Review

Empty Bed Blues by George Garrett

George Garrett, Empty Bed Blues, stories: The fifteen stories in Garrett’s thrilling collection are deeply concerned with the old verities of love and death. (Missouri)

The Usable Field by Jane Mead

David St. John recommends The Usable Field, by Jane Mead: “There is a far greater spareness to these new poems of Jane Mead’s, yet they are as philosophically complex and stylistically compelling as those in her two previous collections. Yet this more honed style has only amplified the ferocity of her attention to the natural…

1940 by Jay Neugeboren

Jay Neugeboren, 1940, a novel: Neugeboren’s first novel in twenty years presents a fictional account of an obscure historical figure, Dr. Eduard Bloch, an Austrian doctor who achieved notoriety for being Adolf Hitler’s childhood physician. (Two Dollar Radio)

American War Poetry, edited by Lorrie Goldensohn

Lorrie Goldensohn, American War Poetry, anthology: Covering five centuries, these fascinating poems edited by Goldensohn put into sharp relief America’s complex, conflicted, and evolving attitudes toward war. (Columbia)

For a Limited Time Only by Ronald Wallace

David St. John also recommends For a Limited Time Only, by Ronald Wallace: “With his signature humor and elegant wit, Ron Wallace makes clear that the ‘limited time’ of the title is our own mortal passage. This is a death-inflected collection, filled with meditations upon illness that refuse to buckle in the face of the…

That Little Something by Charles Simic

Charles Simic, That Little Something, poems: In his superb eighteenth collection, Simic moves closer to the dark heart of history and human behavior. (Harcourt)

After by Jane Hirshfield

Jane Hirshfield, After, poems: Profoundly moving, After is an extended investigation into mutability and incarnation, desire and loss, and our intimate connection with others. (HarperCollins)

Visit Me in California by Cooley Windsor

Maura Stanton recommends Visit Me in California, by Cooley Windsor: “Cooley Windsor’s brief stories (or are these poems?) are wildly imaginative and wildly funny. This is an unforgetable, orginal book that will make you laugh and think and gasp and hand the book to someone else shouting ‘Read This!!’” (TriQuarterly/Northwestern)

Immortal Sofa by Maura Stanton

Maura Stanton, Immortal Sofa, poems: In poems both humorous and elegaic, Maura Stanton gathers strange facts, odd events, and overlooked stories to construct her own vision of immortality. (Illinois)