Book Review
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Sarah Gibbs’ “The Hundred-Year Circus” (Frontenac House, 2024) is a complex poetry book that merges lyricism, allegory, and history, reflecting on Bob Dylan and American culture. It challenges readers with its dense structure and symbolism, moving beyond conventional poetry collections. This work is a thought-provoking exploration, suitable for deeper literary analysis and cultural studies.
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Nicholas Catanoy’s “The Fiddlehead Nation,” a rare Canadian poetry collection published in 1979, explores Atlantic Canada’s landscapes and cultures through vibrant, eco-poetic lens. Catanoy weaves observations of Indigenous peoples alongside natural imagery, presenting nuanced perspectives rarely showcased in Canadian literature. Its avant-garde style offers readers a unique, road-trip experience.
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You Were Here Andre Narbonne 72 pages Flat Singles Press (2017) It is often said that poetry done right is one part memory, one part experience. Narbonne’s debut collection of poetry affords us this type of poetry, straddling the lines of a shared world and the very internal emotional way one experiences that world. This…
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Let’s start here. I met Campbell McGrath during my first semester at Indiana University – Bloomington. He was in town to do a master class with my fellow MFAers and doing a great deal of talking about his most recent collection at that time, Seven Notebooks. He took time with some of early work as…
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Lace & Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens by Ross Gay & Aimee Nezhukumatathil Organic Weapon Arts, 2014 ISBN: 978-0-9827106-6-1 I recall while attending Indiana University the sort of city-wide obsession with gardening. My wife and I had relocated to south central Indiana from the great wide open of Montana and its forever wild mindset…
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Snapper by Brian Kimberling Pantheon Books, 2013 ISBN: 978-0307908056 Let’s just start with a couple of biases upfront with this book. My wife is a massive bird nut and maybe, just maybe, I’ve caught a little bit of the warm fuzziness that accompanies this particular love affair. Next, that Snapper finds its foundational sense of…
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Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone (translated from Italian by Gwenda Davis and Eric Mosbacher) Penguin Books, 1946 ISBN: N/A I first have to admit that I’ve been on little bit of an early 20th century literature kick. This particular novel is part of that kick. So upon finding a rather well worn copy of…
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Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno Punk Planet Books, 2004 ISBN: 1-888451-70-X Let me start by admitting a couple of things. First off, I really dig coming of age novels. Yeah there is that big bold German term for this genre, but let’s just call it the coming of age story. And secondly, I…
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Cakes and Ale or The Skeleton in the Cupboard by W. Somerset Maugham Penguin Books, 1979 ISBN: 0140006516 Let’s start by saying something about this slim little book: I had never heard of it nor its author before coming across it. And it was in the fine shelves of Indy Reads Books bookshop a couple of…
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Kokoro by Natsume Soseki translated by Edwin McClellan Gateway Editions, 1957 ISBN: 0-89526-951-1 Original published in 1914 in Japan and to much acclaim, Natsume Soseki’s Kokoro helped to mark the end of the Meiji Period (1868-1912) in the country. The word “kokoro” is translated as heart in English. Because of this we have to assume that…
Wazhashk Poetry 