Date: July 10, 2023
When David Mas Masumoto is contacted by a stranger regarding his maternal aunt Shizuko, he is at first slightly confused. From family, he has only heard whispers of Shizuko, who […]
Date: July 10, 2023
In A Fire in the Hills (Red Hen, Apr.), Afaa Weaver seeks to define himself in relation to his environment, particularly as a Black man in the United States.
Date: July 10, 2023
…novelist Laila Halaby’s The Weight of Ghosts (Red Hen, Sept.), about her 21-year-old son’s death at a time of national upheaval.
Date: June 29, 2023
Loafing is the most popular lesson of my 20-year teaching career. I got the idea from Walt Whitman, who writes in “Song of Myself”: I loafe and invite my soul, […]
Date: June 28, 2023
STONINGTON — In a dark green, cozy room decorated with icons, books, poetry and antiques, Lara Ehrlich sat at a large table, while her puppy, Cocoa, slept in a chair […]
Date: June 27, 2023
In 1942, a Japanese American family relinquishes their daughter to the state to protect her from being sent to forced relocation camps during the war. Seventy years later, her nephew […]
Date: June 27, 2023
“Reverence for the natural world provides her comfort, as does her fierce attachment to her sister and her parents’ poignant guidance. But it is the intimacy with another young woman […]
Date: June 17, 2023
I have a recurrent dream in which my mother refuses to feed me. A long table displaying an array of delectable foods stands before me. This is food that my […]
Date: June 12, 2023
MacLeish Sq., Dennis Must’s curiously appealing new novel, takes the reader through the obscure final act of a man’s life. The main character, sixty-nine-year-old John Proctor, buys an old farmhouse on […]
Date: June 12, 2023
Seventeen years ago, June was officially designated as National Caribbean Heritage Month in the United States. Who better to help us celebrate than Donna Hemans? Born and raised in Jamaica, […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
Date: April 25, 2023
David Mas Masumoto has a reputation as a remarkable writer. His previous work includes Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm (1996), Harvest Son: Planting Roots in American Soil (1998), and Four […]
