Our Lady of Perpetual Movement: Analicia Sotelo’s Virgin
These speaker(s) don’t need to offer us explanation.
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A Megaphone for a Generation: Coming of Age at the End of Nature
[T]his generation is no longer sure that the future will be better than the past.
Blending Out: Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Despite its title, Oceanic is much more than a love letter to the ocean.
Struggling toward Truth: Porochista Khakpour’s Sick
Khakpour gathers courage, again and again, as she reaches into the most painful parts of her life, excavates them, and holds them up to the light.
Taking Control and Staking a Claim: Erin Adair-Hodges’s Let’s All Die Happy
This is lovely writing, alive, thoroughly thought, and thoroughly felt.
Worth the Chuckles and Tears: Calypso by David Sedaris
Part of the magic of David Sedaris’s work stems from the simple truth that you really can’t laugh heartily until you’re hurting deeply.
Three Collections in Two Volumes by August Kleinzahler
Be stunned by Kleinzahler's poetry in the far ports of your body.
Lessons from a Life: Alexander Chee’s How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
[T]he effect of reading Chee’s essays is to be reminded of why we write, but also, why we read, even in these times of never-ending distress.
Learning to Grow Where Planted: Maggie Smith’s Good Bones
Part of looking closer is seeing what is hard to face, and part of having courage is addressing what seems futile.
Mothering Our Children and Ourselves: Molly Caro May’s Body Full of Stars
As May moves through what she now calls her “postpartum challenge,” she does not return to her old self, but instead becomes someone new.
A Book with Wings: Bird Book by Sidney Wade
There is an acceptance of the strangeness of things in these poems, even a generosity big enough to invite the oracle in for dinner.
They’re No Soldiers: Ryan McIlvain’s The Radicals
The Radicals is the coming-of-age novel at its darkest: all the lessons are learned too late, if at all.