Survival Tactics: open pit by Jose Antonio Villarán
open pit by Jose Antonio Villarán (Counterpath Press, 2022). What is this? A play? A poem? A polemic? Yes. Jose Antonio Villarán’s open pit: a story about morococha…
Living Out of Time: Flux by Jinwoo Chong
Flux by Jinwoo Chong (Melville House, 2023). Since moving to the Bay Area in 2018, I have felt unmoored in time. “A few days ago,” I might begin…
Kaleidoscope of the Uncanny: Dereliction by Gabrielle Octavia Rucker
Dereliction by Gabrielle Octavia Rucker (The Song Cave, 2023). a couple other versions of me sharing cognac, shooting dark brown out crystalline pteropods. Gabrielle Octavia Rucker’s Dereliction is…
Roar and Prayer: American Elegies: The World That the Shooter Left Us by Cyrus Cassells and Headless John the Baptist Hitchhiking by C.T. Salazar
Two recent collections from queer poets of color put into stark relief the challenges and cruelties of contemporary America. Both collections are elegiac, though in formally different ways. Cyrus…
When the Museum Is a Mirror: Tenderness by Derrick Austin
Tenderness by Derrick Austin (BOA Editions, 2021). A funny thing about reviewing a book that’s been out for a while is whether and to what extent to consider…
The Natural Plot of Existence: The Red Zone: A Love Story by Chloe Caldwell
The Red Zone: A Love Story by Chloe Caldwell (Soft Skull Press, 2022). When Chloe Caldwell entered her thirties, she was already known for writing three books chronicling…
Telling the Right Story: Survivor’s Guilt: Essays on Race and American Identity by Artress Bethany White
Survivor’s Guilt: Essays on Race and American Identity by Artress Bethany White (New Rivers Press, 2022). Early in Survivor’s Guilt: Essays on Race and American Identity, Artress Bethany…
Translating the Language of Terror: By the Bridge or By the River? by Amy C. Roma
By the Bridge or By the River? by Amy C. Roma (C&R Press, 2021). “Refugees didn’t just escape a place. They had to escape a thousand memories until…
Rally Your Humor and Your Rage: Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby
Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby (Penguin Books, 2022). When I was in high school, my friends and I plotted revenge. Some strange guy had groped one…
Nirvana, an End to Suffering: Dear Damage: Essays by Ashley Marie Farmer
Dear Damage: Essays by Ashley Marie Farmer (Sarabande Books, 2022). Twenty-eight years ago this April, the musician Kurt Cobain jumped the fence at a Los Angeles recovery center,…
What’s in a Name? Lost Letters and Other Animals by Carrie Bennett; Besiege Me by Nicholas Wong; Returning the Sword to the Stone by Mark Leidner
Lost Letters and Other Animals by Carrie Bennett (Black Lawrence Press, 2021); Besiege Me by Nicholas Wong (Noemi Press, 2021); Returning the Sword to the Stone by Mark Leidner…
Father’s Keeper: Imagine Us, The Swarm by Muriel Leung
Muriel Leung, Imagine Us, The Swarm (Nightboat Books, 2021). When bees swarm, it is as a function of reproduction. The hive has become too crowded, so the workers…