Date: June 1, 2023
History of Desire I. In the photographmy mother is ten;she poses in a ruffled dressand hand-me-down coatthat swallows her armsthe way shame swallowspeople whole. Lost in the oversize. Standingnear a clapboard porch.She knows she is poor,one of the poorest; her shoesare too tight. Other childrentease her about the keyaround her neck. My mother makes drawingsof […]
Date: June 1, 2023
Poemas de William Archila, estos poemas forman parte del libro “The Gravedigger’s Archaeology” (Red Hen Press, 2015), ahora traducidos al español por el poeta Mario Zetino en exclusiva para Revista Álastor CANÍCULA Para Lory A los cuarenta, vivimos en un bungalow de dos cuartos sin aire acondicionado. Mi esposa y yo dormimos con el ventilador […]
Date: May 30, 2023
I’m Jason Schneiderman, and this is The Slowdown. My little brother was a very cute and very happy baby. In all the baby pictures of him, he has an enormous and infectious smile. My baby pictures are mostly of me looking very worried. My infant expression was one of extreme caution, and my body language indicated […]
Date: May 30, 2023
Dive into the next issue filled with a collection of author interviews and excerpts of new stories that bring out the true voice of writers who are pushing boundaries and challenging conventional norms. Our Voices issue is not only a platform for discovery but also a celebration of inclusivity and diversity. In this issue, we […]
Date: May 23, 2023
#AuthorInterview | Ask debut novelist Jade Shyback a question “…Novelist Jade Shyback has had many lives that I find just completely fascinating. And now is your chance to join the conversation and ask her a question. I’m going to start us out, but please feel free to join in at any time. Jade, I am so excited to talk with you about your […]
Date: May 23, 2023
By Maurya Simon | Contributing Columnist During National Poetry Month in April 2013, I taught poetry to students at Mt. Baldy School. It was a great experience, and, ultimately, their hard work and inspiration coalesced into a lovely chapbook that several students compiled as keepsakes for the class. This past April and in May, I’m back at […]
Date: May 23, 2023
In her ninth collection of poems, Ghost Apples, Katharine Coles interrogates and celebrates her relationship with the natural world and the various creatures who inhabit it, and in doing so asks what it means to be sentient and mortal on a fragile planet. From her own pet parrot, Henri, to the birds her husband attracts […]
Date: May 16, 2023
A PLUCKED ZITHER BY PHUONG T. VUONG (JUNE 6TH) This poetry collection explores migration, memory, language, and the experience of being a refugee. The poems travel through time and space, between Vietnam and the U.S., as the speaker looks for belonging and connection. Many of the poems directly address the ways that war, imperialism, and forced […]
Date: May 16, 2023
‘‘We interrupted the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather; three of us got onto Dan Rather’s set, chanting, ‘AIDS Is News, Fight AIDS, not Arabs,’ we were hauled off the set and arrested.’’ This was just one of the many examples of protest English Professor John Weir participated in the late 1980’s. This was the […]
Date: May 16, 2023
I often talk about the ‘golden threads’ that connect me to my guests. Kim is certainly one of them. She has enriched my life with her poetry. It was a JOY to talk to her for Mother’s Day about her book: I WORE THIS DRESS TODAY FOR YOU, MOM, a celebration of motherhood and being a daughter. You will […]
Date: June 1, 2023
Ghost Apples, the ninth collection of poems by Katharine Coles – who might be a witch (IMHO) given the ready way she connects with animals (including her parrot Henri, pronounced in the American fashion) and who surely has a magical way with words and their readers – kept me sitting in a hot car for […]
Date: June 1, 2023
I review Phuong T. Vuong’s A Plucked Zither, from Red Hen Press (June 6, 2023). Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/versecurious/donations
Date: May 23, 2023
Francesca Bell (Bright Stain) writes poems that chime like the bell of her own name: bright but resonant, sharp but still familiar, lush and likely to echo long after its initial strike. What Small Sound is Bell’s second collection, and it brings together a haunting yet beautiful set of poems centered on the losses–or potential for them–that […]
Date: May 23, 2023
Did you read “Slice of Moon,” our poetry book for May? If you didn’t, I don’t blame you; many people shy away from poetry, and I am one of them. However, I picked this offering for a reason. Dower’s work is accessible. It isn’t full of flowery language that you must spend minutes ruminating on […]
Date: May 16, 2023
Manifest Image The man keeps telling me I am beautiful.I still look young. He says it like I’ve asked for it,but I don’t care. For him or beauty. I am content to slip into old,wrinkled plainness, to walk on unimpeded. I was young once.My body stunned.My breasts were really something, but I was something else […]
Date: May 15, 2023
This collection immediately thrusts us into scenes of relative comfort and privilege that are all too often interrupted by the violent horrors plaguing this current time. Mind you, the terms comfort and privilege are used loosely here, as the speaker and characters will not be delivered complete relief or freedom from these trials. However, the […]
Date: May 11, 2023
Over the past year, Latina/o/x poets spanning vast aesthetics, experiences, and geographies have dazzled me with collections that reveal the complexity and beauty of our communities in all their irreducible differences. A few books by Latina/o/x poets have garnered significant mainstream attention, including Cynthia Cruz’s darkly beautiful Hotel Oblivion, winner of the National Book Critics […]
Date: May 8, 2023
How can we take refuge amid the pains of this world? In this collection, Pamela Uschuk, winner of an American Book Award in 2010, faces the realities of recent social history. A longtime activist for peoples’ and nature’s rights, Uschuk offers precise and unsparing poems. Yet she also ensures that moments of loveliness temper the […]
Date: May 1, 2023
The Skin of Meaning by Keith Flynn is an interesting mixture of contemporary reactions to issues that affect us in the twenty-first century. Keith presents one hundred and eighty-one pages of poetry divided in three sections entitled Etymologies, Dichotomies and Necrologies. Flynn uses a variety of poetic forms in each section and presents his messages in fresh imagery, clear logic and almost […]
Date: May 1, 2023
Aqueous is a debut novel set in a world where life on land is dangerous and harsh. To save humanity, an underwater paradise is built in the ocean.
