Davis Schneiderman, Stephen Dixon, J.M. Coetzee, Jim Munroe, and many more...

INTERVIEWS

Trans-Avant-Garde: An Interview with Steve McCaffery
Interviewed by Ryan Cox
Though he would be among the first people to point out the inherent problems with the terminology, poet and scholar Steve McCaffery is one of the major architects of postmodern Canadian literature.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat: An Interview with Davis Schneiderman
Interviewed by Brian Whitener
Davis Schneiderman's work, which takes the conventions of postmodern fiction and pushes them one step further, has established him as a thoughtful and energetic presence in the experimental fiction scene.

REVIEWS: POETRY

Deed
Rod Smith
Smith’s Deed is the latest stop along the ongoing, expansionist railway of American innovative poetry. Reviewed by Noah Eli Gordon

It
Inger Christensen
This 1969 masterwork of experimental poetry by Danish poet Christensen depicts the beginning of life grown out of nothingness, an Oulipian kind of cosmology of life on earth. Reviewed by Douglas Messerli

Telegraph
Kaya Oakes
In her first book of poetry, Oakes details a transient and fervent existence, stemming from wayward road trips taken with her family as a child. Reviewed by Katie Fowley

sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre: A Bilingual Edition of Books Two and Three of Dolores Dorantes
Dolores Dorantes
These two books combined in a bilingual edition continue Dorantes’s ongoing project of self-creation, conflating subject and object. Reviewed by Mark Tursi

Dog Girl
Heidi Lynn Staples
There is something of “Jabberwocky” in Staples’s second full collection of poetry, as she revels in homonyms and puns. Reviewed by Katie Fowley

The Burning Mirror
Kerry Shawn Keys
Keys’s art thrives on freedom of association, and this book is a fitting introduction to his work. Reviewed by Robert Murray Davis

REVIEWS: FICTION

Song For Night
Chris Abani
Song for Night, Abani's powerful new novella, recounts a fifteen-year-old soldier’s voiceless journey through a hell-scape of war. Reviewed by Joel Turnipseed

Love Without
Jerry Stahl
Filled with seemingly cheap thrills that reveal unusual originality and depth, Jerry Stahl’s latest collection of short stories throws the reader into scenes of vulgar eroticism and vulnerable uncertainty. Reviewed by Anna Rockne

All Over
Roy Kesey
Dzanc Books launches their label with this debut collection of stories by a truly innovative and inventive new writer on the scene. Reviewed by Blake Butler

Dahlia Season
Myriam Gurba
Overflowing with teen angst, these fictions set in early ’90s Southern California explore the culture and desires of young Hispanic women. Reviewed by Jacklyn Attaway

Catholic Boys
Philip Cioffari
In his debut novel, Cioffari delves into a murder mystery involving a Catholic schoolboy and an intricate web of lies spun from some of the highest members of the church. Reviewed by Donald Lemke

Meyer
Stephen Dixon
Dixon’s latest novel chronicles the 68-year-old Meyer’s dissatisfaction with what he’s been writing and the ever-encroaching certainty of death. Reviewed by T.K. Dalton

Diary of a Bad Year
J.M. Coetzee
This nimble metafiction addresses the challenges an intellectual writer faces as he tries to convey his thoughts accurately. Reviewed by Spencer Dew

The Dog Said Bow-Wow
Michael Swanwick
Swanwick’s latest story collection shows off his impressive world-building skills and imaginative use of genre tropes. Reviewed by Kristin Livdahl

Soucouyant: A Novel of Forgetting
David Chariandy
Chariandy’s first book is also a novel of remembering, as the narrator copes with his mother’s early-onset dementia. Reviewed by Kristin Thiel

The New Space Opera: All New Stories of Science Fiction Adventure
Edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan
While not all the stories here glitter, those that do are worth the ticket to admission in this opera. Reviewed by Alan DeNiro

REVIEWS: YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Unwind
Neal Shusterman
Shusterman imagines a near-future America after a Civil War that pitted pro-life and pro-choice factions, resulting in a horrific compromise with ramifications for disaffected youth. Reviewed by Kelly Everding

REVIEWS: NONFICTION

The Neutral: Lecture Course at the College de France (1977-1978)
Roland Barthes
In this transcription of a lecture course, Barthes brings forth the Neutral as that which “baffles the paradigm,” suspending the conflictual basis of discourse by outplaying the various binaries ordinarily imposed by language. Reviewed by Spencer Dew

9/11: The Culture of Commemoration
David Simpson
Simpson here explores the cultural matrix of sociological, juridical, and institutional segregation to examine the complex and paradoxical treatment of the events and images of September 11, 2001 and after. Reviewed by Brian Bergen-Aurand

Merton & Buddhism: Realizing the Self
Edited by Bonnie Bowman Thurston
This collection of essays is a valuable contribution to Merton studies as it attempts to reconcile Merton’s fascination with Buddhism and his Christianity. Reviewed by Joel Weishaus

Beautiful Enemies: Friendship and Postwar American Poetry
Andrew Epstein
Beautiful Enemies offers a study of friendship and postwar American poetry by focusing on three poets: Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery, and Amiri Baraka. Reviewed by Elizabeth Robinson

Vanishing America: In Pursuit of Our Elusive Landscapes
James Conaway
Vanishing America laments the cancerous spread of development, of “nihilistic, temporarily enriching transformations” that destroy public land and wreck the cultural heritage of unique places. Reviewed by Spencer Dew

Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness
B. Alan Wallace
As a physicist and Buddhist, Wallace reveals the importance of consciousness as an integral factor in the evolution and workings of our objective world. Reviewed by Kelly Everding

Foreskin’s Lament
Shalom Auslander
Frank, honest, and darkly humorous, Auslander’s memoir of escaping his Orthodox Jewish upbringing leaves no neuroses unturned. Reviewed by Jessica Bennett

Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America
Gail Pool
Pool maps the decline of book reviewing in America and offers suggestions to enhance and improve the art of literary criticism. Reviewed by Marcus A. Banks

REVIEWS: GRAPHIC NOVELS

The Arrival
Shaun Tan
In this stunning wordless graphic novel, a young man immigrates to a new and strange country to seek a better life for his family. Reviewed by David A. Berona

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
Moore and O’Neill return to the extraordinary individuals whose adventures they chronicled in two previous graphic novels and expand their vision to encompass the whole history of their world. Reviewed by Rudi Dornemann

Therefore Repent!
Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam
In his first graphic novel, writer Jim Munroe tweaks one prominent strand of contemporary politico-religious imagination, following the story of the unfortunates who were left behind after the Rapture. Reviewed by Spencer Dew

Ghost Stories: Essex County Volume 2
Jeff Lemire
The second volume in Lemire’s graphic novel trilogy is a moving study of isolation and regret, following the story of two brothers growing up in Essex County, Ontario. Reviewed by Donald Lemke