Standing on the platform in Albury, thinking about dead carnations and chipped porcelain, thinking about gelid lakes and the ten years between us, diametrical distance, my mother lamenting her…
Light dissolves on the outskirts of town where the trees are mostly their arms, devoid of reason in a strange dream. What hides in itself in the desert? I…
the neighbors build on the brink of forest, in a few months, the house could be done or gone. watch from the field as they pour foundation concrete, then…
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…
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 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…
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…