Editor's Corner

Marilyn Hacker, Desesperanto, poems: In her brilliant tenth collection, with typical wit, brio, and intelligence, Hacker refines the themes of loss, exile, and return that have consistently informed her work. (Norton)

Sherman Alexie, Ten Little Indians, stories: In this powerful, exuberant new collection, Alexie presents stories about Native Americans who find themselves at personal and cultural crossroads that test their notions of who they are and who they love. (Grove)

Ellen Bryant Voigt, Shadow of Heaven, poems: Philip Levine submits: “Once again in her poetry, Voigt plumbs the stubbornness of the human spirit and the mysteries of the world in which it lives and dies. Although she surrenders none of her gift for storytelling, this new work is her most lyrical, and as always her…

Donald Hall, Willow Temple, stories: There are twelve stories here—five from The Ideal Bakery and six collected for the first time, as well as one new tale—and the volume attests to Hall’s mastery as a storyteller, the prose lyrical and elegiac as he movingly unfolds each character’s frailties. (Houghton Mifflin)

Madison Smartt Bell, Anything Goes, a novel: Showing stunning versatility in his thirteenth book, Bell follows a twenty-year-old bass player, Jesse Melungeon, over the course of a year as he traverses the South with his bar band. (Pantheon)

Anne Bernays and Justin Kaplan, Two Lives in 1950s New York, a memoir: In alternating chapters, Bernays and Kaplan charmingly recount their youth, courtship, and new careers in publishing and writing in Manhattan during the fifties. (Morrow)

Jorie Graham, Never, poems: Graham undertakes a dazzling exploration of time in the twenty-seven lyrics of her ninth collection-time as it exists in nature, history, evolution, consciousness, human interaction, and belief. (Ecco)

Alberto Ríos, The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body, poems: Ríos wryly carves poems from fable, parable, and family legend to examine the Nogales, Arizona, of his childhood-a literal and metaphorical border between the U.S. and Mexico. (Copper Canyon)

Elizabeth Spires, Now the Green Blade Rises, poems: Spires movingly meditates on the life-and-death matters of midlife-the separation of parent from child, the loss of family and friends, the evolving nature of our closest relationships. (Norton)