Versifying | Collection Development: Poetry
Date: June 2, 2020
Library Journal features Tess Taylor’s Rift Zone and Felicia Zamora’s Body of Render.
News & Reviews
News:
‘This Is a Californian Feeling’: Poet Tess Taylor Captures Life on the Brink in ‘Rift Zone’
Date: June 2, 2020
Shortly before the state of California ordered its citizens to retreat indoors, I met up with poet Tess Taylor for a hike on a steep hill near her home. It was one […]
El Cerrito poet, NPR correspondent Tess Taylor pens new books
Date: June 2, 2020
EL CERRITO — Local poet Tess Taylor has recently released her fourth book, had one of its poems published in the New York Times and wrote an opinion piece for […]
A Reading List For The Social Distancing Era, From Poet Tess Taylor
Date: June 2, 2020
In a series, various writers share what have they been reading while sheltering in place. Today, NPR poetry reviewer Tess Taylor lists what is helping her to get through.
New York Times featuring Tess Taylor’s poetry!
Date: June 2, 2020
Poem: I Gave My Love a Story Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
Zyzzyva’s “The Intimacy of Breath” Essay by Tess Taylor
Date: June 2, 2020
Here is the strange thing: I was already writing poems about the precariousness of California. I’d been writing them for ten years, since I moved back from New York and came […]
La Treintena: 30 Books of Latinx Poetry
Date: June 1, 2020
NYU’s The Latinx Project features two Red Hen titles: After Rubén by Francisco Aragón and Body of Render by Felicia Zamora!
Alta: Talking with Tess Taylor
Date: May 29, 2020
Tess Taylor’s poetry is a literary collage: an assemblage of the poet’s words and the ontology of California itself. In two collections out this year, Rift Zone and Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea […]
Poets and Writers: Authors Reimagine Live Events During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Date: May 29, 2020
Still, digital events aren’t for everyone. Poet Tess Taylor is publishing two collections this spring, Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange, commissioned by New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and Rift Zone, […]
The Millions Must-Read Poetry: April 2020
Date: May 29, 2020
The Millions Nick Ripatrazone lists Tess Taylor’s Rift Zone: California: pastoral, urban, suburban—home to myth and magic. Taylor’s book is geologic in concept and theme, both panoramic and particular (her […]
Reviews:
Luke Goebel’s KILL DICK reviewed by Thirsty Caterpillar
Date: February 3, 2026
This week’s Thirst Quencher doesn’t tiptoe, it kicks the door in. Kill Dick by Luke Goebel is dark, unsettling, and unexpectedly funny, driven by characters and ideas that refuse to […]
Abi Pollokoff’s NIGHT MYTHSᐧᐧBEFORE THE BODY reviewed by West Trade Review
Date: February 3, 2026
Abi Pollokoff’s debut poetry collection night myths • • before the body, released this year from Red Hen Press with much advanced praise, is so deft in execution, so consistent […]
Luke Goebel’s KILL DICK reviewed by Publishers Weekly
Date: February 3, 2026
The daughter of a pharmaceutical executive gets ensnared in criminal mischief in this ambitious blend of social satire and sunshine noir from Goebel (Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours). […]
THE SOLDIER’S HOUSE by Helen Benedict gets a raving review!
Date: January 27, 2026
Helen Benedict’s THE SOLDIER’S HOUSE (2026) completes her Iraq war trilogy, that began with SAND QUEEN (2011) and was followed by WOLF SEASON (2017). But the new book is actually […]
Luke Goebel’s KILL DICK reviewed by Kirkus Reviews
Date: January 27, 2026
“…Shot through with the sort of pseudo-profundity endemic to youthful privilege, Susie’s rambling, terminally jaundiced narrative paints a darkly surreal Lynch- and Kubrick-inspired portrait of LA.”
Luke Goebel’s KILL DICK reviewed by Foreword Reviews
Date: January 21, 2026
Luke B. Goebel’s winking satirical novel Kill Dick parodies contemporary literary and cultural forms. Set against sun-bleached Los Angeles—a place marked by wealth, addiction, and apathy—the book accumulates exaggerations of […]
The Pickup from This Land Press reviews Elise Paschen’s BLOOD WOLF MOON
Date: January 20, 2026
How does one build an identity? It’s an ongoing venture of discerning and refining, discarding narratives as much as creating them. For a poet, especially one who writes autobiographically, that […]
Andrew Lam’s STORIES FROM THE EDGE OF THE SEA reviewed in The Common
Date: December 17, 2025
…In his latest collection Stories from the Edge of the Sea, Andrew Lam delivers work far beyond that narrow definition of the form. The settings are complex. Even a five-page […]
Adela Najarro’s VARIATIONS IN BLUE reviewed in Escape Into Life
Date: December 17, 2025
…Dr. Adela Najarro’s fifth book of poetry, Variations in Blue, is bright blue, black and blue, with dark reaching light. This bicultural-bilingual author “stands on the edge of volcanoes” to […]
Louise Wannier’s TREE SPIRITS AROUND THE WORLD reviewed in She Scribes
Date: November 4, 2025
This book encourages children to use their imagination. Throughout the book there are photos that encourage readers to really examine and appreciate. Just like cloud watching, you’ll eventually see something […]