The Dumbbell Nebula by Steve Kowit
Jane Hirshfield recommends The Dumbbell Nebula, poems by Steve Kowit: “A book of rangy, big-hearted, capacious poems, full of surprising wisdoms and affection for the world as it is.” (Heyday)
Review
Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa by Charles Nicholl
Charles Baxter recommends Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa, a biography by Charles Nicholl: “An eerie, brilliant, and weirdly comic story about a poet who gradually became a real-life Joseph Conrad character.” (Chicago)
rev. of The Best of the West #4 an anthology edited by James and Denise Thomas
The West is a place of myth, legend, and genre. "Call it a geography of the heart — a geological survey of western literary imagination," write the editors. The stories in this collection were chosen not necessarily because they are from and about the region, but because they follow a tradition in theme and setting,…
rev. of The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
In Delmore Schwartz's short story, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, the protagonist imagines a film of his parents' courtship. He watches in impotent anguish for a while as they move inexorably toward their future and his, and then he stands suddenly and shouts to them not to do it, that nothing good can ever come of…
Someone to Watch Over Me by Richard Bausch
George Garrettrecommends Someone to Watch Over Me, stories by Richard Bausch: “Twelve new stories by one of the most gifted short fiction writers alive and writing.” (HarperCollins)
The Black Notebooks by Toi Derricotte
Maxine Kumin recommends The Black Notebooks, a memoir by Toi Derricotte: “Searing. Read it.” (Norton)
The Edge of Marriage by Hester Kaplan
Justin Kaplan recommends The Edge of Marriage, debut stories by Hester Kaplan: “Winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award and praised by The New York Times Book Review for the work’s ‘graceful, accomplished prose’ and by The Boston Globe for the portrayal of ‘articulate adults, fully aware at every moment of the agony they are…
Spare Change by Kevin Pilkington
Thomas Lux recommends Spare Change, poems by Kevin Pilkington: “Tough, quirky, lucid poems by a poet unafraid of being understood.” (La Jolla Poets)
rev. of The Blue Hour by Elizabeth Evans
The Blue Hour A novel by Elizabeth Evans. Algonquin Books, $17.95 cloth. Reviewed by Janet Desaulniers. In Elizabeth Evans’s first novel, The Blue Hour, the narrator, Penny, recounts her teenaged years with both a child’s twitchy, anticipatory dread of the future and an adult’s sorrowful knowledge of the past. The book peels away the decorous…