For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] Emily Pérez’s new book of poetry, What Flies Want, is a stunning look at the peripheries of womanhood and the recipient of the 2021 Iowa Poetry Prize. Her uniquely crafted poems spark fresh ideas about the trials of marriage, being female when every man is a “ticking bomb,” sexual harm, mental health, school violence, … Read more
[ad_1] Poet and curator Cheryl Boyce-Taylor returns with her sixth collection of poems, We Are Not Wearing Helmets, a tribute to the women who have lifted her and an acknowledgment of the grief she still feels after losing her late son Malik “Phife Dawg” Taylor of A Tribe Called Quest. She gets political in this … Read more
[ad_1] Many of us will never forget those precious moments before lockdown, when we had no idea what was about to hit. We went to the grocery store unmasked, saw friends, went to concerts, went to work. No one yet knows how the story of the pandemic will end, or when. But what if these … Read more
[ad_1] Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove returns after twelve years with an exquisite new poetry collection, Playlist for the Apocalypse. Her poems magnify the marginalized individual, simultaneously illuminating national and global failed attempts at democracy. As always, her words are raw, poignant, and accessible. The opening segment, “After Egypt,” came … Read more
[ad_1] Works of art become powerful when they can convey—or at least hint at—some kind of truth. This notion alone presumes that the artist knows something the average person does not. Creators help connect people with something that has always been known, deep down, but could never accurately be expressed. But the balance between living … Read more
[ad_1] Yemeni American poet and translator Threa Almontaser won the 2020 Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets for her brilliant debut poetry collection, The Wild Fox of Yemen. Her poems touch on young rebellion, the thin veil of protection a language grants you, and how history is often stored in the body. … Read more
[ad_1] Lauded Argentine journalist and author of Things We Lost in the Fire, Mariana Enríquez again delivers intrigue and brutality in her latest story collection, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Stories of spirits and disappearances collectively address the mystery of loss through narratives that are as gripping … Read more
[ad_1] “You can be a mother and a poet.” So writes Kate Baer in “Moon Song,” part of her first poetry collection, What Kind of Woman. She effortlessly spans parenting, friendship, love, and how women perceive and are perceived, with stunning imagery. Poems like “Female Candidate” hit home, upending the current moment to examine it. … Read more
[ad_1] Marc Kelly Smith, nicknamed “Slam Papi,” founded international slam poetry in the 1980s when he started the monumental Uptown Poetry Slam series at the Green Mill. Each Sunday night, he attracted misfits and poets from across Chicago and its suburbs to exchange words, including the likes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Patricia Smith, who provides … Read more
[ad_1] Many parents raise their children emphasizing the “goodness” and “badness” of everything from food to language to sex. The good-versus-bad mindset can easily foster adolescent periods wrought with secrecy and confusion, distrust and resentment. Certain baby boomers especially love that kind of thing. Sara Faith Alterman details in her memoir, Let’s Never Talk about … Read more