Reviews
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Shifting Histories: Belladonna by Daša Drndić
The past may be riddled with holes, but it cannot be dispensed with as easily as possessions.
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The Dangers of the Earth’s Extremes: Jessica Goodfellow’s Whiteout
The poems in Whiteout pull together an array of topics and well-developed craft, making it a complex book emotionally, thematically, and technically.
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A Zombie Existence: Fleur Jaeggy’s I Am the Brother of XX
Unlike clothing, which can disguise the state of the soul, a person’s eyes reveal the truth.
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Stitching America Back Together: A Long Late Pledge by Wendy Willis
It is late for our country. We must look back in dialogue with the founders, examine a patched-together country, an embattled flag, and consider how to stop floundering.
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The Strain of Reality: Reset by Ellen Pao
A woman is simultaneously too many things and not enough at all, forcing her vibrancy to smudge into an opaque blur.
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Both Outsider and Participant: Thousand Star Hotel by Bao Phi
In Thousand Star Hotel, the bilingual writer’s struggle with expressing himself in English becomes a metaphor for the immigrant’s struggle with navigating the host nation’s hostile-yet-lucrative social terrain.
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The Universal Tether of Identity: Caca Dolce by Chelsea Martin
At its core, the collection is recollected through a loose chronology of memoir essays, all of which will appeal to readers’ younger selves: who were we when we were teenagers and who are we now?
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Playing with Genre: Beth Ann Fennelly’s Heating & Cooling
Whether you read it as poetry or memoir, this collection will invite you into the delicate balance between the challenging, sometimes squalid, human condition and the beauty and sadness of the transcendent.
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Mothers and Marginalization: Cherise Wolas’s The Resurrection of Joan Ashby
Writing, art, and creation are elevated and pure, the book seems to say, spiritual acts separated from the dross of everyday life.
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A Deeply Human Act: Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
What is so extraordinary about this collection is its lyricism, its humanity, and its urgency.
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An Investigation into Fate and Freedom: Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
Everyone, no matter how strong or independent, is subject to forces like war, or time, or the claims of family.
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Reclamation and Redemption: Villain Songs by Tammy Robacker
Robacker’s language, steeped in religion and myth, creates an avenue for her own salvation while invoking a timelessness that gives voice to all whose song has been suppressed.