Mary Odden’s Blog
Date: June 4, 2020
https://www.maryodden.com/neighborsblog
News & Reviews
News:
Lithub: Finding My Story in the Colonial Past of the Andaman Islands
Date: June 3, 2020
My new novel Glorious Boy began with a dream. On a tropical island during an emergency evacuation, a young girl was hiding in a dense rainforest with a small, mute white boy […]
Caroline Leavitt’s Blog Interview with Aimee Liu
Date: June 3, 2020
Aimee Liu talks about GLORIOUS BOY, the excruciating process of writing, creating a memorable silent character, her shapeshifter dad, and so much more.
Ms. Q&A: Authors Aimee Liu and Cai Emmons Talk Motherhood, Shame and Releasing Books Mid-Pandemic
Date: June 3, 2020
Some 30 years ago, an established nonfiction writer and a screenwriter decided to write their first novels. They met in a fiction writing class, and have been friends ever since, […]
NY Times: Percival Everett Has a Book or Three Coming Out
Date: June 3, 2020
Featured mentioning of Percival Everett’s Colonel Hap Thompson!
OutSmart: National Poetry Month 2020 Reading List
Date: June 3, 2020
Presented in five poetic sequences, the poems in Hold Me Tight by gay poet Jason Schneiderman focuses the reader’s attention on the subjects of anger, real and metaphorical wolves, the work of the late […]
Washington Independent Review of Books: An Interview with Donna Hemans
Date: June 3, 2020
At 15, Plum Valentine is banished from her Brooklyn home and sent back to Jamaica by parents nervous about the pernicious effects of the American lifestyle. Once there, her trust […]
Electric Lit: I Can Only Save My Grandparents’ Home by Preserving It in Fiction
Date: June 3, 2020
In the bedroom of Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer, there’s a mural depicting a well-dressed crowd at a cocktail party pasted to the wall. Spencer’s granddaughter, Shaun Spencer-Hester, points to […]
Amherst Bulletin: The price of protest: New novel looks at the consequences for two sisters caught up in the anti-war movement
Date: June 3, 2020
Family relations can be fraught in the best of times, even when people care deeply for one another. So what happens when you throw those family members into a situation […]
CrimeReads: Excerpt from Her Sister’s Tattoo
Date: June 3, 2020
It’s Detroit, 1968. Sisters Rosa and Esther march against the war in Vietnam with their best friend, Maggie. As they reached the rally site, double rows of blank-faced National Guard […]
Reviews:
Midwest Book Review highlights WHAT SHE WANTS by Kim Dower
Date: April 23, 2025
MBR Bookwatch features a review of Kim Dower’s latest poetry collection, What She Wants, written by Mary Cowper. “Her word smithing, poetry based storytelling skills are truly impressive.”
NPR Host Scott Simon talks about THE BURNING HEART OF THE WORLD with its author Nancy Kricorian
Date: April 22, 2025
Scott Simon joins Nancy Kricorian for a conversation about her novel The Burning Heart of the World. Simon praised the book as “a wonderful novel … tough and moving”.
The Burning Heart of the World Follows an Armenian Family in Exile
Date: April 22, 2025
Nancy Kricorian’s latest novel, The Burning Heart of the World, is a powerfully spare, poetic evocation of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War (1975−1990) and its long-term impact on one Armenian family living in Beirut. It’s the […]
Booklist features a starred review of Elisa Paschen’s BLOOD WOLF MOON
Date: April 22, 2025
“In this graceful, assured, and incandescent collection, Paschen explores her relationship with her mother, the trailblazing Osage prima ballerina Maria Tallchief, and her mother’s life and family, while also delving into Osage […]
Nancy Kricorian’s novels tell the stories of the Armenian diaspora, exiled but always seeking community
Date: April 17, 2025
“Nancy Kricorian grew up in Watertown in a two-family house where her grandmother, a survivor of the Armenian genocide, lived in the apartment upstairs. The community was rich in Armenian […]
Book review: Celebrate Poetry Month with new work by veteran Fairbanks poet, Peggy Shumaker
Date: April 15, 2025
Peggy Shumaker, a stalwart supporter of Alaska writers and the larger arts community, is a professor emerita from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a former Alaska writer laureate. Author […]
War, Literature & the Arts Journal reviews INSTEAD, IT IS DARK by Cynthia Hogue
Date: April 9, 2025
Cynthia Hogue’s poetry collection instead, it is dark is reviewed by Hugh Martin in War, Literature & the Arts Journal. Martin praises the book as one that “probes this darkness […]
Kirkus Review highlights ANGEL EYE by Madeleine Nakamura
Date: April 2, 2025
Angel Eye, the second book in Madeleine Nakamura’s series, has received a Kirkus Starred Review. “Nakamura has knocked it out of the park once again here… Readers will be thrilled […]
Cole Reviews spotlights CITY OF SMOKE AND SEA by Malia Márquez
Date: April 1, 2025
Malia Márquez’s City of Smoke and Sea is highlighted in Cole Reviews. “City of Smoke and Sea is a quick yet immersive read, packed with strong character development and world-building. […]
The Armenian Weekly reviews THE BURNING HEART OF THE WORLD by Nancy Kricorian
Date: April 1, 2025
Nancy Kricorian’s The Burning Heart of the World is reviewed by Nanore Barsoumian in the Armenian Weekly. “We surrender to its fabled beauty, letting Kricorian’s storytelling dazzle while extracting meaning […]