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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Date: June 3, 2020
On this episode of Rekindled, Andrew Altschul is in conversation with Ellen Meeropol. Andrew Altschul’s third novel, The Gringa, was published the day before the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus crisis […]
Date: June 3, 2020
Kathryn interviews Creative Writing and Literature teacher at Antioch University, Los Angeles Deborah Lott, author of “Don’t Go Crazy Without Me.” More than just the tragicomic coming-of-age story of a […]
Date: June 3, 2020
The meaning of the intriguing title of Lott’s courageous and endearing memoir snaps into sharp focus. “My father and I were not ordinary,” she writes. “Oh no, we had formed […]
Date: June 3, 2020
This spring the formidable Deborah A. Lott—author, editor and college instructor—will be visiting the Unlocking Your Story workshop. She’ll be offering us an inside view of the creative process behind writing […]
Date: June 3, 2020
It’s hard not to read every throat tickle and stuffy nose as a possible foreshadowing of COVID-19, but a recovering hypochondriac helps to walk us back and separate true symptoms, […]
Date: June 3, 2020
Two weeks ago, when restaurants were still open, I watched a friend at lunch repeatedly spritz his hands with hand sanitizer. It seemed more compulsion than prudent protective measure. If […]
Date: January 29, 2025
Eleanor J. Bader recommends The Burning Heart of the World by Nancy Kricorian, describing it as “a beautiful, sad, and timely look at the aftermath of war and its lasting […]
Date: January 28, 2025
Blood Wolf Moon reflects a poet at the height of her powers, yet it remains accessible to a wide audience and will especially be valued by Osages. Readers will find […]
Date: January 22, 2025
Book critic Ron Charles recommended Kim Dower’s new collection, What She Wants, in the Washington Post Book Club and included the poem ‘Longing’ in the weekly selection.
Date: December 16, 2024
Huge thanks to book critic Dwight Garner for your thorough, generous review of Percival Everett’s poetry collections, including re:f (gesture), The Book of Training by Colonel Hap Thompson, Sonnets for […]
Date: December 12, 2024
This episode of “Check This Out” from New Hampshire Public Radio features local librarians discussing their favorite books of 2024! This to the full episode to hear what they thought […]
Date: December 3, 2024
AS A POET AGES, he’s often faced with several choices. He can keep doing what he has always done, or he can, by seriously confronting himself, seek another voice. Jason […]
Date: November 19, 2024
“I am good with secrets,” Jackson confesses early in her subtle latest (after Moon Jar). She makes good on that statement in poems that detail the secrets of the departed, including […]
Date: October 31, 2024
In My Infinity (Red Hen Press), Didi Jackson employs a lyrical grace and intimate tone as she seeks transcendence, even while acknowledging that not all wounds may heal. She explores personal concessions […]
Date: October 31, 2024
My Infinity is a volume that puts Didi Jackson’s talent on full display. This is only her second poetry volume (the first, Moon Jar, was published in 2020), but it reads like […]
Date: October 15, 2024
Blue Atlas is an absorbing and heart-wrenching collection that revolves around the poet’s decision, thirty years back, to have an abortion rather than go full term with an unplanned pregnancy. As […]
