Most Americans and Europeans see the Roman Empire as centered on Greece, France, Britain, and Spain. Relatively little thought is given to Rome in North Africa and the Near East, and even less to conquests in eastern Anatolia and beyond... Read More

"Birds of Wonder" is an absorbing, often disturbing mystery in which no one seems truly trustworthy by the end. When a beautiful and audacious teenager is found dead in a sleepy college town, everyone is under suspicion—from her foster... Read More

Because the universe is big and all but incomprehensible, the average Jills and Joes don’t dare ask too many existential questions. It is left to poets to face the truth in those places the rest of us fear to tread. The author of... Read More

What are poets tempted by? Rhyme. Alliteration. Experimentation. Obscurantism. The list is much longer, but those four lead a great many lesser mortals astray; one of them, painfully so: experimentation. And yet, Brenda Hillman reminds... Read More

Immersion in the study of ancient history lends itself to a dream state of being, and biblical history is even further down the rabbit hole. There is good poetry to be had in these mists-of-time places and Jane Medved has her way with... Read More

Woefully unfair. Dedicated to a deceased father, this collection is so powerful and precious, it’s heartbreaking to realize how meaningful it would have been for the old man, if he had the chance to read it. Oh, James Crews, your dad... Read More

Jacqueline Waters is practiced at the velvet glove-iron fist approach to poetry, at times finessing or obscuring the poem’s impact so that when it lands, the force is staggering. Her poetry has appeared in Harper’s, Chicago Review,... Read More

When the poet gets personal, asking the stranger to sit through her deep feelings about her body, her lover, her dreams and fears, the stranger makes a demand in return: only if you interest me, poet. And yes, Kiki Petrosino fully... Read More