Editor's Shelf

James Alan McPherson recommends The Huntsman, a novel by Whitney Terrell: “This is an excellent exploration of racial and class interactions in contemporary American life. But much more than this, Whitney provides the reader with a knowing view of Kansas City-a sense of place that is evocative of a settled way of life. This book…

Gary Soto recommends Rumba Atop the Stones, poems by Orlando Ricardo Menes: “There is lush music to Menes’s first book, and this lushness may arise from his subject, namely the Caribbean islands, particularly Cuba, his parents’ homeland. He writes of its populace-the dock worker, the sugar cane worker, the worker slaving at all trades-and the…

Russell Banks recommends Senseless, a novel by Stona Fitch: “A scary, smart moral fable for the post-9/11 U.S. reality, it’s short and not at all sweet.” (Soho)

George Garrett recommends Forever Remembered, interviews edited by Irv Broughton: “This is a wonderful gathering of interviews with World War II combat pilots. Broughton, a poet and filmmaker, is every bit as good as Studs Terkel in eliciting the stories and memories of these old guys.” (Eastern Washington)

DeWitt Henry recommends Deep River: A Memoir of a Missouri Farm, by David Hamilton: “In an experimental ‘memoir’ that extends from the personal to the regional to the historic and geographical with an epic sweep comparable to Thoreau’s in Walden and William Carlos Williams’s in Paterson, New Jersey, Hamilton considers the legacies of injustice in…

Fanny Howe recommends Veil, poems by Rae Armantrout: “A selection of Armantrout’s poems from the past twenty years that were published by small presses. Irony, paranoia, passion, written with precision and glitter. A jewel.” (Wesleyan)

Joyce Peseroff recommends An Ark of Sorts, poems by Celia Gilbert: “A powerful, beautifully written book with a compelling subject. In this delicately shaped series of poems, a mother recalls the passage of a year after the death of a child. An apartment in Paris is first a place of exile, then a place of…

Philip Levine recommends Overtime, poems by Joseph Millar: “If you want the real news of how America lives, of what it’s like to be here with us, Joseph Millar is your poet. What are the folks like at Ed’s Auto Repair ‘that dim cool mine / smelling of gas and iron’ or what’s it like…

David Daniel recommends World’s Tallest Disaster, poems by Cate Marvin: “With World’s Tallest Disaster, Cate Marvin makes the most spectacular debut in recent memory. Brimming with vitality, wit, and imagination, it will likely stand as a benchmark for and inspiration to a generation of younger poets. This is a wonderful book.” (Sarabande)