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Rue: A Review
by JULIA EDWARDS credit: BOA Editions Kathryn Nuernberger, Rue (BOA Editions, 2020), pp. 104. In an online reading series via Green Mountains Review, Kathryn Nuernberger declares that the closing poem...
View ArticleThe Watchmaker
by Daniel Kennedy Levin stared out the window. Despite what time had done to his mind, his sight remained sharp. Soldiers approached in the distance: a line of ants, moving through a pass in the...
View ArticleWanted to Pin to the Wall
by Mary Byrne Atlanta. Springtime, 2004. Late each night, an hour came when the edges of objects and people went runny. It arrived in the interval between the last band’s last song and the closing of...
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Flourish: A Review
by DEBORAH BACHARACH credit: Carnegie Mellon University Press Dora Malech, Flourish (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2020), pp. 91 Dora Malech’s fourth collection, Flourish, uncannily mixes dark...
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Guillotine: A Review
by MEGAN SWARTZFAGER credit: Graywolf Press Eduardo C. Corral, Guillotine (Graywolf, 2020), pp. 72. “Welcome / to la cagada,”– or, “the shit”– one undocumented immigrant trekking through unforgiving...
View ArticleGun Season
by Joseph Rakowski Deer season was planned to open in a few weeks, and it was time Lorenzo took his eleven-year-old son to the store to get him his first long gun. He figured this would give him enough...
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Last Loosening: A Review
by ELLIE RAMBO credit: Twisted Spoon Press Walter Serner, Last Loosening: a handbook for the con artist & those aspiring to become one (Twisted Spoon Press, 2020), pp. 189. The “Last Number” from...
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Ceremonials: A Review
by SARAH LOFSTROM credit: Kernpunkt Press Katharine Coldiron, Ceremonials (Kernpunkt Press, 2020), pp. 134. A novella inspired by the 2011 Florence + the Machine album of the same name, Ceremonials is...
View ArticleHe Handed Me a Picture
by Alex Wichert I sat in my three-star hotel room and wondered about the best way to kill someone. I hadn’t planned for this—the plot, in fact, was intended as comedy—but certain symptoms of doubt had...
View ArticleWhat About It
by Maggie Goss Ruth drove for hours to the mountains. Her headache, eight days old, moved behind her left eye. She was out of Advil and instead swallowed a tablet of veterinary Tramadol that her dog,...
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“Ask me again / about my doubt”: A Review of Kaveh Akbar’s Pilgrim Bell
by HANNAH ROBERTS credit: Graywolf Press Kaveh Akbar, Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf Press, 2021), pp. 80. “Regarding loss, I’m / afraid / to keep it in the story, / worried what I might bring back to life,”...
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Seeking Utopia: Queer and First Nations Embodiment in Billy-Ray Belcourt’s A...
by JAMIE WATSON Billy-Ray Belcourt, A History of My Brief Body (Two Dollar Radio, 2020), pp. 142. What does it mean to have a brief body, to wonder when one will truly feel here, now? How much...
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Breath Like the Wind at Dawn: A Review
by MATTHEW POTTS credit: Sagging Meniscus Press Devin Jacobsen, Breath Like the Wind at Dawn (Sagging Meniscus Press, 2020), pp. 208. Scary stories are probably about as ancient to human culture as...
View ArticleSkin Like You
by Sarah Walker It is the first time I have been home in seven years. I watch the windows, fixed on the blobs of light inside. I wait for the house to turn completely dark and when it does, I climb the...
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Waterbaby: A Review
by MINDY BUCHANAN-KING Nikki Wallschlaeger, Waterbaby (Copper Canyon Press, 2021). Credit: Copper Canyon Press Reading Nikki Wallschlaeger’s third collection of writing is an immersive experience....
View ArticleBad
by Mathew Goldberg Saturday, we attended Safety Day at Davy Crockett High School where Levi got to sit in a fire engine, helicopter, and police car. In early October, summer assaulted Austin a second...
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Jesse DeLong’s Poetic Chemical Reaction: A Review of The Amateur Scientist’s...
by DEREK WITTEN Jesse DeLong, The Amateur Scientist’s Notebook (Baobab Press, 2021). Credit: Baobab Press Anyone who has vaguely intuited an unknown poetic language behind terms like electroweak,...
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The Fugitivities: A Review
by SHANA SCUDDER Jesse McCarthy, The Fugitivities (Melville House, 2021). Credit: Melville House Jesse McCarthy’s debut novel The Fugitivities asks the weighty and perhaps unanswerable question: what...
View ArticleAn Assembly
by Chelsie Bryant Grandma Owens didn’t often invoke the Lord’s name in vain, but when the news hit that another child had been murdered, she let loose a quiet “Lordy.” It was nearly silent, the...
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Night Rooms: A Review
by DONAL MACADAM Credit: Two Dollar Radio Gina Nutt, Night Rooms (Two Dollar Radio, 2021). Gina Nutt writes that horror in film is “a reaction, recognition, a response to a call.” Nutt is the author...
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