Peter Crimmins examines the evolution of the sonnet in his article for Newsworks, focusing on modern poetry that reimagines this classic poetic form in new and exciting ways.
Red Hen's very own Ernest Hilbert is one of Crimmins' featured poets, stating, “Hilbert experiments with how many ways he can prod, twist, and kick at the sonnet to pull the form into the 21st century,” when describing Hilbert's poetry collection All of You on the Good Earth.
Read the rest of Crimmins' article at Newsworks: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/arts–culture/item/63273-finding-beauty-inside-rules-the-sonnet-makes-a-small-comeback
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The Ampersand Review praised Nicelle Davis' poetry collection, Becoming Judas, in a review of her work.
Reviewer Darby Laine writes, "This talented author's living testimony is crafted as interpretation, extension of the old, a personal addition, Becoming Judas by Nicelle Davis, the archetyping process of a woman exposed."
To read the full article, view the Ampersand Review here: http://ampersandreview.com/2014/01/becoming-judas-by-nicelle-davis/
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The Bulletin of Overseas Brats praises Steve Basset's memoir Golden Ghetto.
"This book has the benefit of a very gifted writer because the more interested and fascinated he becomes, the better the story of Chateaurouxs unique history unfolds."
Lisa Barrow from Alibi calls Steve Basset's style in Golden Ghetto: How the Americans & French Fell In & Out of Love During the Cold War "enthusiastic."
"Bassetts old-school journalistic approach and fondness for polysyllabics is fused with an enthusiastic storytelling style. His chapter titles and subtitleslike "Escaping, Eggs, and Betrayal," "Communists Eating Popcorn, and Séances and Pink Ladiesespecially capture the vivacity of his voice."
To read the full article click here
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Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano, author of Amorcito Maricón names Verónica Reyes's Chopper! Chopper! Poetry From Bordered Lives in his top three favorite LGBT books of 2013.
"Chopper! Chopper! Poetry from Bordered Lives is a love letter, a manifesto, and a crooning lullaby chronicling with exquisite nuance the beauty and torment of lives and life of those of us who straddle literal and imagined borders of brown lands, brown bodies, brown desires, and brown hearts."
Read the full Band of Thebes article here:
The Best LGBT Books of 2013: 92 Writers Name Their Favorites
Brian McGackin from LitReactor calls Ron Koertge's The Ogre's Wife "the book that's going to get you back into poetry."
"Koertge isn't trying to be smart; he is smart. He doesn't flaunt it, though. Instead, he weaves various little aspects of life and love and culture and death and all the things you want a poem to be about together in easily accessible packages….Every page is beautiful."
To read the full review, click here.
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LitBridge's Analicia Sotelo discusses the very "personal" feel of the poems of Brynn Saito's The Palace of Contemplating Departure.
"Saito writes about departure with a meditative restlessness that asks if departure brings people together or rips them apart, or does both at the same time. Her powerful voice pushes on for answers, and will make you want to read more."
To read the full review, click here.
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Morgan Harlow from Verse Wisconsin discusses the strengths of Ron Carlson's Room Service.
"Ron Carlsons Room Service: Poems, Meditations, Outcries & Remarks…is genuinely engaging….Throughout this collection, the key to humor is intelligence and subtlety in the delivery, the timing, and the relevance to the times…and a playfulness with words and ideas that reveals a kind heart and is, at times, charmingly urbane."
To read the full review, click here.
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Wren from hazel & wren loves Eloise Klein Healy's A Wild Surmise: New & Selected Poems & Recordings.
"Regardless of the subject, all of her poems drip with wisdom and assurance, and its obvious that her poetic voice is unabashedly confident in its own wildness….Whatever you can do to encounter Healys poems, please do."
To read the full review, click here.
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Michael Caylo-Baradi from NewPages has much to say about Andrew Lam's Birds of Paradise Lost.
"Lam's single story, in this collection, is the immigrant story; the pursuit of the American Dream is indelible to its narrative, the struggle that transforms, meditates, and forges new ways of being in a new land. Through clear, accessible prose, Lam tells that story over and over again convincingly, unapologetic…But the more Lam repeats that rhythm and the deeper he takes us into the lives of these characters, something gives and fades, which blurs not only the dimension of stereotype we perceive in them, but also the line between their Vietnamese and American identities."
To read the full review, click here.
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Dave Lucas from Cleveland Plain-Dealer calls Tess Taylor's The Forage House a "haunting first book."
"Taylor's archaeological eye is also her most astonishing poetic gift: to render what we call 'history' in the present tense. This magpie poetics extends to a love of words borrowed or recovered….Taylor refashions the past, but her future promises even more."
To read the full review, click here.
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Emily May Anderson from NewPages promises that Eloise Klein Healy's A Wild Surmise is "well worth adding to this falls reading list."
"Whether a reader is already familiar with Healys work or not, the poems are engaging, the presentation is savvy, and the subjects (love, death, nature, urban life) are both timely and timeless….It is difficult to do justice to such an expansive and beautiful collection as Healy has put together here…but reading it was a joy."
To read the full review, click here.
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SusieBookworm talks Birds of Paradise Lost in her recent blog post.
"Lam is certainly able to effectively condense all he wants said into a relatively brief amount of space…There are just tales of ordinary people's life experiences, told succinctly and simply, that carry a power beyond their deceptively understated style."
To read the full review, click here.
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Julie Sarkissian adds John Van Kirk's Song for Chance to her list of new and notable debut novels.
"The novel conveys a genuine passion for rock music, and cleverly includes liner notes, song titles, lyrics and a discography…Van Kirk raises compelling if age-old questions about the tension between art and life, and about our responsibilities to those we love…"
To read the full review, click here.
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In the current issue of The Collagist, a monthly journal by Dzanc Books, Tyler Mills reviews Brynn Saito's debut collection of poetry.
The Palace of Contemplating Departure is daring in that its voices push what is beautiful to the edge of that which is beyond comprehension. The voices in this collection will stay in your head; they are voices that refuse what is easy for what is real, and they create beauty out of illusion as devastating, and necessary, as that illusion is.
Tyler Mills, The Collagist
To read the full review, click here.
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