Category: Book Reviews

Secret Signature: The Quiet Revolution of Berthe Morisot

One Madder Woman, Dede Crane. Freehand Books 2020

Boundaries

Gold Rush, Claire Caldwell. Invisible Publishing 2020

Making a Difference

Reaching Mithymna, Steven Heighton. Biblioasis, 2020. 

It is not the poem which closes

A Tent, A Lantern, An Empty Bowl and Keeping Count, M. Travis Lane. Gordon Hill Press, 2020

Let’s begin with rocks and mud.

The poem “May Rocks,” which appears nearly midway through Keeping Count, M. Travis Lane’s most recent collection, begins with a single-word sentence: “Spring.” This is followed by rocks that “butt and push” in a lawn “jagged with dragon’s teeth.” It continues:

“Accept this rock, its odd love”

Crow Gulch, Douglas Walbourne-Gough. Goose Lane Editions, 2019.

. . . careful, layered creation

A Dark House and Other Stories, Ian Colford. Vagrant Press, 2019.

“Tronno Hijabi”

Washes, Prays, Noor Naga. McClelland and Stewart, 2020.

Kumquats and Eclipses

Soft Power, Stewart Cole. Goose Lane Editions, 2019.

You Don’t Want It Darker

Dirty Birds, Morgan Murray. Breakwater, 2020.

Is there anyone else out there who loves a big, thick, old-fashioned novel that is written with such sparkle and fluidity that you dive right in and only come up for air at three am when your vision shuts down and your bed has become a raft on the ocean of that new world? A.S. Byatt’s Possession is one such book for me.