Tag Archives: Winter 2021

We Are Bridges: A Memoir

Cassandra Lane The Feminist Press ($17.95) by Dustin Michael Cassandra Lane’s debut memoir, We Are Bridges, is a powerful and intimate exploration of personal identity and family history. Spanning the chasms of what cannot be known, what has been lost, and what has been stolen, the book underscores how often information goes missing and proposes […]

Life in a Field: Poems

Katie Peterson Photographs by Young Suh Omnidawn ($19.95) by Rachel Slotnick To call Katie Peterson’s Life in a Field unsettling is an understatement. The collection eludes narrative and logic, insisting on hybridity. Readers must remind themselves to embrace confusion and linger in the discomfort. The point is to get lost in the field. “Follow me,” […]

The Invisible Painting: My Memoir of Leonora Carrington

Gabriel Weisz Carrington Manchester University Press ($26.95) by Patrick James Dunagan Gabriel Weisz Carrington’s The Invisible Painting: My Memoir of Leonora Carrington shares the author’s memories of growing up in the Mexico City household his remarkable mother, surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, created with his father, photographer Emerico “Chiki” Weisz. The book gives an intimate, at […]

Long Rain

Lenard D. Moore Wet Cement Press ($16) by Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein) Long Rain, the tenth book from micro-press Wet Cement, merges Japanese and Western poetic sensibilities. Lauded poet Lenard D. Moore infuses the tanka form with vivid personal memory, modern motifs, and Black Southern geography and history. The result is a beautiful collection conveying the contemporary […]

Catalogue Baby:
A Memoir of Infertility

Myriam Steinberg illustrated by Christache Page Two ($24.95) by Lisa Rizzo Winner of a 2021 Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature, Catalogue Baby: A Memoir of Infertility tells the story of Myriam Steinberg’s quest to become a mother. Like many women today, Steinberg spent her early adulthood focused on her career; it was only as […]

Tenderness

Derrick Austin BOA Editions ($17) by John Bradley Tenderness isn’t a quality often used to describe contemporary poetry, but it’s certainly an appropriate title for this book, Derrick Austin’s second. In “Taking My Father and Brother to the Frick,” for example, the narrator notes how museumgoers regard the paintings, and then poses this question about […]

All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis

Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson One World ($29) by S. Leite In August 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report warning of runaway global warming if swift action is not taken to mitigate climate change. Called a “Code Red for Humanity” by UN Secretary General António Guterres, the […]

Praying by Looking:
An Interview with Jordan Kisner

by Benjamin P. Davis I first encountered the work of Jordan Kisner via her essay about the scholar and activist Silvia Federici entitled “The Lockdown Shows How the Economy Exploits Women. She Already Knew,” a piece that teems with the transformative possibilities of social action. In the context of pandemic-related pessimism, I felt energized by […]

Whereabouts

Jhumpa Lahiri Knopf ($24) by Erin Lewenauer Originally written in Italian and now translated by the author, Jhumpa Lahiri's third novel contemplates a contemplative year. Broken into easy, melodic sections—"At the Bar," "On the Street," and "At the Trattoria"—Lahiri’s voice establishes a quick intimacy with the reader. The plot opens with an unnamed, middle-aged, woman […]

Motley Stones

Adalbert Stifter Translated by Isabel Fargo Cole New York Review Books ($17.95) by Barbara Roether An early critic once accused Adalbert Stifter of being interested mostly in “beetles and buttercups,” poking fun at his apparent lack of great themes. In his preface to the first edition of Motley Stones in 1852, Stifter wrote in reply, […]