Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of IMAGE Journal. Small Mothers of Fright by Tara Bray Beware the omnipresent wings, the iridescent stunner on the cover: they may trick you into thinking that Small Mothers of Fright, Tara Bray’s new collection of poems, is just another lovely book about birds. True, you’ll catch sight of the creatures—thrush …
Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of IMAGE Journal. Poems of Creative Mischief Abandoned Homeland by Jeff Gundy If there be anything curious, anything playful, anything vital noodling just beneath the quiet surface—think on these things. Or ask a question about them. Or make some poems that do both, as Jeff Gundy does in Abandoned Homeland. Gundy’s settings are …
Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of IMAGE Journal. Poems Radiating the Heart of Lent Other Acreage by Becca J.R. Lachman There are precisely 46 poems in Becca J.R. Lachman’s Other Acreage—a neat correspondence with the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter—and should you begin the book today (and do a little catch-up reading) you will embark upon a most pleasurable daily …
Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of IMAGE Journal. Dead-Serious Play The Milk Underground by Ronny Someck “I’m a pajama-Iraqi, my wife’s Romanian / And our daughter the thief from Baghdad. / My mother’s always boiling the Euphrates and Tigris….” Poet Ronny Someck’s family emigrated from Iraq to Israel when he was a child, and for readers unfamiliar with the …
Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of IMAGE Journal. Questions of Unfulfilled Longing Only So Far by Robert Cording When we’re turned away at the thousandth mile, having traveled 999 before it—when our labors of love never reach consummation—when we can’t get no satisfaction—well, what do we get instead? Robert Cording’s collection Only So Far poses this question from its very first poem, “Kafka’s Fence”: “Haven’t we …
Perhaps you know that special suffocating effect of 763 toys? (By the way, this is Part 2 of a brief series called The Art of Deletion—editing a piece of writing down to its essential core.) It doesn’t matter how much you vow to raise your child in spacious, creative simplicity. Well meaning relatives cannot allow …
It’s been a while since a book intrigued me as much as Aviya Kushner’s The Grammar of God. I’ve always cringed upon hearing people argue for “the inerrancy of Scripture.” I understand they’re trying to bolster the credibility of the Bible (as if it needs defenders, and doesn’t stand on its own as a great …
Our stories came back with Xs slashing out entire pages. The better pages were stripped of paragraphs. A line through a sentence began to seem mild. This was when I studied with a particularly vigorous writer/editor in the Bennington Writing Seminars. I requested him as a teacher, in part, because I wondered if I was up for it. I …
This week in The Common I reviewed a fabulously weird debut short story collection called Valparaiso, Round the Horn, by Madeline ffitch. And when a book is this rich in playful detail, it’s really challenging to choose just one title for your blog post. Rejected titles: Burning Your Grandfather’s Body × Feral Pigs and You × …