Editor's Shelf

Broken Ground by Kai Maristed

Margot Livesey recommends Broken Ground, a novel by Kai Maristed: “Maristed brilliantly depicts a woman’s search for her daughter and her past in Germany before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The novel moves gracefully between past and present, personal and political, and is intelligent, absorbing, and suspenseful at every level.” (Shoemaker &…

Search Party by William Matthews

Gerald Stern recommends Search Party, collected poems of William Matthews: “For my money, the new selected of Bill Matthews is a bit too thin considering his extraordinary vision and voice, but it is a magnificent book that the editors Sebastian Matthews and Stanley Plumly have brought out. I think Matthews will take his place as…

Ripe by Roy Jacobstein

Jane Hirshfield recommends Ripe, poems by Roy Jacobstein: "Roy Jacobstein’s Ripe, winner of the Felix Pollak Prize, is a book of balance, precision, vision, courage, and wit. Each poem feels solidly present in what it knows, each poem is fragrant with lived life—just as its title implies, here is a poet come into his ripeness."…

A Tragic Honesty by Blake Bailey

DeWitt Henry recommends A Tragic Honesty, a biography by Blake Bailey: “Richard Yates comes fully alive as an artist and as a man in this meticulously researched, judicious, and critically perceptive biography. Blake Bailey has done for Yates what Carlos Baker did for Hemingway, allowing Yates himself to speak from letters, archives, reported conversations, and…

Fire by Wesley McNair

Philip Levine recommends Fire, poems by Wesley McNair: “Is there any poet around who can catch the singular qualities of American voices better than Wesley McNair? If so, I haven’t found her. In this, his fifth book of poetry-and for me his most beautiful and moving-he reunites a dismal collection of people (what we call…