Book Reviews

[ad_1] It’s no small chore to keep a reader’s attention for more than nine hundred pages. In choosing Andy Warhol as his subject, author Blake Gopnik’s task became all the more daunting: Warhol was well-known for his obstinance, and the rotating cast of characters in Warhol’s rogue’s gallery of superstars sometimes threatens to supersede the … Read more

[ad_1] “Since so long ago, can we say that the animal has been looking at us?” the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, once pondered. Chris Flynn’s third novel, Mammoth, occasions such possibility. An original work – in both concerning the origins and constructing the uncanny – Mammoth brings to life a 13,000-year-old extinct American mastodon. Inside … Read more

[ad_1] What’s fascinating about the stories inside Ho Sok Fong’s latest short story collection, Lake Like A Mirror translated by Natascha Bruce, is that they hit the reader hard, and at the same time they frustrate the ability of the reader to parse her scenes. With all of the ambiguity and occult that punctuate her … Read more

[ad_1] Burning Worlds is Amy Brady’s monthly column dedicated to examining how contemporary literature is addressing climate change, in partnership with Yale Climate Connections. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter to get “Burning Worlds” and other writing about art and climate change delivered straight to your inbox. The XPRIZE Foundation–a nonprofit dedicated to organizing competitions to develop new technologies in … Read more

[ad_1] It became clear to Jia Jia that Chen Hang must not have considered, not even for a moment, that such a place was improper for a death. These are the thoughts that surface for Jia Jia mere moments after she finds her husband dead in their bathtub. As Jia Jia awaits an ambulance, she … Read more

[ad_1] We all know that language has power, but do we all know why? Author Lisa Marie Basile takes a magnified lens to this conviction in her latest book The Magical Writing Grimoire: Use the Word as Your Wand for Magic, Manifestation & Ritual. Following her 2018 book Light Magic for Dark Times, which covers … Read more

[ad_1] In 1927 Virginia Woolf published “Street Haunting.’’ It’s a long essay that explores the imaginative act of living the lives of other people. Walking among London’s “islands of light, and its long groves of darkness” allowed Woolf the possibility to feel that “one is not tethered to a single mind, but can put on … Read more

[ad_1] During my last summer vacation before the start of my studies at university, I nervously walked into Prospero’s Books in Crouch End. As a teenager, bookstores terrified me as much as they fascinated me. In those vast rows of books, I saw a reflection of my utter ignorance of all the things I thought … Read more

[ad_1] In October of 2017, I started a series of interviews about how poets put together their collections. I began with this interview: How Do Poets Choose a Title For Their Books? That was followed by How Do Poets Choose A Collection Opener? After that, in the penultimate installment, there was How Do Poets Organize … Read more

[ad_1] I grew up in a Wisconsin town that, at its peak density, topped 700 residents. Throughout my childhood, I raised sheep to show at the county fair and listened to old country music, something I still do today although I often don’t admit it. I have a deep and genuine love for Wisconsin, for … Read more