INTERVIEWS

Feminism, Spirituality, and Changing Mores:
An Interview with Alicia Suskin Ostriker
A poet of emotional depth and psychological wisdom, Alicia Suskin Ostriker discusses the great range of her life’s work and concerns in this freewheeling conversation with a friend.
Interviewed by Daniela Gioseffi

CLOSE READING: An Interview with Derek Walcott
A chance meeting with the Nobel Laureate in St. Lucia leads to a frenzied bout of researched questions—all cast to the wind in favor of rhapsodizing about Hart Crane.
Interviewed by Michael Swingen

The Fluidity of the Human Brain: An Interview with Frank Bures
Bures discusses the themes of storytelling and culturally driven world views found in his book, The Geography of Madness.
Interviewed by Scott F. Parker

Evoking Female Spirits: An Interview with Lina Vitkauskas
Vitkauskas’s new collection of poetry is inspired by the myth of female Baltic snipers paid to kill Russian soldiers during the Chechen Wars.
Interviewed by Michael Stephens

VIDEO FEATURE

Wyatt at the Coyote Palace: An Interview with Kristin Hersh
We sit down for a chat with acclaimed author and musician Kristin Hersh, whose latest release is both a hardback book of stories and essays (and art, and lyrics) and a double album of new songs, all getting to “the heart of missing you.” Interviewed by Eric Lorberer

ANTHOLOGY REVIEWS:

Dream Closet: Meditations on Childhood Space
Edited by Matthew Burgess
As a childhood expert on hidden nooks, Burgess is a natural to edit this anthology of personal tales of imaginary portals. Reviewed by John Bradley

CHAPBOOK REVIEWS:

Disorder 299.00
Aby Kaupang and Matthew Cooperman
Poets and parents Kaupang and Cooperman present this digital chapbook about their daughter Maya, who was born with autism and other physical challenges. Reviewed by Carol Ciavonne

POETRY REVIEWS:

Among the Gorgons
Michelle Boisseau
In her latest collection, Boisseau takes the reader through the looking glass, presenting a topsy-turvy cosmos. Reviewed by Denise Low

California Winter League
Chiyuma Elliott
Elliot’s debut collection of poetry gives shape and voice to what haunts her, while allowing the ineffable room to speak for itself. Reviewed by Ralph Pennel

Rapture
Sjohnna McCray
Rapture is an absorbing homage to the author’s growing up as a biracial child of an African American father and Korean mother in the 1970s and ’80s. Reviewed by Renoir Gaither

Admit One: An American Scrapbook
Martha Collins
The third in a “race trilogy” of poetry books, Admit One relentlessly pushes against any sense that we live in a post-racial America. Reviewed by Edward A. Dougherty

There is one crow that will not stop cawing
Rushing Pittman
Pittman’s poems are a startlingly earnest reminder of how little certainty we have as adults, and the ways in which we still think and love like children. Reviewed by Rebecca Valley

distance decay
Cathy Eisenhower
Eisenhower’s latest poetry collection searches for a language and form that can navigate the experience and consequence of rape. Reviewed by Isaac Pickell

FICTION REVIEWS:

Jerusalem
Alan Moore
Moore’s new massive tome is set in the town where he’s lived his entire life, features a cast of historical and familial characters, and spans both time and dimension. Reviewed by Greg Baldino

A Cage in Search of a Bird
Florence Noiville
Noiville’s novel investigates cases of erotomania by wrapping their peculiarities in the mantle of a psychological thriller. Reviewed by Jeff Alford

Problems
Jade Sharma
In her debut novel, Jade Sharma’s prose is unflinching as she tackles the tough realities of addiction.
Reviewed by Bradley Babendir

The Happy Marriage
Tahar Ben Jelloun
This latest translation by acclaimed Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun is a study in the unravelling of a marriage. Reviewed by Garry Craig Powell

The Other One
Hasanthika Sirisena
In this debut collection of short stories, Sri Lankans grapple with the aftermath of civil war, juggling between identity and acceptance. Reviewed by Jackie Trytten

Disappearance at Devil’s Rock
Paul Tremblay
Horror creeps out of the spaces between the explanations we craft to reconcile irrational occurrences in Tremblay’s latest novel. Reviewed by Bryan Miller

NONFICTION REVIEWS:

1966: The Year the Decade Exploded
Jon Savage
According to Savage, what blew up was youth culture, and the explosive used was primarily pop music, which served as catalyst, mirror, and running commentary on the events of 1966. Reviewed by Brooke Horvath

To Think of Her Writing Awash in Light
Linda Russo
In these innovative essays, Linda Russo celebrates five female authors whose lives span the interval from the Romantic period to the present day. Reviewed by Catherine Rockwood

The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America From the Age of the Pullman Porters to the Age of Obama
Ethan Michaeli
Michaeli strives to convince his readers of the Defender’s ongoing relevance, with mixed results. Reviewed by Spencer Dew

Blood, Bone, and Marrow: A Biography of Harry Crews
Ted Geltner
This riveting bio delivers the full goods on Crews, a writer who was determined to succeed despite the handicaps of ill luck, alcoholism, and an impoverished upbringing. Reviewed by Patrick James Dunagan

The Accidental Life: An Editor's Notes on Writing and Writers
Terry McDonnell
A revealing look at the heyday of magazines, The Accidental Life narrates McDonnell’s editorial engagements with some of our most famous literary movers and shakers. Reviewed by D.W. Fenza

Messages from a Lost World: Europe on the Brink
Stefan Zweig
Zweig’s essays amount to songs of progress, bursting as they are with pride and fraternity. Reviewed by Jesse Freedman

Workshops of Empire: Stegner, Engle, and American Creative Writing During the Cold War
Eric Bennett
Bennett demonstrates how the aesthetic dominance of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the creative writing program at Stanford were specific products of 1950s America. Reviewed by Rebecca Weaver