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Tiny Bodies in Riot: A Review of mai c. doan’s Water / Tongue
by JESSICA Q. STARK credit: Omnidawn mai c. doan, Water / Tongue (Omnidawn, 2019), pp. 80 This review originally appeared in the Winter 2020 print issue of Carolina Quarterly. Lifetimes ago, mai c....
View ArticleAggravated Tendencies
by Becky Tuch The first phone call came on a Wednesday evening. The guidance counselor at Michael’s school. Disturbed, he said he was, by some of Michael’s recent in-school behavior. He referred to...
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The Tradition: A Review
by DEBORAH BACHARACH credit: Copper Canyon Press Jericho Brown, The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press, 2019), pp. 77 This review originally appeared in the Spring 2020 print issue of Carolina Quarterly....
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Plot Points: A Review of Masande Ntshanga’s Triangulum
by KEVIN GALLIN credit: Two Dollar Radio Masande Ntshanga, Triangulum (Two Dollar Radio, 2019), pp. 367 This review originally appeared in the Spring 2020 print issue of Carolina Quarterly. There’s an...
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Tell Our Story: A Review of The Tiny Journalist
by DEBORAH BACHARACH credit: BOA Editions Naomi Shihab Nye, The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions, 2019), pp. 114 Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet who has broken into the mainstream. Her poems of empathy like...
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“she increases the object’s human dignity”: A Review of Savage Pageant
by JESSICA COVIL credit: Birds LLC Jessica Q. Stark, Savage Pageant (Birds LLC, 2020), pp. 116. This review originally appeared in the Summer 2020 print issue of Carolina Quarterly. In its “Explanatory...
View ArticleNo Relation
by Jeff Bond It’s interesting to Dorothy that she saw Bill’s wife get killed. She was at a dress store, Stephanie’s, looking for something to wear to a friend’s wedding, still a few weeks off, but she...
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Sun Cycle: A Review
by BAILEY FERNANDEZ credit: CSU Poetry Center Anne Lesley Selcer, Sun Cycle (CSU Poetry, 2019), pp. 90. This review originally appeared in the Summer 2020 print issue of Carolina Quarterly. Anne...
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“Realer than Real”: A Review of Juliet the Maniac
by MALLORY FINDLAY credit: Melville House Juliet Escoria, Juliet the Maniac (Melville House, 2019), pp. 336. Autofiction seemed to have a bit of a moment in 2018 and 2019. Book critics scrambled to...
View ArticleIn the Republic of Venice
by Amar Benchikha I am sixteen, Leonora seventeen, both of us unmarried. And because we live with our respective families, we meet regularly in an abandoned little shack to share intimate moments....
View ArticleAunt Eva
by Terri Fabel Gwendolyn turned sideways in front of the mirror and checked her stomach. Flat. Good. She slipped her feet into the open-toed sandals that stood in the middle of the room and turned...
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Troubled Romances and Postcolonial Legacies in Yara Rodrigues Fowler’s...
by GEOVANI RAMÍREZ credit: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Yara Rodrigues Fowler, Stubborn Archivist (Mariner, 2019), pp. 400. Yara Rodrigues Fowler’s Stubborn Archivist concludes with the unnamed...
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Skin Memory: A Review
by NIKKI ROULO credit: The Backwaters Press John Sibley Williams, Skin Memory (The Backwaters Press, 2019), 79. Recently, neuroscientists confirmed what poets already knew—haptic memory and touch...
View ArticleUnplotted
by SUSAN COMNINOS after William Wordsworth’s “Nuns Fret Not” Within the sonnet’s scanty plot of ground someone sings off-tune. Someone’s plotted novel flips off-road. Someone’s plot to leave a...
View ArticleHow to Discipline Your Ornamental Hermit
by BENJAMIN PAGE Each morning, provided the weather is right, I take my coffee onto the terrace to survey the West Lawn. I glance at the pond by the eastern redbud trees, the ivy growing along the...
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The Last Mastodon: A Review
by CHRIS HUEBNER credit: Rattle Christina Olson, The Last Mastodon (Rattle, 2019), pp. 36. Georgia-based poet Christina Olson’s The Last Mastodon is a thought-provoking joy, due to both the thematic...
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A Girl Goes into the Forest: A Review
by KAYLA FORREST credit: Dzanc Books Peg Alford Pursell, A Girl Goes into the Forest (Dzanc Books, 2019), pp. 226. “We tell ourselves stories in order to live…We live entirely, especially if we are...
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SPEECH: A Review
by HUNTER AUGERI credit: Nightboat Books Jill Magi, SPEECH (Nightboat Books, 2019), pp. 180. Reading Jill Magi’s newest poetry collection SPEECH is like going for a walk inside someone else’s dream;...
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The Year of the Femme: A Review
by KRISTINA BOWERS and DONALD FERGUSON credit: University of Iowa Press Cassie Donish, The Year of the Femme (University of Iowa Press, 2019), pp. 92. “What would it mean for the subject to desire...
View ArticleString Sisters
by JULIE WAKEMAN-LINN The last day of September, Sasha rushed into their flat. “Olga, I’ve got us an offer.” Olga sat wrapped in her old quilt with her back to the window. At least today she had folded...
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