William Corbett, John Tranter, John Cale, Pier Paolo Pasolini and more...

INTERVIEWS

The Romance of Life and Art: An Interview with William Corbett
Interviewed by Thomas Devaney
The multi-talented poet, art critic, and publisher talks about the challenges of editing James Schuyler's letters, looking at art, and his own poetry.

A Bit of New York in Australia: An Interview with John Tranter
Interviewed by Leonard Schwartz
Australian poet John Tranter discusses his connection with the New York School of poets, forged over a distance of 6,000 miles.

FEATURES

John Cale in Words and Music
Essay by Steven Lee Beeber
A new biography and album face off to tell the true story of The Velvet Underground's avant-garde genius.

Postcard from Viterbo: Pasolini's Tower
Essay by Linda Lappin
A ruined tower served as a refuge for the writer Pier Paolo Pasolini in the years before his death.

REVIEWS: NONFICTION

Campo Santo
W. G. Sebald
Truth was an overarching issue for the late Sebald, though his attempts to arrive at it were never what one might call conclusive. Reviewed by Eric J. Iannelli

Under Albany
Ron Silliman
In a multi-layered text that resists genre labeling, Silliman excavates the personal circumstances that underlie an early poetic work. Reviewed by Mark Tursi

Invisible Cities: A Metaphorical Complex Adaptive System
Chloé E. Atreya
The bridges between Complex Adaptive Systems and Italo Calvino's intriguing, imaginal travelogue are described here in ways the analytically challenged among us can understand. Reviewed by Jay Beldo

Einstein Defiant: Genius versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution
Edmund Blair Bolles
This accessible scientific biography explores the great physicist's refusal to accept the implications of quantum mechanics, a theory he himself helped create. Reviewed by James Ervin

REVIEWS: FICTION

Europe Central
& Expelled from Eden
William T. Vollmann
Two new works by the prolific Vollmann are considered and confronted by an advocate in a Vollmannesque frame of mind. Considered by Justin Taylor

Gilead
Marilynne Robinson
Gilead is very much a Midwestern book, evoking a regional temperament that Easterners, urbanites, and agnostics might see in others but never feel first-hand. Reviewed by Ted Pelton

Superfolks
Robert Mayer
This thirty-year old novel arguably anticipated the whole revisionist superhero trend, but more importantly succeeds as a work of fiction. Reviewed by Rudi Dornemann

The Phryne Fisher Mysteries
Kerry Greenwood
Australian author Kerry Greenwood's delicate, determined, and devilishly clever flapper sleuth is finding new fans across the globe. Reviewed by Kris Lawson

REVIEWS: POETRY

Discrete Categories Forced Into Coupling
Kathleen Fraser
Throughout this carefully structured volume, Fraser brings disparate modes of form and emotion into a unified intelligence wherein opposites collide. Reviewed by Laynie Browne

Almost Paradise: New and Selected Poems and Translations
Sam Hamill
Hamill possesses the tender voice of a compassionate soul, and the vivid imagery that he presents reveals a refreshing generosity of spirit. Reviewed by Christopher Luna

The Lichtenberg Figures
Ben Lerner
Aptly named after the branching patterns that sometimes form after lightning strikes, Lerner's first book of poems crackles with paradoxically intelligent and illogical connotations. Reviewed by Cindra Halm

Oxo
Pierre Alferi
French poet Alferi deftly explores a rigid form, "a grunge idea...almost as good as compacting the trash," that allows for wild comparisons and abrupt shifts of focus. Reviewed by Jefferson Hansen

Puerta del Sol
Francisco Aragón
This collection gives an intimate look at life in contemporary Spain, as well as a convincing depiction of one person's attempts to navigate loss and violence. Reviewed by Alexandra van de Kamp

REVIEWS: GRAPHIC NOVELS

Gemma Bovery
Posy Simmonds
In Gemma Bovery, British author Posy Simmonds offers not only a contemporary send-up of an age-old theme, but a fresh take on the graphic novel as well. Reviewed by Eric Lorberer

Mister O
Lewis Trondheim
Tragic? Comic? Tragicomic? You feel for him, Mister O, even though he's a psycho. Reviewed by Karen Donovan