Joy Horowitz, of the Los Angeles Review of Books, praises Lam's collection of short stories in its ability to elucidate the struggles of Vietnamese immigrants.
"'HOW DIFFICULT IS IT,’” Andrew Lam asks in his hypnotic and hilarious short story collection Birds of Paradise Lost, ‘to let the past go?’ Nearly 40 years after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, that question lurks in every corner of Lam’s beautiful book. In Birds of Paradise Lost, the language of trauma is translated by the day-to-day heartbreak of surviving."
To read Horowitz's full review on Birds of Paradise Lost, click here.
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In a recent review, Chris Burlingame, writing for The SunBreak heaped praise upon Elissa Washuta's "unforgettable" book, My Body Is a Book of Rules.
"It feels like you’re learning about Elissa Washuta’s life just as she’s processing it, too. Readers should feel a real connection with Washuta. She’s frank and open with her readers, and she generously lets you into exactly what she’s thinking. If Elissa Washuta wants to rewrite the phone book, I would happily read it."
Read the rest of the review here.
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Writing for The Stranger, Paul Constant praised Elissa Washuta's use of "powerful prose" in her new book My Body Is a Book of Rules.
"Body is a storm of fingernails and teeth and gripping, prying fingers flying at you from all directions, a hurricane of parts amounting to a person in full. No matter how prepared you think you are for Washuta, she's sure to knock you over."
Read the rest of the review here.
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In a recent review of Pete Fromm's new novel, If Not For This, Linnie Greene, writing for Shelf Awareness, praised the novel's emotional impact.
"This is a tough read, but a worthy one; it asks unnerving questions about mortality and resilience, and answers them with the example of one couple's devotion. Maddy and Dalt call themselves "The Luckies," and despite everything, Fromm proves that they're not wrong.”
Read the rest of the review here.
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Sean Arthur Joyce, on the blog Chameleonfire1, has very high praise for Gary Geddes' What Does A House Want?.
“Geddes writes with a sureness of hand that is remarkable, never a syllable wasted. His view is global, his compassion wide open to the world. It’s been awhile since I’ve been as gripped reading the Vancouver Sun, the Globe & Mail, or the New York Times as I have by reading these poems.”
Read the full review here.
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In a recent review on Monkeybicycle, Stefanie Wortman praised Douglas Kearney's unusual and exciting use of poetic form.
"Kearney’s poems play with forms both visual and generic, drawing on the tropes and techniques of other arts. He reaches for a series of unexpected structures that bring wit, rigor, and sometimes comedy to what could be the wordless pain of loss."
Read the rest of the review here.
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In a recent review of Gay Geddes' newest collection of poetry, M.A.C. Farrant, writing for The Vancouver Sun, lauds the poems' beauty and strength.
Farrant writes, "Likewise, the poems in Geddes book are axe-like in their effect, unflinching in intent, and filled with hard-to-bear details. Theres no escaping into metaphor; the poems are as direct and as unforgiving as a bitter wind. Theyre truth-telling, bearing witness to the perilous zones, events that can, in a flash, shatter a persons or a countrys comfort and memory. Neither are the poems quiet or purely contemplative; theres not a tender epistle in the bunch. And yet, with their emotional impact, they achieve a desperate beauty."
Read the full review here.
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John Van Kirk's novel, Song for Chance— a 2013 Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards finalist— was recently featured in the "Books for Readers" newsletter at Meredith Sue Willis.com.
Of Song for Chance, Willis writes, "This is, at its heart, a book for grown-ups, about how little we can change from who we are, yet how essential it is that we make the changes we can and how for those of us who are lucky, creative work abides."
For Willis' further thoughts on the novel, check out the full feature here.
More information on the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards and the complete list of finalists are available here.
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Over the weekend, Jessica Piazza received a great review from The Rumpus.
Melissa Leigh Gore writes, “Each poem thrums with a sense of purpose, contributes to a complex web of human feeling—anxiety, love—that will have the reader entranced and mulling over long after the words on the page are tucked onto a bookshelf.”
You can read the full review from The Rumpus here.
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Mike Sonksen, writing for KCET, heaps high praise upon Douglas Kearney and his newest book, Patter.
“Wielding an undeniable command of the poetic line, Kearney's poems mix humor, irreverence, adventure, and the deeply personal…His meticulous execution manifests both on the page and the stage. Kearney is one of the most progressive poets writing in this age.”
To read more, click here.
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Jason Barry of the Coal Hill Review applauds David Mason's great success in his poetry collection, Sea Salt, Poems of a Decade: 2004-2014
"Sea Salt is a heartfelt and touching collection of exquisitely crafted poems, and Mason succeeds admirably in putting the reader in touch with the textures of the earth and its animals, its elements and raw power, and for this he should be applauded."
To read the full review, click here.
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Nicelle Davis' latest poetry collection, Becoming Judas, was reviewed by Emily May Anderson of NewPages, who raved about the spirit and form of the poems.
Anderson writes, "The book also possesses a lightness, a spirit of play and creation. Davis plays freely not only with characters but also with form."
Read the full review here.
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Karen Gettert Shoemaker's debut novel, The Meaning of Names, gets positive remarks from the Historical Novel Society.
"Shoemaker presents readers with a simple, realistic cast of characters, a heart-rending story of endurance, and reminds us that both prejudice and forgiveness take many forms."
Read the full review here.
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The Historical Novel Society reviewed Dennis Must's new novel, The World's Smallest Bible, calling it a "challenging, thought-provoking, and worthwhile book."
Read the full review here.
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Verónica Reyes' latest collection, Chopper! Chopper! gets praised by Paloma Martinez-Cruz of Mujeres Talk for its rich depictions of culture and atmosphere.
"Reyes is at her best when she navigates the difficulty of voicing bicultural, transnational experience by moving in for the hyper close-up, telling us what she alone is capable of observing," states Martinez-Cruz.
Read the full review here.
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