It’s difficult to find a new way to examine an iconic figure, especially one as popular as Marilyn Monroe, but "Dressing Marilyn", by Andrew Hansford, manages to do precisely that. In cataloging the costumes created for Monroe by... Read More

Reading Edward Hoagland, accomplished naturalist and writer, or rather, losing oneself in Hoagland’s muscular and multitasking prose, one is quickly convinced that the only reliable way to depict a place is by the written word. Alaskan... Read More

From the 1950s up through the 1968 election, American toy maker Louis Marx produced a semi-educational series of presidential figurines. From Washington to Nixon, the presidents, each standing on a small base, were reduced to two and... Read More

Trying to put jazz into words can be tricky, like setting James Joyce to music. But Texas author, poet, and jazz expert Dave Oliphant has embraced a novel way to do so that is adventurous, just a little odd, and entirely satisfying.... Read More

The mention of Emily Dickinson’s name does not generally conjure up images of a hot-blooded hussy sneaking off for steamy encounters with a married man who was old enough to be her father. But that’s essentially the picture the... Read More

Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) Esad Boskailo survived the inconceivable—six concentration camps. He then managed to reconstruct his life in a new land (the US), learn a new language (English), further his studies (become a psychiatrist),... Read More

In one passage of her memoir, "Midnight Sun, Arctic Moon", Mary Albanese recounts coming across a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness with her brother. At his request, they camp out there for the night. The next morning the sound of a truck... Read More

“Rain” opens John Kinsella’s new collection about rural and small town life in Western Australia’s arid wheatbelt. As the book’s opening story, it’s perhaps a common prayer or even a tease in contrast to the perennial drought... Read More