James Alan McPherson recommends Don’t the Moon Look Lonesome, a first novel by Stanley Crouch: “This is an extraordinary effort by Stanley Crouch to employ the improvisational resources to the blues idiom to explore, in the novel form, the nuances of contemporary reality. In attempting to use ‘riffs’ to examine the emotional and psychological…
Dan Wakefield recommends Dreamtime Alice, a memoir by Mandy Sayer: “A compelling memoir of a young woman tap-dancer who works with her musician father on streets corners of New York and New Orleans. A fine work of the memoir genre.” (Ballantine)
Robert Pinsky recommends Each in a Place Apart, poems by James McMichael (Univ. of Chicago): “An extraordinary book-length poem or sequence about love and failed love; absolutely original formally, yet clear and plain.”
Mark Dotyrecommends Ejo, poems by Derick Burleson: “This remarkable book chronicles two years in Rwanda, just before that nation’s social and moral collapse. Formally adept, attentive to the dangerous edges of language, Burelson’s first book is astonishingly coherent, fierce, and smart.” (Wisconsin)
Jane Hirshfield recommends Elegies, poems by Lars Gustafsson: “One of the world’s major poets, Lars Gustafsson has lived quietly in this country since 1983. His poems have the kind of sureness of line we admire in the drawings of the old masters, and his engagement is with essential matters. Yet within his imaginative authority there…
Don Lee recommends Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction, nonfiction by Charles Baxter: “In nine brilliant essays, Baxter displays his characteristic wit and intelligence as he muses about the influences of culture and politics on the art of storytelling.” (Graywolf)
Gary Soto recommends Calle 10,a first novel by Danny Romero: ” Calle 10is a novel of Chicano lowlife in Oakland. The main character is a dude named Zero, his name summarizing what this novel is all about. The writing is gritty. If you like chewing on the salty rocks of hard living, this is for…
Dan Wakefield recommends City of a Hundred Fires, poems by Richard Blanco: “An exciting first book by a young Cuban American of great talent.” (Pittsburgh)
Dan Wakefield recommends City of a Hundred Fires, poems by Richard Blanco: “A stunning first book of poems by a young Cuban-American writer of awesome lyrical talent. This book tells the story of the Cuban-American experience as powerfully as a novel, and speaks to all who appreciate personal insight, irony, and love of language, both…
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