Mapping Past and Present Pain in Brian Tierney’s “Rise and Float” – Chicago Review of Books

Mapping Past and Present Pain in Brian Tierney’s “Rise and Float” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Selected by Randall Mann as the winner of the 2020-21 Jake Adam York Poetry Prize, Brian Tierney’s debut collection, Rise and Float, is nothing short of exquisite. Laid bare in these pages is a map of holes that reveal pain and death, as the question of whether or not to continue on in the … Read more

The Many Shades of Passion in “A Hundred Lovers” – Chicago Review of Books

The Many Shades of Passion in “A Hundred Lovers” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] After two years of physical and psychic anxiety and what feels like a permanent, unwanted reframing of our bodies in the world and in proximity to others, there’s something especially beautiful and necessary about Richie Hofmann’s A Hundred Lovers.  Wandering through this collection is similar to a luxurious meander through one’s favorite museum, with … Read more

Suzette & Maple & Agnes in “Nobody’s Magic” – Chicago Review of Books

Suzette & Maple & Agnes in “Nobody’s Magic” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Sometimes, when characters are truly iconic, t-shirts are made with their names. There’s one with characters from A Little Life, “Jude & JB & Willem & Malcolm,” because, regardless of what one thinks of Hanya Yanagihara’s novel, these four undeniably come to life over those eight hundred-plus pages. Destiny O. Birdsong’s debut novel, Nobody’s … Read more

A Form that Can Hold and Transform in “Very Cold People” – Chicago Review of Books

A Form that Can Hold and Transform in “Very Cold People” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] As a poet and nonfiction writer, Sarah Manguso is known for her gifts of compression. In 2017’s 300 Arguments—a work consisting of short, aphoristic sections of prose—she writes, “I don’t write long forms because I’m not interested in artificial deceleration. As soon as I see the glimmer of a consequence, I pull the trigger.” … Read more

Pleasure, Pain, and Fear in “Jawbone” – Chicago Review of Books

Pleasure, Pain, and Fear in “Jawbone” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Award-winning Ecuadorian writer Mónica Ojeda makes her English debut with Jawbone, a hair-raising novel about the horrors of adolescence. Ojeda has published short stories, poems, and novels. Jawbone is her third novel, originally published in Spanish in 2018. Sarah Booker, who renders Ojeda’s dense, tightly woven prose into a stunning new English translation, reflects … Read more

Cover Reveal: COVEN by Jennifer Dugan, illustrated by Kit Seaton

Cover Reveal: COVEN by Jennifer Dugan, illustrated by Kit Seaton

[ad_1] Cover reveal! In this queer, paranormal YA graphic novel debut from the author of Some Girls Do and the illustrator of Wonder Woman: Warbringer, a young witch races to solve the grisly supernatural murders of her coven members before the killer strikes again. Emsy has always lived in sunny California, and she’d much rather spend her days … Read more

Escapes and Discoveries in “Manywhere” – Chicago Review of Books

Escapes and Discoveries in “Manywhere” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] For me, as a musician, one mark of a great short story collection is when it operates somewhat like a great symphony: cast in distinct movements, moving through different moods, tonalities and orchestrations, but at some base level—whether heard or simply felt—motivically and thematically cohesive. Manywhere, Morgan Thomas’ expansive and expressive debut collection, is … Read more