by Kent Johnson Editor’s Note: Rain Taxi has reviewed the work of Argentine writer César Aira several times since his New Directions debut in 2006, An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter. On the occasion of the publication of Aira’s latest work in English translation, The Divorce—originally published in Spanish in 2010 and […]
by Julien Poirier For many poetry readers, Dispatches from the Poetry Wars was the best website of the Trump era. Visiting its home page was like limping into a port in a storm, only to be harassed, sweet-talked, and propositioned on your way to the nearest dive, where some incredibly erudite but fantastically longwinded “traveler” […]
Nico Vassilakis Dusie ($15) by Tyrone Williams The French legal phrase that titles this book, literally “see say,” roughly means to say what one has seen, to swear to tell the truth. Given the playful tone of some of the prose and poetry contained herein, it would be easy to read Voir Dire as a […]
Seventeen Artists and Their Living Spaces, from Giverny to Casa Azul Melissa Wyse and Kate Lewis Chronicle Books ($22.95) by Linda Lappin Recently, months of lockdown have had many of us re-adapting to our homes, repurposing spaces for new needs, dealing with clutter and chores, and straining under the limited access to sunshine, fresh air, […]
Yours Presently: The Selected Letters of John Wieners Edited by Michael Seth Stewart University of New Mexico Press ($75) Momentous Inconclusions: The Life and Work of Larry Eigner Edited by Jennifer Bartlett and George Hart University of New Mexico Press ($75) by Patrick James Dunagan Whether or not the idea of a Black Mountain School […]
A.J. Lees Notting Hill Editions ($18.95) by Douglas Messerli Published in a small, almost pocket-sized format, A. J. Lees’s Brazil That Never Was is itself a kind of illusional publication. Although the cloth-bound book is only 139 pages in length—and that with photographs, chapter breaks, and heavy leading between lines—it took weeks to read, despite […]
How One Man Exposed The Truth About Government Spying And Digital Security Edward Snowden Henry Holt ($19.99) by John Hawkins Edward Snowden’s 2019 memoir Permanent Record was chock full of the seamy details of state corruption that can get a fellow in trouble if he reveals them to the world. He told us about homo […]
INTERVIEWS To Break the Silence: An Interview with Kim Echlin Canadian author Kim Echlin discusses her recent novel Speak, Silence, a fictionalized account of the Bosnian women who testified at The Hague about their experiences of crimes against humanity. Interviewed by Allan Vorda Dispatching Dispatches: An Interview with Michael Boughn and Kent Johnson Editors of […]
Evie Wyld Pantheon ($27.95) by Josh Steinbauer Evie Wyld is an author and bookshop owner in London whose latest novel, The Bass Rock, follows three women on the coast of Scotland over the centuries. Sarah, accused of witchcraft, is on the lam in the 1700s. Ruth is a 1950s housewife, married to a widower and […]