Categoría: Poetry Bookshelf
-
Beauty in Action
Thanks to Christina Chin for the video, and to Christina and Jerome Berglund for collaborating on the renga!
-
Ken Anderson’s “The Ward at Twilight: Goth Poems” Is Available for Purchase!
Having a bad life? Read about one that’s worse: liebestod, deep depression, mental illness, suicide, death, and miraculous resurrection (the ultimate happy ending). Feel better? The Ward at Twilight: Goth Poems skillfully blends two distinct literary traditions (stylish contemporary poetry and the vintage Gothic in American and British literature) for the blackest witch’s…
-
Featuring Sam Moe’s New Book “I Might Trust You”
SorryFor carrying the ghost around this long. Nineteen years weep into twenty. You’re still bleeding, wondering when dreaming turned into exhaustion. Someone comes to pick you up during a snowstorm and you find yourself crying in the back of the car, thinking about what you really shouldn’t be thinking about.…
-
«Don’t Shoot the Messenger: Just Give Him a Good Place to Hide» by John Yamrus
Enjoy these two poems from the latest book by John Yamrus, «Don’t Shoot the Messenger: Just Give Him a Good Place to Hide:» his poems alwaystried to tacklethe “big issues”… Death,Life, Love, Good, Evil… all theusual stuffthat needs to bespelled with a capital letter. his onlyother goal in lifewas to…
-
Featuring Ken Tomaro, Author of «Standing Lonely in the Alley»
Barbara Leonhard: The title of this collection inspires a strong image. Standing Lonely in the Alley. How did you come up with the title for the book? Ken Tomaro: Uh, good question. The short answer is, most of my poetry comes from a place of living with depression, and consequently, your…
-
Interview with Joshua Vigil by Pete Mladinic
Just as characters in stories are in settings, do you have a particular time and place where you write, a particular setting, or does that setting vary? Like many others, I’m very particular about where/when I write. It has to be in the morning, and it has to be at my…
-
Being with Others, Pete Mladnic’s review of “Bastardland” by Joshua Vigil
“Ever been to a gay bar? said the older man.” That’s the first sentence in “Bastardland,” a collection of stories that puts Joshua Vigil among the best fiction writers today. Vigil’s stories are gay. They are real, surreal, and speculative. One of the best things about them is their resistance…
-
A Review of «Coming Home» by Smitha Vishwanath by Barbara Leonhard
Vishwanath’s Epigraph Poem for “Coming Home”I dare to make mistakes I dare to ask for helpI dare to changeI dare not rest on my laurels I dare not be complacentI dare not flow with the tideI dare to steer my ship in new waters I dare to walk on uncharted…
-
The Light of Day, Pete Mladinic’s Review of «Yellow Chrysanthemum» by Munmun Samanta
In “Sia’s Dream of Dawn” a woman is alone in a garden, thinking, and very attuned to her surroundings. Readers at first think she may be an artist and she’s going to paint the sky. As the story unfolds, readers learn she’s a writer, and it’s as if she’s giving…
-
5 Poems from “Mirrored Images” by Chyrel J. Jackson
Artwork from Pinterest Leave Me Alone with My BluesSome days, all a person has is their blues.I’m talking the Albert KingI’ve-Been-Down-Since-I-Began- to-Crawl blues.The down home, Play-the-Other-Record or Two- collard-greens-with-cornbread-on-the-side blues.The kind where you just want to be left alone with yourmelancholy. Let me feel what I’m feeling. The pain of…
-
Featuring “Cora’s Quest” an Interview with Lauren Scott
Across from my house lies our neighborhood park. From my front yard, I can see the small bridge that traverses the creek. We often see small herds of deer feeding on the grass in the park. One doe that lives in my brother’s back yard has borne many fawns in…
-
Christ Is All, Pete Mladinic’s review of “Hasty Corporeal Ink” by Lisa Cooper
Hasty Corporeal Ink is a book of Christian poetry. Christ is all, as in the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins in the nineteenth century U.K., and Vassar Miller in the twentieth century United States. It is a book of poems in traditional forms. On one hand, the forms restrain, (in…
-
“STORIES FROM THE BEFORE” by Ray Whitaker
There are many great warriorsand the tales about themare about the steel the shiny metal dragons flying separating the woodgrey metal whales cleaving the seathose steel armadillos dissevering the enemy. There are many great renditionsabout the brave, who once having been fearful,became fearless, facing enemies with found courage. My Father was one of…
-
Interview with Loralee Clark About «Solemnity Rites»
Thanks to Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld for interviewing Loralee Clark! If you’re in the area, Loralee will have a reading/signing for «Solemnity Rites» at Turn the Page bookstore in Williamsburg on August 30th from 12-4 p.m. You will hear her read from her upcoming book, «Neolithic Imaginings,» to be published in early 2026. She will…
-
Interview with Beth Mulcahy: “Firmer Ground”
NF: Tell me about your personal writing journey. What drew you into writing? BM: I began writing when I was about 10 years old. I was inspired by a 1987 film I saw called 84 Charing Cross Road. It is based on the book of the same name by writer…
-
“Playing with Food” by Robbie Cheadle
We’re not at all hungryBut we still huntedWe took down a young wildebeest; deliciousRomping around will helpBuild our appetites The sun is getting hotAnd uncomfortableWe collectively decide to move our killTogether we drag itUnder a large bush Hunger finally knocksBut before we eatOne sister takes a stroll to the road…
LatinosUSA 