Herman Melville—mystic, orca oracle, and madness miner—left treasures of material for poets in Moby-Dick, and Steve Mentz found his muse in the idea of an Ahab-less Pequod—a multiracial, queer, and cruisier ship on a bountifully... Read More

In Jacquelyn Benson’s adventure-filled novel "Empire of Shadows", a British bluestocking teams up with a dashing American surveyor in hopes of finding an ancient secret. In the nineteenth century, spirited, impulsive Ellie harbors... Read More

J. Drew Lanham’s "Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves" is a stunning amalgamation of literary prose and poetry. Biology connects Lanham’s two worlds of wildlife and Black being. His entries are close studies of the rhythms and... Read More

In Christophe Bernard’s novel "The Hollow Beast", a patriarch’s fervent pursuit of revenge has intergenerational consequences with the emergence of a mysterious beast that haunts one of his descendants decades later. During a fateful... Read More

Rachel Trethewey’s "Mothers of the Mind" is a studied, reflective analysis of the relationships between three literary icons and their mothers. Virginia Woolf’s mother, Julia, is presented as a woman of remarkable beauty who rejected... Read More

Physicist Claudia de Rham’s intimate scientific memoir "The Beauty of Falling" reveals the ups and downs of a life obsessed with gravity. After besting over ten thousand applicants, de Rham’s dream of becoming an astronaut was dashed... Read More

Bright splashes of yellow jump out from a soothing seaside palette in this fantastical LGBTQ+ picture book. Though he loves the ocean, there is one thing Nen, a merman, cannot find even in its unfathomable depths: love. Every night, Nen... Read More

John Pavlovitz’s "Worth Fighting For" is a stirring playbook for Christians who strive to ensure that kindness triumphs over toxicity. Pavlovitz has an uncomfortable truth to break: God will not swoop in to solve the world’s... Read More