man who has long stood at the crossroads of innovative poetry, about his new long poem opus three markations to ward her figure and more. Interviewed by Andrew Mossin

FEATURES

Groundbreaking Black Artists: June Jordan, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and William Parker
Taken together, these three recent publications concerning three historically distinctive Black artists offer a snapshot of the abiding vitality and interconnections that keep Black art abundant and enthralling. Reviewed by Patrick James Dunagan

Two Adjunct Novels
Two recent novels, Lynn Steger Strong's Want and Christine Smallwood’s The Life of the Mind, add to the growing micro-genre about what many call "adjunct hell." Reviewed by Julia Stein

“Instants of Elation”: Recent Philosophy for the Masses
Enjoy a survey of several recent books that are rife with potential stimulation for the follower of philosophy for the masses. Essay by John Toren

FICTION REVIEWS

Permafrost
Eva Baltasar
In a voice simultaneously raucous and icy with end-of-life clarity, the narrator of Catalan writer Eva Baltasar’s Permafrost lays bare the many women her life has contained, poetically detailing profound and urgent thrills. Reviewed by Jenny Apostol

Fugitives of the Heart
William Gay
William Gay’s final posthumous novel, Fugitives of the Heart, is a testament to the author's uncanny ability to spin yarns and adorn sentences, and an important entry in the Southern Gothic tradition. Reviewed by Chris Via

In Concrete
Anne Garréta, trans. Emma Ramadan
By turns straightforward and outlandish, scatological and impish, plot is the least promising feature of Oulipian Anne Garréta’s latest novel to be translated into English. Reviewed by Jeff Bursey

The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories
Danielle Evans
Through six short stories and a novella, Danielle Evans’s The Office of Historical Corrections presents an unflinching perspective on the most polarizing issues facing the U.S. today. Reviewed by Serenity Schoonover

Intimacies
Katie Kitamura
In Katie Kitamura’s new novel Intimacies, the unnamed narrator living in The Hague discovers a dark reality carefully concealed by a polished façade. Reviewed by Mike Alberti

The High-Rise Diver
Julia von Lucadou, trans. Sharmila Cohen
Journey with Julia von Lucadou and Sharmila Cohen into the world of an inevitable future, a city deeply entrenched in surveillance, social media, and influencer culture. Reviewed by Joseph Houlihan

NONFICTION REVIEWS

Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City
William Sites
Just like the subject’s music, William Sites’s new book Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City throws its listener into a complex time and urban space. Reviewed by Garin Cycholl

Why Bushwick Bill Matters
Charles L. Hughes
Charles L. Hughes’s Why Bushwick Bill Matters interweaves music criticism, cultural history, disability studies, and a touch of personal reflection. Reviewed by Dylan Hicks

POETRY REVIEWS

CURB
Divya Victor
In her fifth book, CURB, Divya Victor builds a powerful exposition through poetry from both personal reflection and its refraction through the external world. Reviewed by Greg Bem

forget thee
Ian Dreiblatt
With both sharp satire and earnest longing, poet, translator, and correspondent for The Believer Ian Dreiblatt plumbs the American dystopia in his new collection, forget thee. Reviewed by Stephen Whitaker

Oh You Robot Saints!
Rebecca Morgan Frank
In her new collection Oh You Robot Saints! Rebecca Morgan Frank offers a poetic response to humanity’s longtime fascination with mechanical reproduction. Reviewed by John Bradley

Spring and a Thousand Years (Unabridged)
Judy Halebsky
Judy Halebsky offers a contemporary take on a world and world-view that flourished more than a thousand years ago in Spring and a Thousand Years (Unabridged). Reviewed by Lee Rossi

études
Friederike Mayröcker, trans. Donna Stonecipher
This collection of prose poems shows why Friederike Mayröcker, long celebrated in the German-language world as a daring voice of the postwar period and a passionate participant in the avant-garde tradition, remains worth reading. Reviewed by Walter Holland

Sonnet(s)
Ulises Carrión
In Sonnet(s), early work by conceptual artist and thinker Ulises Carrión shows how he built expansive notions of what a “bookwork” could become. Reviewed by Michael Workman

Somebody Else Sold the World
Adrian Matejka
Showcasing the poet’s command of form and music, Adrian Matejka’s fifth collection plays with complex and far-reaching concepts like violence and antagonism. Reviewed by Tryn Brown

CHAPBOOK REVIEWS

Kathmandu
Anuja Ghimire
Anuja Ghimire’s Kathmandu will transport you to Nepal—as an interrogation of home and the languages we use to define it. Reviewed by Carlos A. Pittella

Hex & Howl
Simone Muench and Jackie K. White
Simone Muench and Jackie K. White's new collaborative chapbook, Hex & Howl, takes a firm stance on feminism and women’s empowerment by detailing suffering, self-care, and rebirth. Reviewed by Lydia Pejovic

MIXED GENRE REVIEWS

Embodied
Ed. Wendy and Tyler Chin-Tanner
Discover a comics anthology whose marriage of forms exemplifies the power of poetry and artistic interpretation. Reviewed by Linda Stack-Nelson

COMICS REVIEWS

The City of Belgium
Brecht Evens
Join Brecht Evens’s cast of miscreant wanderers in The City of Belgium's bars and streets as they stagger towards oblivion, clarity, or a blur between the two. Reviewed by Jeff Alford

Rain Taxi Online Edition Fall 2021 | © Rain Taxi, Inc. 2021