IPPY-Winning Poets Speak Out
Date: June 5, 2020
This year’s IPPY Awards had 148 entries into our two categories: Poetry– General and Poetry–Specialty. We awarded a total of 11 medals to poetry books; two each of gold, silver, […]
News & Reviews
News:
Rattlecast: William Trowbridge
Date: June 4, 2020
Episode #39 welcomes former Missouri Poet Laureate William Trowbridge and has new book, Oldguy: Superhero—poems from which have been featured regularly in Rattle for years.
The Imagination Is Free: And So Is this Lecture
Date: June 4, 2020
David Mason gives a hypothetical “last lecture”!
The Swamp
Date: June 4, 2020
It is Fourth of July weekend, and until a few days earlier, we had forgotten that for coastal towns this is prime time for tourism. Despite the busy sidewalks and […]
C-Ville: Taking covers: Your social distancing reading list
Date: June 4, 2020
With the cancellation of the Virginia Festival of the Book, and recommendations to practice social distancing, there’s never been a better time to pick up some extra reading material. While […]
The Oregonian: Poems for the Pandemic
Date: June 4, 2020
Kim Stafford’s days have a rhythm, a routine. Oregon’s poet laureate wakes before dawn. He takes a long walk around his neighborhood. When he returns to his home in Southwest Portland, […]
KUER 90.1: To Be Alive — Is Power: Poetry For The Pandemic
Date: June 4, 2020
With all that’s going on right now, it may be more important than ever to remember to take a beat and appreciate something beautiful — even if that’s just a […]
Ms. Magazine: A Word Person Thinks About Bodies
Date: June 4, 2020
It was recently brought to my attention that my characters are obsessed with bodies—their own and everyone else’s.
CBC: Milton’s Paradise Lost: a survival guide for a fractured world
Date: June 4, 2020
Vietnamese-American writer Andrew Lam considers Paradise Lost “the first refugee story.” “When I learned about it, as someone who had lost his homeland, it resonated, naturally, because Vietnam was everything to my […]
Black Earth Institue: Social Distancing
Date: June 4, 2020
In dreams I walk through crowds, brushing arms, knocking elbows. Skin to skin: hands are bare. Crocuses congregate in beds, along sidewalks. Unlatching city gates,
Reviews:
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 […]
TREE SPIRITS AROUND THE WORLD by Louise Wannier reviewed in Crafty Moms Share
Date: October 14, 2025
This book is so interesting. After meeting Tilly, Tilly travels around the world and shares trees from around the world. With each tree there is Tilly in a boat with […]
Booklist reviews TIMBER & LUA by Vi Khi Nào and Lily Hoàng
Date: October 8, 2025
Award-winning interdisciplinary writers Hoàng and Nào provocatively interrogate language,comprehension, and communication in a global world. Their collaborative result is a polyglotshowcase that combines English, Vietnamese, and a hybrid Vietlish to […]
BIND ME TIGHTER STILL by Lara Ehrlich reviewed in PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Date: October 7, 2025
With nods to “The Little Mermaid,” Ehrlich’s lovely sophomore outing (after Animal Wife) again probes themes of womanhood and monstrosity. Ceto, a siren and hunter of men, yearns to break the […]
Midwest Book Review places Jade Shyback’s AQUEOUS on their September 2025 Bookshelf
Date: September 30, 2025
This is the debut novel written by author Jade Shyback. I believe this is the first book in the new young adult series. While the focus may be young adult, […]
A Review of Alison Hawthorne Deming: To Make the Broken Whole
Date: September 18, 2025
I finished Alison Hawthorne Deming’s latest poetry collection, Blue Flax and Yellow Mustard Flower, and sat quietly absorbing it, stunned by its power. Deming is a writer whose work in […]
TIMBER & LUA by Vi Khi Nào and Lily Hoàng reviewed in Publishers Weekly
Date: September 16, 2025
Nào (The Six Tons of Water) and Hoàng (Underneath) join forces for a lyrical bilingual story collection. Each tale is presented three times, first in a combination of English and […]
“Nimbly probes the corporeal, familial, and flighted,” West Trade Review on M. Soledad Caballero’s FLIGHT PLAN
Date: September 9, 2025
M. Soledad Caballero’s Flight Plan spans geographies both physical and psychological—from cells to continents, from quotidian to unusual, from grounded to soaring. Intertwining seemingly dissimilar topical threads that include cancer, a […]
Review of Cai Emmons’s THE BELLS featured in Kirkus Reviews
Date: September 2, 2025
An immersive psychological portrait of one man’s battle with lifelong anger and guilt. A young man’s troubles follow him after he trades his spiritual calling for life as a teacher. […]
A Review of Lara Ehrlich’s BIND ME TIGHTER STILL featured in Booklist
Date: August 28, 2025
Ehrlich, the author of the story collection Animal Wife (2020) presents a short and disturbing novel. Ceto is the cruel taskmaster of the sirens, women who are the main attraction in Sirenland, […]