Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance by Fady Joudah (Milkweed Editions, 2018). House of Fact, House of Ruin by Tom Sleigh (Graywolf Press, 2018). Fady Joudah is the Palestinian-American translator of two of the poet Mahmoud Darwish’s books … Read More
Extravagant Rescues: Poems by Brett Foster (Northwestern University Press, 2019). First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, Brett Foster was my classmate in the Graduate Creative Writing program at Boston University. In 2015, Brett died from … Read More
Asylum: Improvisations on John Clare by Lola Haskins (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019). The word asylum, the title of Lola Haskins’ capacious, questing new book of poems, pivots on a curious and seemingly contradictory double meaning. Merriam-Webster defines an … Read More
Not Dead Yet and Other Stories by Hadley Moore (Autumn House Press, 2019). When my husband and I are back in his hometown, we make a daily visit to New Bethany, the senior living home where his grandmother … Read More
Today his world was not serene, because just before lunch, Menser lost his cuff key. A pleasing day would be O’Brien working on Max with enough Bubble time to end each shift, driving straight to the gym while sipping … Read More
Pinning As a child I was terrified of bugs, so I made illustrated catalogs of them. Encounters with real insects meant tears and fits, yet I forced myself to confront them on paper. Drawing as ritual: I would lay … Read More
Who’s to say what prompted this. Who’s to say if this display of bodily might, this performance of scorned womanhood, is justified, justifying some wrongdoing, some emotion repressed. The skin of his cheek is still red and supple through … Read More
Maidencane isn’t half as elegant as it sounds. Not even close. When I came across the plant’s name in a copy of Gulf Coast Flora I had checked out from the library—the first to do so since 1976—I had … Read More
Winner Christina Leo, “The Blue Bull” Second Place Michael Howerton, “Hopewell” Finalists Catalina Bode, “A Bedroom in the Kitchen” Shubha Venugopal, “Belonging” Steven Fromm, “Po-Ya 6” Ethan Feuer, “Quartering winds” Joyce Li, “The Boxer” Holly Menino, “The Boy’s Horse” Craig … Read More