Episode 38: Anna V. Q. Ross (Of Self-Portraits, Foxes, and Leaving For Good)
Date: January 2, 2024
Listen: On Apple, Spotify, Google and elsewhere Click here to listen.
News & Reviews
News:
Best New Poetry Books
Date: January 2, 2024
Handpicked by our expert librarians and staff, the poetry books in this list, all published in 2022, include debut collections and new classics from established poets. Click here to read […]
‘Secret Harvests’ probes an unspeakable Japanese American family history
Date: January 2, 2024
David “Mas” Matsumoto, author of Epitaph for a Peach, Harvest Son, Changing Season, has yet another true story to share, this time a family secret so unspeakable that it remained buried for over […]
Valley author shares family secret in book about internment impact
Date: January 2, 2024
A farmer and author in the small Fresno County community of Del Rey is sharing a personal story with a universal message. Mas Masumoto published a book in the spring […]
Friday 5 at 5
Date: January 2, 2024
Join a Denver Public Library reader’s advisor extraordinaire for a flash book buzz featuring hot new and forthcoming titles that you just have to know about! Give us 15 minutes, […]
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.
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, […]
Reviews:
David Mason’s COLD FIRE receives early praise in Poetry Corner!
Date: March 3, 2026
Each line is a steady and reassuring four beats in length, filled with words that help move the story along.
Helen Benedict’s upcoming novel, THE SOLDIER’S HOUSE, reviewed by Booklist!
Date: February 18, 2026
Full review to come March 1! “The characters’ journeys are candid and vulnerable, rendering a pertinent, rich portrait of displaced lives reshaped by conflict and its enduring consequences.” —Booklist
Amy Pence’s YELLOW reviewed by Kirkus Reviews
Date: February 11, 2026
Mysticism and science merge in the story of a Louisiana artist. Pence tells her story in language on the border between poetic and precious.
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 […]