For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] There’s something special about a novel that feels timeless, somehow older than itself from the moment it’s published. Such is the case with Daniel Gumbiner’s sophomore novel, Fire in the Canyon, which follows the recently reunited Hecht family and their surrounding community of California winemakers through the height of wildfire season. A big part … Read more
[ad_1] At times, trying to pick up basketball in my thirties feels like a fool’s errand. My body is past its days of fast learning, so it takes time for things to stick, and with no coaching my fundamentals are trash. But it has its perks too. For example, one day playing a game with … Read more
[ad_1] In the earliest days of publishing my writing, before I had really figured out who I was as an artist, when I was willing to submit my work far and wide without much consideration, I realized I had a natural inclination to pander toward style and subject matter I thought were more likely to … Read more
[ad_1] While I was reading Marisa Crane’s elegant debut novel, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, I thought a lot about how much of ourselves we hide from other people. In Marisa’s speculative near future, punishment is a constant public spectacle, surveillance is everywhere, and those deemed wrongdoers by a totalitarian U.S. government are given … Read more
[ad_1] For years, I’ve read Kristine Langley Mahler’s essays and have come to expect inventive structures, sentences that are taut and on-target, and a meticulous attention to detail. These signatures are no doubt present in her debut essay collection, Curing Season: Artifacts, which explores and catalogs four years of the author’s adolescence spent in suburban … Read more
[ad_1] Published in the Winter 2022 issue of Michigan Quarterly Review, Joe Sacksteder’s craft essay, “Against Quirky Writing,” captures many of the editorial frustrations I find when regularly reading through submissions. The trend toward defamiliarizing and unconventional prose is not so bad on its own, but when unusual language and complex punctuation are all that … Read more
[ad_1] Heat is the operative word in the title of Dantiel W. Moniz’s debut collection, Milk Blood Heat, because these stories are fire. There is the Florida heat, certainly, as most of the stories are set in Jacksonville and the surrounding area, but there is more to it than mere setting. In this case, the … Read more
[ad_1] Caitlin Horrocks’s second collection, Life Among the Terranauts, is compiled of humorous and tenacious stories that serve as a reminder that the flyover states are rife with folklore and intrigue. The sense of place matches the sense of wonder, a perfect amalgamation of geography and plot. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Bonnie … Read more
[ad_1] Winter Counts opens on Virgil Wounded Horse in a parked car outside a bar biding his time before he beats the hell out of local predatory rapist. Virgil is Rosebud Reservation’s local enforcer, the only one willing to put his body on the line to make sure his community is protected and sees justice, … Read more
[ad_1] A third of the way through Ilana Masad’s All My Mother’s Lovers, Maggie Krause, our protagonist, prepares to leave her father and younger brother holding shiva while she sets out to deliver, in person, a handful of letters left by her mother, who unexpectedly died in a car accident: “As the garage door opens … Read more