Local author sharing family history through poetry
Date: January 2, 2024
A local author and Creative Writing professor at Fresno State is sharing her family history through poetry and written word. Click here to read more.
News & Reviews
News:
The 37 Best Books About Los Angeles Culture (and Beyond) Published In 2023
Date: January 2, 2024
Books change lives when they are read wholeheartedly and must be shared. This collection covers everything from L.A. noir to sci-fi to identity and poetry. Read, gift, and get inspired. […]
2023 Small Press Gift Guide
Date: December 12, 2023
BOMB looks back at the books from small and independent presses we featured in 2023 and helps you pair them with the idiosyncratic readers in your life. We’re grateful to […]
Francesca Bell Fearlessly Tackles the Unsettling in “What Small Sound” [INTERVIEW]
Date: December 12, 2023
Francesca Bell was raised in Washington and Idaho and settled as an adult in California. She did not complete middle school, high school, or college and holds no degrees. She […]
The Best Books We Read in 2023
Date: December 12, 2023
My picks are different than yours. Different than Jaylynn’s, than Tucker’s, than Joelene’s, than Andrea’s, than the New York Times. I love that about books. We couldn’t possibly read them all, […]
FLOPPY by ALYSSA GRAYBEAL is one of Library Journal’s “Best Memoirs & Biographies” of 2023!
Date: December 5, 2023
Graybeal’s book focuses on how her rare genetic connective-tissue disorder affects her daily life. She spills her emotions on the page as she is forced to navigate through life with […]
SECRET HARVESTS by David Mas Masumoto (illustrated by Patricia Wakida) is a finalist for the GOLDEN POPPY AWARDS in Nonfiction!
Date: November 30, 2023
Thank you so much to the California Independent Booksellers Alliance and CALIBA bookstore members!
Coco Picard, author of THE HEALING CIRCLE, interviews Mandy-Suzanne Wong for Electric Literature!
Date: November 21, 2023
In this comic interview, Mandy-Suzanne Wong talks about finding inspiration for her novel from a mundane household object. Click here to read more.
The New Yorker highlights ELISE PASCHEN’S BESTIARY in the importance of “telling Osage stories!”
Date: November 21, 2023
At the end of Anthony Lane’s review of “Killers of the Flower Moon”—Martin Scorsese’s new film about murders that were committed in the Osage Nation in the early twentieth century, […]
Snap Judgement Podcast highlights “Seeking Shizuko” from DAVID MAS MASUMOTO’S book SECRET HARVESTS
Date: November 20, 2023
A young girl was lost to her family. Torn away from them during their time in the Japanese-American prison camps, she was institutionalized and thought to be gone. But now, […]
Reviews:
Madeleine Nakamura receives a five star review of “Cursebreakers” from AuthorLink.com
Date: August 29, 2023
Author Madeleine Nakamura’s science fiction thriller “Cursebreakers,” embarks on a “mind bending” battle between magicians, witches, medical professionals and the military in the year 3016. All of the drama in this […]
Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network reviews Phuong T. Vuong’s A PLUCKED ZITHER!
Date: August 17, 2023
A Plucked Zither is Phuong T. Vuong’s sophomore poetry collection. Vuong’s poems draw upon her experience as a 1.5 generation Vietnamese American raised in Oakland, California, and echo the familiar themes […]
Madeleine Nakamura’s CURSEBREAKERS receives STARRED Book Review from Independent Book Review!
Date: August 15, 2023
CURSEBREAKERS by Madeleine Nakamura is a novel as electric as the lightning-bolt magic its protagonist wields, filled with curses, destruction, and piercing heartache. Sometimes vicious and violent; all times spectacular […]
Phuong T. Vuong’s A PLUCKED ZITHER receives stellar review on Poetry Foundation!
Date: August 10, 2023
“Poems like these are as two-sided as Vuong’s title instrument: a zither plucked and plucked, played upon and snatched away. For every touch of warmth and musicality, she admits something […]
Madeleine Nakamura’s CURSEBREAKERS earns a starred review in Kirkus!
Date: August 8, 2023
“Nakamura’s treatment is nuanced and thoughtful, avoiding a veritable minefield of harmful stereotypes to deliver genuine characters with heart…A tightly plotted conspiracy novel that blends seamlessly with its superbly developed […]
Madeleine Nakamura’s CURSEBREAKERS reviewed by Booklist!
Date: July 27, 2023
“…the intimate representation of bipolar disease and addiction, the normalization of queer characters, and the nuanced depiction of aromantic male-female friendship make this an exciting read.” The full review will […]
Richard & Sally Price review Juliana Lamy’s YOU WERE WATCHING FROM THE SAND for the New West Indian Guide!
Date: July 27, 2023
You Were Watching from the Sand The debut short story collection by Haitian-born, South Florida-raised, Harvard graduate Juliana Lamy, vividly portrays adolescent life and dreams in Miami’s Haitian community. Gritty, […]
Jade Shyback’s AQUEOUS featured in July issue of Midwest Book Review!
Date: July 13, 2023
Synopsis: On the eve of Earth’s collapse, young Marisol Blaise is taken to live on an underwater ‘mersation’ known as Aqueous with parents not her own. There, she must compete […]
Francesca Bell’s translation of WHOEVER DROWNED HERE receives starred review in Kirkus!
Date: July 12, 2023
Translator Bell offers a long-overdue introduction of German poet Sessner to English-speaking readers…Over the course of this collection, Sessner’s inclination toward enjambment and sparse use of stanzas encourage readers to […]
Anchorage Daily News recommends H. Warren’s BINDED!
Date: July 10, 2023
This debut collection by Fairbanks poet and musician Warren presents the reality of living as a nonbinary person, with poems responding to childhood confusions, to societal pressures and cruelties, and […]