The Day Mark Nolan Gets Shot
by John Baum I’m in line to buy my wife a dress when this guy comes in. It’s raining out, but he’s wearing large black sunglasses, and he doesn’t take them off as he walks around the store. This...
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Sugar Run: A Review
by BRENDAN CHAMBERS credit: Algonquin Books Mesha Maren, Sugar Run (Algonquin Books, 2019), pp. 320. Sugar Run is a book about time, how it plunges forward, divides, and folds back on itself. Between...
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Homie: A Review
by TAYLOR ROBERTS credit: Graywolf Press Danez Smith, Homie (Graywolf Press, 2020), pp. 104. I remember getting a copy of Danez Smith’s 2017 Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems (Graywolf Press) from the Raleigh,...
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Glory and Its Litany of Horrors: A Review
by ANVITA BUDHRAJA credit: Restless Books Fernanda Torres; trans. Eric M.B. Becker, Glory and Its Litany of Horror (Restless Books, 2019), pp. 240. This review was originally published in the Fall 2020...
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“We are shards of others”: A Review of My Autobiography of Carson McCullers
by ROSE HIMBER HOWSE credit: Tin House Books Jenn Shapland, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers (Tin House, 2020), pp. 288. This review was originally published in the Fall 2020 print issue of...
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Space Struck: A Review
by DEBORAH BACHARACH credit: Sarabande Books Paige Lewis, Space Struck (Sarabande, 2019), pp. 78 This review was originally published in the Fall 2020 print issue of Carolina Quarterly. Paige Lewis’...
View ArticleTreehouse Ghost
by Seth D. Slater Everyone was safe in the treehouse: sheltered from eye-patched pirates woodpeg limping with a loudmouthed parrot on the shoulder, blackspots buried in trousers, curses pocketed for...
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Minutes of Glory: A Review
by JOSHUA TAIT credit: The New Press Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Minutes of Glory And Other Stories (The New Press, 2019), pp. 208 Minutes of Glory bookends over fifty years of writing by the acclaimed Kenyan...
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Quirk that Works: A Review of Winter Honeymoon
by GILLIAN PERRY credit: Black Lawrence Press Jacob M. Appel, Winter Honeymoon (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), pp. 171. Having pursued higher education for nearly a decade, Appel has mastered how to...
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“Flesh to Flame / Hand in Hand”: A Review of Archangel & The Overlooked
by PROSPER ALBRIGHT credit: Spuyten Duyvil Lindsey Warren, Archangel & The Overlooked (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020), pp. 45. Like John Keats, Lindsey Warren knows that the task of the poet is to construct...
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A Visit to An Orphanage of Dreams: A Review
by E. JONES credit: Coffee House Press Sam Savage, An Orphanage of Dreams (Coffee House Press, 2019), pp. 160. This review was originally published in the Winter 2021 print issue of Carolina...
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Fossils in the Making: A Review
by TEGAN DALY credit: Black Ocean Press Kristen George Bagdanov, Fossils in the Making (Black Ocean Press, 2019), pp. 112. This review was originally published in the Winter 2021 print issue of...
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“Please Raise Your Hand, as Spots Are Limited”: Ambition and Terror in...
by ROSE LAMBERT-SLUDER credit: Autumn House Press Michael X. Wang, Further News of Defeat (Autumn House Press, 2020), pp. 192. This review was originally published in the Winter 2021 print issue of...
View ArticleThe Happiest Place on Earth
by Natalie Tsay The castle was so much smaller than I remembered. My pulse quickened as we approached the front gates and joined the impossibly long line leading to them. I had already waited months...
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Lanny: A Review
by ELISA FAISON credit: Graywolf Press Max Porter, Lanny (Graywolf, 2019), pp. 224. In the opening lines of Lanny, Dead Papa Toothwort, the enigmatic, leafy-green shape-shifter from the novel’s local...
View ArticlePrince Arthur Street
by Alice Shechter We heard a soft knock on the door. Kathy jumped to open it; she often took charge, the de facto Wendy to all of our lost boys, or rather, lost people, at the commune. Susanne stood in...
View ArticleHurled Things
by Kara Moskowitz “Ow!” Evie sits on a chair in the breakfast room facing into the window, hands pressed down on her thighs, leaning forward expectantly. “Hold still then!” Tanya stands behind her,...
View ArticleFencing
by Marisa Clogher My husband touches my belly in the mornings, and I pity him. He stretches his hand as wide as it goes and places it on my stomach, as if to say, This is a sacred thing; I will help...
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“The way I read any beloved—”: A Review of Postcolonial Love Poem
by JESSICA CORY credit: Graywolf Press Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Poem (Graywolf Press, 2020). pp. 120 pages. “My brother has a knife in his hand. / He has decided to stab my father,” read the...
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Funeral Diva: A Review
by DEBORAH BACHARACH credit: City Lights Books Pamela Sneed, Funeral Diva (City Lights Books, 2020), p. 148. Pamela Sneed is a Black lesbian scholar, activist, poet, historian, and professor, and she...
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