John Bennett, Rosalind Belben, New York poetry, and more...

INTERVIEWS

John Bennett
Interviewed by Mark Terrill
Meet the founder of Vagabond Press and the author of over twenty-one books of prose, poetry and "shards."

FEATURES

The Work of Rosalind Belben
Essay by M. J. Fitzgerald
These novels by one of Britain's lesser known writers are worth hauling around the world.

From Black Mountain College to St. Mark's Church: The Cityscape Poetics of Blackburn, di Prima, and Oppenheimer
Essay by Burt Kimmelman
New York City is refracted in the multiple poetic voices presented in this essay.

REVIEWS: POETRY

Harrow
& House Made of Silver
Elizabeth Robinson
Intense meditations on fundamental forms, these two new books tread the edges between the structure of faith and the experience of it. Reviewed by Ken Rumble

Lip Service
Bruce Andrews
Both ironic and erotic, Lip Service implicates the reader in his or her own sexual politics as it revels in the linguistic possibilities of sexual vocabulary. Reviewed by Joel Bettridge

Disobedience
Alice Notley
A feisty, irreverent volume that gives the finger to many of the received ideas and unexamined assumptions inscribed in dominant culture. Reviewed by Dawn Michelle Baude

The Gauguin Answer Sheet
Dennis Finnell
From a painting by Gauguin, Finnell gleans a fractal poetic that considers origins, identities, and the interlocution of time and space, painting and history. Reviewed by Daniel Sumrall

Zirconia
Chelsey Minnis
In her first book, Minnis offers a unique prose poetry that stresses individual words and phrases. Reviewed by John Erhardt

My Sister Life
Joseph Lease
A poet of lyric grace and specific, evocative images, Lease engages in associative jumps while also offering narrative's edifying vitality. Reviewed by Thomas Fink

Overtime
Joseph Millar
Before academia, there was blue-collar work. Millar gives voice to these average Americans just trying to deal with their everyday problems. Reviewed by Julie Drake

Useless Virtues
T. R. Hummer
Hummer closely examines the tools for transcendence and redemption in this powerful book of poems. Reviewed by Justin B. Lacour

REVIEWS: FICTION

Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper
Harriet Scott Chessman
& La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl
David Huddle
These two new novels have painters as their subjects, but how does the cover art help or hinder their project? Reviewed by Carrie Mercer

Wild Turkey
Michael Hemmingson
This new novel by one of the "high priests of transgressive fiction" takes the form of a contemporary noir thriller. Reviewed by Tim Brown

L.C.
Susan Daitch
First published in 1986, Susan Daitch's challenging debut novel centers on a fictional diary translated from the French. Reviewed by Jason Picone

Tarzan's Tonsilitis
Alfredo Bryce Echenique
In his latest novel, Latin American writer Echenique passes between the old and the new world through the letters of two lovers caught between the continents. Reviewed by Jay Miskowiec

Hotel World
Ali Smith
Try this: judge a book by how many times the words on the page send your face up and out and your breath quickly inwards, in excitement, astonishment, joy, wonder. Reviewed by Jessica Hoffmann

Phone Calls from the Dead
Wendy Brenner
In her second collection of short stories, Brenner breathes life into a group of eccentrics whose hilarious predicaments are depicted with compassion. Reviewed by Ann Veronica Simon

Soliloquy
Kenneth Goldsmith
From the king of experience comes a new release, which consists of every word Kenneth Goldsmith said in one week. Reviewed by Doug Nufer

REVIEWS: NONFICTION

Before & After: Stories from New York
edited by Thomas Beller
A stirring and impressive catalog of voices, Before & After collects short personal essays by New Yorkers on both sides of the demarcating chasm of 9/11. Reviewed by Thomas Haley

War of the Words
edited by Joy Press
Once upon a time, the Voice Literary Supplement was capable of busting balls and warping minds, as these forty pieces culled from the supplement's twenty years of existence demonstrate. Reviewed by Laird Hunt

Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk Rock in the Nation's Capital
Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins
Dance of Days shows how the development of an artistic style—the earnest, propulsive post-punk of most Dischord bands—interacts with everything else in the artists' lives. Reviewed by Steve Burt

Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism
Gary Gach
Buddhism, of all religions, embraces irony and paradox, so don't blanch at this do-it-yourself manual on its history, teachings, practices and applications. Reviewed by Charisse Gendron

Star Trek: The Human Frontier
Michèle Barrett & Duncan Barrett
A literary and cultural theory specialist and her teen-aged son find thematic connections and intriguing continuities in Star Trek's treatment of humanity. Reviewed by Rudi Dornemann

Eldorado: Adventures in the Path of Empire
Bayard Taylor
A classic of travel writing, Eldorado collects the experiences of Bayard Taylor in Central and Northern California in 1849 during the gold rush. Reviewed by Mark Terrill

Amped: Notes from a Go-Nowhere Punk Band
Jon Resh
Amped is as much about the unsung people who seek out the unheard music as it is about Spoke's years in the punk underground. Reviewed by Kevin Carollo

Looking for a Fight
Lynn Snowden Picket
When Picket took up boxing, she punched people real hard. Her new book explores the violence and pleasure she experienced inside the ring and out. Reviewed by Tricia Cornell

The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition
James Howard Kunstler
Kunstler deftly relates how Louis-Napoleon and his architect transformed a medieval shanty town with no working sewers or clean water into the enduring glory that millions of tourists still seek out. Reviewed by N. N. Hooker