Book Review
Produce Wagon
In the best of poetry—unmistakably present and resonant to the reader—we find the physical embodiment of wordcraft: sound, rhythm, music. What Roy Scheele creates on the page is poetry’s equivalent to the enlightenment of the...
Book Review
None of This Belongs to Me
A new poet commands spontaneous attention. What never existed is suddenly, irrevocably secured between Ellie Sawatzky and reader because of the power of her work. This debut collection follows Sawatzky’s receipt of the CV2’s 2017...
Book Review
A Man with a Rake
We can convince ourselves that we know Midwestern soil, a stream bank, the stillness of a cedar fence post, but Ted Kooser shows otherwise in this collection of eighteen poems, his fifteenth collection. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner,...
Book Review
Trickster Academy
With wry humor moistening the margins of her poems, Jenny Davis showcases how her Indigenous people have become experts in sorrow and seethe. Director of the American Indian Studies Program and a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, Davis is...
Book Review
Jordemoder
Introducing something precious to the world is hallowed work, and we imagine Ingrid Andersson derives slightly more pleasure from fulfilling her midwife duties than those of a poet. Her study of German, Swedish, French, and English...
Book Review
Say What You Will
Some twinkles transcend the page; Len Krisak will stop at nothing to roll your eyes, jelly your belly, and lift your better spirits. With degrees from the University of Michigan and Brandeis University, Krisak spent thirty-five years...
Book Review
All the Names Given
If the ability to hold two opposing thoughts at the same time and still function is a sign of intellect, what are we to make of Raymond Antrobus’s depth of awareness, originality, and empathy—all turned inside out and refracted into...
Book Review
The Girl Singer
Poetry is always looking for voices from the wilderness, and with her country music cool, Southeastern Kentucky’s Marianne Worthington is a fitting, masterful voice for Appalachia. Her work has appeared in Oxford American, CALYX,...