Lauren Kate, author of the richly envisioned, best-selling YA fantasy Fallen series, has applied her talent for world-building to What’s in a Kiss, a literary romance for adults. As in Fallen, Kate’s fast-paced plot manages tension and expectations as it…
A Review of Zack Rogow’s Hugging My Father’s Ghost by Wendy Mannis Scher
Inside a curtained photo booth, a father and his 3-year-old son—a camera flash-captures their smiles and laughter: a mini-eight portrait-souvenir of a joyful moment spent in New York’s Time Square. It’s 1955, the same year this father, 36-year-old Lee Rogow,…
A Review of Celaine Charles’s Three Hearts Stitched: Poems About Adoption by Judith E. Camann
Three Hearts Stitched: Poems About Adoption by Celaine Charles (Egret Lake Books January 2024) is a book-length triple helix. Voices of a birth mother, adoptive parents, and child entwine from a shared axis of freedom. Each voice clear in confusion,…
Book Review by Angela Mitchell: “Thank Your Lucky Stars” by Sherrie Flick
Reading Sherrie Flick’s new collection of short fiction, Thank Your Lucky Stars (Autumn House, 2018), is a kind of literary feast, with its gathering of characters, all hungering for love and connection and a desire to better nourish both their…
Book Review by Lauren Sartor: “Life on Mars” by Tracy K. Smith
The poetry in Tracy K Smith’s book, Life on Mars, examines the limitedness of the human species. The poetry speculates on the smallness of humankind, the incapacity of human intellectuality, and the irrationality of human emotions. The language is accessible…
Snipping Knots and Getting Somewhere: Short Comments on “Good Old Neon,” a Not-So-Short Short Story by David Foster Wallace, by Elias Keller
Four years before his suicide in 2008, David Foster Wallace published his final story collection, Oblivion, which includes eight pieces ranging in length from three pages to about sixty. Unlike his earlier Brief Interviews with Hideous Men collection, there’s no…
Homage to James Dickey’s “Deliverance” – A Retrospective by Ron Clinton Smith
When a gifted poet approaches the novel, the results can be compelling, unusual, certainly bizarre; but exactly what you’ll get is hard to imagine. At the same time I decided to be, or realized I was, a writer, I came…
Review: The Coachman Rat: Goodbye, Cinderella
The Coachman Rat: Goodbye Cinderella. A Review by Stephanie Vannello Not too long ago I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications, a minor in Writing, and over twenty plus books from the university’s library. Each month the library randomly…
Review: Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto
Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto, a Review by Carissa K. Cullum As summer comes to a quiet end, a new patient by the name of Julia Dey arrives at the front steps of Suvanto, though it’s unclear as to…
Review: How to Escape from a Leper Colony
How to Escape from a Leper Colony, a Review by Carissa K. Cullum The Caribbean, home to a myriad of dynamic cultures from across the globe, is the backdrop for Tiphanie Yanique’s collection of short stories. Each tale includes memorable…