Interviews

A Permeable Border:
Nina LaCour and Kelly Barnhill on the Line Between YA and Adult Fiction
Interviewed by Trisha Collopy
Two Minnesota authors, known for their work for young readers but who have branched out by writing novels for adults, here discuss what that distinction means for writers shaping a story and for the readers who find it.

Anything Is Possible: An Interview with Kathleen Rooney
Interviewed by Rachel Robbins
Kathleen Rooney talks about her new poetry collection, Where Are the Snows (Texas Review Press)—plus, the apocalypse as luxury, humor in politics, and what it means to write for an audience. 

Features

Peter Handke: The Fruit Thief and Quiet Places
Taken in tandem, Peter Handke's The Fruit Thief (translated by Krishna Winston) and Quiet Places (translated by Krishna Winston and Ralph Manheim) indeed offer the exploration of humanity’s "periphery and specificity" referred to in the Swedish Academy’s Nobel citation of his work. Reviewed by John Toren

Defining Language: Three Native American Poets
Three recent books by Native American poets explore the brutality of colonization, the writer’s mind, and the aftermath of displacement.  Reviewed by Nancy Beauregard

Fresh Takes on Keats
The books about John Keats keep coming, delivering fresh angles of approach. Thanks to new biographies from Lucasta Miller and Jonathan Bate, we gain new insights into Keats’s life and literary affinities. Reviewed by Mike Dillon

Poetry Reviews

Star Lake
Arda Collins
Star Lake may take you by surprise: The archness and dark humor in Arda Collins’ previous collection are gone, and in their place is a significantly sparer, more tender, and even vulnerable poetry. Reviewed by Dobby Gibson    

The Golden Dot
Gregory Corso
For any admirer of Gregory Corso, there is much to be relished in The Golden Dot: dash and dark fire, offbeat insights, and a serious engagement with the unfathomable mystery at the heart of things. Reviewed by Gregory Stephenson    

Sift
Christian Hawkey
In Sift, Christian Hawkey addresses the intertwining of as many subjects as one would find in their internet feed—politics, parenthood, capitalism, mundanity—through the framework of his own etymology-tracing, language-dissecting task as translator. Reviewed by Michael Overstreet

The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez
Iliana Rocha
In this startling collection, Iliana Rocha writes about the unsolved homicide of her grandfather in Detroit in 1971. To have empathy, she suggests, we must know the darker side of humanity. Reviewed by George Longenecker

The New Sun Time
Ish Klein
In a time of multiple crises, the poems of The New Sun Time by Ish Klein work toward liberation and healing. Reviewed by Robert Fernandez     

Nonfiction Reviews

Morton Feldman: Friendship and Mourning in the New York Avant-Garde
Ryan Dohoney
Though Morton Feldman wasn’t known for expressing his emotions and his minimalist compositions are anything but effusive, Ryan Dohoney demonstrates that friendship indeed lies at the heart of several of Feldman’s paramount pieces of music. Reviewed by Patrick James Dunagan      

The Diary of Others: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin
Edited by Paul Herron
If Anaïs Nin's Diary reveals anything to us, it is the multidimensionality of a remarkably complex personality determined not only to explore life fully but to understand it as well. Reviewed by Robert Zaller

The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America
Michelle Wilde Anderson
Michelle Wilde Anderson offers a hard-hitting yet hopeful look at places lost in the wilds of income inequality, crime, lack of education, and poor infrastructure. Reviewed by Jonathan Shipley

This Monk Wears Heels: Be Who You Are
Kodo Nishimura
In This Monk Wears Heels, Kodo Nishimura converses like a friend, giving insight into his personal evolution, as well as make-up tips and bits of Buddhist philosophy. Reviewed by Aditi Yadav 

Notes from the Road
Mike Ingram
In Notes from the Road, Mike Ingram offers a moving account of a cross-country car journey—but the real trip is, of course, toward the self. Reviewed by Guillermo Rebollo Gil 

Fiction Reviews

Till the Wheels Fall Off
Brad Zellar
Like listening to a favorite album, Brad Zellar’s novel Till the Wheels Fall Off offers the alternating effects of revelation and affirmation when life’s pivotal moments require a soundtrack. Reviewed by Frank Randall

The Scent of Light
Kristjana Gunnars
Kristjana Gunnars’s The Scent of Light is a work unyielding in its sensuality, uniquely attuned to the slippery nature of reading in the Information Age. Reviewed by Dashiel Carrera

The Secret of Geraniums
Jessy Reine   
Jessy Reine’s novella reconsiders the confines of acceptable boundaries within romantic relationships, pushing past traditional stories of perverse encounters with dominant men and offering instead a feminine account of love. Reviewed by Havilah Barnett           

Drama Reviews

Mumbai Traps: Collected Plays
Anju Makhija
Readers familiar with Anju Makhija’s crisp and sharply-observant poetry will find that as a playwright, she is gumptious, experimental, piercing, and clutter-breaking. Reviewed by Rochelle Potkar

Graphic Novel Reviews

Time Zone J
Julie Doucet
The “Julie Doucet” of Time Zone J plays out the acclaimed cartoonist's antipathy toward autobiography and representation—especially as they relate to memory, which sets this graphic novel novel in motion, and to desire, its beating heart. Reviewed by Steve Matuszak