John Proctor is about to turn seventy when he decides to buy a small farmhouse on the outskirts of the now mostly desolate mill town where he had grown up. Nostalgia haunts his waking hours and he often reminisces about the happier times in his life. One day in wintertime, John sees a young man in a mackinaw jacket with cloth sneakers that are soaked. He invites him in for some hot tea with lemon. Little does he know how this young man would impact his life most unexpectedly. Read MacLeish Sq. by Dennis Must to find out more.
News & Review Type: Review
MACLEISH SQ. by Dennis Must Receives a Five-Star Review on Readers’ Favorite!
PACIFIC LIGHT by David Mason Reviewed in Think Journal’s Winter/Spring 2023 Issue!
“Pacific Light may be a summing up, but it is also a new beginning, a book that marvels at the world while confronting loss through the lens of joy. Though individually dazzling, its poems combine to stunning effect, equaling—or even surpassing—the very best in Mason’s superb body of work.” —Ned Balbo, Think Journal
PACIFIC LIGHT by David Mason Reviewed in Literary Matters!
In Pacific Light, David Mason returns to a familiar theme: his conflicting desires to go places and to stay put. This master of the narrative poem, and a well-established voice in American letters, has, after building a reputation as a writer of the American West, moved to Tasmania.
SECRET HARVESTS by David Mas Masumoto Reviewed in the March 2023 issue of Booklist!
Stay tuned for the review March 1!
MACLEISH SQ. by Dennis Must Reviewed in The U.S. Review of Books
“At that moment we saw walking toward us a trio of bearded men in black robes mumbling to themselves what I inferred was the liturgy of The White Whale.”
As he approaches the age of seventy—the final trimester of his life—memories of John Proctor’s childhood draw him back to the hometown he could not wait to leave when he was eighteen. He buys a small farmhouse on the outskirts of town, which he repairs and paints, and settles in for the next phase of his life—a life of solitude if he has his way. He also repairs and adds windows to a large shed in the yard and transforms it into his personal retreat. Two years after moving in, John is startled to see a young man staring at him through one of those windows. His name is Eli, and he claims that John, through a set of strange circumstances, is his father.
EcoLit Books Reviews Thea Prieto’s FROM THE CAVES!
The end of the world is not for the faint of heart, and neither is Thea Prieto’s bold and beautiful novella about four humans pushed to the limits of climate catastrophe. Echoing the style of myths and examining the power of storytelling, From the Caves is about Sky, a young man coming of age and learning how to take responsibility for himself and his community.
Eamon Grennan’s PLAINCHANT reviewed in Good River Review!
In his gripping new poetry collection Plainchant, Eamon Grennan weaves a revelatory narrative, rich with precise detail, layered symbolism, and evocative imagery. Plainchant is a powerful compilation of personal reflections. Through his keen observations of the natural world, Grennan captures earth’s vibrant creatures, great and small. An undeniable master of his craft, Grennan is the author of more than ten poetry collections and recipient of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. His words transport and transcend, inviting readers not only to palpable landscapes across the world, but also to intimate places deep within. His lyrical voice and authentic tone lead the reader down a path of contemplation, introspection, and self-discovery.
Dennis Must’s MacLeish Sq. reviewed by Dactyl Review!
Edward Said, writing about Beethoven’s late style, defined late style as that time wherein the artist freed from the expected cultural and historical restraints of form and content unleashes a newness that both confounds and instructs. Dennis Must has achieved that hour of newness in MacLeish Sq (Red Hen Press, 209 pages). With its visual complexities coupled to broad-ranging literary interconnections, Must’s writing raises the text to a “beyond” state where the readers have to let go of what they know.
Brown Alumni Magazine reviews Diane Thiel’s QUESTIONS FROM OUTER SPACE!
Thiel’s third full-length poetry collection, and her twelfth book, arrives bristling with navigable strangeness and open-ended questions. The 67 sometimes otherworldly poems here weave through biology, parenting, the pandemic, world travel, life on Zoom, growing up in the South, the multiverse, and the fate of the earth, among other subjects.
Publishers Weekly reviews Artem Mozgovoy’s SPRING IN SIBERIA!
Mozgovoy’s superb debut follows a boy’s coming-of-age as the U.S.S.R. crumbles. Alexey feels like an alien living in Taiga, Siberia. Born in 1985, he grows up in poverty and witnesses the Union’s decline, noticing at age six how factories are closing and people no longer know what to do with themselves. He develops a fondness for reading poetry and dreams of a better life anywhere else, so it’s a special treat when he is sent at 12 to a Pioneer camp for three weeks. There, he feels empowered by singing songs and staging a play with his fellow creative comrades, making his return to real life all the more crushing.
Asian Review of Books reviews FUTURE LIBRARY: CONTEMPORARY INDIAN WRITING, edited by Anjum Hasan and Sampurna Chattarji!
A new anthology of Indian authors writing in, and translating into, English, Future Library: Contemporary Indian Writing creates a new sense of contemporariness on the Indian literary scene. This arrangement distinguishes the book from other anthologies of Indian literature which are for the most part organized around a linguistic binary: they are collections either of Indian writing in English or of Indian writing in regional languages English translation, while the project of anthologizing as a whole also seems to be restricted to English for it is difficult to recall any anthologies putting together regional literatures in a single volume.
Francesca Bell’s WHAT SMALL SOUND receives a Kirkus Starred Review!
A moving and musical set of poetic works.
Bell’s second collection of poems offers a portrait of motherhood, devastation, and hope.
The author’s first collection of poems, Bright Stain (2019),was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Julia Suk Award. Her newest book is a testament to her finely tuned poetic talent as she turns to grapple with far-reaching societal issues, including mental illness, gun violence, and sexual assault. More than anything, these works explore “the necessary work of opening” one’s self up to the world.
Louder Than War reviews Peter Ulrich’s DRUMMING WITH DEAD CAN DANCE AND PARALLEL ADVENTURES!
Sometime Dead Can Dance drummer Peter Ulrich takes a detailed trip back in time, to catalogue the band’s journey from shoe-string budget experimentalists to internationally esteemed sound artists.
Peter Ulrich describes his suburban upbringing in Harrow. He dabbles in music as a teenager and dips his toes into arts marketing as a theatre press officer. Meanwhile, the first inception of Dead Can Dance takes shape in Melbourne, Australia; at the helm are Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard (now most famous for her Grammy-winning Gladiator film score collaboration with Hans Zimmer). In 1982 the pair relocate to London in search of a recording deal. The musicians pursue a deep interest in ritual and ceremony drawing on global traditions and processes of immersion in sound. Gerrard distinctively uses a glossolalia singing technique. Paths cross when Perry invites Ulrich to audition in an estate community hall on the Isle of Dogs, where they are neighbours. Embarking upon the road not yet taken, as a Dead Can Dance percussionist and tour manager Ulrich’s journey begins.
North of Oxford reviews David Mason’s PACIFIC LIGHT
Mason is a poet defined by place, if it is Southeast Asia on the Pacific Rim or Northwest America, his poems breathe life of the people around him as well as the nature he observes and partakes in. Careful observation and craft abounds in these poems.
Spill Magazine Recommends Peter Ulrich’s DRUMMING WITH DEAD CAN DANCE AND PARALLEL ADVENTURES!
Dead Can Dance formed in their native Australia in 1981. The core of the band was (and is) Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard. When they relocated to England and settled in the east end of London named Isle of Dogs, they met drummer Peter Ulrich who joined the band. Drumming With Dead Can Dance & Parallel Adventures. A Memoir is Ulrich’s story about his time before, during and after Dead Can Dance. It is a treat to read, and it is a beautiful book.