Maura Stanton recommends Crossing, a first novel by Manuel Luis Martinez: “A powerful first-person narrative, based on a true incident, about a sixteen-year-old boy trying to cross the Mexican/Texas border in a sweltering railroad boxcar with twelve older desperate men.” (Bilingual)
Philip Levine recommends Believers, stories and a novella by Charles Baxter: “This is a superb collection; the stories are unusually daring and imaginative-‘Time Exposure’ and ‘The Lures for Love’ are two not to be forgotten. The novella ‘Believers’ demonstrates an extraordinary ability to deal with and invoke a past era and to show how sex,…
Jane Hirshfield recommends Below Cold Mountain, poems by Joseph Stroud: “One of the finest collections of poems I’ve read in years-intelligent, sensuous, moving, full of human insight.” (Copper Canyon)
James Alan McPherson recommends Billy Verité, a novel by Rick Harsch: “A portrait of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the human condition, in late twentieth-century America, from an absolutely original point of view.” (Steerforth)
David Gullette recommends Bite Every Sorrow, poems by Barbara Ras: “Barbara Ras has written a dazzling first book of poems-C. K. Williams’s choice for this year’s Walt Whitman Award. She favors long, opulent, clever lines, as when she falls for a man in Central America: ‘I loved the gesture for wait, two hands pumping the…
Maxine Kumin recommends Black Drum, poems by Enid Shomer: “Dazzling work by a Florida poet now living in Manhattan; Shomer weaves her net so skillfully that the reader is caught up in the story long before realizing the formal element that holds the squares in place. This book deserves serious attention.” (Arkansas)
Philip Levine recommends Boy, poems by Patrick Phillips. "For me this is a real discovery. In many of the poems—’Nathaniel’ or ‘Matinee’ or ‘Star Quilt’—the language is quiet and accurate, the details precise, and the emotions—though never insisted upon—are there, unquestionable and complex. Phillips never dawdles or repeats himself; he gets down what matters…
Joyce Peseroff recommends History of Hurricanes, poems by Teresa Cader: "Cader’s third book examines the mind, heart and soul of contemporary life through domestic speculations, historical wonder, and a response to the natural world that’s both lyrical and visceral. Her sharp observations on the precariousness of what we possess—knowledge, love, and joy—enrich the reader’s…
Don Leerecommends A Gesture Life, a novel by Chang-rae Lee: “This novel — a magnificent follow-up to Lee’s first book, Native Speaker — has received a fair amount of media attention already, but enough cannot be said about it. Lyrical, powerful, truly remarkable.” (Riverhead)
No products in the cart.