Saturday, June 27, 2026 • 10am to 6pm • $5 entry Minnesota State Fairgrounds, The North End Event Center
Rain Taxi is pleased to participate this year's Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair! We’ll have all our chapbooks, broadsides, and other ephemera for sale at special prices, plus an assortment of cool used books, comics, and more. Come by and browse our tables and scores of others for whom printed matter… matters! Visit The Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair for more details.
Join us for a deep dive into 21st-century documentary poetry!
25 years ago, we hosted poet Mark Nowak in our reading series for his stunning first book Revenants. Join us as we welcome Nowak to the Rain Taxi stage again for his latest work, . . . AGAIN. Combining poetry and photographs, wordplay and sober documentation, . . . AGAIN looks at the depredations of capitalism and other societal ills in an attempt to make sense of a bitterly divided nation. At this special event, Nowak will read from . . . AGAIN, and then discuss the book in conversation with Rain Taxi editor Eric Lorberer.
About the Author:
Mark Nowak is one of America’s most innovative political poets. Heralded by Adrienne Rich for “regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature,” his books include Revenants, Shut Up Shut Down, Coal Mountain Elementary, Social Poetics, and . . . AGAIN, all published by Coffee House Press. The recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim, Lannan, and Creative Capital foundations, Nowak is founding director of the Worker Writers School, a sought-after speaker on documentary poetry, and author of the introduction to Celes Tisdale’s When the Smoke Cleared: Attica Prison Poems and Journal (Duke University Press, 2022). (author photo by Lisa Arrastia)
Jamie (Schumacher) Kalakaru-Mava is a visual artist and accomplished writer. Her written work has been featured by Pollen, the Star Tribune, and the Minnesota Women’s Press. Her book It’s Never Going to Work was released in 2018 and details the ups and downs of starting an arts nonprofit. (Spoiler: it did work, at least for a little while.)
Jamie received a master's degree in innovation in nonprofit management. She currently works with LISC Twin Cities, building the capacity of the more than two dozen cultural and creative districts of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Jamie currently lives in Bloomington with her partner, Nick, their two daughters, a rescue pup named Rufus, a still unnamed betta fish, and four chickens. While she is available for hire, she would also like to warn you that she dabbles in the dark arts with only limited success. Find out more at jamie-schumacher.com.
March 5 - 7, 2026 Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland
Visit us at Table T649 in the AWP Bookfair!
As usual, Rain Taxi will be taking part in the annual AWP Conference & Bookfair, which this year takes place in Baltimore. Stop by our table to say hi, and see how we're celebrating 30 years of Rain Taxiwith great deals on chapbooks and more. Plus become a member or renew your membership and receive a special gift!
Book Reviews & Literary Community: Why Criticism Continues to Matter
Room 301, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center 9:00 am to 10:15 am Session code: T106
Rain Taxi editor Eric Lorberer will take part in a panel about book reviews. Fellow presenters include Alyse Bensel, Robin Becker, Elise McHugh, and Kathleen Rooney. Click here to learn more.
Rain Taxi Review of Books hosted a conversation with poet Mark Nowak at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis. Nowak read from his fifth book, titled . . . AGAIN, just published by Coffee House Press. Then, in conversation with Rain Taxi editor Eric Lorberer, Nowak discussed the inspiration behind the abecedarian poems, including political events over the course of the last ten years.
Twin Cities Independent Bookstore Day
Wednesday, April 22 through Sunday, April 26, 2026
Rain Taxi's annual Twin Cities Independent Bookstore Passport had its biggest year yet, with over 4,000 booklovers traveling to 38 participating stores! Readers used our free pocket-sized Passport to collect stamps; 287 people reached our challenge thresholds and entered to win more prizes than ever before. For a full recap and list of winners, visit our Passport web page here.
Rain Taxi at AWP Baltimore
Thursday, March 5 through Saturday, March 7
Rain Taxi attended the 2026 AWP Conference held in Baltimore, MD. Rain Taxi editor Eric Lorberer participated in in a panel about book reviews and literary community with Alyse Bensel, Robin Becker, Elise McHugh, and Kathleen Rooney.
Translating the World: Ed Bok Lee, Robert Hedin, and Kaija Straumanis
Tuesday, February 10, 2026, Magers & Quinn Booksellers; co-sponsored by Rain Taxi
Photo by Kelly Everding; pictured from left to right are Ed Bok Lee, Robert Hedin, Eric Lorberer, and Kaija Straumanis
Amidst continued winter chills and challenges in the Twin Cities, a standing-room only crowd gathered at Magers & Quinn Booksellers for an evening of literary translation, with three acclaimed translators presenting recently published works: Ed Bok Lee (Hail, Che! by Korean poet Pak Jeong-dae); Robert Hedin (The Mountains of Kong by Norwegian poet Dag T. Straumsvag); and Kaija Straumanis (The River by Latvian novelist Laura Vinogradova). The evening was moderated by Rain Taxi Review of Books editor Eric Lorberer, and began with a poem read by Ayub Iman, an undergraduate at Metro State University.
Join us for an evening focused on great literary translation, co-presented with Magers & Quinn Booksellers! Three Minnesota translators with new releases from Korean, Norwegian, and Latvian will read from and discuss their work, moderated by Rain Taxi editor Eric Lorberer.
About the Translators
Ed Bok Lee began writing poetry while in kindergarten in Seoul, South Korea; since then he has published three acclaimed books of poetry. His poems have been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese, and his honors include an American Book Award, an Asian American Literary Award, a Minnesota Book Award, and a PEN/Open Book Award. As a translator, Lee received the Modern Korean Literature Translation Grand Prize in Poetry; his translations have ranged from the prose of science fiction writer Anatoli Kim (Kazakstan/Russia) to Smiling in an Old Photograph: Poems by Kim Ki-taek and Hail, Che! by Pak Jeong-dae (South Korea). Lee teaches at Metro State University.
Robert Hedin is the author, translator, and editor of more than two dozen books of poetry. The recipient of many honors and awards for his work, he has taught at the University of Alaska, the University of Minnesota, St. Olaf College, and Wake Forest University. He is co-founder and former director of the Anderson Center at Tower View, a residential artist retreat in Red Wing, Minnesota.
KaijaStraumanis is an award-winning translator from the Latvian, and is the Editorial Director of Coffee House Press. Her translations include works by such authors as Inga Ābele, Jānis Joņevs, and Gundega Repše, among others. She received a 2020 NEA Literature Translation Fellowship for her work on Forest Daughters edited by Sanita Reinsone. Her most recent translation, The Riverby Laura Vinogradova, was longlisted for the 2026 PEN Translation Prize.
To purchase issue #120 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
INTERVIEWS
Patrick Lawler: Swallowed by a Hyperobject | Interviewed by John Bradley Andrew Grace: If only, heaven notwithstanding, there was an Ohio Ohio enough | Interviewed by Tiffany Troy
FEATURES
Letter from the Editor | by Eric Lorberer More than a Magazine: Rain Taxi Highlights Trauma and Its Possessions | by Jehanne Dubrow Fifty Years On: Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory | by Mike Dillon Habits of Mind: A Short Essay on the Work of Tim Nolan | by Bubba Henson The New Life | a comic by Gary Sullivan
PLUS: Cover art by Kelly Everding
FICTION REVIEWS
Mr. Breakfast | Jonathan Carroll | by James Sallis Happiness and Love | Zoe Dubno | by Drew Basile The Remembered Soldier | Anjet Daanje | by Alice-Catherine Carls We Are Green and Trembling | Gabriela Cabezón Cámara | by Mary Luna Blue Futures, Break Open | Zoë Gadegbeku | by Lindsey Drager Iris and the Dead | Miranda Schreiber | by Michelle Melles Songs of No Provenance | Lydi Conklin | by Lauren Bo
NONFICTION REVIEWS
Meditations: The Assorted Prose of Barbara Guest | Barbara Guest | by Patrick James Dunagan Unsavory Thoughts | Thomas Walton | by Greg Bem Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal | Mohammed El-Kurd | by Andrew Benzinger Replace the State: How to Change the World When Elections and Protests Fail | Sasha Davis | by Douglas C. MacLeod, Jr. Even Strange Ghosts Can Be Shared: The Collected Letters of Jack Spicer | Jack Spicer | by Patrick James Dunagan
POETRY REVIEWS
Portable City | Karen Kovacik | by Jessica Reed Firespitter: The Collected Poems of Jayne Cortez | Jayne Cortez | by Walter Holland No Known Coordinates | Maria Terrone | by Dawn Leas Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth | Maggie Nelson | by Christian Teresi After the Operation | Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. | by Jay Butler The Complete Poems | Wendy Barker | by Zachary T. Sokoloski Apostle of Desire | Bruce Weigl | by Walter Holland Requiem and Other Poems | Aharon Shabtai | by John Bradley Towards a Retreat | Samaa Abdurraqib | by Mike Bove
COMICS REVIEW
10,000 Ink Stains: A Memoir | Jeff Lemire | by David Beard
To purchase issue #120 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
To purchase issue #119 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
INTERVIEWS
Marcia Butler: Woolfian Voyager | Interviewed by E. J. Levy Esteban Rodríguez: No Choice But To Believe | Interviewed by Tiffany Troy
FEATURES
The New Life | a comic by Gary Sullivan René Char: Resistant | by Mike Dillon From the Backlist: Wanda Coleman | Heart First Into This Ruin: The Complete American Sonnets | by Walter Holland
Pink Slime | Fernanda Trias | by James Sallis Nadja | André Breton | by Daniel Barbiero Voices of the Fallen Heroes | Yukio Mishima | by Ruby Sonnek The Imagined Life | Andrew Porter | by Jonathan Fletcher The Harmattan Winds | Sylvain Trudel | by Alice-Catherine Carls The Café With No Name | Robert Seethaler | by Lisa Seidenberg The Height of Land | M. C. Benner Dixon | by Mike Piero Man Picks Flower | Roger King | by E. J. Iannelli The City Changes Its Face | Eimear McBride | by Vera Tomasi Lonesome Ballroom | Madeline McDonnell | by McKenzie Watson-Fore
NONFICTION
Black Surrealist: The Legend of Ted Joans | Steven Belletto | by Patrick James Dunagan Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers | Caroline Fraser | by Chris Barsanti The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a Nation | Charlotte Beradt | by W. C. Bamberger The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light | Craig Childs | by Emily Wortman-Wunder An Island To Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life | Michael N. McGregor | by Joanne B. Mulcahy Home Club: Up-and-Comers and Comebacks at Acme Comedy Company | Patrick Strait | by Joshua Preston
POETRY
Concerning the Angels | Rafael Alberti | by John Bradley Paper Crown | Heather Christle | by Dobby Gibson Beef Cherries | Misha Crafts | by Valentine Freeman Late to the Search Party | Steven Espada Dawson | by Nic Cavell My Love Is Water | Rob Macaisa Colgate | by Robert Eric Shoemaker Jalousie | Allyson Paty | by Ralph Pennel No Swaddle | Mackenzie Kozak | by Barbara Roether The Glass Clouding | Masaoka Shiki | by Judy Halebsky Long Island Triptych and Selected Poems | Lindley Williams Hubbell | by Dennis Barone
COMICS
Charlotte Brontë before Jane Eyre | Glynnis Fawkes Persephone’s Garden | Glynnis Fawkes 1177 B.C.: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed | Eric H. Cline and Glynnis Fawkes | by Andrew Cleary
To purchase issue #119 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
Non-Zero-Sum Untitled No. 125 Oil on Paper, 30 x 22 Inches
Visual artist Jeffrey Hansen has lived and worked in the art community of Lowertown, St. Paul since 1994. In 1991 while attending the College of Visual Arts he opened his own workshop and studio in the downtown area of White Bear Lake. Following three decades of experimentation, evolving practices, and a re-discovery of circular motifs, today he is concentrating on his own concepts and minimalist techniques of abstract expressionism in non-subjective symbolism and geometric form. Jeff’s renewed take on various artistic methods and disciplines is creating a body of work that conveys a new vision of artistic interpretation and iconographic value.
His 'Non-Zero-Sum' series of circular patterns has been exhibited in New York, Denver, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Florida, and in many local MN exhibits including at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Phipps Galleries, Gamut Gallery, Hallberg Center for the Arts, Eagan Art House, Northfield Arts Guild, Art Reach St. Croix, Sower Gallery, Paradise Center for the Arts, Beckmann Gallery, and many others. Visit him at jhansenartist.com.
To purchase issue #118 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
INTERVIEWS
Lauren Markham: Language and Catastrophe | interviewed by Elizabeth Brogden Zack Kopp: The Future Is Unwritten | interviewed by Michele McDannold Mai Der Vang: Light as Kin | interviewed by Tiffany Troy
FEATURES
The New Life | comic by Gary Sullivan Peter Gizzi: An Appreciation | by Dennis Barone
Love, Joe: The Selected Letters of Joe Brainard | Joe Brainard / Daniel Kane, Ed. | by W. C. Bamberger Hypochondria | Will Rees | by Brittany Micka-Foos Malcolm Before X | Patrick Parr | by Paul Buhle Queer Cambridge: An Alternative History | Simon Goldhill | by Walter Holland Writing Home: Selected World War II Letters of Leslie A. Fiedler | Leslie A. Fiedler / Samuele F. S. Pardini, Ed. | by Steven G. Kellman Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia | Mike Pepi | by Douglas C. MacLeod, Jr. Sad Planets | Dominic Pettman and Eugene Thacker | by Zoe Berkovitz The Fourth Mind | Whitley Strieber | by Zack Kopp
FICTION
Dispatches from the District Committee | Vladimir Sorokin | by Eric Vanderwall Name | Constance Debré | by Bella Moses Tidal Lock | Lindsay Hill | by Carolyn Kuebler Paradise Logic | Sophie Kemp | by Max Callimanopulos Shit Show | Arthur Nersesian | by Zack Kopp Twilight of the Gods | Kurt Baumeister | by Jesi Bender Answer Only | John Michael Flynn | by Ben Sloan
POETRY / MIXED GENRE
The Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry | Blake Hobby, Alessandro Porco, Joseph Bathanti, Eds. | by Patrick James Dunagan Forest of Noise | Mosab Abu Toha | by John Bradley Brutal Companion | Ruben Quesada | by Walter Holland The Coronation of the Ghost | Benjamin Gantcher | by J-T Kelly Book of Potions | Lauren K. Watel | by Robert Eric Shoemaker The Widow’s Crayon Box | Molly Peacock | by Alex Gurtis No Small Thing | Gabriel Fried | by Greg Bem Today’s Specials | Sara Ries Dziekonski | by Elizabeth Sylvia These Pages Once Were Skin | Laurie Price | by Joe Safdie Inner Verses | Pam Rehm She Is The Earth | Ali Cobby Eckermann | by Patrick James Dunagan Bad Forecast | Steffan Triplett | by Richard Hamilton
COMICS
Existential Comics: Selected Stories 1979–2004 | R. Crumb | by Paul Buhle
To purchase issue #118 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.