Debut collections mark an irreversible moment in a poet’s career, even while the previous years of labor and individually published poems testify to both resilience and talent. Sarah Audsley is a Korean American adoptee from Vermont,... Read More
In Nebraska poet Terese Svoboda’s haunting novel "Dog on Fire", a small town reels in the wake of a tragedy. In a dusty town in contemporary times, an unnamed man dies under mysterious circumstances. In the months that follow his loss,... Read More
A heartfelt memoir that also serves to document LGBTQ+ marriage in the US, Rob Kirby’s "Marry Me a Little" combines the personal and the political into a single, affecting graphic novel. Kirby’s story centers on October 3, 2013, the... Read More
In a small Kentucky town where “witch hazel and shaving soap scent…the air,” a boy learns to love art by watching his father paint pictures before work. His father warns him, though, that art should be a mere hobby—it won’t pay... Read More
In Angela Woodward’s ruminative surrealist novel "Ink", everyday life is juxtaposed with testimonies related to war crimes. The skill most appreciated in a typist is accuracy. All Marina and Sylvia know about their new job is that they... Read More
Emmanuel Laroche’s "Conversations Behind the Kitchen Door" features interviews with an impressive range of American chefs, restaurateurs, mixologists, and other culinary innovators. Born in Versailles, Laroche grew up with a gourmet... Read More
Held together by references to Chicago, Keenan Norris’s "Chi Boy" is a memoir, a social history, a eulogy for his ancestors, and a tribute to inspiring literary men. Jim Crow racism drove Norris’s family north, landing them in... Read More
In his visionary memoir-in-essays "Without Saints", Christopher Locke freezes the past, covering enforced religiosity, self-destructive habits, his marriage and fatherhood, and teaching. In a framework that mimics the nature of memory,... Read More